The purpose of this paper is to aid key information technology (IT) executives who are involved in makingday-to-day and strategic technology and business decisions. Typically, you are in charge of or have inputon IT, Software Engineering and Support, or Operations. You are in the important role of overseeing thecompany’s mission-critical data, and you have wisely chosen Oracle technology for the reliability,scalability, and availability your organization needs. However, finding the right level of expertise, support, and cost-effectiveness for administering your Oraclesystems are an ongoing challenge. If you are like many IT executives, you have chosen to either: (a) Attempt to hire and retain an experienced, yet high-priced Oracle database administrator (DBA) to manage the system; or (b) Assign an inexperienced staff member (or perhaps a developer) as a part-time DBA. Our goal is to address some of the most common challenges facing IT executives in managing theirOracle systems, and to survey potential solutions to alleviate the strain and increase both business andtechnical performance.