In database administration practice, is the most common source of organizational database failures the absence of a strong, well-implemented DBA function (policies, standards, backups, security, and performance management)?

Introduction / Context:
This question probes whether you recognize the central role of Database Administration (DBA) in operational reliability. Technology problems are often blamed on software or hardware, but root-cause analyses frequently point to gaps in administration processes such as backups, security, change control, and performance tuning.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• An organization operates one or more production databases.
• DBA responsibilities include backup/restore, disaster recovery planning, security policies, monitoring, capacity planning, change management, and standards enforcement.
• Failures include data loss, prolonged outages, security breaches, and severe performance degradations.

Concept / Approach:
DB reliability is a socio-technical outcome. Robust processes (regular, tested backups; well-defined recovery point/time objectives; patching; access control; index and query management) are decisive. Where these are weak or absent, even a strong DBMS can fail dramatically. Hence, the absence of a strong DBA function is a common—often the most common—cause of database failures.

Step-by-Step Solution:

Verification / Alternative check:
Review postmortems: many cite untested backups, missing monitoring, misconfigured replication, or uncontrolled schema changes—all domain of DBA governance.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• Incorrect/industry caveat: While factors vary, administration gaps are consistently high-impact across sectors.
• “Startups only” is unfounded; large enterprises also fail without strong DBA processes.

Common Pitfalls:
Over-reliance on vendor defaults; assuming cloud-managed services eliminate DBA responsibilities; neglecting restore tests.

Final Answer:
Correct