The No. 1 challenge facing database professionals: There just aren't enough hours in the day, according to a recent survey.

In a poll of 1,230 IT pros (PDF) by Embarcadero Technologies, roughly 43 percent cited time as their key challenge when it comes to projects. Another 40 percent cited poor planning. Roughly half (53.5 percent) said they have spent the night in the office because of an emergency.

"It boils down to doing more with less," said Scott Walz, senior director of product management at Embarcadero. "Data is growing, more databases are coming online, but resources are staying at the same level. Many are also taking on more responsibilities as the result of [mergers and acquisitions] or staff and resource cutbacks."

Not surprisingly, when asked what database-related issue "keeps [them] up at night" some 43 percent cited production database performance. Downtime and performance degradation were ranked second (38.2 percent), and third (31.3 percent), respectively. Roughly 41 percent said they would like more time for database tuning, and nearly 39 percent said they would like extra time to fix poor-performing SQL code.

For more, read the eWeek article: Database Projects Challenged by Time, Poor Planning.

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