Managing databases is no mean feat for IT support workers as it requires extensive customisation to fulfil the specific business needs of each firm, a new report has suggested.

One in three IT decision makers believe that databases are the aspect of business IT which requires the most modifications through writing new code, according to research conducted by Vanson Bourne on behalf of Quest Software.

However, this necessary customisation inevitably leads to more bugs as mistakes can be made by the coders, suggested Quest software's UK compliance programme manager, Graeme Nash.

"Bespoke code locks human error into software," he said.

"Yet organisations have to customise vanilla applications to get the most out of them, especially around databases where the need for additional development work is greatest."

Mr Nash explained that this need for customisation of databases is boosting demand for software that makes it easier to avoid bugs.

Further results from Quest's research suggested that code written in-house is more likely to introduce database bugs than when it is outsourced, while just 14 per cent of IT professionals interviewed placed the blame on the core product itself.