Top 3 Reasons is the Best Approach
The complexity of modern day database environments require 24x7x365 attention to detect and immediately address any issues that may occur. However, tight IT budgets and an uneven day-to-day DBA workload often do not justify more than a single in-house DBA resource for support. But putting total reliability into a single DBA resource is a risky proposition. In this article, I’ll explain why employing a Remote DBA Service that utilizes a team to support your database environment provides a more reliable and cost-efficient approach to database support.
The Problems: Avoid the Pitfalls of Relying on a Single Resource
- Limited Availability: A single resource may or may not be available when issues arise or disaster strikes.
- Limited Expertise: In addition, many DBAs are niche experts, and cannot provide technical expertise across multiple database technologies, even though your environment may utilize multiple platforms. Additional niche resources or training all cost money that you may not have in the budget when it is most needed.
- High Turnover: Your single resource may have no intentions of remaining a long-term employee. That same niche knowledge might make your single resource attractive on the job market, and less likely to stay in your employ for the long term, putting you at risk for a costly repeat cycle of hiring and training.
The Answer: Engage Remote DBA Services… that Utilizes a Multi-Tiered Team Approach
Remote DBA services have increasingly been the choice for cost-effective database support, but you want to make sure that you do not exchange your single point of failure for another single point of failure. Be sure to engage Remote DBA Services that utilize a full team approach.
What to Look For: Remote DBA monitoring and maintenance services that include three tiers of support: One primary and two secondary DBAs that have the ability to respond to any critical situation in the event the primary DBA is not available.
Here’s Why:
Reason 1: High Availability and Continuity: When you employ a full-time, dedicated team of expert DBAs with years of hands-on operational knowledge to manage your day-to-day database needs, you get continuous team coverage. A team is always available, with no single point of failure in times of emergency, with no vacations to cover, and no turnover and retraining to worry about.
Reason 2: Increased Knowledge, Better Tools, and Increased Stability:  A team offers you extended platform or niche technology experience that your staff may not possess-you can avoid hiring and training a new employee. The team will put documentation in place to simplify troubleshooting and compliance efforts, and often have access and the time to implement better tools and methods for problem detection. Look for services that offer centralized, proactive monitoring for complete assurance that databases are running properly and efficiently.
Reason 3: Reduced Costs: A team has the ability to respond to any critical situation, and can flex up and down based on your needs.  An on demand, as needed support, provided by a team costs less than a full time resource, allowing you recoup savings or redirect savings to other critical projects.  Knowing that databases are running properly and efficiently with priority response to all database server issues is priceless; particularly when you consider this flexible, comprehensive coverage comes at a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee.
It’s clear that the expertise, comprehensive coverage, and rapid response ability of a Remote DBA team is the better choice for any business that is faced with the need for such complex monitoring of their database environment. The fact that, in the end, this decision will actually reduce your bottom line only reinforces the decision.
About The Author:
John Abrams is President of Aspect Consulting, Inc., a premier Database Services provider. Aspect utilizes the multi-tiered team approach described in this article, paired with remote monitoring via its custom cross-platform monitoring tool, Prodative® Watchdog EMS. This comprehensive team and tools approach ensures that your issues will be detected and addressed before they impact users. These benefits do not come at an additional cost; in fact, they actually reduce administration costs by up to 35%.
For more information on our Remote DBA Monitoring Services please visit our website or call us @ 610-783-0600 (Option 2).
