Databases now act as the heart and veins of a business. Unlike olden times, the modern-day databases hold tons of vital information, which is directly responsible for managing the business decisions, personnel, finances, workflow, production, supply chain, goods delivery, inventory, and what not? There is no wonder why the new-age businesses are entirely dependent on the upkeep of stable databases, which is not possible without proper monitoring and maintenance.
Remote DBA vs. in-house DBA
What is a remote DBA? Why does an enterprise ever need this mode of servicing their SQL databases rather than trying out in-house solutions?
There is no single answer to these questions. Many enterprises want to hire full-time in-house database administrators, whereas many other options for remote support for its cost-effectiveness and expertise offered. We can say that this decision purely depends on the company budget and business-specific needs.
In any case, we can see that professional remote DBA services are gaining more and more in popularity lately, primarily because of its cost-effectiveness compared to the other available options. In this article, we will cover the basics of what enterprise decision-makers need to know to choose a proper remote DBA service for maintaining their MsSQL, SQL Server, or Oracle enterprise database.
What’s remote DB?
We can give it many theoretical definitions, but in practicality, it is something as follows. An enterprise with a need to implement and administer crucial database delegates an expert third-party provider to administrate one or more of its databases. This professional service provider offers database design, implementation, and maintenance consulting in the client’s everyday operational environment at a cost. They help to manage the emergency conditions and peak loads effectively, which may occur from time to time.
What makes remote DBAs different is that these third parties with a lot of experience and skillsets will be able to manage these in a faster and much efficient manner than an in-house hire. With their vast experience in handling multiple enterprise databases and their narrow focus on the issues that happen to a database, remote DBA services can find quicker and sustainable database solutions for their clients. Know more about Microsoft Access Online from Hosted Virtual Desktop providers.
However, not all remote DBA services may be the same. You must pay keen attention while choosing one, and failing to do so may result in compromising the efficiency of your business. The providers like RemoteDBA.com offer you a customized use case, and the budget for your remote DBA service needs to provide support. For more details, contact the RemoteDBA service experts.
Choosing an apt remote DBA
There are specific criteria to consider while choosing a legitimate provider for your remote DBA support. Here we will discuss these to understand how to make your choice.
- The cost
Cost is the distinct and most challenging part of the decision making in terms of selecting an excellent remote DBA service. Even though considering the pricing is vital while choosing a consulting service, your choice should not only revolve around it. Always try to inspect the cost vs. the deliverability of what reliable services the provider can offer in light of your remote DBA needs. A low price put forth by many incompetent service providers maybe just a lure, whereas the actual cost may wind up as you sign in.
- Expertise and reputation
The next most important consideration while choosing an apt remote DBA consulting is the expertise of the professionals. You may not ever want to deal with a novice DBA for your critical database services. Take a look at the skillset, knowledge, and years of experience of the professionals assigned for your consulting before making a choice. You can read the whitepapers, articles, and other given materials by the service provider to reconfirm their expertise in DBA.
You may also check for the client testimonials, which most of the companies may publish, even though these could be a bit biased. They may also post their client listings, which you can check to see who is out there. Consider whether they are focusing purely on database support services or offering it just as a minor part of their service suite. Remember a jack-of-all-trades may rarely succeed in any single area.
What services remote DBAs offer?
Primarily, a professional remote DBA service must be providing the entire spectrum of database support services ranging from SQL Server DB installation to migration, troubleshooting, scaling, backup, and recovery, etc. here is a brief overview of the significant services remote DBAs offer.
- Monitoring DB server
The performance of any enterprise application may directly depend on the dataset server availability. Whether SQL Server or Oracle powers it, you should never let the workflow to go idle. It is a notable fact that the in-house DBAs may not be able to work 24/7, you have to deploy more of them to cover it up, which may be too costly. However, a third-party provider will have experts working round the clock for their clients, thereby ensuring your unrelenting monitoring services.
- Analyzing for future problems
Sometimes the server may be up, but the load may be increasing, which may soon become saturated. This possibility of performance dropdown can be analyzed and informed by the expert remote DBAs with suggestions to mitigate this risk at the first point itself. They can take measures to avoid the possibility of server overload with system performance analysis, proper database server configuration, updating the software, balancing the loads, etc.
- Emergency support
Remote DBA is an ongoing service, and if in case any DB outrage happens at any time, they should be able to reinstate the server back to a healthy state in no time. You may ask for the uptime guarantees such a service offer to their clients to be reassured. Along with this, remote DBA should also offer database health checks from time to time, database backup services, and emergency DB recovery services, etc.
To conclude, keeping your business database operational and healthy can be costly if you prefer to adopt in-house DBA mode. You can save a lot with it and also get the assistance of expert DBAs around the cloud by going for expert remote DBA services. However, it would help if you spent some time and put a keen consideration into it to understand the best available services in remote DBA and be diligent while choosing to sing up with.
