If you have a database disaster, who are you going to call?
It depends – if it’s not supernatural, you should work with database experts!
You know that your data is your most important asset.
You hear and read about how data can supercharge your business growth, increase customer satisfaction and improve customer retention.
However, somehow the role of database administration slipped your business by.
Here’s a database secret
I was creating databases, performing normalisation (and learning VB 6.0) from the age of 15 as I wanted to be a Software Engineer, and project work was always to do with databases.
Yes, they were Microsoft Access databases, but the foundation was there.
At this stage, I did not even know that the role of Database Administrator existed.
It was not until after University and even during my first IT role as 1st Line Support that I heard the term.
Shortly after that, I completed a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Administration course, and that is when I knew this was what I wanted to do with my career.
What does that have to do with the title of my post?
Where is the DBA?
Very few companies we meet have full-time DBA, and it’s not just the small companies.
Many large companies do not have a single DBA to look after all the databases used across their business.
Occasionally, people are tasked with database admin tasks, but they are not trained DBAs.
These accidental DBAs do their best with what they have but often do not know SQL, performance tuning, or query plans.
They can monitor the infrastructure but do not know where to start troubleshooting issues like I can drive a car, but when the engine warning light appears, I go to a mechanic.
Do you need a DBA?
Depending on the size of your business and how important data is to your company, it can be difficult to justify a significant spend on an individual for a subset of your infrastructure.
We get that. Once the backups are completed, restores tested, indexes organised, integrity checks completed, and everything runs smoothly, what do you get them to do next?
It may seem that they are just waiting for a database disaster to occur, and in some cases, you could be right.
DBAs would drop anything else they were doing and get to work to restore service to your applications and users.
They would implement their trusted recovery plans to ensure that any data lost was inside the RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and that the service was restored within the RTO (Recovery Time Objective), both agreed with the business.
A DBA ensures smooth running and quick recovery from any database disaster-related scenarios.
This can include recovery from server failure, data corruption, metadata corruption, accidental deletion (Human Error), etc.
They are the guardians of your data, but when a fire starts, it needs to be put out as quickly as possible, and to do that, you need the battle-hardened skills of a DBA.
Most of our clients didn’t have DBAs before a disaster
When most companies do not even have a single DBA, no matter their size, it should not be surprising that most clients find us after a database disaster.
This can make recovering difficult; sometimes, it can be impossible, depending on the disaster.
This is a similar type of scenario to recovering from a ransomware attack. It is much cheaper, easier and faster to recover from a ransomware attack if you have everything in place, including a procedure to follow when that scenario does arise.
The safest and cheapest option is to find us before you need us.
We then have time to discover what you have in place, and we can point out what it will take to get your business into a recoverable state should a disaster happen.
The controversial bit about DBAs…
My following statement is going to be very controversial to some.
I do not believe that every business needs a DBA, but I do think that every business storing data in databases needs the skills of DBAs.
There is no way a small business can justify spending a full-time salary on a DBA when they don’t even have an entire internal IT team.
There is also no benefit in hiring a junior DBA when there is no one to mentor them in the ways of the force (sorry, the ways of the DBA).
Bad habits can be hard to break, and worst case, your business can be impacted by the things a junior does not know they do not know.
Where does that leave your business?
So you know you cannot justify the budget for a DBA or even a DBA team.
If you have one, you need two. Otherwise, they never get a break and will burn out.
They would be on call 365 days a year, during holidays, during maternity/paternity leave, at weekends, every evening and even on their honeymoon!
The skills could be the difference between customers trusting your services or using your competitors.
They could even be the difference between recovering from a database disaster or ending up with no business, so what’s the answer?
DBA as a Service
All the skills, processes, best practices, procedures and software needed by your business to make sure that your data is protected, available, recoverable and performing at its best.
- There is no need to worry about having resources available during holidays, sickness, or training.
- No worries about finding all the skills in a single person (often, the more comprehensive the range, the more shallow the skillset).
- Save money on SQL Monitoring Licenses (it’s included in the service)
- No more time wasted spending months recruiting for a DBA for them to leave after a few weeks for more money somewhere else.
How to Get Started With DBA
Requesting a SQL Server Health check is the easiest way to get started.
We routinely provide this service to help clients work out where they are. We usually find something that needs to be sorted out urgently.
In the past, we have found finance systems that have never had a backup taken and ‘domain users’ being given sysadmin permissions on SQL Server Instances.
Security and recoverability are two pretty extensive problems for DBA; they will pick this up immediately.