Will remote database administration always make sense versus managing the infrastructure yourself? NO! 
However, in many cases it is the best solution. It depends on five key factors that every organization should critically evaluate before deciding to use an outsourced service for their infrastructure management.
Each organization is unique in the degree to which the factor impacts their cost savings or strategic growth. The factors must be considered together to truly understand if remote database administration is right for you. We explore each one below to help you decide.
Factor # 1: Infrastructure Size & Resource Utilization
dbaDIRECT manages database infrastructures from 1 database to over 900. This varience is largely based on the impact of the other three factors we present in this evaluation. From a resource utilization standpoint, the rDBA sweet spot is found in the 5 to 30 database range. These small and medium sized businesses must worry about matching full time resources precisely to maintenance needs...a tight rope act that either results in under-utilized resources or under-supported infrastructure.
Factor #2: The Criticality of Data Access: Does your data need to be accessible any time of the day, every day of the year? If so, staffing a 24X365 infrastructure management operation is costly. Appropriately staffing a true 24X365 operation requires a minimum of five resources. What do we mean by true 24X365? We mean that a real person is actively engaging you on issues, ideas and improvements: on demand and on your schedule. That means any time of the day, any day of the year. This can be difficult even for a large enterprise. In-house approaches (and even many less sophisticated "24X365" outsourcers) struggle to provide this level of service, using pagers, instead, to wake up your DBA in the middle of the night. For an under-staffed 24X365 operation, the cost lies in sacrificing employee work-life balance leading to performance issues and high turnover.
Factor #3: After Hours Maintenance:
Even if data does not need to be accessible 24X365, many IT operations perform after hour maintenance tasks on a daily or weekly basis. This may range from patching, reorganizations, backups or automated tests. If your organization is frequently needing after hour maintenance, then remote database administration with true 24X365 service is more likely to offer you the savings you seek.
Factor #4: The Variety of Database Platforms:
Do you run a heterogeneous database envrionment? For instance, do you have some Oracle databases, some SQL Server and maybe even a few DB2? It is rare to find a DBA that is an expert in multiple environments. Therefore, these environments can be expensive to properly maintain in-house, as it requires multiple resources for even a small number of instances. With a comprehensive remote database administration provider, these are non-issues. It will cost the same to maintain two or more disparate platforms as it will to maintain a single platform for the same number of instances.
Factor #5: What Drives Your Business Growth?:
Does a well-maintained, optimized and operational data infrastructure drive your business growth? For many companies, this is a must-have but is not necessarily what leads to more sales and profits. Instead, infrastructure management is a support function that is expected...not rewarded. However, information technology departments are becoming more integral in growth initiatives beyond infrastructure. It costs valuable time and resources for IT to be caught up in maintenance activities. Rather, the focus should be on core competencies that drive business growth.
Consider all of the Factors Together:
The following chart presents two scenarios that illustrate the type of organizations that can benefit from remote database administration. Beyond these scenarios, each organization is unique and each combination of factors impacts the degree of benefit to your organization.
Take the Next Step
Just as the above factors help determine if rDBA is right for you, they also help to determine which rDBA service is right for you. Flexible options are a necessity to fitting the perfect solution to a particular situation. Start by learning about our flexible database operations services to understand which remote database administration is right for you. Learn more...
Have other questions or want to understand the potential benefits of rDBA specific to your organization? Contact our customer team at 877.687.3227 x 238 or request
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