Database management is at the heart of organizing your technology, and technology is at the center of your company. Operations equal applications in the modern business landscape and the veracity of the databases supporting your apps must be a priority.
Properly expanding or filtering the data that your employees receive is essential for optimal performance, and looking to ensure the veracity of that process is commendable. It is also true that in past business generations, having a database administrator (DBA) on-site was usually the best way to keep everything running smoothly.
Today, this is not necessarily the case. Improved commercialization of cloud-based resources gives everyone flexible access to great products. Employing a remote DBA (or DBAs, depending on your scale) provides even more opportunity to keep up with the constant acceleration of business in many ways.
On-Call Specialists
Business hours may be from M-F 9-5, but crazy things happen 24/7. Employing multiple remote DBAs ensures that you have someone on call at all times for 24/7 service deliverability. Whether you get this performance from one specialist or many, you can more easily organize contracts to pay only for the service that you use rather than incurring salary bloat when services are not necessary.
Employing a team of specialists also ensures that you have the right hands on the job. An on-site generalist may encounter a learning curve depending on your system. In a time crunch, it is much more effective to get in touch with an on-call remote specialist than it is to wait on one individual. If your client list expands seasonally, you can expand your administrators to meet those needs. More importantly, you can downsize when clientele contracts to reduce profit hemorrhaging when things are a bit slower.
Institutional Memory
DBAs are in demand. But your competitors can't steal yours from you if they weren't yours to begin with! Qualified DBAs will always field offers from the outside, and if they choose to leave, you are forced to retrain your new hire. You may also face information leakage from your old DBA (non-disclosures can't record conversations). With a remote DBA team, you never have to worry about individual turnover.
Proactive Response
Just because your in-house team shuts off the lights for the weekend doesn't mean that your database systems are frozen until you get back. A remote DBA team will proactively assess any problems that occur, reducing your need to address them during public business hours when you should be dealing with clients in real-time.
A proactive response also means automated upgrading, patching, and maintenance work for your system. A remote DBA with cloud access can reconfigure your settings, update your stats and construct indexes in the off-hours as well as during business hours to ensure that you are always working within an optimized framework. This should result in less downtime and higher efficiency during your day-to-day operations.
In-house Flexibility
The main function of management in a growing business is to know when and to whom to outsource. Putting a DBA on the top of your list frees up the rest of your in-house staff to specialize instead of having to worry about the database. Imagine what your core IT staff could do if they didn't have to keep one eye on your database while performing the jobs that you actually hired them for.
Business Continuity
Your DBAs should be an essential component of your disaster prevention and business continuity strategies. DBAs are a major part of ensuring that system issues don't turn into system failures and small problems don't end up as panicked free-for-alls that end up being customer facing disasters. Prevention is always the best option, but this is not always doable. Having a set of eyes outside of the office helps to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks when inevitable database problems do begin to form.
Cutting Edge Technology
Hiring an in-house DBA means placing a person in the middle of your current system, which may or may not be at a proper standard. Remote DBAs bring their technology along with their expertise, ensuring that your system stays abreast of the latest upgrades. With remote DBAs, you are also in a position to look for upgrades that are specific to your needs. Employing a system along with its operator also ensures the smoothest operation of that system, as opposed to choosing a system and hoping that you can hire a specialist with the flexibility to change when upgrades become available.
Security
Eyes on your system 24/7 keep that system more secure. The more that you can automate your security functions, the more protection you have against hackers and malicious users. Modern database hackers use automated systems that have no need for a lunch break or a sick day. You owe it to your business to protect it with the same kind of sophistication.
Knowing that your database is being managed by a specialized professional with eyes on your data security around the clock should give any business owner peace of mind. Aside from the advantages listed above, surety in your system will positively inform all of your other business operations, from the supply chain to customer service. Everyone will perform with more clarity knowing that they are backed with a rock-solid database that they can depend on when business gets a bit hairy. The remote DBA goes a long way in securing the well-being of your physical business, digital business, and customer reputation.
Want to see more? Learn how our Remote DBA Service provides expert database management and 24x7 coverage to operate your on-premises deployments.
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