Do you need a virtual DBA? Would a DBA as Service help you manage your data platform? If you are an IT manager, Head of IT, CTO with SQL Server databases supporting your missions critical databases but don’t have in-house expertise in SQL Server, and perhaps you don’t even need them full time. We can help you.

The Problem – You don’t have a DBA

You have SQL Server databases. This could be on-premises or in Azure or another cloud provider. You have important business applications using them. Your application supplier says there’s nothing wrong with their application and perhaps blaming the database or your infrastructure for running to working as expected. While you may have IT staff, they may not be experts in SQL Server and the Microsoft Data Platform, or maybe you need extra cover? When things go wrong with your SQL Server environment, and they do regularly enough. Nobody is 100% certain of what to do?

Client pain points

You could have any or all of the following problems:

• Extensive remote working might be building up significant issues for your data platform
• Nobody in your team has extensive knowledge of SQL Server and Azure SQL database
• Vendors are blaming your infrastructure for their application running slowly
• Things seem to keep going wrong with your SQL Server – Like the disk drive filling up for no reason at all
• Important security patches or other updates haven’t been applied regularly.
• You have never needed to restore your databases, but do you know where to start? You are backing up your databases?
• You have a data team but the distraction of managing the platform is interfering with the value they can deliver for your business.
• You think you might be spending more on licences than you should be.

We can help – Virtual DBA – DBA as a Service

Our services are designed to be flexible, and to fit the size and scale of your needs. We are more than happy to discuss tailoring our services to meet your challenges. Clients typically use our Virtual DBA Service Platform in one of three ways.

• Fully Managed DBA Service. We take full care of all the hassle of managing and looking after your SQL Server and Microsoft data platforms. Working as an integral part of your team, we proactively maintain / monitor the data platform, fixing issues before they become a problem.
• Our light-weight monitoring tool monitors your environment and lets us know when a potential issue might be occurring or about to occur. As issues come up, we will fix with a minimum amount of disruption to your business as possible, in line with any SLA you have with us.
• Hybrid Managed DBA Service. We can monitor your data platform looking for and identifying issues but unlike the Fully Managed Service, we won’t just get on and fix. We will let you know the problem; you decide what you want to do about it; use our DBAs to fix or fix it yourself. You can pre-purchase a number of DBA days per month as bolt-on or purchase on request, however as you won’t have regular access to a DBA, availability is on a reasonable endeavours’ basis. Like a mobile phone with a certain amount of calls and texts each month, when it’s gone, it’s gone.
• DBA as a Service (Pay as you Go) You can pay for DBA time in chunks in advance, you call them off as you need them, and when they are gone, they are gone. Then top up with another chunk if you wish. As with the Hybrid Service, DBA availability is on a reasonable endeavours’ basis. There will be no monitoring taking place, but we can help you fix issues.

Our approach is as simple as ABC

A – Analyse and Design

We will run a health check against your servers to get a baseline of activity and issues already in place. We will discuss these with you and what needs to be fixed and rectified to bring these services into our control.

B – Build and Execute

We will help you rectify any issues identified in phase A and set up our monitoring tools to alert us for issues and us

C- Control and Future Care

We will use our team of experts to manage, maintain and monitor your data platform environment.

The outcome – Why do you need a Virtual DBA

Our virtual DBA or DBA as a Service gives you peace of mind

• You can rest assured that your data platform will be managed and monitored by DBA and Consultants with many years of experience on the Microsoft data platform
• You will have a team of experts at your fingertips that you can call on at any time
• You can focus on growing your business and using your data to your best advantage
• The Hybrid Managed DBA Service is not as comprehensive as our Fully Managed DBA Service, but it will give you the peace of mind that your infrastructure is being monitored and also giving you the chance to have it rectified by us.

Who we can HELP?

Since 2007, we have helped hundreds of clients, large and small, across both the public and private sectors, with lasting solutions to their SQL Server challenges and Training needs.

If you have an unruly SQL Server and need some help to bring it under control then contact us for a free consultation