Insights

With data being the lifeblood of your business, it’s crucial for every organization to keep well-managed databases. Having the right database management skills and the diligence of following best practices for the proper maintenance and optimization of its databases strongly impacts the overall health of an entire organization.  The knowledge and skills your organization’s database administrators must possess are crucial in facilitating the health, availability, and performance of a database. Since DBAs are required to consistently optimize database performance and handle any situation that may arise, they must be diligent in following best practices for database management.

Is there anything worse than finding out everyone else knew something before you did? No one likes being out of the loop. And in the case of database management, the things your database administrators (DBAs) don’t know can be bad news for your business-critical IT and your organization as a whole. That’s why DBAs must stay on top of emerging database management trends — or they run the risk of falling behind on critical technological and tactical industry updates.  

  “In life, change is inevitable. In business, change is vital.” ~ Warren G Bennis Have you asked yourself this question? “Are my current database management needs the same as they were five years ago?” As the industry evolves over time, the needs of your business transform as well. If you haven’t reevaluated your database management support requirements in some time, it’s likely your organization’s needs have changed. When it comes to managing your enterprise database system, what works for one company may not always work for another; and what may be best-suited for your business at one point in time may not always be the best fit in the long run. This includes factors outside of your organization that may have changed (i.e. technological shifts, new platform offerings, product/service choices, etc.). This is why it’s important to assess where you currently stand with your database management support strategy, and if necessary, make those changes that will lead your organization towards growth and success. 

Your SQL Server database is the foundation of your ERP solution, supporting the applications that power your business with solid data and storage. Those databases are filled with critical data for your corporation — irreplaceable business history, intelligence, and all the data your business needs to maintain the overall health of your company. Keeping them organized and running smoothly is integral to all of your organization’s daily functions and requires meticulous database management. 

Every CIO knows that well-managed databases are the unsung heroes of the business world. When database management is done well, it’s practically imperceivable, so it can be a thankless task, but database management (done well) is the lifeblood that keeps any organization performing at its best.

Using remote support for database administration may seem like a scary prospect. What happens if something goes down? Will you be able to reach them? Would an in-house database administrator (DBA) be able to help be faster? There are a lot of questions to be sure.

The “Accidental DBA” is a database management pitfall we’ve covered before, but it’s one we see all too often and bears repeating. The name itself speaks to less-than-ideal database management circumstances. Picture this: An under-qualified IT team member (through no fault of their own) is left with the charge of managing the company’s most critical data, simply because they have the most bandwidth (probably not enough) and a “good enough” database management knowledge base (but far from being an expert). While this solution may keep things running for the most part, your databases deserve (and need) more than “good enough.”

Your databases are pivotal to the day-to-day productivity and overall success of your organization, but they’re also very complex systems with many moving parts. To keep them well-managed you need support that can handle the normal, everyday processes as well as one-off issues and emergencies.

As more and more data moves to the cloud, the role of the Database Administrator (DBA) has been called into question more than a few times. There’s no denying that the cloud and the wave of digital transformation it has brought with it has changed how many companies do business. And the databases that support that transformation have certainly been impacted as well.

Putting a number on the full value of having a great Database Administrator (DBA) would be a nearly impossible task, to say the least. This role is responsible for not only managing the data that keeps your business up and running, but finding ways to truly optimize those systems to help your business thrive.