No one wants to find out firsthand the true productivity cost of the business that waits minutes, hours, or even longer for a crucial database to be restored.

 

4 Best Practices to Ensure Your Organization Runs Smoothly:

 

1) Patches. It is essential to keep your databases (as well as your operating system and application suites) up to the minute with software upgrades and security patches. If you don’t patch and upgrade, you’re putting your operations at risk from a security and operational standpoint. Make sure the patches and upgrades are tested first and then correctly applied.

 

Tip: Get Help. You may already have the in-house expertise to carefully test and apply patches.  You may even have an FTE monitoring all systems to ensure patches and software upgrades are not overlooked. But, a remote database management service will know far more about any given patch or upgrade simply because they perform the same operations across their customer base.

 

2) Reduce the Need for Planned Downtime. Some organizations have the luxury of taking planned downtime after business hours or on weekends.  However, planned downtime needs to be avoided as much as possible by companies who support employees and customers with unconventional hours or across time zones.

 

Tip: Plan, Plan, Plan. Make sure your best IT resources analyze when downtime needs to occur and exactly what needs to be done when it begins. In this way, you will minimize the frequency and duration of scheduled downtime. Sometimes downtime—such as what's required to re-index large tables—can be eliminated completely by configuring a database for background online indexing.

 

3) Eliminate the Oops! Factor. Operator error consistently ranks in the top 3 reasons for unplanned downtime. Mistakes can bring your business to a crashing halt.  Even with a top-level DBA, mistakes can be made, particularly when the volume of work requires delegating to those who may not have the same level of knowledge and experience. There are many things to track, from machine health, to memory allocation and CPU resources, to housekeeping maintenance on the database. 

 

Tip: Consistency. Make sure your critical IT resources are constantly monitored by someone with deep knowledge across the spectrum of technologies that keep your IT infrastructure up and running. If you don’t have the luxury of sourcing this in-house, take advantage of a high-quality remote database management service.

 

4) Provide True 24/7 Database Administration. While the workday runs from 9 to 5, your mission-critical databases run around the clock. Even if you have a tireless DBA working 12 hours a day, quality of life should be a consideration. Many organizations are staffed to provide round-the-clock protection.

 

Tip: Out-sourcing. If you can’t provide 24/7 DBA coverage with current IT staffing, consider covering your off-hours through the use of a remote database management service. This can also help with employee retention. With the right remote database management service, you can give those evening hours and weekends back to your DBA and refocus him/her on more strategic projects.

 

All businesses need their databases. The two can’t do without each other. It is like sunscreen for an Irishman. So make sure your organization runs effectively with 24/7 database administration and a  reduced need for planned downtime.

 

Learn how a remote database administration service can help your business achieve these goals.