With the rise of big data, companies are more dependent on their databases, data warehouses, and data lakes than ever. But companies often struggle to make sense of that data, because they struggle to simply manage that data. DBAs spend too much of their time on routine tasks like creating instances, running backups, applying patches, and loading databases with copies of data for tests. There’s little time in many DBA’s daily routines for focusing on database design, analysis, and reporting tasks which help companies find the value in their data.
Freeing up your DBAs’ time is key to letting them apply their database expertise and knowledge of your business. Here are three ways you can simplify your database management and let your DBAs focus on adding business value.
1. Database Consolidation
The more database instances you have, the more difficult it is to manage them. Database consolidation lets you reduce the number of databases, meaning there are fewer databases to be managed. Oracle’s multitenant model simplifies the administration model, letting multiple databases reside within a container database.
Common admin tasks like provisioning new databases, copying databases, taking backups, and applying patches become simpler and faster. In addition to the database management benefits, you increase your server utilization. That means you need less hardware, so your system administrators benefit along with your DBAs. Your budget benefits from lower software licensing costs along with fewer servers.
2. Cloud Database
With database consolidation, you simplify your database administration tasks, but the databases still reside on your equipment and you’re responsible for their management. With cloud databases, the database runs on equipment in the cloud, so you no longer own or manage the hardware and don’t have the associated capital expenditures.
There’s a wide variety of databases available in the cloud. Amazon Web Services offers Oracle as well as NoSQL and data warehouse products. Using databases in the cloud offers the ability to bring instances up or down quickly as needed and pay only for the capacity required. The admin functions related to installing, updating, and backing up the databases are all handled by the cloud provider. The cloud provider is responsible for 24×7 monitoring of the instance.
Common concerns about using databases in the cloud include performance, which is impacted both by the hardware used and the network bandwidth, and security.
3. Remote Database Support
Remote database support lets you keep your databases on your premises while still freeing your admins from the routine support activities. A team of certified professionals with remote access to your instances can provide 24×7 monitoring and oversight of your database operations. Serving as an extension of your internal database team, this allows your team to spend less time solving database problems and more time solving business problems.
If you need help choosing the best solution for simplifying your database management, talk to dcVAST. We offer a range of Oracle services and managed Amazon Web Services and will help you sort through the options that work best for your use cases.
