For any business, large or small, database management and administration (DBA) is not only a key, critical part of their information management, but is often one of the areas where they will spend more of their information technology (IT) dollars than any other. According to a recent survey from Computer Economics, and research and advisory firm, about 21 percent of businesses currently outsource DBA functions.
Most are doing so in order to save money while finding the best expertise they can for the job at hand. The majority of these businesses are small (less than 100 employees). Many have realized (some the hard way) that even if a large part of their business involved developers and programmers, those IT skills are not necessarily the same as DBA skills.
=== Who Should Consider Outsourcing
Most startups, unless their core business will be databases, should consider outsourcing their DBA right from the start. This can help put the new company on solid footing and allows for future expansion and the possibility of moving the DBA in-house once the new business is established and large enough to justify the move.
Small businesses who rely on their databases for information storage, retrieval, and sharing should consider DBA outsourcing in order to save the costs of having an in-house DBA expert that will likely be under-utilized and may not have the costly tools sometimes required to properly look after a dbase.
Businesses whose IT departments consist of only a handful of employees probably do not have a large enough need to bring in a full-time data expert. Yet their requirement of having a reliable, tuned, and monitored database are still the same. Hence outsourcing becomes the best solution for fulfilling all of those needs without the expense.
=== Programmers Are NOT Database Experts
Those in the IT industry understand that database management and administration is a specific skill set that is not the same as programming, networking, or development. An IT manager may have a general grasp of most things in DBA and other areas of IT fields, but that computer scientist is not likely an expert in any of those fields and may not be able to handle everything needed in each of them. Including with DBA.
A Database Administrator has a specific set of skills that involve both software and hardware and that often include specialty tools and understanding in specific types of databases and their administration. A good Administrator can both look at the broad picture of the organization's data storage systems and get down to individual records to repair and replace those that are broken.
=== How to Find a Good Outsource Provider
Where you look for a DBA provider will depend on what you need from one. If you have the hardware infrastructure and just need an expert to it and the data it contains, you can likely find this from a small, even local service group.
If you need start-to-finish DBA, however, from cloud services or software-as-a-service (SaaS) models for your database, then you'll need a more robust provider. In addition, if you have your own in-house services, but they are quite large or complex, then a strong team of DBA professionals is more likely what you'll need.
The real trick is knowing what it is that you have (or need) and then matching that to a provider.
Most are doing so in order to save money while finding the best expertise they can for the job at hand. The majority of these businesses are small (less than 100 employees). Many have realized (some the hard way) that even if a large part of their business involved developers and programmers, those IT skills are not necessarily the same as DBA skills.
=== Who Should Consider Outsourcing
Most startups, unless their core business will be databases, should consider outsourcing their DBA right from the start. This can help put the new company on solid footing and allows for future expansion and the possibility of moving the DBA in-house once the new business is established and large enough to justify the move.
Small businesses who rely on their databases for information storage, retrieval, and sharing should consider DBA outsourcing in order to save the costs of having an in-house DBA expert that will likely be under-utilized and may not have the costly tools sometimes required to properly look after a dbase.
Businesses whose IT departments consist of only a handful of employees probably do not have a large enough need to bring in a full-time data expert. Yet their requirement of having a reliable, tuned, and monitored database are still the same. Hence outsourcing becomes the best solution for fulfilling all of those needs without the expense.
=== Programmers Are NOT Database Experts
Those in the IT industry understand that database management and administration is a specific skill set that is not the same as programming, networking, or development. An IT manager may have a general grasp of most things in DBA and other areas of IT fields, but that computer scientist is not likely an expert in any of those fields and may not be able to handle everything needed in each of them. Including with DBA.
A Database Administrator has a specific set of skills that involve both software and hardware and that often include specialty tools and understanding in specific types of databases and their administration. A good Administrator can both look at the broad picture of the organization's data storage systems and get down to individual records to repair and replace those that are broken.
=== How to Find a Good Outsource Provider
Where you look for a DBA provider will depend on what you need from one. If you have the hardware infrastructure and just need an expert to it and the data it contains, you can likely find this from a small, even local service group.
If you need start-to-finish DBA, however, from cloud services or software-as-a-service (SaaS) models for your database, then you'll need a more robust provider. In addition, if you have your own in-house services, but they are quite large or complex, then a strong team of DBA professionals is more likely what you'll need.
The real trick is knowing what it is that you have (or need) and then matching that to a provider.
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