The database engine plays a strategic role in the majority of organizations. It provides the mechanism to store physical data along with business rules and executable business logic. The database’s area of influence has expanded to a point where it has become the heart of the modern IT infrastructure. Because of its importance, enterprises expect their databases to be reliable, secure and available.

Rapid advances in database technology combined with relatively high database licensing and support costs compel IT executives to ensure that their organization fully utilizes the database product’s entire feature set. The more solutions the database inherently provides, the more cost effective it becomes. These integrated features allow technicians to solve business problems without the additional costs of writing custom code and/or integrating multiple vendor solutions.

The issue then becomes one of database complexity. As database vendors incorporate new features into the database, it becomes more complex to administer. Modern database administrators require a high level of training to be able to effectively administer the environments they support. Without adequate training, problems are commonplace, availability suffers and the database’s inherent features are not fully utilized.

The Benefits of Collective Knowledge

Successful database administration units understand that providing better support to their customers not only comes from advances in technology but also from organizational innovation. The selection of support-related technologies is important, but it is the effective implementation and administration of those technologies that is critical to organizational success.

Database team managers should constantly leverage the collective knowledge of their entire support staff to improve the quality of support the team provides and reduce the amount of time required to solve problems.

One strategy to build the team’s expertise is to motivate individual team members to become Subject Matter Experts in key database disciplines. This strategy is performed informally hundreds of times in IT daily. A support professional is required to perform a given task and “gets stuck”. They spin their wheels and then decide to run down the hall and find someone they feel can provide them with advice. They consult with one or more fellow team members to solve the problem at hand.

The recommendation is to have a more formal strategy in place so that each team member, in addition to their daily support responsibilities, becomes a deep-dive specialist in a given database discipline. Their fellow team members are then able to draw from that expertise.

Increasing the Efficiency of Support- Subject Matter Experts

The database environment has become so complex that it precludes database administrators from becoming true experts in all facets of database technology. RDX’s large administrative staff allows it to increase efficiency by creating specialists in key database disciplines. In addition to expertise in providing day-to-day support, each of RDX’s support staff members is required to become an expert in one or more database disciplines including backup and recovery, highly available architectures, SQL tuning, database performance, database monitoring, UNIX/Windows scripting and database security.

RDX allocates the support person with the highest-level skill sets in that particular task to provide the service requested by the customer. This methodology ensures that the customer gets the most experienced person available to perform complex tasks. Who do you want to install that 5 node Oracle RAC cluster? A team member that has limited knowledge or one that has extensively studied Oracle’s high availability architecture and performs RAC installations on a daily basis?

Although your team may only consist of a ½ dozen administrators, that doesn’t mean that you aren’t able to leverage the benefits that the Subject Matter Experts strategy provides. Identify personnel on the team that are interested in a particular database support discipline (i.e. security, database performance, SQL Performance, scripting, etc.) and encourage them to build their expertise in those areas. If they are interested in high availability, send them to classes, offer to reimburse them for books on that topic and/or allocate time for them to review HA specific websites. Focus on the areas that are most critical to the needs of your shop. For instance, is your company having lots of SQL statement performance problems? A sound strategy is to have one of your team members focus on SQL tuning and support them throughout the entire educational process.

Also consider special skills during the DBA interview and selection process. At RDX, we always look for candidates that are able to provide deep-dive expertise in key database support disciplines. We have several DBAs on staff that have strong application development backgrounds including SQL performance tuning. This was in addition to possessing a strong background in database administration. We use the same strategy for HA architectures, and we look for candidates that have strong skills in any database advanced feature. We’re able to leverage that expertise for the customer’s benefit. The same strategy can be applied to any size team. Look for candidates that excel in database administration but are also strong in key areas that will improve your ability to support your internal customers.

In addition, you can also draw expertise from other teams. For example, you may have access to an application developer who is strong in SQL coding and tuning or an operating system administrator that excels in scripting. Build relationships with those personnel and leverage their experience and skill sets when needed. Ask them to provide recommendations on training to your team or assist when critical problems occur. Technicians are usually more than happy to be asked to help. Just make sure to be courteous when asking and thank them (and their manager) when they do help out.

Reducing Downtime Duration by Faster Problem Resolution

RDX’s large staff also reduces the amount of time spent on troubleshooting and problem solving. RDX is able to leverage the expertise of a very large staff of database, operating system and middle-tier administrators. Additionally, RDX is able to leverage the team’s expertise to provide faster resolution to database performance issues and outages. Since the support staff works with many different companies, they have seen a number of different approaches to most situations.

Ninety-nine percent of our support technicians work at the same physical site. This allows RDX to create a “war room” strategy for brainstorming activities and problem solving. All technicians needed to create a solution or solve a problem are quickly brought to bear when the need arises. Support technicians come from varied backgrounds and have many different skill sets. RDX is able to leverage these skills without having to search for the right person or wait for a return call. Work can take place immediately.

This “war room” strategy works for any size team. When a significant issue occurs, leverage the entire team’s skill sets. Appoint yourself to be the gate keeper to ensure that the team remains focused on the goal of quick problem resolution and that the conversation continues to be productive. Brainpower counts, and the more collective knowledge you have at your disposal, the more effective your problem resolution activities become.

Conclusion

Corporate information technology executives understand that their success relies upon their ability to cut costs and improve efficiency. Decreasing profit margins and increased competition in their market segment force them to continuously search for creative new solutions to reduce the cost of the services they provide. They also realize that this reduction in cost must not come at the expense of the quality of services their organization delivers.

RDX invites you to compare the benefits of our organizational architecture and quality improvement initiatives to our competitors, your in-house personnel or your on-site consultants. We firmly believe that our Collective Knowledge Support Model allows us to provide world class support.