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Managed Services Provide Multi-Platform Expertise

Author: Robin Caputo | | April 11, 2014

The continually increasing variety, velocity, and volume of data and databases means there are more tools and platforms than ever available for contemporary enterprises, but often, finding qualified employees with the best possible combination of skills is a difficult task for a database administrator.

With a veritable alphabet soup of languages, platforms, and applications available, supporting an enterprise’s multiple platforms often proves to be a significant challenge. It’s a challenge that can be resolved by adopting a flexible managed services contract for database administration, according to a new study conducted by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by Datavail.

An Expert on Every Database and Platform

Increased platform complexity is one of the underlying problems database administrators now face, according to Noel Yuhanna, principal analyst at Forrester Consulting. Existing staff often lacks the skills to take on tasks involving multiple platforms. No one person can be an expert on everything, especially when there is now such a rich variety of database platforms and tools available to the database administrator.

Outsourcing such tasks helps complement existing staff by moving esoteric, one-off jobs to vendors with the specific expertise and specialized focus needed to complete those projects. In addition, outsourcing helps support new application development and deployment.

For example, organizations can use a managed services contract to staff a project with the precise niche database skills needed, which is ideal for short-term projects such as application development. Do team members need to know MongoDB? Java? Both? Is your team missing someone able to work with the organization’s mission-critical legacy assets due to the retirement of a senior database administrator?

With a managed services provider on your team, an IT professional doesn’t have to spend valuable time reading resumes to find the best possible talent for a short-term project.

“Adopting a managed services approach to database administration and augmenting our on-staff DBA team improved our DBA retention, as well as the quality of life of our DBAs,” stated the director of database administration at a major financial services company, one of Datavail’s clients. “We’re able to focus our on-staff DBAs to engage earlier on business processes and business issues, while Datavail handles many of our day-to-day operational issues. The result has been higher employee satisfaction and retention and greater business value,” he says.

An Alternative Approach to Database Management

Increasingly scarce database administration talent, says Perlstein, makes this an ideal time to consider an alternative approach to database management.

“Outsourcing database administration is here to stay,” says Yuhanna. “I would recommend all organizations take a look at this. You don’t have to outsource all your databases right away. You can start with a few databases and see what value outsourcing brings and then expand your portfolio.”

Does your organization need a broad range of staff expertise on various platforms? This could be resolved by moving to a managed services contract. How could such a strategy work in your organization? To access the full study, visit Outsourcing Database Administration Saves Money, Improves IT Productivity. The recorded webinar, which features additional insight from Yuhanna and Perlstein on this and other benefits, is available at 5 Reasons to Choose a Managed Services Approach to Database Administration.

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