Article: What should I look for in a ‘Second-Line’ support
contract for Oracle and/or SQL Server?
Posted by xynomix on February 22nd, 2010
Second-Line support for Oracle and SQL Server is designed to
support internal DBA teams. It should therefore fit your exact
requirements without exception.
To achieve a wholly supportive, productive relationship with
your Oracle and/or SQL Server support provider, it is important
to:
1) Define how you want the contract to
work.
Do you want a stock of pre-paid hours that can be drawn upon
throughout the year when needed?
Or an ongoing contract that would allow you to define the hours
of cover that you need and use unlimited ‘Second-Line’ support
within those hours?
Perhaps a combination of contracted working hours support and a
pre-paid pool of support to be drawn on out of hours?
Whatever your requirements, make sure that your ‘Second-Line’
Support solution fits them exactly. There is no reason that at all
that your Oracle Database Support provider could not deliver
support to your exact specifications. If they can’t, you could end
up paying over the odds for Oracle and SQL Server support that you
don’t use.
Tip: Check how much you will save on ad-hoc
support hours/days by pre-paying. There should be a small saving at
least!
2) Establish strict Service Level Agreements [SLAs]
with your support provider.
For contracted ‘Second-Line’ Support in hours, you should be
looking at a guaranteed response time set at around 30 minutes.
3) Make sure you can get in touch with the company
quickly and easily.
If you have to wade through the typical talking and transfers of
a call centre, the time it takes for you to receive any support
will be greatly extended. In cases where support concerns a
critical Oracle or SQL Server database environment, this delay can
cost the business money.
Make sure that your support providers give you a direct,
standard rate telephone number that will get you straight through
to an Oracle or SQL Server DBA.
4) Ensure that the support provider you choose
offers genuine 24×7 support.
Even if you don’t need access to 24×7 assistance yet, you never
know when an issue with your Oracle or SQL Server database
environment may arise. The last thing you want to do is engage one
company for in-hours support only to find you will have to go
elsewhere if an emergency occurs out of hours.
5) Make sure support can be delivered as securely
and effectively remotely as it would be on-site.
An effective and secure connection method to your Oracle and SQL
Server databases should be used to deliver remote support. Xynomix
deliver remote ‘Second-Line’ Support functions such as health
checks, Oracle and SQL Server installations and database upgrades
over a guaranteed secure Virtual Private Network [VPN],
which is as safe and effective as an on-site DBA connecting to
perform administration from inside your building.