The biggest challenge that any IT Manager faces is maintaining and developing return on investment. Not only is it key to make sure costs are kept down, one of the main areas for gaining ROI is looking at the existing operations and seeing how this could be made to work more efficiently. For any IT Manager, Oracle Database management is a significant investment but many are now realising the importance to unlock Oracle’s potential to significantly improve business operations and reduce overall costs in IT.

One way that IT managers can make Oracle perform better is to get specialist help with Oracle and have a complete managed service. This would ensure the maximum return on investment for the Oracle systems, whilst reducing the need to obtain extra in-house resources to manage the DBA.

Reducing the Costs

Have you ever considered the costs associated with having one DBA employee to manage the Database? Typically this can be around £70,ooo per year, not to mention the time lost from absence or administrative cost. There is also the problem of database outages and the required support to have this fixed and maintained. Overall, they can all add up to a significant on-going cost to the IT Manager and not to mention the company. These employment costs that can actually be reduced by a third by having a specialist support contract to manage your database.

Oracle Managed Services

There are many support options available for Oracle database management. Reducing the costs are all about tailored solutions, so that you are only paying for the services that you need for your business. So the support services are there to manage the areas that you can’t and fill the gap of resources in the IT department. A perfect example of the key features of the type of managed services can be seen in the image.

Support services can be done with remote access to monitor the database and management systems to ensure that all critical oracle services are reliable and achieve exceptional database performance. The remote access model is achieve via a guaranteed secure virtual private network (VPN) and can be managed just as effectively as a member of staff in the building.

Before any managed services take place, it is critical that an agreement for the target service levels is set to ensure that the ROI is measureable and achieved. It is the overall running costs that should be reduced as well as the database functionality.

Some of the benefits of oracle managed services include reduced operational costs, reduced employment costs and increased business productivity. There is a lot of support an Oracle  specialist can bring to any IT department and managers should be looking at ways to improve their department’s productivity. For more information about Oracle managed services and the benefits that this can bring to an organisation, there is a White Paper available for download free from Oracle Experts Xynomix.

Investments in Microsoft SQL server databases and Oracle require a lot of attention to detail, careful planning and maintenance. However, to ensure the maximum performance from the amount of investment in your database technology, there needs to be a significant amount of attention paid to the on-going support.

Critical to all business is having a strong DBA team in house to maintain the database technology. However, no matter how capable your DBA team may be there are always times when having an extra pair of hands or someone with just that extra bit of knowledge and experience can make a lasting difference. If your database systems are optimised, you still might need that extra bit of on-going support to make sure the smooth running of your systems. Another crucial element is having the expertise to work on all variations of Oracle, even from as early as Oracle 6, to that latest version. Having a team of people who are able to maintain but to also optimise and develop is the difference between being idle and maximising revenue.

Defining Your Required Oracle Support

Depending on your needs, the Oracle database might require just ad-hoc on-going support from experts or something more

encompassing. The latter can involve full all-year-round uptime and is more suited to organisations that have mission critical database environments and require a virtually non-existent downtime. This falls into the Full Support and Managed Services. If your requirements are not that extensive, a more casual solution such as Second Line Support Services, would be ideally best to suit your existing team. Your level of support is designed to fit into your organisation and your DBA team, to compliment their capabilities and act as an on-call Oracle expert for continuing support.

Full Support and Managed Services

This solution is for larger and more database critical organisations, who require on-going support and maintenance. This level of full support can monitor your systems 24/7 for a target of around 99.9% uptime on critical Oracle systems. This requires in-depth knowledge of all Oracle versions from older to the most recent, such as the latest 11g Oracle RAC technology. Typically, this will comprise of a small team that is dedicated to your specific requirements and database to provide the most comprehensive support for your database. Other benefits can include regular database health checks, advanced monitoring, reduced Oracle running costs and an assurance of service levels.

Second Line Support Services

This level of service is designed to work with DBA teams during Oracle installations, upgrades, migrations or when specific expertise is required. One of the greatest benefits of having the Second Line support is this can significantly reduce your Oracle running costs as well as giving you fixed costs for controlling your budget. This service level also guarantees the expertise as and when you need it making it easier to manage the DBA team and the resources.

Database management can require a significant amount of resources so considering your Oracle Support is vital before any installation, upgrade or maintenance is carried out. When resources are stretched or your need the extra level of experience to help you through, a solid and encompassing level of support should be included into your project and DBA team to make sure of the all important up-time. Any return on investment for Oracle Database Technology is dependant on the right level of support for your organisation. Before any support is deployed, the success of the technology is the roles of the DBA team and identifying the level of support needed.  Always make certain of seeking the support of an Oracle Certified Partner also.