You will be hard-pressed to locate a database team that is fully satisfied with their level of productivity. Something always seems to demand their immediate attention. Resolving these issues requires a balancing act to maintain the availability and performance of the databases they support. Juggling responsibilities can become an everyday occurrence and be the cause of undue stress on team members.
Increasing productivity by consolidating the products an IT team is required to interact with can be a welcome remedy for busy DBAs. While it may be challenging to fully consolidate enterprise IT solutions, even a partially successful initiative can have a substantial influence on the morale and productivity of the associated support teams. Database teams are in a powerful position to merge both the databases used to store enterprise data and the support tools required to manage corporate information resources.
Why Consolidate?
Consolidating enterprise IT can provide multiple benefits. The benefits generally fall into one of three levels within an organization. In some cases, the benefits will be more apparent at a specific organizational level.
- Operational benefits will be the easiest to identify after an IT consolidation. Teams can expect gains in productivity to accrue due to a reduction in competing tools or solutions, allowing them to become more proficient with the selected products. Licensing fees should be reduced, providing concrete financial benefits.
- The tactical benefits of consolidation revolve around an organization using the effort as a starting point for a wider exercise into increasing its agility and ability to complete.
- Strategic benefits can be obtained from the convergence of IT strategy with the company’s long-term plans. An enterprise that values the ability to quickly respond to changing market conditions will appreciate an IT strategy focused on eliminating redundancy and streamlining solutions.
IT consolidation can be a complicated process. The current environment needs to be thoroughly reviewed to identify potential targets for consolidation. In some organizations, not all systems and toolsets may be viable candidates for consolidation. A misguided attempt at consolidating IT resources can result in a more complex infrastructure that doesn’t further business goals.
Database Consolidation May Not Be Possible
One of the major complications that come with the role of a modern DBA is the need to work with multiple different database platforms. In the dark ages of the late 20th Century, it was commonplace for an organization to standardize on a single database solution. Enterprise information had to be formatted to conform to the demands of the systems in place, which were primarily relational databases.
This is not the case as we begin 2021. Enterprise data resources come in many different and incompatible formats. Unstructured data streams have become essential components of many businesses. Information garnered from emails and social media feeds may not lend itself to being effectively stored in relational databases. NoSQL databases are one of the solutions designed to handle the complexity of processing unstructured data.
There are differences in relational databases, but in general, they work according to the same set of core concepts. In situations where all an enterprise’s data resources can be represented in relational databases, consolidating on a single solution may merely be an exercise in comparing the features of alternate solutions. But this is not always the case.
Organizations may need to use multiple database solutions to address business requirements. It can be impossible to consolidate on a single platform when various data sources are in play. Trying to fit all enterprise data resources into a single database solution can be both unproductive and damaging to the business. Many companies find it necessary to use multiple database platforms and require their IT teams to support them.
Consolidating Database Support Tools
Even when business requirements demand that teams support multiple database platforms, there is room for consolidation that will directly affect team productivity and software licensing costs. Implementing a tool that allows DBAs to manage multiple platforms from a single interface offers immediate productivity gains and reduces the expense involved with licensing several support applications.
DBArtisan enables DBAs to manage and secure Oracle, SQL Server, Db2, and Sybase systems from the same interface. Training time is reduced for cross-platform DBAs, and collaboration across support teams is increased by consolidating on a single tool. The features provided by DBArtisan allow teams to keep multiple database platforms secure and performing efficiently.
Performance issues can be identified and resolved through the use of a customizable graphical display that shows the internal database processing priority. A migration wizard helps DBAs easily move data between supported platforms. You can monitor, grant, and revoke database permissions to ensure data assets are secured.
DBArtisan lets you consolidate database support tools and provides the features a team needs to manage enterprise data resources. It can reduce the cost and complexity of supporting your databases while increasing DBA productivity at the same time. Everyone wins.