Trying to build a business necessity justification for an in house DBA rather than a hosted solution

  • If i am trying to build a business necessity justification for building an in-house DBA, rather than hiring a hosted DBA (one person or team who knows) solution, what would be some substantial remarks/points to justify the necessity?

    thanks

  • SQLTestUser (8/26/2014)


    If i am trying to build a business necessity justification for building an in-house DBA, rather than hiring a hosted DBA (one person or team who knows) solution, what would be some substantial remarks/points to justify the necessity?

    thanks

    You do know that DBA is a person, not a solution right? This distinction may steer the responses quite a bit so maybe you can clarify if you are talking about administering your database in house or if you are talking about where it would be hosted.

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  • There are several problems with building your own DBA. I've named a few below.

    - You need at least two people

    - You open your HR department up to harassment lawsuits

    - It takes at least 25 years to get your new DBA up and running at an acceptable level

    - The overhead cost during those 25 years is hell.

    I highly recommend that you hire somebody instead.

  • Thanks for the quick response, it is for a database server which is hosted but managed internally as of now, and signs are pointing towards giving full control to an outside hosting company to manage all aspects of the database server, management, updates etc. My justification would gear us towards growing a DBA from within, and have a staff full time or full time staff to manage our internal data.

  • SQLTestUser (8/26/2014)


    Thanks for the quick response, it is for a database server which is hosted but managed internally as of now, and signs are pointing towards giving full control to an outside hosting company to manage all aspects of the database server, management, updates etc. My justification would gear us towards growing a DBA from within, and have a staff full time or full time staff to manage our internal data.

    "Growing your own" has some merits but also some potential pitfalls. If the person who becomes the accidental DBA is not well versed in managing a sql server there can be some pretty nasty things happen from time to time. Maintenance and disaster recovery are two of the biggies that come to mind. Not saying you shouldn't promote from within and maintain your servers yourselves but realize there are some things that need to be done for this to be successful.

    _______________________________________________________________

    Need help? Help us help you.

    Read the article at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Best+Practices/61537/ for best practices on asking questions.

    Need to split a string? Try Jeff Modens splitter http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Tally+Table/72993/.

    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 1 – Converting Rows to Columns - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/T-SQL/63681/
    Cross Tabs and Pivots, Part 2 - Dynamic Cross Tabs - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Crosstab/65048/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 1) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69953/
    Understanding and Using APPLY (Part 2) - http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/APPLY/69954/

  • SQLTestUser (8/26/2014)


    Thanks for the quick response, it is for a database server which is hosted but managed internally as of now, and signs are pointing towards giving full control to an outside hosting company to manage all aspects of the database server, management, updates etc. My justification would gear us towards growing a DBA from within, and have a staff full time or full time staff to manage our internal data.

    I think this is the wrong approach. Your study should be geared to determine which direction is best for the organization and not geared to proving one way or the other. You need to study this with an open mind and it may result in the conclusion that it is be better for the organization to outsource.

    Tom

  • SQLTestUser (8/26/2014)


    Thanks for the quick response, it is for a database server which is hosted but managed internally as of now, and signs are pointing towards giving full control to an outside hosting company to manage all aspects of the database server, management, updates etc. My justification would gear us towards growing a DBA from within, and have a staff full time or full time staff to manage our internal data.

    You're doing this backwards. It's not for us to tell you why your company should have an in house DBA. There are significant pros and cons to both sides. It comes down though to effectiveness per dollar spent. What's got the best ROI?

    Training within from scratch is rarely the best ROI, especially if you don't already have a mentor on site and being paid already. Experienced DBAs are expensive. Do you have 4 hours a week of work for them? That's a waste of money. Do you have 32 hours a week for them? Might be valuable, depends. Is it short term or long term?

    You're fighting the wrong battle. The purpose is not to entrench and defend a position to keep things where they are. The purpose is to decide what is best for the company, and then to decide what the best approach to that task list is. Sometimes in house makes the most sense. Sometimes it doesn't.


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