If a database fails, you can pretty much guarantee that business will be brought to a standstill. The extent of the impact will depend on the function of the database, and the support you have in place. But too many businesses coast along with no real strategy for disaster. In an age of increased cyber threat and automation, it’s risky to leave things to chance.
In this blog, we’re going to look at some of the consequences of inadequate database support.
What happens in an outage
Databases go down because they’re either corrupted or unavailable. Depending on the cause of the outage, you may lose a significant amount of data, and this can impact the productivity of the business for days, or weeks.
In an ideal scenario, you’ll have a second instance of the database ready to plug straight in. But often, this doesn’t go to plan. If you’ve never actually tried to restore your database, you might run into problems, particularly when you’re working against the clock. Additionally, if your storage media has failed, you might have to rectify that first.
A properly tested disaster recovery strategy is essential in getting back online. This will help you to contain the risk as much as possible, and prevent the outage from impacting on the wider business.
Recovery procedures
When a database goes down, contacting your database support team is a priority. Nobody should interact with the system until your DBAs have had time to review what’s happened. At WellData, we offer round-the-clock emergency response specifically for this reason.
The most obvious way to recover a database is to use a backup. The aim is to always restore as much data as possible, from the most recent point that is valid. This usually means starting on a new server instance. But there are many different ways of restoring backups; each application is different. Sometimes there’s a degree of automation. Equally, sometimes, it’s a painstaking manual process.
Our team responds in the most appropriate way, working remotely where possible, or on-site where it makes sense to do so. It’s important to note that, no matter why the database went down, we don’t charge any extra fees for the work.
The importance of maintenance
Disaster recovery is an essential part of database management; you need a strategy to contain the impact of a serious outage before it happens. Planning and implementing a disaster recovery plan should be part of your maintenance arrangement, and it needs to be tested in real conditions (or as close to real as you can get).
When you outsource database support, it’s important that your provider tests this in conjunction with the business as a team effort. If you’re keeping backups of a database, they need to be secured properly, and everybody in the team needs to be able to respond quickly if the worst happens.
Outsourced support
WellData offers fixed fee, outsourced database support for your business. Our team integrates with your in-house staff to provide a 24/7, 365 recovery service. We also document and manage your database to detect risks quickly, and – ideally – respond to early warnings of trouble.
If your business is at risk, contact WellData for a free assessment of your requirements. Our managed IT services could be exactly what you need to keep your databases online.
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