Large businesses and organizations rely on administrators to ensure that their databases are working round the clock. They also perform other equally important tasks such as database security, troubleshooting, and monitoring. Without them and other IT professionals, companies wouldn’t be able to maintain their global operations, especially with thousands of employees connecting to secure networks from their homes.
But what if you can’t afford a full-time database administrator? It’s not uncommon for smaller companies to combine roles within their IT departments or to hire an external vendor to perform tasks such as Microsoft SQL server performance tuning.
Whether you have a dedicated administrator, here’s how to ensure that your company database runs smoothly:
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Delegate tasks
Database administrators often have a lot on their plate, and getting through all support tickets in time is often impossible. The first thing any good administrator should do is to learn how to delegate important tasks to staff.
For starters, you need to identify your team members who can handle a particular segment of database management. Your key staff should also know the processes and protocols for different scenarios. This might entail assigning each team member to a specialized role, and training them in specific skills.
By establishing key roles and hierarchy within the team and clear lines of communication, requests, and inquiries are worked on immediately.
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Centralize your system
One of the biggest problems that administrators face is when too much data is pouring in from multiple sources. A decentralized system can work wonders for things such as server security, but it’s often a thorn’s side on database administrators.
Instead of having data come in from multiple origins, you could create a process that funnels all data through one entry point. That way, you can control and curate the data that goes into the database. If you have too many stakeholders uploading data to the database, it could lead to chaos and disorganization.
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Check your alerts
Automated systems and alerts have made life for database administrations easier. Instead of wasting too much time on systems monitoring, they can focus their energies on more important tasks. ; However, you still need to manage the way notifications work.
Notifications should be assigned to different levels of priorities. You don’t want every task and process to send out an alert, or else you’re going to flood your systems with useless notifications. Your team won’t be able to discern between low-priority and high-priority alerts. Only assign an alert for the most important processes.
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Focus on security
Businesses face new cybersecurity threats every day, and it’s up to IT professionals to keep networks and databases secure. Every bit of information that flows through networks has to meet minimum privacy and security standards. Administrators also need to formulate response plans for a wide variety of scenarios in the event of a breach.
Security laws such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR have introduced sweeping changes to the way businesses and organizations approach data security. IT professionals must meet these minimum standards to keep their data safe.
These things will help ensure that your database remains safe and efficient. New technologies pop up every single day, but these basic guidelines will always be effective and relevant.
