ForrTel:Outsourcing Your Database Administration? Think TwiceNoel Yuhanna

Senior Analyst

Forrester Research

April 11, 2005. Call in at 12:55 p.m. Eastern Time

Theme

To be successful database administration outsourcing

requires careful planning and execution.

Agenda

• What is involved in administrating databases?

• Why outsource database administration?

• What are the challenges faced when outsourcing?

• What tasks can be outsourced?

• What are the types of outsourcing models?

• How do you succeed in outsourcing?

• What is the future of database outsourcing?

Role of operational DBA

• Install, upgrade, and migrations

• Troubleshooting and corrective actions

• Space and account management

• Database monitoring and reporting

• Performance and tuning

• Backup and recovery

• Capacity planning

• Data load/unload and synchronization

Distribution of time

License/doc training

Install, upgrade, patch, migration

Performance/troubleshoot

Scripting coding

Security planning Backup rec load/unload 5%

25%

5%

5%

20%

40%

Role of application DBA

• Database design and modeling

• Application administration

• Coding — SP, triggers, objects etc

• New install, upgrade and migrations

• Backup and recovery

• Define process and integration

• Documentation

• Backup DBA for operational systems

Distribution of time

Apps admin and DB design

Install, upgrade, load

Coding and tuning

50%15%

25%

5%5% Doc/training

Backup and security

Database administration challenges

Forrester survey: 52 Enterprises with $500 or more in revenue, 2004

Perf/troubleshoot26%

Patch/upgrade

21%

Change mgt.

14%

Planning 11%

Rep/sync 8%

Backup/recovery 8%

Security issues

6%

Resource issues

6%

Why outsource database administration?

• To save money

• Most administration tasks can be managed remotely

• Databases are becoming a commodity

• Other infrastructure components are being outsourced

• Stable environment, with minimal changes

• Free internal resources for other purposes

• Get resources that are not available internally

What are the outsourcing challenges?

• Lack of security

• Poor turnaround time

• Hidden costs

• Minimal cost savings

• Quality of service

• Lack of depth in troubleshooting

• Lack of business knowledge

• Lack of performance metrics

• Communication issues

Do you currently or plan to outsource database administration?

Source: 52 enterprises surveyed with $500 or more in revenue, 2004

Yes

15%

No

69%

Don’t know

16%

Have you seen the expected savings from offshoring IT?

43 North American IT and business executives, Jan. 04

37%

28%

19%

2%

7%

0%

20%

40%

Too early to tell

Have seen the savings that we

expected

Have seen savings but not what we

expected

Have not achieved

any savings

Savings have exceeded our expectations

What administration tasks can be outsourced? Administration tasks Success rate

Patch deployment High, except complex patches*

Upgrades Moderate, avoid large upgrades*

Backup & verification High

Space management High

DBMS tuning High

SQL tuning High

Proactive monitoring High

DBMS install Low, difficult to perform remotely*

Security management Moderate, avoid*

Object management Moderate, should be supported internally

HA management High, except initial setup

DR management High, except initial setup

Data load/unload High, can be automated and monitored

Database recovery Moderate, depends on complexity of environment*

Startup/shutdown DBMS High, but depends on DBMS support

Auditing High

* Will change in future

Database administration outsourcing model

DatabaseTech Support

Remote Admin

Location 1Location 2Admin

DBDB

DB

DB

Agents

Users

Company A

Partial outsourcing

Database administration outsourcing model

Database tech supportRemote admin Data center

Users

Company A

DBDB

Complete outsourcing

Top database administration outsourcing vendors

Large vendors

» IBM

» Oracle

» EDS

Offshore vendors

» TCS

» Satyam

» Wipro

Small vendors

» DbaDirect

» Ntirety

» Pythian

How to succeed in outsourcing?

• Before making a decision

» Consolidate

» Standardize

» Formalize

» Stabilize

» Secure

• Perform a cost-benefit and impact analysis

• Choose the right vendor

How to select an outsourcing vendor?

• Operational center — Location, Infrastructure, redundancy

• Expertise — DBMS, apps, other technology stack layers

• SLAs — Response time

• Hidden costs — What is not covered?

• Administrators located — Geographic locations

• Security infrastructure — Access to data, VPN

• Tools used — Agents, frequency

• Accountability – How handled

• Formalize — Steps and documented procedures

• Reports provided — Portals, frequency

• Support coverage — 24x7

• References — Ask for them

• Communications — Issues, clarity

DBA to database ratio

• Current ratio:

» A DBA manages up to 1 TB database collectively

» Average 21 databases per DBA

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

2001200220032004200520062007200820092010

Data

bases

-1,000

2,000

5,000

8,000

(GB

) -

Co

llecti

ve D

B S

ize

Databases

DB Size

Source: Forrester Research

Forecast: Database administration challenges

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Performance & tuning

B&R

Patch/Upgrade

Security

2009 2010

Database administration cost is declining

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

($)

Ad

min

istr

atio

n c

ost

Future of database outsourcing

• Utility-based model

• More aggressive pricing

• More vendors will offer such service

• Complete stack level integrated focus

Recommendations

• Understand the impact on operations/applications

• Determine cost benefits

• Flush out security concerns

• Understand the vendor’s position

• Small companies should look at full outsourcing

Noel Yuhanna

nyuhanna@forrester.com

www.forrester.com

Thank you

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