We are extending development teams with experienced offshore developers

Case written by Roshan - Senior Database Administrator/ Team Leader

One of our customers is a US based large IT service provider which has clients and offices in US, Europe and Asia. Nature of its business means that the database systems need to be operational 24/7 with minimum downtime. To achieve this, a DBA needs to be constantly monitoring the system throughout the day. And most of the time many of the database maintenance tasks should be done when having the minimum traffic during the day – mostly at night in US/Europe. As DBA services in US/Europe are expensive, the best option is to obtain services of a dedicated offshore DBA. (s)He would manage your servers so you could have a peace of mind after work, and complete any maintenance tasks during that time, making sure the databases are backed up, defragmented and kept in an optimized state for the next business day.

Our DBAs monitor all of the client's database servers which contain SQL Server 2008 VLDBs exceeding TeraBytes of data and tables exceeding billions of rows. As these systems engage in a very high amount of transactions per minute, it is essential that these systems are kept on optimal condition. Some of these database servers contain more than hundreds of databases. In addition our team covers 365 days regardless of weekends or public holidays based on a roster system. Also our teamworks on DB related support requests such as running ad-hoc updates, extracts raised by clients in other time zones, ensuring that the database related tasks are completed regardless of the time of the day minimizing the workload for the US team.

What are the tools used?

Currently we're using SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 as our RDBMS. Red Gate and Idera database tools are used respectively for compressed backups and monitoring purposes. SQL Server Reporting services are used for reporting purposes. All of the work is done using Remote Desktop tools.

What is the typical work done by a DBA?

• Maintaining databases and ensuring its availability to users
• Importing and exporting data from Databases
• Managing database jobs and replication
• Controlling privileges and permissions to database users
• Monitoring database performance, performing various optimizations and providing consultation to development staff on various database related issues.
• Performing database backups and recovery
• Ensuring database security and data integrity
• Involving in database object design, capacity planning etc.

How could teams in two ends of the world collaborate and efficiently work?

Our client maintains a customized help desk and collaboration system where all Database related tasks and communication are recorded. Any new tasks are added to an unassigned queue where a DBA in the shift would pick up the task and work on it. Before end of each shift an overall status update is posted for the DBAs working on the next shift. Skype and VOIP phone facilities are used for more interactive communication.