If your business has invested in a database, chances are that it’s a valuable asset that’s integral to the smooth and effective performance of your operation. Unfortunately, without regular maintenance and attention, a database can begin to deliver sub-optimal performance, failing to provide the ROI you deserve.
Some database maintenance can usually be done in-house. Most databases come with a list of checks that need to be carried out regularly to ensure the database keeps working well. Beyond these day-to-day measures, there is also a need for a periodic overhaul of the database. This overhaul, also known as database tuning, is a professional service that requires a high degree of skill and experience.
Using a number of different tools, a database tuning expert can perform the adjustments needed to significantly improve the speed, efficiency, and performance of your database.
Read on to discover exactly what database tuning services consist of, and seven good reasons why your business should employ database tuning services now!
What are Database Tuning Services?
Database tuning involves completing a series of activities that are designed to improve performance and enable the database to operate more efficiently. In contrast to database management, tuning is performed less frequently. It is often commissioned in response to a change in use or awareness amongst users and/or administrators that the database isn’t meeting its intended objectives.
Seven Reasons Why You Should Employ Database Tuning Services
Database tuning services don’t just improve the efficiency of your database, they also have a number of advantages for your workforce, your customers, and, ultimately, your bottom line. Take a look at seven reasons why database tuning services could transform your operation.
Improve Retrieval Times
From loading a web page through to producing information your team needs to process orders, get the answers to inventory queries, or input data to ensure the system remains up-to-date, a fast retrieval time can really make a difference.
Recent research shows that over half of mobile phone users will desert a site if it doesn’t load in three seconds. Particularly if you have a well-populated database, all it takes is a slight dip in performance, and wait times for data retrieval will noticeably increase.
Database tuning can make your system run more rapidly, ensuring almost instant response to queries and commands.
Help Your Database Cope With Increasing Volumes of Data
As your company grows, it’s likely that the amount of data in your database will also expand. The greater the volume of data, the more strain the database is under. Unless it’s appropriately organized, it’s all too easy for glitches to develop.
Database tuning includes the use of tools that improve the structure and organization of the database. This helps to effectively manage increasing volumes of data. To an extent, database tuning helps to future-proof your database, enabling it to keep pace with your business needs as they evolve.
Helping Your Organization Cope With Change
An agile database will have the capacity to deliver what you need it to, no matter the direction your company elects to follow. Businesses don’t just increase the volume of information they store in a database, a fresh project may also require data to be stored in a different way, or different data to be recorded.
In these circumstances, database tuning can reconfigure the database commands and parameters to ensure it’s capable of completing the fresh tasks that are required. Splitting large tasks into smaller ones, for example, or altering the way in which data is recorded, could help to ensure your database can respond flexibly no matter what your objectives may be.
Increased Efficiency
If you want to increase efficiency (which should ultimately result in greater returns for less input), database tuning can maximize system resources. By freeing up capacity, your database can give you the performance you need, without the need for additional investment.
For any company that’s eager to keep overheads as low as possible, database tuning can boost database performance to the extent that a costly replacement or upgrade isn’t required.
Reduce Maintenance and Labor Input
A database that’s working sub-optimally will usually require a considerable amount of attention. Issues such as lagging, inaccuracies, difficulty in accessing relevant data, or problems with the caliber and clarity of the information in the database are all issues that need to be resolved. If your team is busy trying to sort out your database, that’s time they won’t be spending on other aspects of your business.
One of the major benefits of database tuning is that it enables the database to operate more effectively and reliably. This, in turn, reduces the need for time-consuming troubleshooting, freeing up your workforce for other tasks.
Adjust to Fluctuating Demand
Whether you’re a retailer who’s looking forward to the holiday season trading or a gym that’s hoping for an uptick in business when people act on their New Years’ resolutions, it’s likely your database will see a sudden peak in activity, followed by a trough. In some industries, this pattern can have a daily, monthly or annual cycle. In others, fluctuations can be irregular.
To ensure your database can respond effectively to changing demand, database tuning is essential.
Prolong the Useful Life of Your Database
With skilled database tuning services, you can expect to get more from your existing database. For many companies, a professional tune will enable them to keep their existing database facility for years into the future, without needing to expand capacity, upgrade or invest more cash into finding an appropriate database solution.
If you’re committed to obtaining the best value from your database investment, suitable tuning is one of the most effective ways to ensure you enjoy optimal performance and results.
To find out more about databases and the need for database tuning, get in touch with the team at Buda Consulting. Experts in database management and performance, we look forward to making your database work for you, no matter what your requirements may be.