The importance of professional database administration in the modern business setup cannot be ignored.  Most companies are leveraging IT products to optimize their operations and this calls for high-level expertise in database management. If you are using a database in your organization, you can only do so much to ensure it is running optimally without external help.

You need to hire a DBA consultant who will help you utilize fully available functionalities on your database to boost its performance. A DBA will also help with database installation and RAC, optimize security through ongoing audits, improve the database design, carry out performance tuning, backup and recovery, and ongoing maintenance. By hiring the services of this expert, you are assured of higher availability of your systems as all problems are diagnosed and treated before they escalate.

The question that comes to mind at this point is how to find a reliable DBA in the market. If you are outsourcing these services, you will come across thousands of people calling themselves expert DBAs. Choosing from this crowd can be an overwhelming affair, especially if this is the first time you are doing this.

Luckily, you can use the following factors to determine whether the DBA will serve your needs.

1. Extensive experience – The best DBA consultants should have a strong track record in the industry. They should be well-versed in a wide range of areas including data backup and recovery, security auditing, database installation and maintenance, and performance monitoring among others. Your prospective database expert should have experience working with Oracle, MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL, Ms SQL Server and IBM DB2 among other DBMS systems.
2. Excellent communication – Database administration is a highly technical activity and your DBA should cut out the jargon to make it easier for you to work with him. Communication should be both ways, which means everyone must be willing to listen. It is a learning process where both parties will work better if they are communicating effectively.
3. Commitment – When hiring a remote DBA, ensure you ask about their availability. Many DBAs have many projects on their hands and they might not have enough resources to handle them all. You should enquire about the contact person you can always talk to any time you need a quick response.
4. Team work –If the DBA is a loner you are in for trouble. In most cases, your team will not be overly enthusiastic with allowing an outsider into the database management. This means a DBA should be easy going in order to array any fears that your team may have. When rapport is created early in the project, there will be no problems in future.
5. Innovation – The database management industry is growing rapidly and this means your DBA has to be updated on all industry happenings. This ensures they are able to adopt the latest trends in database administration for more effectiveness.

There is no overemphasizing the importance of hiring a qualified DBA to oversee your database maintenance. The best in the industry will have expertise in handling Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, DB2 and other complex databases. They offer round-the-clock support, improve database availability and deliver proven industry solutions. This is exactly what your business needs.