Perfecting SQL Server wellbeing throughout the life cycle

A database platform is under continuous change as the amount of the applications, users, and data in the organization evolve. Many times, the root-cause is the growing and developing business, but even in more stable conditions the data platform will erode over the time. Just like a car needs maintenance more often and thoroughly as the mileage in the odometer grows, a SQL Server platform requires continuous attention throughout its life cycle.

In this post, we will explain why you need to adopt an ongoing process for SQL Server wellbeing, and how to conduct the process in a way that doesn’t take up all your time.

Life cycle wellbeing for your SQL Server platform

What is SQL Server life cycle wellbeing?

The constant and proactive process for a SQL Server platform through performance and capacity optimization.

To help with this definition, let’s define the difference between performance optimization and capacity optimization:

• Performance optimization involves monitoring and analyzing the performance level of database servers, gauging things like configurations and the throughput of data. This analysis lets you uncover potential bottlenecks or other problems and fixing them. Ideally the performance optimization should be proactive and based on predictive alerts and forecasts on the potential problems before they occur.

• Capacity optimization involves analyzing the capacity of the database servers and suggesting areas where the capacity utilization needs to be optimized. Often there are under-utilized servers that can be consolidated. But sometimes there is a need to replace an individual old server with a new one. In these ‘lift and shift’ situations, the capacity optimization can be used to right-size the new server. In some cases, the challenge can also be the opposite: how to mitigate over-utilized servers. But most often capacity optimization will provide great opportunities to improve the platform utilization level and reduce costs. An important part of the capacity optimization is also the continuous capacity management, to proactively pinpoint potential issues in capacity utilization.

Fundamentally, both forms of database optimization concern collecting and analyzing workload performance data from SQL Servers. But while performance optimization is mainly about fixing problems, capacity optimization can  also provide an opportunity to save your business money in terms of reduced software licensing and hardware costs.

True life cycle wellbeing requires a healthy balance of both performance and capacity optimization.

So many servers, so little time

Unfortunately, SQL Server wellbeing is often attempted as an infrequent and one-off project rather than a continual process, where the infrastructure team will only look to make changes to the platform when a problem occurs. This reactive mindset can cause significantly more downtime.

Even though the database platform can often run relatively long period of time without any major issues, they still may get performance issues or their capacity utilization may develop unfavorably over the time. If you are lacking the continuous and proactive process to make sure that’s not the case, your environment might not be running optimally. Or worse, a critical system failure, which can damage your business, could be right around the corner.

Of course, the infrastructure team can’t be expected to monitor and manage the SQL Server data platform every waking minute of the day. But can you afford to rely on an infrequent, one-off approach either—and as such continue risking overburdened servers, drops in performance, or a system failure? Or do you dedicate more of your time to monitoring your environment and therefore sacrifice time you could spend working on other things?  

Fortunately, organizations and their infrastructure teams don’t have to pick their poison. There is a new method that combines automated, continuous performance optimization with capacity optimization for true SQL Server life cycle wellbeing.

Optimize SQL Server wellbeing with SQL Governor

SQL Governor is the only software solution on the market that provides proactive support for both performance optimization and capacity optimization.

SQL Governor offers a proactive approach to performance optimization, as it provides predictive alerting—allowing you to see potential future deviations in server activity to give you time to act before a problem becomes a crisis. SQL Governor capacity management on the other hand enables managers to follow the long-term SLA levels for desired performance counters, helping you keep on top of your SQL Server wellbeing.

As the real icing on the cake, SQL Governor also provides sophisticated capacity optimization to help organizations realize real savings potential. SQL Governor will analyze and measure your database platform’s behavior and capacity, creating a plan for a new and more efficient platform where SQL Servers are consolidated or right-sized. Capacity optimization looks to eliminate any instance of potential waste, so your new platform is as cost-efficient as possible. SQL Governor has helped companies save, on average, 44% on licensing costs, while larger companies with more than 100 servers can potentially save millions of dollars.

But best of all, the automated nature of SQL Governor means your database environment can be constantly monitored without constant oversight from the infrastructure team, leaving them free to work on other pressing matters. SQL Governor has a CPU footprint next to zero, so it also won’t affect your other resources while working around-the-clock.   

Only through a balanced focus on performance and capacity optimization can your organization achieve sustainable life cycle wellbeing. SQL Governor is here to help you find that balance.

To find out more on the importance of combining performance and capacity optimization, get in touch with us today. 

Kari Tuisku
CEO
DB Pro