Database Monitoring: Why Bother?

There are still some data professionals out there who don’t yet recognize the significance of how database performance monitoring ensures optimal corporate performance. That’s why other database professionals elect to engage a remote database monitoring service: to assure them that their databases are protected and optimized while they, themselves, are working elsewhere to reach the full potential of their organization.

There’s A Lot to Lose Without a Database Monitoring System

Many DBA’s rightly focus their effort on more valuable activities than database monitoring. While the intention is laudable, it doesn’t mean that database performance monitoring isn’t also a critical element of overall corporate computing health. In fact, not maintaining a regular database monitoring practice can open the company up to a variety of unnecessary risks that will almost certainly escalate over time:

• In 2013, hackers made off with  $45 million from unmonitored ATM’s, and two-thirds of those breaches were of ‘data at rest’ in an unprotected database.
• In 2017, Equifax suffered a database breach that exposed the private information of over 140 million people.
• In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has driven up both the risk level and the number of breach incidentspast all previous tiers, with network infiltrations, identity thefts, and ransomware outbreaks exploiting the new ‘work-from-home’ normal.

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An expert database monitoring service is the first line of defense against all these threats. Accessing one allows the DBA to spend their time pursuing the new opportunities that are emerging alongside the latest threats.

Database Performance Monitoring Keeps Your Organization Safe

The reality is that your database doesn’t just drive your computing capacities; it also records your organization’s activities. Database monitoring services scan the elements of your foundational IT environment, its logs, agents, APIs, and other communication protocols to reveal data-based trends across the organization. Additionally, it can generate alarms for system failures, intrusions, etc., and collect aggregated data into easy-to-read dashboards. A simple list of systems monitored by the services can include:

• Identity and access activities,
• Network flows and traffic,
• Network performance,
• Compliance activities, and
• User behaviors, to name just a few.

 
Keeping an eye on these functions also keeps your organization safe – from errors, intrusions, and other unexpected risks.

Match Database Monitoring Solutions to Meet Your Needs

There are two methods for monitoring a database, using on-site software, or accessing remote services. Each offers benefits and limitations so that one may work better than the other, depending on the user’s requirements.

On-Site Software:

• On-site software installs on local servers, so control over everything remains in the user’s hands.
• A single purchase price facilitates simple budgeting.
• Several versions are available, so users can choose the one that best fits their needs.
• However, the pre-packaged options are fixed, so the programming may not address all issues or may require purchasing wasted monitoring assets that aren’t relevant to the company’s systems.

 
Remote Database Monitoring Services:

• Cloud-based, these services draw resources from the provider’s extensive cloud-based assets that flex to meet the user’s needs.
• Accompanying support services facilitate changing monitoring capacities as systems evolve, so customers always get precisely the supports and services their databases require.
• Accessed through a service model shifts the budget item from the capital account to the expense account, facilitating accurate and reliable budgeting.

 
The size of the organization may play a part in the ‘on-site versus remote’ decision. Smaller enterprises may be comfortable with the fixed monitoring program, while larger companies may be better served by the remote database monitoring services’ flexibility.

Outsource or Augment Your Monitoring Needs with Datavail

Datavail built its business ensuring that its customers enjoy flawless and secure computing capacities, regardless of their specific industry or the size of their organization. We work with our customers to provide the exact support they need, whether that’s to work alongside their on-staff IT professionals or to assume full responsibility for enterprise-wide database monitoring services. Our 24/7/365 monitoring team maintains expert vigilance on all customer assets, and our customized reports, notifications, and tracking systems keep customers informed of every action within their network.

Datavail has also developed a cloud-based automation platform tool for databases, Datavail TechBoost^TM that currently monitors 500+ customizable server and database metrics, sends out real-time notifications, supports major database technologies, has root cause engine (RCE) automation, has a lightweight footprint, 24x7x365 monitoring and more. We have 400 customers who rely on Datavail TechBoost^TM to process two million incidents and monitor 400,000 databases.

If your company might benefit from database monitoring services, contact Datavail to learn how our dedicated experts can help meet your needs.