Whether you are a startup, a well-established entity or a business giant, the success of your entire operations in 2021 depends crucially on the stability, reliability, performance and security of your business applications. Hence the importance of the database you choose to support your application.
While Oracle still has the leader position as the most popular relational database management system (RDBMS) as of December 2020, closely followed by MySQL and Microsoft SQL Server, we’ll look at the key services to look out for when it comes to remote management of your Oracle databases.
Version Support
When it comes to ensuring stability, performance and reliability of your Oracle database environment, you need to make sure your Oracle consulting service partner provides support to the specific database version you use as well as has access to the latest database version.
Why is it important to support older versions?
If your business is running on an Oracle database version which is no longer officially supported by the vendor, you can save on Oracle support fees and still receive the required support on the release you use for as long as needed.
While you still have the option to upgrade at any given moment, there is no pressure in doing so. You will also profit from expert advice on configurations, optimal performance practices, virtualization and security at no additional change.
Of course if you process sensitive personal data, you would want to be covered by the latest patchsets and the latest version, but it might not be a simple thing to upgrade legacy applications for example.
Why is it important to support the latest versions?
Official Oracle partnership will guarantee that your databases will profit from the lifetime support policy which comes with latest version upgrades. In the occurrence of critical issues or in need of any technical assistance, your smooth operations are ensured by your partner.
Latest version upgrades will also ensure that your data is managed as per the latest security standards. You will also ensure a smooth upgrading of your operating systems if your databases are running the latest versions.
Integration
While version upgrades are essential, you need to make sure your Oracle database service partner has the right experience with Oracle version integrations without disrupting your daily operations. Experience and knowledge on how to best utilize latest versions is crucial to ensure improvement of your business process and optimization of your costs.
Cloud Migration
With business turning more to the emerging AI, machine learning, blockchain and IoT technologies, you need to ensure your on-premise instances can be migrated to autonomous databases. Some of the most outlined benefits to the Oracle Cloud infrastructure are related to its multiple capabilities to optimize the performance, workloads and security of your database. You need to ensure that migrating to the cloud is seamless and performed according to the market’s best practices.
Being a leader in the industry comes with a high price tag. Going for support from the vendor is certainly not a bite for every business. However, choosing the right partner guarantees that you will get professional DBA services for your Oracle database with multiple additional services included in your package, and all of that at a reasonable price.
