Remote DBA: senior Oracle and SQL Server administration, without the headcount
A senior DBA is a hard, expensive, slow hire, and most companies need a fraction of one. This is that fraction, with a name and a phone number.
The hiring math nobody says out loud
A senior SQL Server DBA in the Dallas market is a six-figure hire that takes months to land, and senior Oracle DBAs are scarcer still. Meanwhile the actual workload at most mid-market companies is a fraction of a full-time role: the databases mostly run, until the Tuesday they do not and the whole company finds out who was responsible for backups.
So the job lands on whoever is closest. A developer who knows some SQL. A sysadmin who inherited the maintenance plans. They keep it alive, and nobody blames them for what they were never hired to know: why the plan cache turned over, whether the Always On failover actually works, or when that last restore test happened. Usually the honest answer to the last one is "never."
Remote DBA is the boring, correct fix. A named senior engineer who knows your estate, backed by monitoring, on a monthly retainer that costs a fraction of the hire you were dreading.
What's covered
- Monitoring and alerting, around the clockInstrumented instances with alert response during business hours and a defined severity-1 escalation path after them. The exact terms live in the agreement, not in a marketing claim.
- Performance tuningWait-statistics analysis, index and query plan remediation, and the awkward conversation with the vendor whose app wrote the query.
- Backups with verified restoresBackup chain validation continuously and an actual restore test every quarter. A backup you have never restored is a hope, not a backup.
- Patching and upgradesSQL Server CUs, Oracle RU and CPU cycles, and version upgrades planned around your change windows.
- HA and DR configurationAlways On availability groups, Oracle Data Guard, failover testing on a schedule, and documentation your auditors can read.
- Capacity planning and security hardeningGrowth forecasting before the disk fills, and CIS-aligned hardening: least privilege, encryption posture, audit trails.
Oracle and SQL Server, equal weight
Most firms our size sell SQL Server support and quietly subcontract the Oracle work. We carry both natively: RMAN, Data Guard, and multi-instance Oracle estates alongside Always On, columnstore, and query-store-era SQL Server. Senior Oracle depth at a firm this size is rare, and it is one of the specific reasons clients find us. Mixed estates are one engagement, not two vendors.
Retainer tiers
Monitoring and alerting, monthly health review, patching, backup verification, and business-hours response.
Everything in Foundation, plus quarterly restore tests, performance tuning hours, and HA/DR configuration review.
Everything in Standard, plus capacity planning, security hardening cycles, and a standing seat in your change process.
How it starts
- 01Health check firstA one-week fixed-price health check of your SQL Server or Oracle estate. You get the findings document either way; it doubles as the onboarding inventory if you continue.
- 02Remediation of the red itemsThe health check always finds something. Broken backup chains and missing indexes get fixed as scoped work before steady-state begins.
- 03Steady stateMonitoring live, monthly review with your named engineer, quarterly restore tests, and patching on your calendar.
Platforms
- SQL Server 2016–2022
- Oracle 12c–23ai
- Always On AG
- Data Guard
- RMAN
- PostgreSQL
- Azure SQL
- Amazon RDS
Common questions
Why not just hire a full-time DBA?
If you can find one, afford one, and keep one busy, you should. Most mid-market companies fail at least one of those three tests. A senior DBA hire takes months, and once hired they spend most of the week on work a monitoring stack should be doing. A retainer buys you the senior fraction you actually need.
Do you cover both Oracle and SQL Server?
Yes, with equal weight. SQL Server coverage is easy to find; senior Oracle administration at a firm this size is not, and it is one of the few genuinely rare things we sell. Mixed estates are common in our client base and are priced as one engagement.
What is the actual response commitment?
Monitored alerting around the clock, engineer response during business hours, and a defined escalation path for severity-1 database incidents outside them. We put the exact terms in the agreement rather than publishing a marketing SLA we would quietly caveat later.
Will the same person work on our systems every month?
Yes. You get a named engineer who knows your estate, your naming conventions, and your restore history. That continuity is most of the value; anonymous ticket queues are the thing this service exists to replace.
How do you get access safely?
Named individual accounts, least-privilege roles scoped to the work, MFA on every path in, and session activity that lands in your audit logs, not ours. We will work inside your PAM or jump-host setup if you have one, and help you stand one up if you do not.
Related services
Start with a health check.
One week, fixed price, and you keep the findings. If the estate is healthy, the report says so and you sleep better.