Who is it for?
Not every company that runs SQL Server needs a DBA five days a week. But every one of them needs someone who knows what is happening on their databases. A part-time DBA is a particularly good fit for:
- small and mid-sized companies whose databases are handled “on the side” by the systems team or the developers
- IT departments whose database administrator has left, or who are struggling to hire one
- software and SaaS vendors whose data volumes are growing faster than their team
- teams with a junior DBA who want a senior DBA to back them up
What's included
Monitoring and alerts
Disk space, failed jobs, missing backups, prolonged blocking, availability group synchronization status. Alerts are tuned to flag what matters, without drowning your team in noise.
Maintenance and backups
Backups aligned with your recovery objectives, DBCC CHECKDB integrity checks, index and statistics maintenance with proven solutions, automation with PowerShell and dbatools, history cleanup. Above all, regular restore tests: a backup that has never been restored is just a hypothesis.
Patching and lifecycle
Tracking cumulative and security updates, applying them on a schedule agreed with your teams, and planning ahead for end of support. When a version is nearing the end of Microsoft support, you know a year in advance, not a month after the fact.
Monthly performance review
Every month, a look at the trends: queries that are getting slower, database growth, remaining capacity. Problems get dealt with while they are still small.
Support for developers and operations
Review of deployment scripts, advice on data modeling and indexing, help with troubleshooting during incidents, access and security management.
How it works
- It starts with an audit. We begin with a full SQL Server audit, which sets the baseline and the first priorities.
- A monthly allocation agreed together, adjusted to the number of instances and how critical they are.
- Direct SQL Server support: email, Teams or your ticketing system. You talk to the person who does the work.
- A monthly report: what was done, what was observed, what is planned.
- No lock-in: scripts, procedures and documentation stay with you.
Remote DBA, freelance DBA or managed SQL Server services?
Three options often come up when a company looks for help with SQL Server:
- A freelance DBA on time and materials gives you a full-time presence for a set period. That suits a large project, but you pay for a full-time resource and the knowledge walks out the door with that person when the engagement ends.
- A general-purpose managed service provider monitors servers and systems around the clock. It rarely has deep expertise in the SQL Server engine itself: execution plans, indexing, Always On availability groups.
- A part-time remote DBA brings that expertise a few days a month, with long-term continuity and documentation that stays with you. It complements your managed service provider rather than replacing it.
What about on-call coverage?
If you need 24/7 coverage, we work alongside your managed service provider or operations team, who handle first-line response, and we step in as the SQL Server experts on database incidents. The procedures we write together let them handle routine cases on their own.
Running the numbers
A senior SQL Server DBA on a permanent contract often costs more than €80,000 a year fully loaded, for a workload that, in many companies, does not justify a full-time position. A part-time arrangement gives you the same level of expertise, only when you need it, with the option to scale up during a migration or a project.
