Increasingly, organizations are evaluating the benefits of consolidating relational database monitoring tools. When organizations grow, their technological capabilities and assets often grow with them. Because of this and data’s evolving prominence in the organization, many organization’s tech stacks include multiple software tools with overlapping – and by nature, redundant – capabilities.
Therefore, for data-driven organizations, software vendor consolidation can lead to huge time and cost savings.
Why You Should Consolidate Relational Database Monitoring Tools
Database administrators (DBAs) are faced with managing and monitoring increasingly complex multi-platform computing environments. The requirements of data-driven businesses cannot adequately be met with a one-size-fits-all approach to database design and implementation. This has made what was a complicated job even more complex and places additional demands on an organization’s team of DBAs.
The rise of multiple-platform database environments can be linked to several business and societal factors. Diverse streams of information have become available for processing and demand flexibility in the database solutions chosen for implementation. Corporate mergers and acquisitions are often accompanied by IT systems, applications, and databases that need to be managed by their new owners.
An additional factor responsible for the increase of multi-platform database environments is the cloud. Moving systems to the cloud may require new tools or techniques to perform the same tasks previously accomplished with legacy solutions. Even using a single database platform with a cloud and on-premises footprint can entail using more than one set of tools to get things done.
Taming the Complications of Multi-Platform Environments
A consequence of multi-platform environments is an increase in the complexity involved in administering and conducting performance monitoring. In addition to understanding the differences in the database solutions themselves, the collection of tools and their idiosyncrasies must be negotiated daily.
It may be impossible to consolidate on a single database platform, but minimizing the number of tools used to monitor them is an achievable goal. Following are some of the benefits associated with reducing the number of database monitoring tools that can impact the efficiency and productivity of an organization’s DBAs.
Benefits Consolidating Relational Database Monitoring Tools
- Reduced training requirements – Every software tool introduced into a computing environment requires its potential users to be trained on its features and functionality. This can quickly become unwieldy when new team members need to learn multiple database monitoring tools. Reducing the number of software solutions and their training requirements allows the tools to be used productively throughout the team more quickly.
- Consistent monitoring procedures – Using the same tool to monitor multiple database platforms promotes the use of standardized and consistent monitoring practices. Teams benefit from quickly understanding the tool’s output and can address underlying performance issues promptly.
- Increased efficiency – While it may seem like a minor issue, the time spent moving between multiple tool interfaces can add up to a substantial loss of productivity. Muscle memory can be responsible for pressing the wrong shortcut keys as team members change tools. Moving back and forth between tools introduces the possibility of mistakes that make DBAs less productive.
- Lower licensing costs – This may not be the primary concern of the DBA team, but someone in the software procurement pipeline will be pleased with the savings associated with consolidating on a single monitoring tool.
For these reasons, many organizations can benefit from reducing the number of software solutions they use to monitor multi-platform database environments.
A Unified Method of Monitoring Multiple Database Platforms
IDERA’s Precise for Databases provides teams with the ability to monitor, diagnose, and optimize relational databases across four popular relational database platforms. The tool supports Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle Database, IBM Db2, and SAP Sybase ASE from a single user interface. It allows teams to minimize the learning curve and monitor their database performance more consistently.
Precise helps teams keep databases running at peak efficiency by monitoring a wide range of performance metrics. The tool can detect and correct the root causes of performance issues affecting the database and transactions before they impact end-users. Systems are monitored at least once per second with a low overhead to provide an accurate picture of system performance.
The tool’s overview dashboard is just a starting point for deep dives into the root causes of performance issues so they can proactively be addressed. Precise offers DBAs tuning recommendations for statements, objects, and indexes. Teams can perform what-if analysis to safely understand the impact of proposed changes before they are implemented.
Shops with multiple relational database solutions can greatly benefit from the unified monitoring capabilities of Precise for Databases.
Interested? You can get a FREE trial to evaluate Precise for Databases. Your DBAs and end-users will be glad you did.
Other Useful Database Monitoring Tools Resources:
- The Key Benefits of Precise for Database – Watch the Video
- Get the Datasheet: Precise for Databases – Get the Datasheet
- Precise for SQL Server’s New GUI – Watch the Video
- Telecomm Enterprise Improves Database Performance by Almost 400% – Get the Case Study
- Professional Services Enterprise Improves Oracle Database Performance – Get the Case Study