Our technical staff have been involved in the Database Administration (DBA) arena since 1985 and are quietly proud of their hierarchical, CODASYL and relational database knowledge and experience. In the relational arena today, we find most demand for Oracle Rdb, Microsoft SQL Server, Borland InterBase and Oracle database solutions. All of our database consultants are either Microsoft certified, Oracle certified, or both.

Given adequate hardware, the two biggest killers of relational database performance are usually locking and an inability to cope with high data volume requirements.

Over the years, we have found that the secret of building effective database applications is to first understand the nature of the data, then to select an appropriate database on a 'horses for courses' basis, and finally to appropriately configure the hardware to minimise any data access issue. Along the way, deadlock and serious lock conflict must be identified and 'designed out' at the earliest possible opportunity. We have successfully done this for databases in a wide variety of MIS, EIS, Multimedia, Internet and Intranet environments.

Tasks that traditionally require DBA involvement include:

Logical Design
Capacity Planning
Sizing
Hardware Configuration
Physical Database Design
SQL Database Definition
Data Integrity
Database Integrity (including Backup)
Security
Database Monitoring
Performance Tuning
User Liaison
Developer Interface
Regular Object Maintenance

In recent years, our clients have also benefited from our database health check service.

Contact our Consultancy Manager at consultancy@abl.co.uk for further information. Alternatively, use our online facility to request more information.

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