Slow screens and timed-out reports
Pages that took a second now take ten, and month-end reports have to be run overnight or not at all.
Database Management Services Fast, safe databases that never keep you waiting.
Our database administrators design, tune, secure and look after the databases your business runs on, including SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL and MongoDB. Expect faster queries, tested backups and a clear recovery plan, from a team that has run production databases for 21 years.
- Remote DBA
- Performance tuning
- Backup & recovery
- Database migration
- High availability
- Security & encryption
21+years designing and running business databases
7500+projects delivered for clients in India and abroad
24×7monitoring and alerting on managed DBA plans
Freeinitial database health check
When to call a database expert
Six database problems that quietly cost you money.
Databases rarely fail all at once. They slow down, fill up and drift out of date until a month-end report times out or a disk fails. These are the warning signs.
Backups nobody has ever restored
Backup jobs report success, but no one knows how long a restore would take or whether the files are usable.
Storage growing out of control
Log files, audit tables and old transactions fill the disk, and storage bills rise every quarter.
One server, no failover
If the database server goes down, the whole business stops until someone rebuilds it by hand.
Too much access, too little encryption
Shared admin logins, unencrypted personal data and no record of who queried what, despite DPDP Act obligations.
Stuck on an unsupported version
Old SQL Server or MySQL releases with no security patches, because nobody is sure the upgrade is safe.
Our database management services
Database administration, tuning and protection, end to end.
Take a one-off project, such as a tuning sprint or migration, or hand us day-to-day responsibility for your databases with a managed DBA plan.
Database Design & Data Modelling
Normalised schemas, keys, constraints and naming standards for new applications or a redesign of a struggling one.
Read more about Database Design & Data ModellingPerformance Tuning & Query Optimisation
Find the slowest queries, fix indexes and execution plans, and tune server settings for your real workload.
Read more about Performance Tuning & Query OptimisationBackup & Disaster Recovery
Automated, encrypted, off-site backups with point-in-time recovery and restore drills you can see.
Read more about Backup & Disaster RecoveryHigh Availability & Replication
Always On availability groups, MySQL and PostgreSQL replication, read replicas and automatic failover.
Read more about High Availability & ReplicationDatabase Security & Encryption
Least-privilege access, encryption at rest and in transit, data masking and audit logging.
Read more about Database Security & EncryptionDatabase Migration & Upgrades
Version upgrades, on-premise to cloud moves and engine changes, such as MySQL to PostgreSQL, with minimal downtime.
Remote DBA & 24×7 Monitoring
Ongoing administration, patching, capacity planning and round-the-clock alerting under agreed SLAs.
Cloud & NoSQL Databases
Azure SQL, Amazon RDS, MongoDB and Redis set up, sized and managed for cost and performance.
Reporting & Data Warehousing
Reporting databases, ETL pipelines and Power BI models that keep heavy reports off your live system.
Database design & data modelling
A database design that holds up as the data grows.
Most database problems are designed in on day one: missing keys, duplicated data and tables that try to do everything. We model your data properly, with clear entities, relationships and constraints, so the database enforces data quality itself and stays fast as volumes grow from thousands of rows to hundreds of millions.
- Entity-relationship models and data dictionaries
- Keys, constraints and naming standards
- Partitioning and archiving designed for growth
- Schema reviews for applications built by other vendors
Performance tuning & query optimisation
Make slow screens and reports fast again.
We capture what your database is really doing under load, rank queries by total cost, and fix the worst offenders first. Typical fixes include missing or duplicate indexes, rewritten queries, outdated statistics and server settings left at installation defaults. Every change is measured before and after, so you see the improvement.
- Workload capture with Query Store, slow-query logs and pg_stat_statements
- Index, execution-plan and statistics tuning
- Memory, tempdb, connection and parallelism settings
- Before-and-after report for every change made
Backup & disaster recovery
Backups you have actually restored, not just scheduled.
A backup is only as good as the last successful restore. We design backup schedules around how much data you can afford to lose and how quickly you need to be back, store encrypted copies off-site, and run regular restore drills, so recovery is a rehearsed procedure rather than a hopeful experiment.
- Full, differential and log backups with point-in-time recovery
- Encrypted off-site and cross-region copies
- Recovery point and recovery time objectives agreed with you
- Scheduled restore drills with written results
High availability & scalability
Keep the business running when a server fails.
For systems that can't stop, we remove the single point of failure. Depending on your platform and budget, that means SQL Server Always On availability groups, MySQL or PostgreSQL replication with automatic failover, or managed cloud databases across availability zones, plus read replicas that take reporting load off the primary.
- SQL Server Always On and log shipping
- MySQL, MariaDB and PostgreSQL replication
- Read replicas and connection pooling for scale
- Failover tested regularly, not just configured
Database security & compliance
Protect the personal and financial data in your database.
Your database holds the data attackers want most: customers, payments and payroll. We lock it down with least-privilege roles, encryption, masking for non-production copies and auditing of sensitive access, which helps you meet obligations under India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
- Role-based, least-privilege access with no shared logins
- Transparent data encryption and TLS connections
- Masked or anonymised data for test environments
- Audit logs for access to sensitive tables
What you get
Clear reports, faster queries and a recovery plan you trust.
Whether you take a one-off health check or a managed DBA plan, you get written findings, measurable improvements and documentation your own team can use.
- Database health report with findings ranked by risk
- Top slow queries with fixes and before-and-after timings
- Backup and recovery plan with agreed RPO and RTO
- Restore drill results and a recovery runbook
- Security review covering access, encryption and auditing
- Capacity forecast for storage, memory and CPU
- Monthly DBA report on managed plans
Database health reportSample output · figures are illustrative
Health check summary
Backup restore testPassed
Avg. query time45 ms
Index health82%
Peak CPU usage58%
Replication lag< 1 s
Improvement plan
Stabilise0–30 days
- Fix backup gaps
- Tune top 20 queries
Strengthen1–3 months
- Set up replication
- Encrypt personal data
Optimise3–6 months
- Archive old data
- Version upgrade
How our database management works
From free health check to fully managed databases.
We start by measuring, fix what matters most, and then keep watching so problems are caught before users notice them.
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1
Free health check
freeWith read-only access, we review configuration, backups, growth and the slowest queries, and share the headline findings.
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2
Detailed assessment
about 1 weekWorkload capture, security and recovery review, and a prioritised list of fixes with a fixed, itemised quote.
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3
Fix & tune
1–4 weeksChanges made in agreed maintenance windows, tested first on a copy, with before-and-after measurements.
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4
Protect
1–2 weeksBackup, recovery, replication and access controls put in place and proven with a restore drill.
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5
Monitor & manage
ongoing24×7 monitoring, patching, capacity planning and a monthly report on managed DBA plans.
Engagement models
Choose the database support that fits your team.
Many clients start with the free health check and a fixed-price tuning project, then move to a managed plan.
Database health check
Free
A first look at the health of one database.
- Read-only access only
- Backup, growth and slow-query review
- Headline findings call
Tuning & hardening project
Fixed price
A focused project to fix performance and risk.
- Detailed assessment
- Query, index and server tuning
- Backup and security fixes
Managed DBA
Monthly
We look after your databases day to day.
- 24×7 monitoring and alerts
- Patching and restore drills
- Agreed response SLAs
Migration project
Per project
Upgrades, cloud moves and engine changes.
- Migration plan and rehearsal
- Data verification
- Rollback plan
Why Sysfo
Database administrators who also build the applications.
We design and run the databases behind our own ERP, hosting and SaaS products, so we tune them knowing how applications actually use the data.
Application-aware tuning
Our DBAs can read and fix the application code that generates slow queries, not just add another index.
Multi-engine expertise
SQL Server, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, Oracle, MongoDB and Redis, on-premise or in the cloud.
Recovery you can prove
Restore drills with written results, so you know exactly how long recovery takes before you ever need it.
Measured improvements
Every tuning change comes with before-and-after timings, so you can see what you paid for.
Careful with your data
NDA on request, least-privilege access, changes in agreed windows and nothing copied off your servers without consent.
Servers and hosting too
Since 2005 we have also managed the servers and hosting databases run on, so one team covers the whole platform.
FAQ
Database Management Services — frequently asked questions
What do database management services include?
Database management services cover everything needed to keep a database fast, safe and available: design and data modelling, performance tuning, backup and disaster recovery, replication and high availability, security and encryption, version upgrades and migrations, and day-to-day administration and monitoring. Sysfo offers them as one-off projects or as an ongoing managed DBA plan.
How much do database management services cost?
It depends on the number and size of databases, the engines involved, your uptime requirements and whether you need a one-off project or ongoing monitoring. The first health check is free. After a detailed assessment, Sysfo gives a fixed, itemised quote for project work, and managed DBA plans are a predictable monthly fee.
What is a remote DBA service?
A remote DBA service gives you an experienced database administrator without a full-time hire. Our DBAs connect securely to your servers or cloud account to monitor health, apply patches, manage backups, tune performance and respond to alerts under agreed SLAs, and send you a monthly report of what was done and what needs attention.
Which databases do you support?
We manage Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL and Oracle, along with MongoDB, Redis and Cassandra, on Windows and Linux servers. In the cloud we work with Azure SQL Database, Amazon RDS and Google Cloud SQL. Our database management services are the same whether the database runs on-premise or in the cloud.
How can you make our database faster?
We capture the real workload, find the queries that consume the most time in total, and fix them with better indexes, rewritten queries, updated statistics and correct server settings. Often the biggest gains come from a handful of changes. Every change is tested on a copy first and measured before and after.
How often should database backups be tested?
Critical databases should have a restore test at least monthly, and after any major change to the backup setup or infrastructure. A restore drill confirms the backup files are usable and tells you how long recovery really takes. On managed plans we run scheduled drills and share the results in writing.
Can you migrate our database to the cloud with little downtime?
Yes. We plan the migration, rehearse it on a copy, and use replication or log shipping to keep the new database in sync, so the final cut-over usually takes minutes rather than hours. Data is verified after the move, and a rollback plan is ready in case anything unexpected happens.
Is it safe to give you access to our database?
We sign an NDA on request and start the free health check with read-only access. For ongoing work we use named accounts with least privilege, connect over secure channels, make changes only in agreed windows, and never copy data off your servers without your written consent.
Do you also manage the servers our databases run on?
Yes. Sysfo also provides server management for Windows and Linux servers, VPS, dedicated and cloud machines, including operating system patching, security hardening and monitoring. Combining database and server management means a single team is responsible for the whole platform, so slow-downs are diagnosed across the operating system, storage and database together.
Talk to a DBA
Book your free database health check.
Tell us which databases you run and what worries you most: speed, backups, security or an upgrade. A database administrator will contact you within one business day to arrange the health check.
- Free health check
- Read-only access to start
- NDA signed on request
- Fixed-price tuning projects
- Measured before-and-after results
- 24×7 monitoring on managed plans