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Seven ways to make your SQL engine purr


Johannesburg, 29 Aug 2016
Andrew Senior of EOH's Microsoft division believes "if you can get SQL to purr along nicely, the business tends to purr too".
Photo: Moeketsi Moticoe
Andrew Senior of EOH's Microsoft division believes "if you can get SQL to purr along nicely, the business tends to purr too". Photo: Moeketsi Moticoe

If Andrew Senior, SQL business unit manager at EOH's Microsoft division had his way, all companies would optimise their SQL Server solutions.

Senior's team of 14 people specialises in the management and consulting around Microsoft's SQL Server, particularly from a platform perspective. "We don't necessarily develop databases for people, but we optimise existing databases and ensure they perform as they should. SQL is usually a critical part of other critical business applications, and if you can get SQL to purr along nicely, the business tends to purr too," he says, comparing his team to the specialised mechanics that work on F1 racing cars.


Senior suggests the following approaches for CIOs who want to get the best out of Microsoft SQL Server and how it is used in their businesses:


1. Understand the business value first
While CFOs are often deeply concerned about the costs of SQL, Senior suggests that CIOs make a point of understanding and communicating the business value of the software to CFOs. "It is useful to remind your Finance department that SQL is what allows their ERP system to run efficiently and effectively, that it provides the disaster recovery and secure solutions that the compliance department wants, that it keeps the business's lights on," he says. "It's beneficial for a CIO to communicate business value to their colleagues in other lines of business, so that they can understand the solutions that SQL Server enables for them."


2. Know your workloads
Senior cautions that CIOs should understand the existing workloads that are handled by their platform before consolidating their data centres. "Because SQL is so easy to run and install, companies have a lot of sprawl of SQL instances, but they have to pay for all of them. They can host those workloads on a consolidated platform, optimising the costs. Virtualisation adds an additional level of optimisation. But to implement cloud and virtualised solutions, you have to first understand the exact workloads your system is dealing with."


3. Keep an eye on applications that underperform
When companies undergo strong growth, it often happens that the performance of key applications suddenly drops. Senior says this dip in performance after business growth is an indication to the CIO that the company's SQL database needs optimisation.


4. Don't assume virtualisation will cost you performance
Many companies were initially uncomfortable to host their databases on the cloud, because they were concerned - among other things - that it would come at a performance cost. However, Senior says it is now common practice to host databases in the cloud, as the technology has evolved enough that the overhead becomes negligible. "Everything is moving into the software-defined data centre, where you no longer really care what the underlying tin looks like. You want the performance - and the software gives you the performance."


5. Make sure you've implemented an optimal licensing strategy
SQL is licensed per CPU core, and can cost up to $15 000 for a two-core licence pack of the Enterprise version. Most companies, Senior says, at a minimum, require four such packs for a line of business application, totalling a whopping $60 000. A virtualised solution or hosting in the cloud can achieve huge economies of scale on licensing, he says.


6. Think beyond cost to optimisation and fit
"In our current economic climate, everyone wants to be saving money. For some companies, that means using cloud, but for others it's a case of optimising the platform and making sure it is the right fit for their business needs, which is something we specialise in," Senior says. Cloud also means pay-per-use costing models, obviating the need for upfront investment in hardware, and reducing lead times to acquire equipment.


7. Investigate a hybrid solution
Not all companies are ready to go full-blown cloud, says Senior, but many can benefit from a hybrid solution. In response to this market need, software such as SQL is now shipped standard with cloud features. "You can now 'stretch' a SQL2016 database between an onsite data centre and Microsoft's Azure cloud."

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