Johannesburg, 01 Oct 2013
Effective service provision is the cornerstone of any business, but in the 24/7 environment of a connectivity service provider, there is no room for downtime. Tens of thousands of South Africans rely on iBurst for their connectivity and communications needs, and the company's infrastructure supports the always-on requirements of its customers.
To help ensure maximum uptime, iBurst uses the services of specialist database consultancy RDB Consulting to provide database management, monitoring, and support where and when it is needed.
While iBurst initially had its own in-house database administrators, with RDB's specialist consultants providing a backup, supplying extra skills where and when needed, as well as filling in for the iBurst database administrators when they were unavailable, the past couple of years have seen iBurst move to using the RDB consultants as its primary database administrators.
This, explains David Innes, IT Systems Manager at iBurst, has proven extremely effective, offering the peace of mind that the company's databases are always effectively administered. "Our databases are crucial to all elements of our business - from the network to customer billing, and everything in between - and knowing that we have a database administrator on site at any given time is essential."
In the five years that RDB Consulting has worked with iBurst, its skilled staff have been involved in everything from standard database housekeeping to emergency call-outs in the middle of the night, helping ensure the connectivity service provider is always up and running. Innes explains that this has helped cement the long-term relationship between the two companies.
"Temporary staff usually don't fully understand the environment of a client company, but RDB's DBAs have a thorough knowledge of our systems, infrastructure, and needs. This makes it much easier for them to fill the gaps when their services are needed," he says.
He adds that this has been valuable in a tough economic climate, where all assets have to be fully utilised. "In order to avoid performance challenges, a lot more housekeeping is necessary to keep older databases at optimal levels. Often, there are heavy loads on these databases, and in order to improve on performance, we have needed to fine-tune them. RDB's consultants have been helping us find solutions to assist with optimising our existing infrastructure, including reclaiming unused space and archiving unused data in order to manage the space more effectively."
Monitoring has been an equally essential part of the services offered by RDB to iBurst, providing 24/7 visibility into the company's operational health. RDB Consulting's CEO, Jaroslav Cerny, explains that the simplest way to keep database issues at bay is through proactive monitoring, allowing for problems to be recognised and solved before any downtime occurs.
"Because our specialists have a detailed understanding of iBurst's environment, we are able to help them solve any problems quickly and identify any potential issues before they happen. Database administration and management is a critical operational need for iBurst, and we are providing them with peace of mind through uninterrupted service," he says. "Our specialist skills, experience, and longstanding relationship with iBurst mean that we are able to make the most effective use of the right resources to meet any need they may have."
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