Database Reference
In-Depth Information
healthcare application, for example.)
Is this a revenue-generating application?
What other applications interact and/or depend on this application?
How long can the application be down before it affects the business? (You must
quantify the cost of the downtime.)
Is a crash-consistent copy acceptable? (Define this for them.)
Is this application (database) cluster aware? (Direct them to the vendor, if
necessary.)
Is this application subject to any regulatory regulations? If so, which ones?
What is your budget for this application?
As you become more familiar with scoping and providing solutions, your list will grow
and become more refined. An important point: The list should not be designed so there
is only one right answer.
With the interviews complete, you should have an idea of the importance of the
application as well as the availability, continuity, and recoverability requirements. You
can now provide a menu of options to the application owner along with your
consultative recommendation. In a world where you are competing with cloud providers
for “better, faster, cheaper,” do not forget that great customer service goes a very long
way.
SLAs, RPOs, and RTOs
For some, the heading of this section is nothing more than a bunch of four-letter words.
For the rest of us, these terms are important because they drive the service levels for
virtualized SQL servers. They ensure that the business and IT are in agreement about the
service levels for the application. Therefore, set expectations early and remind people
of them often—like every time you send them a bill.
A service-level agreement (SLA) can be a contractual or informal agreement between
departments or companies. An example of a contractual agreement would be an
agreement between an external supplier, such as an Internet provider, and a business.
An example of an informal agreement would be an agreement between the IT department
and the finance team for keeping key accounting systems online. We are not going to get
into the depths of what comprises an SLA here; other resources are available that cover
this subject in detail.
The business's willingness to invest financially should drive SLAs. IT should not sign
up for SLAs that are impossible to meet based on the budget allocated to them by the
business. Communication between IT leaders and business leaders is crucial.
It is much easier to gather requirements from the business, put together a solution, and
