Factors for good database monitoring solutions

Choosing the right database monitoring solution is anything but trivial: it can have a lasting impact on the entire business process. Companies can hardly afford to postpone the decision, as increasingly dynamic server landscapes, heterogeneous hosting environments and growing data complexity make the use of a database monitoring tool indispensable. The following four factors characterize the best solutions.

Future viability through scalability

With the explosive increase in data and storage volumes, the need to manage database landscapes efficiently is also growing. Good monitoring solutions make scaling easier, as they work across platforms and can be used regardless of the hosting location in the cloud or on-premises and the number of databases. Transparency plays a key role here: an effective monitoring tool enables administrators to monitor all databases centrally and consistently via a single dashboard. This is the only way IT teams can maintain an overview of increasingly complex environments and ensure their reliability. If the monitoring solution can also be expanded with additional modules, it offers sufficient flexibility and is correspondingly future-proof.

Intuitive control despite complex environments

A strong monitoring solution meets the requirements of the entire team and ensures a consistent user experience (UX) across all platforms. Intuitive, web-based user interfaces, clear recommendations for action and freely configurable notifications help to identify and resolve problems quickly. This allows database teams to maintain an overview even in hybrid or complex environments without being flooded with information. Teams that monitor multiple platforms benefit in particular from this uniformity. However, caution is advised: Many manufacturers promise ease of use, but their dashboards are primarily aimed at beginners. Important functions and information for experts are often hidden in submenus or require specific queries. Therefore, a monitoring solution should ideally be freely configurable so that administrators of all experience levels can work efficiently.

Preventive problem solving through proactive monitoring

Proactive monitoring saves time, reduces stress and increases the performance of databases, as modern solutions detect potential problems before they affect users. This gives administrators more freedom to optimize performance and security in a targeted manner. Excellent tools monitor storage space, backups, updates and patches, among other things, and deliver the information clearly to a central dashboard. They also forecast future requirements based on trends, making bottlenecks predictable. Administrators can thus take measures at an early stage and prevent costly failures before they occur.

Actively promote Database DevOps

Database monitoring traditionally only begins after deployment - i.e. long after the development phase. This is not necessary and is even harmful, because if a database is only monitored during live operation, problems have often already been implemented. Modern monitoring solutions, on the other hand, promote collaboration between database administrators and developers. For example, developers have access to server diagnostic data and can therefore better assess the effects of changes to the source code. In addition, teams that all have equal access to the information from the monitoring can break down knowledge silos and work together on optimized database queries - before the changes go live.

«The complexity of database landscapes is constantly increasing - as is the amount of data. Without a powerful monitoring solution, administrator teams quickly lose track of things,» warns Oliver Stein, Managing Director DACH at Redgate. «Companies should therefore rely on a holistic, intuitive, scalable and expandable tool. In combination with a dedicated team, this creates the perfect match.»

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