The number of companies outsourcing database administration has remained stable over the past four years, as a relatively small but loyal customer base continues to use services that provide ongoing maintenance for existing infrastructure.
According to our study, Database Administration (Remote DBA) Outsourcing Trends, almost one-fifth of organizations outsource some database administration work. That percentage declined from 23% in 2008, providing evidence of a slight downward slope over the course of the recession. The decline is relatively mild compared to the outsourcing of services such as application development over the same period, however.
Overall, the frequency of database administration outsourcing remained relatively steady. Unlike project-related outsourcing, remote database administration is mostly a process-oriented service that, once established, tends to develop into a stable, ongoing relationship between vendor and customer.
Today, database administration outsourcing often is used strategically by smaller organizations and tactically by larger organizations. Many smaller organizations that outsource this function tend to outsource most of their database administration work. Larger organizations often outsource less-mission-critical tasks, keeping the work on more sensitive databases in-house.
The full study examines adoption trends in database administration outsourcing. We report on the percentage of organizations outsourcing database administration (frequency), the average amount of work outsourced (level), and the change in the amount of work being outsourced (trend). We also present success rates for the customer’s cost and service experience. Finally, we show how these trends differ by organization size and sector, and examine the role that offshore service providers play in the outsourcing of database administration.
This Research Byte is a brief overview of our report on this subject, Database Administration (Remote DBA) Outsourcing Trends. The full report is available at no charge for Computer Economics clients, or it may be purchased by non-clients directly from our website (click for pricing)