What We Do

Database Administration Services

Database design, build and ongoing administration — from schema architecture and performance tuning to migrations and day-to-day DBA. For application development, see our Web Development Services page.

Database Design & Architecture

A well-designed database is the foundation of any reliable application. Poorly structured databases become expensive to query, difficult to maintain and painful to extend as requirements evolve. We design schemas that are properly normalised, efficiently indexed and built to support the queries your application will actually run — not just the ones you have today.

We work with most database servers, including Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL, and have experience designing databases for applications ranging from small internal business tools to high-traffic platforms handling millions of records. We document every decision so the team that maintains the system after us understands why the data model is structured the way it is.

Schema design and third normal form normalisation
Primary keys, foreign keys and referential integrity
Indexing strategy optimised for your query patterns
Stored procedures, views and triggers
Partitioning and data archiving strategies
Specialising in Microsoft SQL Server and MySQL
Full entity relationship diagrams and documentation

Database Administration

Databases don't look after themselves. Without regular attention, they slow down, fragment, fill up and — in the worst cases — fail at exactly the wrong moment. We provide ongoing database administration for businesses that want their data to stay fast, secure and reliably backed up, without having to hire a full-time DBA.

Whether you need a regular maintenance retainer or one-off help with a specific problem — a slow query, a failing SQL Server Agent job, a runaway index, a server migration — we can step in and sort it out.

Regular maintenance plans, integrity checks and index rebuilds
Automated backup configuration, monitoring and restore testing
Query performance analysis and execution plan review
User account management, roles and security auditing
Database monitoring, alerting and capacity planning
SQL Server Agent job creation and management
Table partitioning and data archiving for large datasets
Monthly or ad-hoc retainer arrangements available

Performance Tuning & Optimisation

Slow queries are one of the most common and fixable causes of poor application performance. What runs acceptably on a small dataset becomes painful at scale, and the root cause is almost always something identifiable — a missing index, a poorly written join, a statistics problem, a locking issue.

We analyse execution plans, identify bottlenecks and implement targeted fixes that make a measurable difference. We don't guess: we instrument, measure, fix and verify.

Execution plan analysis and query rewriting
Index review — missing, duplicate and unused indexes
Statistics update strategies
Locking and blocking diagnosis and resolution
Tempdb and memory pressure investigation
Wait statistics analysis
Before and after benchmarking

Database Migration & Upgrades

Moving between database platforms, upgrading SQL Server versions, consolidating databases or moving from on-premise to cloud hosting — database migrations are high-stakes projects that require careful planning and testing. We've handled them many times and know exactly where the risks sit.

We also handle data cleansing and transformation as part of migrations — taking the opportunity to fix inconsistencies, remove duplicates and improve data quality as part of the move, so you arrive at the new environment in better shape than you left.

SQL Server version upgrades (2008 R2 through to 2022)
MySQL to SQL Server (and reverse) migrations
On-premise to cloud migration (Azure SQL, AWS RDS)
Data cleansing, deduplication and transformation
Schema transformation and data mapping
Zero-downtime cutover planning where required
Post-migration testing, validation and sign-off

Need database help?

Whether it's a new database design, an existing system that needs attention, or a migration you've been putting off — get in touch for a straight conversation about your situation.