Comments on: SQL SERVER – 10 Reasons for Database Outsourcing

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 15 May 2009 14:43:08 +0000

It’s not just the bandwidth you have to consider, it’s also the latency. And then, you still have to consider the office’s bandwidth. If you are outsourcing your internal system databases (CRM, for example) – then instead of having a gigE connection, you might only have a 30mbps fiber connection. Or maybe only a T1, depending on the size of the company.

Latency though is the major killer. If the company hosting your databases has a fat pipe, and you have a fat pipe, but the hops in between have issues, then you are setting yourself up for mad employees.

IMO, database outsourcing should only be considered as a last resort if your company can’t justify the expense of hardware and staff to maintain their own datacenter/servers and database software.

It is probably more cost effective to outsource the *servers* and have your staff still admin and secure them.

By: Bart Czernicki

Bart Czernicki — Fri, 15 May 2009 04:11:11 +0000

As mentioned above, there is no way a company should allow their data to go into the hands of a third party. To me that is dangerous and just asking for trouble.

Sure you can have an “agreement” that protects you. How much is that “agreement” going to protect you overseas?

Think about this…your data gets out and its a PR problem the outsourcing company will lose you as a customer. You might lose ALL your customers.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 14 May 2009 21:44:23 +0000

@David & Tim F. – Clearly anyone doing this is going to have an agreement with the provider to ensure data confidentiality just like you’d have an agreement with an outside contractor if you needed them to come in and do work on your system. So citing data sensitivity is a pretty weak argument.

As far as performance, I suppose it’s possible you could make enough data transfers to fill up a T3 line but I sincerely doubt it. Amazon, for example, outsources it’s data in a way (albeit to it’s own data infrastructure) and I suspect they have more transactions per second than any project you’d ever deal with could have.

By: Tim F

Tim F — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:49:03 +0000

Agree with David – no company would or should willingly allow their sensitive data out of their control for any reason, even to save a few dollars.

The liability alone in doing something like this is insanely huge.

Would be akin to using HoTMaiL as the corporate email system…

By: David

David — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:17:28 +0000

This is great for small-scale stuff but there is no way you will ever see a large-scale roll out of out-sourced databases. 2 reasons:

1) Sensitive data needs to be in your hands and no one else period.

2) Performance – ie: sucks.

By: Ritesh Shah

Ritesh Shah — Sun, 10 May 2009 06:38:00 +0000

Hi Clair/Pinal,

very nice and informative article. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Regards,

Ritesh Shah