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Services

Everything Microsoft SQL Server, delivered by one senior specialist

Seven services, one person. Every engagement is measured before and after, priced before it starts and documented when it ends.

Book a 30-minute call Start with a fixed-price health check

Performance tuning

The most common reason people call. A slow application is almost always a database that is waiting on something specific, and the wait statistics say what. I find it, fix it and measure the difference, usually without new hardware.

  • Wait statistics and execution plan analysis, live and from Query Store
  • Indexing strategy: missing, duplicate and unused indexes, statistics, fill factor
  • tempdb, memory, parallelism (MAXDOP, cost threshold) and I/O configuration
  • Query rewrites, parameter sniffing, plan forcing, stored procedure tuning
  • Blocking and deadlock analysis, isolation levels such as RCSI
  • A written report with before-and-after figures for every change

Typical engagement 1 to 5 daysStarts with a wait-stats screenshot, or the health check

SQL Server Health Check

Three days, fixed price, up to ten instances. Configuration, backups, security, performance and availability checked against what I have seen go wrong in more than thirty years, written up in priority order with an effort estimate per finding. The best first step for an estate nobody has looked at for a while.

  • € 2.950 fixed, excluding VAT, credited against a follow-up engagement
  • Read-only access, no disruption to production
  • Report plus a one-hour walkthrough with your team

Typical engagement 3 daysEverything about the health check

High availability & disaster recovery

Being able to fail over is a claim until it has been tested. I design and build the right topology for your recovery objectives, then run the failover with you and write down what happened.

  • Always On availability groups, including distributed AGs and read-only routing
  • Failover cluster instances, log shipping, transactional replication
  • Backup strategy with tested restores; RPO and RTO agreed and then measured
  • Documented failover runbook and an annual test
  • Azure: zone-redundant deployments, geo-replication, auto-failover groups

Typical engagement 3 to 15 daysStarts with your RPO and RTO, honestly stated

Upgrades & migrations, including Azure

Out-of-support versions, a data-centre exit or a move to Azure. Every migration gets compatibility testing on a copy, a sizing from real workload data, a rehearsed cut-over and a rollback that has actually been tried.

  • SQL Server 2008 R2 through 2025, in-place or side-by-side
  • Compatibility-level testing with Query Store and the Database Experimentation Assistant
  • On-premises to Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance or SQL Server on Azure VMs
  • Sizing and a cost estimate from your actual workload, before you commit
  • Cut-over plan with minimal downtime; log shipping or distributed AG where minutes matter
  • Licensing sanity check: Standard versus Enterprise, Azure Hybrid Benefit, cores

Typical engagement 5 to 30 daysStarts with an inventory of instances, versions and dependencies

Security & compliance

When the auditor, the DPO or a customer asks where the data is and who can read it, the answer should be a report, not a shrug. I harden SQL Server to the level your obligations require and document it so the question is easy next time.

  • Transparent Data Encryption, Always Encrypted, backup encryption, TLS
  • Dynamic Data Masking, row-level security, least-privilege roles
  • SQL Server Audit and Extended Events for GDPR, ISO 27001, HIPAA and SOX evidence
  • Vulnerability assessment, patch level, surface-area and sysadmin review
  • Certificates, service accounts, Kerberos, linked-server hygiene

Typical engagement 2 to 10 daysStarts with the question the auditor asked

Architecture & database design

A design that is right for the first year and wrong for the fifth is expensive. I design data models, partitioning and integration for the growth you expect, and give a second opinion on designs you are about to buy.

  • Data models and normalisation for OLTP; star schemas for reporting
  • Partitioning, compression and archiving for tables that keep growing
  • Replication and near real-time data mirroring between sites or to Azure
  • Integration with .NET applications, APIs, Power BI and Microsoft Fabric
  • A second opinion on a vendor's database design before you sign

Typical engagement 2 to 20 daysStarts with the volumes and the growth you expect

Remote DBA & 24x7x365 monitoring

For organisations without a DBA, or with one who is busy. The routine done properly by a senior engineer: backups, patching, capacity, jobs and index maintenance, with a monthly report you can read in five minutes. Around-the-clock monitoring with on-call DBAs is delivered through DatabaseOnline.

  • Backups, restore tests, patching, capacity and job management
  • Monthly health and capacity report, quarterly review with your IT lead
  • Retainer from a few hours per month to a dedicated senior DBA
  • 24x7x365 monitoring in Silver, Gold and Platinum packages via DatabaseOnline

Typical engagement ongoing, monthlyStarts with the health check

How an engagement runs

Measure, fix, prove, hand over

The same five steps every time, whether it is two days of tuning or a three-month migration.

  1. Call

    Thirty minutes, free. Symptom, environment, deadline. You get my first opinion on the spot.

  2. Assess

    Read-only analysis or the health check. Findings in priority order, effort per fix.

  3. Agree

    Fixed price or day rate in writing. Change control and rollback agreed before production is touched.

  4. Execute & measure

    Every change with before-and-after figures. Nothing on production without a logged reason.

  5. Hand over

    Documentation your team can use, or a retainer and monitoring if you would rather I keep watching.

Practical

Questions clients ask before we start

What access do you need?

For an assessment, a login with VIEW SERVER STATE, VIEW ANY DEFINITION and read access to msdb is enough, over your VPN or a screen-shared session. For changes I use a named account with the rights the change needs, and every change is logged with a reason and a rollback.

Will you sign our NDA and a data processing agreement?

Yes. Confidentiality is standard in every engagement, and when I work inside systems that hold personal data Databaseonline B.V. acts as processor under a data processing agreement, yours or ours.

Can you work alongside our own DBA or supplier?

Gladly, and it usually works best that way. I bring the analysis and the experience; your DBA keeps the knowledge afterwards. I am happy to teach while I work.

Do you take on fixed-price projects?

Yes, when the scope can be defined after the assessment. Migrations, availability designs and security hardening are usually fixed price. Open-ended tuning and DBA work are a day rate or a monthly retainer.

Do you also build monitoring for us?

I can advise on and implement any monitoring tool you already own. For 24x7x365 monitoring with on-call DBAs I recommend the DatabaseOnline service, which is where my own on-call shifts are.

Start a conversation

Tell me what your SQL Server is doing. I will tell you why.

Thirty minutes, free, technical. Pick a slot that suits you; it lands straight in my agenda.

Book a call Health check, fixed price