Negativity surrounds Onshore\Offshore  DBA resources.  An Onshore DBA is defined as a  temporary onshore DBA, who  moves offshore to support Production databases remotely.  I think this is an opportunity for Senior DBAs to get out of all habits and employ some creative thinking.

Permanent staff become suspicious and feel threatened by Onshore DBAs.  Every company I’ve consulted in the last two years is employing some level of IT resource  outsourcing . It’s an in depth conversation – read my post “Outsourcing DBA tasks to an Offshore IT company”

The Senior DBA is under pressure to manage the ever growing data requirements with less resource. Data sizes  grow exponentially , the different requirements are expanding , the only thing not expanding is budgets. This is an opportunity for Senior DBAs to think creatively – to force them out of old habits , think in fresh ways . The effective DBA should always be thinking like a judo player. Using the power of the data and tools to deftly manage the requirements.  For the cynical this analogy may oversimplify the reality of DBA work. I don’t disagree – particularly for Production DBAs

A temporary Onshore DBA resource can assist in the following ways

1) Documentation – Creating clear, easy to follow operational documentation. In most environments, a  lack of documentation remains a point of failure.

2) Out of hrs changes – Set up a rotation system to implement out of hrs patch upgrades and operational procedures based on documentation

3) Security Audits – A hot topic on any Corporate Audit. Generating the reports is straightforward, following up can be time consuming .

4) 24 x 7 – IT systems are under demand at all hrs. It is a challenge to maintain uptime. Even extending the coverage a couple of hrs a day can make a significant difference.

5) Holiday cover

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