Database Design & Administration

Expert Database Services for Mission-Critical Data

Your databases are the foundation of every application, report, and business decision in your organization. A well-designed database delivers fast queries, reliable transactions, and scalable growth. A poorly designed one creates bottlenecks, data quality issues, and sleepless nights for your operations team. Whether you are building a new application, migrating to the cloud, or struggling with performance problems on an existing system, expert database services make the difference between a platform that supports your business and one that holds it back.

Exodata provides comprehensive database design, administration, and managed DBA services across the leading relational and NoSQL platforms. As an Azure Expert MSP and AWS Advanced Partner, we combine deep database expertise with cloud platform knowledge to deliver data solutions that are performant, resilient, and cost-effective.

---

Database Platforms

Microsoft SQL Server

SQL Server remains one of the most widely deployed relational database engines in the enterprise. Exodata has extensive experience across all editions and versions.

• Installation and configuration following Microsoft best practices for memory, tempdb, max degree of parallelism, and cost threshold for parallelism
• Always On Availability Groups for high availability and read-scale workloads
• SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) for ETL and data transformation
• SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) for operational and paginated reporting
• SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) for multidimensional and tabular data models

Azure SQL

Azure SQL provides a fully managed relational database service with built-in intelligence, scaling, and high availability.

• Azure SQL Database for single-database and elastic pool deployments
• Azure SQL Managed Instance for near-100% compatibility with on-premises SQL Server
• Serverless compute tier for intermittent workloads that benefit from auto-pause and auto-scale
• Hyperscale tier for databases that need to scale beyond traditional DTU or vCore limits
• Azure SQL security features including Transparent Data Encryption (TDE), Always Encrypted, dynamic data masking, and Advanced Threat Protection

Azure Cosmos DB

For applications that require global distribution, multi-model access, or single-digit-millisecond response times, Cosmos DB is a powerful choice.

• API selection guidance across SQL (Core), MongoDB, Cassandra, Gremlin, and Table APIs
• Partition key design optimized for your access patterns and data distribution
• Consistency level selection balancing performance, availability, and data freshness
• Global distribution with multi-region writes and automatic failover
• Request unit (RU) optimization to control costs while meeting performance targets
• Change feed integration for event-driven architectures and real-time data processing

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is the leading open-source relational database, and Exodata supports it both on-premises and in the cloud.

• Azure Database for PostgreSQL (Flexible Server) for managed cloud deployments
• Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL and Aurora PostgreSQL for AWS-hosted workloads
• Extensions management including PostGIS for geospatial, pg_cron for scheduling, and Citus for distributed workloads
• Logical and physical replication for read replicas and data distribution
• Connection pooling with PgBouncer for applications with high connection counts

---

Database Design and Data Modeling

Good database design starts before the first table is created. Exodata works with your development and business teams to design schemas that support your application requirements and scale with your growth.

Relational Data Modeling

• Entity-relationship modeling to capture business entities, relationships, and constraints
• Normalization to eliminate redundancy and protect data integrity
• Strategic denormalization where read performance requirements justify it
• Naming conventions and standards for consistent, maintainable schemas
• Referential integrity through primary keys, foreign keys, and check constraints

NoSQL Data Modeling

• Document modeling for Cosmos DB and MongoDB, designing documents that match access patterns
• Key-value and wide-column patterns for high-throughput, low-latency workloads
• Graph modeling for relationship-heavy data such as social networks, recommendations, and knowledge graphs
• Partition strategy design to ensure even data distribution and avoid hot partitions

Schema Migration and Versioning

• Migration frameworks such as Entity Framework Migrations, Flyway, Liquibase, or DbUp
• CI/CD integration for automated schema deployment with rollback capability
• Blue-green database deployments for zero-downtime schema changes
• Data seeding and test data management for development and QA environments

---

Performance Tuning

Database performance issues can bring applications to a standstill. Exodata’s database engineers diagnose and resolve performance problems methodically.

Query Optimization

• Execution plan analysis to identify costly operations, missing indexes, and parameter sniffing issues
• Query rewriting to eliminate unnecessary complexity and leverage database engine strengths
• Stored procedure optimization for workloads that rely on server-side processing
• Statistics management ensuring the query optimizer has accurate data distribution information

Index Management

• Index strategy design balancing read performance gains against write overhead
• Missing index analysis using DMVs, Query Store, and workload traces
• Index consolidation to eliminate redundant and overlapping indexes that waste storage and slow writes
• Columnstore indexes for analytical and data warehouse workloads that benefit from columnar storage

Resource Configuration

• Memory allocation tuning for buffer pool, plan cache, and workspace memory
• I/O optimization through filegroup design, tempdb configuration, and storage tiering
• Concurrency management addressing blocking, deadlocks, and isolation level selection
• Wait statistics analysis to identify systemic resource bottlenecks

---

Database Migration

Whether you are moving from on-premises to the cloud, upgrading database versions, or switching platforms entirely, Exodata plans and executes database migrations with minimal downtime and zero data loss.

• Azure Database Migration Service for streamlined migration to Azure SQL and Azure Database for PostgreSQL
• AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for migrations into Amazon RDS, Aurora, or Redshift
• Homogeneous migrations (e.g., SQL Server on-premises to Azure SQL) with near-zero downtime using online migration
• Heterogeneous migrations (e.g., Oracle to PostgreSQL) with schema conversion, data type mapping, and application compatibility testing
• Pre-migration assessment identifying compatibility issues, deprecated features, and performance considerations
• Post-migration validation ensuring data integrity, application functionality, and performance baselines are met

---

High Availability and Disaster Recovery

Exodata designs database architectures that meet your uptime requirements and recovery objectives.

• Always On Availability Groups for SQL Server with synchronous and asynchronous replicas
• Azure SQL geo-replication and auto-failover groups for cross-region resilience
• Cosmos DB multi-region writes with automatic failover and conflict resolution
• PostgreSQL streaming replication with automated failover using Patroni or cloud-native solutions
• Backup strategies with point-in-time restore, long-term retention, and geo-redundant storage
• RTO and RPO planning aligned with your business continuity requirements

---

Managed DBA Services

Exodata’s managed DBA service provides your organization with experienced database administrators without the cost and complexity of building an in-house team.

• 24/7/365 monitoring and alerting with a 15-minute response SLA for critical issues
• Proactive maintenance including index rebuilds, statistics updates, integrity checks, and log management
• Capacity planning with trend analysis and growth projections
• Security management including patching, access reviews, encryption, and audit configuration
• Monthly reporting on database health, performance trends, and recommendations for improvement
• On-call DBA support for after-hours emergencies, planned maintenance windows, and deployment support

---

Get Started with Database Services

Your data deserves expert care. Contact Exodata to schedule a database health assessment and discover how professional database design, tuning, and managed DBA services can improve your application performance, reduce downtime, and free your team to focus on building great products.