IT Convergence Support Services (ISS) is home to many certified Oracle DBAs who possess a wealth of expertise in the core Oracle RDBMS, including performance and configuration management.

ISS assigns an Oracle DBA to each Oracle Database and Oracle Applications support services client. Our seasoned expert is accountable for proactive database administration, event/threshold monitoring, and task-oriented activities.  Depending on the size and complexity of your database environment, one or more ISS Oracle DBAs, with differing areas of expertise, are designated to deliver superior administration services.

This assigned staffing model ensures continuity and rapid issue resolution. ISS clients know their ISS DBA by name and, more importantly, your DBA knows your environment. This relationship allows clients to work closely with their DBAs to establish a framework for proactive daily, weekly and monthly maintenance and administration schedule and to chart the future of their Oracle database environment.

ISS can answer all of these questions and maximize your investment in the Oracle RDBMS. ISS acts as a strategic partner by providing current, topical advice and making recommendations to make sure your environment supports your business objectives.

Most importantly, ISS DBAs leverage their collective experience gained from supporting enterprises who have deployed Oracle technology in virtually every conceivable configuration/feature deployment. 

In today’s world of complex release management, it’s important to have an expert and informed partner to plan, prepare, deploy and manage your enterprise database platform.  Let expert ISS DBAs guide and support you, insuring continuous availability and maximum performance from your Oracle investment.

Health Check
Your DBA’s first task is to perform a database environment “Health Check” to evaluate and document database configuration and performance.

• Based on this review, your DBA coordinates with you to define a maintenance schedule for daily, weekly and monthly tasks and proactive administration activities.
• ISS DBAs install and configure key database configuration indicators and define threshold and response policies for alert notification.
• All activities, whether they are task-oriented in nature and recur regularly on a schedule, or are system-generated events, are ticketed within the ISS Help Desk.
• ISS’s issue resolution and escalation policy is visible and extends to ISS senior management.

Bug Resolution and Patching
Oracle Applications and Database bug resolution/patching are essential, but labor intensive, DBA activities.
ISS regularly debugs and patches client database and application environments. We thoroughly document these tasks so that we can build on this experience to provide better solutions, more efficiently. ISS conducts an impact analysis to track the dependencies and idiosyncrasies of patch levels/releases, and predicts required spin times. As a 24 x 7 x 365 service provider, ISS can apply patches during off-hour maintenance windows.

24 x 7 x 365 Service
ISS is prepared to respond to any and all client service requests on a 24 x 7 x 365 basis. If you contract this service feature, ISS will work with you to define policies to guide ISS personnel during non-business hours. Likewise, you will work closely with your DBA to setup and configure  ISS Server, Database and Application monitoring tools to govern email/paging notification of personnel based on severity.

Middleware support
By its very nature, support of the Oracle RDBMS also entails support of many middleware and “helper” application technologies which integrate tightly with or are required by, the Oracle Database.  ISS DBAs are also skilled in supporting:

• Concurrent Manager programs
• SQL*Net
• A variety of Application/Web Server technologies
• Oracle 9i Application Server

This expertise allows ISS to regularly configure storage management solutions, load balancing software, and/or backup and recovery solutions.

Mentorship
For organizations with one or more staff DBAs, technology education and simply “keeping up” with the Oracle Applications Suite and Database release levels is challenging. Mentorship, in the form of scheduled working sessions on client Test/Development Instances or ITC-provided Vision Instances is an excellent method for keeping skills sharp and developing more efficient administration practice. ISS DBA personnel are available to provide this mentorship and can deliver focused, one hour sessions with relatively little advance notice, many times performing on-the-spot training as opportunities present themselves.

ISS Oracle Database Expertise
You can get a first-hand view of ISS Oracle Database Administration expertise by either downloading our white paper "Quick Tips for Debugging Oracle with the oradebug Utility" or the Oracle OpenWorld Power Point Presentation "Undocumented Oracle DBA Utilities:  Black Magic for the Oracle Expert," (simply click on the link(s) to download, both require registration.)