Monitoring the business

When most DBA's think of monitoring they think of monitoring their SQL Server database servers. They may have tools such as SQL Sentry, Redgate SQL Monitor, Solarwinds, Idera SQL Diagnostic Manager or some in-house developed system monitor.

But what about business monitoring?

How can you give the business and indication of the business health and the business meeting it's KPIs.

I have worked in two large online international businesses and in both of them we created a reporting portal that the business could use to see what was happening.

What was happening with daily revenue, how many new people had subscribed, how many clients were active etc.

This sort of information is crucial to making good business decisions.

The business could then tell if a marketing campaign, a website update or a price change had affected consumer behaviour.

I thought it was essential as DBA's that we not just supported the infrastructure, but we also supported the business and gave them insights into their data.