A computer database is defined as an organized collection of data and the technical definition is that it is a collection of schemas, tables, queries, reports, views and other objects as per Wikipedia. The whole idea of a database is to be able to model objects in the world in a real way that will support the easy processing of the underlying data. To manage a database, you need to employ a database management system, a specialized piece of software whose reason of being is to interact with the user, other applications and the database itself in order to acquire and analyze the data.
Well, having said that, it is clear that a database has various uses which you can put to good use as and when you need to gain invaluable insights which you can in turn use to the benefit of your business operations. Mining databases can offer you useful actionable Business Intelligence, BI, which will give your business a competitive edge over the rest of the competition. One of the best Content Management Systems, CMS, in existence, is WordPress, where a CMS is a computer application that supports the creation and modification of digital content.
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WordPress Top Content Management System
WordPress is one of the most favored Content Management Systems, CMS, and for very good reason. Not only is it free and open-source (meaning that you can download it off the internet for free) but you can also modify it and use it for your own purposes. It is installed on a web server and it comes ready-to-deploy within the shortest period of time. However, since the installation is vanilla and plain in nature, it needs to be spruced up with templates and plugins in order to be customized for your needs. Its popularity can be confirmed by the fact that since its deployment in May of 2003, it has been downloaded a total of over 60 million times, powering that number of websites.
Now a website is only as good as the people who see its content and so website marketing is of utmost importance. For the optimal marketing of your WordPress website, you need a team of DBA experts to get the work done for you. But the fact of the matter is that DBA experts are few and far between and as a startup, you might not have the financial resources to hire one fulltime. But bearing in mind that the work (of database management) must be done, the best option that is available to you is to hire Remote DBA Experts. You need a dedicated and experienced team of Database Administration, DBA, experts who will be able to mine the data from the databases and extract(actionable) value from them.
Therefore, before you get right into hiring a DBA expert, you need to bear in mind the following;
24-hour support
If you are running an eCommerce website, you have to be sure that your website will be up and running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. In this case, you need the team that is running and monitoring your database to be on point and to be available 24 hours a day too in order to take care of all your needs.
In the case of the WordPress website, you have to be sure that your mission-critical database is being run in the manner that it should be run. Thus, you need the DBA team to be available to take care of your problems as soon as they arise in the most efficient manner possible. 24-hour support is therefore the least that you should be expecting from them.
Service Level Agreement
Just as round-the-clock support is very critical to your eCommerce platform, it is also of utmost importance for you to have the DBA codify the agreement using a service level agreement which describes the relationship that you both have agreed to.
Additionally, there should be a high level of transparency which will allow you to be able to log in support tickets and be able to manage and track them at any time that you need to. This will enable you to be in the loop on the type of maintenance routines and any other information that is pertinent to your WP database.
Technical expertise
One of the most important issues that you also need to bear in mind even as you consider hiring remote database administrators to work on your WordPress website is whether they have the requisite hands-on experience to run and manage databases both locally and remotely.
They must have a high level of expertise in managing the various types of databases, be they SQL-based like MySQL or NoSQL type databases like MongoDB. They must meet all your expectations by displaying strong domain-specific technical expertise and an ability to innovate in their service delivery.
Industry Standards and Reliability
Well, over and above all their technical expertise and its associated skills and quick response time, you also need to have the assurance that the remote DBA service provider will stick to the agreed upon standards, the long and short being that they must adhere to all the set standards in offering up their service.
Most importantly, you need to be certain that you will be receiving true value for your money from the remote DBA service provider of your choice. So, above all else, make sure that you use the above checklist before you commit to a service provider who you intend to use in the administration of your WordPress website and one who will not only manage the databases as it were but also extract value which you can use for your marketing efforts; that is, to be able to merge the demographic information with the other key values to offer you a thing of value.