Senior SQL Server expertise when you need it
SQL Server problems need SQL Server expertise
Performance issues, failed jobs, unreliable backups, difficult upgrades or simply no DBA in-house. SQLCare provides experienced SQL Server support when your team needs specialist help.
Where we usually come in
Does any of this sound familiar?
When SQL Server becomes the problem, we help you find out why and fix it properly.
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“Our application has suddenly become slow”
SQL Server may well be the cause, but more hardware isn’t necessarily the answer. We find where the bottleneck actually sits first – a changed execution plan, blocking, a missing index, storage latency or memory pressure – using wait statistics, query stats and plans rather than guesswork.
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“SQL Server keeps running out of resources”
Memory, CPU and disk are where the pressure shows, not usually where it starts. We look at the queries, indexes, configuration and workload behind it, so the fix addresses the cause instead of the symptom.
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“We don’t have a DBA”
Most organisations running SQL Server don’t. We provide the DBA knowledge you need – checks, maintenance, monitoring and someone to call – without the cost of a full-time hire.
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“Our IT team needs specialist help”
Capable infrastructure teams still reach the edge of what they know about SQL Server. We act as your escalation point for the database questions, incidents and changes that need a specialist.
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“We don’t know whether our backups would actually restore”
A backup job that reports success is not the same as a database you can recover. We review how backups are taken, test restores and check that recovery would meet the data loss and downtime the business can accept.
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“We’re running an old SQL Server version”
Out-of-support versions stop receiving security updates, and upgrades can break applications that depend on old behaviour. We assess the estate, its dependencies and the upgrade path before anything changes.
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“We need to move SQL Server”
New servers, new hosting or Azure. We plan and carry out SQL Server migrations with compatibility testing, a rehearsed cutover and a rollback plan.
Services
SQL Server support, performance tuning and DBA expertise
For businesses that cannot afford database problems. One-off work or an ongoing relationship.
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Performance tuning
Slow applications, high CPU, blocking, deadlocks and excessive waits, diagnosed from evidence and fixed at the cause.
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Health check
A fixed-scope review of configuration, backups, integrity, performance, security and patching, delivered as a prioritised report.
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Ongoing DBA support
Ad hoc help, retained hours or monthly monitoring and maintenance from people who already know your environment.
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Emergency help
Database unavailable, storage full, SQL Server won’t start or a restore has failed.
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Backup and recovery
Backup reviews, restore testing, RPO and RTO, transaction log configuration and disaster recovery planning.
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Upgrades and migrations
Version upgrades, server replacement, consolidation, hosted infrastructure and Azure.
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Security review
Permissions, privileged and service accounts, authentication, encryption, patching and auditing.
For managed service providers
SQL Server expertise behind your IT team
Your clients expect you to handle SQL Server as well as everything else. We give your team a specialist to escalate to – for a single incident, a performance problem, a migration or a retained arrangement.
- White-label or direct, whichever suits the client relationship
- You keep the client. We don’t approach your customers.
- Escalation only: your first line stays your first line
How we work
Diagnosis before changes
Restarting the service, adding memory or rebuilding every index can make a symptom go away for a while. We work from evidence to a cause, change one thing, and measure the result.
Symptom
What users and monitoring are seeing, when it started and what changed around then: deployments, data growth, patches, infrastructure.
Evidence
Wait statistics, execution plans and Query Store history, I/O latency, blocking chains, memory grants, SQL Agent history and the error log.
Cause
The specific query, index, setting, resource or process responsible, and why it has become a problem now.
Change
The smallest change that addresses the cause, agreed with you, tested where possible and with a way back.
Verify
The same measurements, taken again. If the numbers haven’t moved, we return to the evidence rather than trying the next guess.
What ongoing support involves
SQL Server looked after, not just watched
This is the routine behind our monthly SQLCare support, as it runs for clients today.
- Maintenance to a written scheduleIndex reorganise or rebuild by fragmentation, statistics updates and integrity checks with DBCC CHECKDB.
- Backups and logs checkedDatabase and transaction log backups verified, log growth and VLF counts reviewed.
- Jobs and growth monitoredSQL Agent job failures investigated; database and disk growth tracked for capacity planning.
- Availability monitoringA lightweight agent on each server checks in over outbound HTTPS. If a server stops checking in, our team is alerted.
- Monthly health reviewFindings graded by severity, with recommendations where something needs attention.
- Versions and support datesPatch levels, compatibility levels and approaching end-of-support dates flagged before they become urgent.
Who we are
A specialist service from eplatforms
SQLCare is a specialist SQL Server service from eplatforms ltd, a UK software and infrastructure company established in 2000. We are a small, technical team based in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, not a large consultancy – when you call, you speak to people who work on SQL Server.
We support SQL Server on-premises, on virtual machines, with hosting providers and in Azure, for SMEs, software companies, IT departments and managed service providers across the UK.
Insights
Practical SQL Server articles
How often should SQL Server backups be tested?
A backup that has never been restored is an assumption. What a real SQL Server restore test involves, what it tends to uncover and how often to run one.
SQL Server blocking and deadlocks explained
Locks are normal, blocking is a queue and a deadlock is a cycle SQL Server breaks for you. How to tell them apart, find the cause and fix it properly.
Why SQL Server transaction logs keep growing
A growing transaction log is a symptom, not the problem. How to find what SQL Server is waiting for, fix the cause and free space without breaking your backup chain.
Next step
Tell us what SQL Server is doing.
Describe the symptoms, the version and anything that changed recently. A SQL Server specialist reads every enquiry.