Your organization’s data is a key ingredient in the success of your business. As such, databases offer companies a wide range of benefits that allow them to organize and leverage their information in more effective ways. However, similar to all information technology (IT) solutions, a database’s performance can slow down when it is unable to cope with business demands.
Luckily, database performance tuning can help improve the performance of your databases, making them more dynamic and responsive to people’s needs. In short, tuning can help any organization ascertain its database’s performance issues, locate network blockages, and develop solutions to rectify performance problems for greater data organization and seamless information flows.
How to improve database performance: 5 methods
Effective performance optimization can allow your company to take full advantage of the functionality of your database server. Not only can this allow your data to be easily retrievable from within a potentially vast network, but it can also make you responsive to your customers’ needs—an easy way to become more competitive within your niche and secure your audience’s loyalty.
But to achieve this, you must be able to diagnose your database’s issues and resolve them with performance-enhancing solutions.
You can do this with the following practices:
1. Upgrade your indexes
An index is a crucial component of any database. Running in the back of the database, indexes hasten the querying process, allowing the software to satisfy any queries that users put into the database. In other words, it makes information gathering easier.
Optimal indexes can help you achieve several goals, including lengthening the duration that a query is executed and shoring up your data organization methods. The time it takes you and your team to find information accurately must be as short as possible. If it takes you too long, you may frustrate your customers. However, by upgrading your indexes and making them more innovative, you will be able to maximize the efficiency and real time accuracy of your database’s data retrieval processes.
2. Add more memory
Databases require the right amount of memory to execute their functions effectively. Simply put, an inadequate amount of memory can decrease the performance of a database. In situations where the performance of your database may be lacking, a handy solution is to add more memory for the database to function.
To check if your database requires more memory, you ought to look at the number of page faults that are in your system. These faults directly correlate with your system’s memory. The higher the number of faults, the less memory your database has to use. In some cases, they can also indicate that you do not have any memory to spare. Adding additional memory space will help improve database performance, making the solution more streamlined and functioning for your needs.
3. Improve queries with database performance analysis tools
Ineffective structured query language (SQL) queries can stunt the performance of a database, ultimately making your business’s data organization and retrieval methods less dynamic. SQL is vital to the success of a database query as it allows users to simplify their data retrieval processes, effectively optimizing solutions so they are not overexerted.
While optimizing queries can become complicated, the simplest way to do it is by utilizing database performance analysis tools. These solutions monitor the performance of databases. With them, database users have an easier time determining the status of their databases, allowing them to make adjustments and improvements when the server’s functionality wanes.
When improving your database’s performance, you should invest in performance analysis solutions that will allow you to easily locate ineffective queries and resolve them.
4. Undertake data defragmentation
Data defragmentation is a time-tested method that can be used to execute data organization strategies within a database. As time passes, the amount of raw data that is added and removed from your company’s database can become detached from the main data body, separating your information and making it disorganized. This can throw your database’s queries off track as it makes it harder for them to find the information you want.
However, by undertaking data defragmentation, you will be able to audit your organization’s data landscape, consolidate clumps of data together, remove problems associated with index pages.
5. Revise application access
You and your team, but especially your business’s applications, are regularly accessing your databases. As such, it is crucial to determine what applications are allowed to connect with your databases and use their information.
In the chance that your database’s performance is slipping, and is impacting the quality of your products, services, or tools, you ought to have a catalog that keeps track of the applications that could be causing the issue. On the other hand, the issue may not be with a single application but with the database as a whole.
Regardless of the circumstances, you should be aware of the solutions that are leveraging your database to narrow down the possible causes of decreased system performance. This way, you will be able to uncover prospective issues and execute plans for recovery quickly.
Innovate your database management systems with managed database services
By improving database performance within your company, you will be able to use your organization’s information to upgrade your services and products, propelling your company into a future defined by successful data management.
The database performance tuning experts at Everconnect can help you assess your database’s performance, locate operational weaknesses, and fix them with cost-effective solutions for maximum database efficiency.