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Database architecture and services

Databases that stay fast and stay up

Database architecture, migration and optimisation for the applications you cannot afford to lose: data integrity, high availability without downtime, and fast queries under load.

Discuss your projectRead a sample query plan

Checkout app

Writes go to
db-1
Orders written
18,240
Downtime
0 s
Order history, p95
1,840 ms

One primary, two replicas. Every write is copied to both replicas.

Sample cluster. All figures illustrative.

Fast, and up: four ways in

  • Fast

    Database architecture

    Schemas, indexing, partitioning and replication designed around how the application really reads and writes.

  • Up

    Cloud migration

    Moving databases to managed cloud services with the data checked on arrival and a cut-over planned to the minute.

  • Fast

    Heavy query optimisation

    Finding the slow queries, reading their plans and fixing them with indexes, rewrites or design changes.

  • Up

    Zero-downtime availability

    Replicas and failover arranged so maintenance and failures do not take the application down.

See the work

Read a query plan

A sample slow query, before and after tuning. Switch between the two plans and see how many rows each one reads.

The query

SELECT id, total, created_at
FROM orders
WHERE customer_id = 4821
  AND created_at >= now() - interval '90 days'
ORDER BY created_at DESC;

The fix

CREATE INDEX orders_customer_created_idx
  ON orders (customer_id, created_at DESC);
Sort  (rows=37)
  Sort Key: created_at DESC
  -> Seq Scan on orders  (rows read=2,400,000)
        Filter: customer_id = 4821 AND created_at >= …
        Rows removed by filter: 2,399,963
Rows read2,400,000
SortingIn memory, after the scan

Illustrative example on a sample table. Real gains depend on your data and workload.

Where we start

The first four questions

Every engagement opens with a discovery assessment. For database work, these come first.

Discovery questions
nquestion
1Your database engines, versions and where they run
2The slowest and most important queries
3Availability targets and maintenance windows
4Growth expected over the next year

Three phases, applied in order

  1. Discovery assessment

    We look at your current infrastructure, find the gaps and map them to your business objectives.

  2. Solution design

    Our architects design a solution for your technical and compliance requirements, sized to grow.

  3. Implementation

    We deploy and integrate with zero-downtime methods, keeping disruption to your daily operations to a minimum.

Built by the same team

Watch the data, too

SWOT DAMMonitoring database activity and finding sensitive columnsView SWOT DAM

Questions about database work

What do your database services cover?
Database architecture, cloud migration, heavy query optimisation and zero-downtime high availability.
Can you work on databases we already run?
Yes. Optimisation and availability work starts from your existing databases, their slowest queries and your uptime targets.
Do you also secure databases?
The same team builds SWOT DAM, which monitors database activity, and SWOT PAM, which controls privileged access to databases.

Tell us about your databases

We scope quickly and you speak to senior engineers from the first call.

Discuss your projectBook a product demo