For my first blog, I thought it best to go with what I know, or more to the point, go with what I’ve experienced and see if I can help give some pointers. Strangely for a SQL blog, this is less about SQL and more about being organised and shifting expectations.

What on Earth am I talking about? Becoming Outsourced.

Nothing like the Sneaker Pimps “Becoming Remixed” this is about the time when you cross the threshold from being employed by the company to working from them via a service contract. For many of you what I have gone through will not be the same, but without doubt, I think you may be able to identify.

Couple of disclaimers up front, first, not every company is like mine. Second, I’m not the sort of person suited to being outsourced, I was a Cub Scout and a Sea Scout – the mantra of “do your best every day” is not in the best interest of outsourced companies. You’ll see what I mean later.Finally, this is a personal experience and I’m hoping that by sharing, it might help others.

I’m going to break this down into three different blogs, way of thinking; work support mechanisms; way of working, and for each with a before and after transition.

I guess for the way of thinking, it is getting your head around the concept of no longer being employed by the company, and how you communicate to the folks you have a beer with every weekend. Speaking for myself, I came from a developer/BI team and for the first year or so in this DBA role, I’ve been quite used to communicating with them, sharing them the picture of where things are going and helping out on all the little grey bits between our different roles. I was also used to coming in, dealing with anything that cropped up overnight but didn’t warrant a callout, and then (work load permitting) I’d go looking for trouble.

Yup, trouble. Scooby Doo would be proud. All that preventative stuff that makes sure beloved servers keep humming away in the background.

Then comes SCD – Service Commencement Date, could almost call it a SCUD to the relationship and to that wonderful new word “service”.

Instead of having a direct line to the techies on the other side, we now have relationship managers and a host of other “interfacers” between us, and the folks we are hitting the pubs with later this week. The relationships suffer, and if you don’t expect it, so do you.

The new reality is that you work for a different company, there are now things you cannot share and to be brutally honest, the lines are severed to stop the typical favours for a pint. Everything you do that isn’t a break-fix activity is now a chargeable activity. Favours aren’t favours; they are free service items. Help isn’t help, it is a free service item. I’m not kidding.

All that looking for trouble is again, unpaid-for service. It’s this point where you have to stop thinking like a DBA and more like a lawyer (Not besmirching lawyers, I have a close friend that is a lawyer.). Think of it more like a mobile phone service.

With your mobile phone contract you get certain amounts of free calls, free texts, some data and a guarantee that protects your phone over a particular period, in return you give them money. A contract. You want more than what is in your contract? You pay the extra – the other charges on your bill.

Outsourcing is exactly that. We’ll look after your servers according to SLA, RTO and RPO. We’ll add x users, build y databases and deploy z scripts. Go above those limits? Money please. Want something not listed there? More money please. And so on. Some contracts, like ours require our client to disclose their plans for the next few months so we can plan the hardware and staffing requirements – if they don’t then we can’t have the equipment and peeps in place, so they either have to pay a premium or wait.

So coming in on a Monday and looking for trouble – checking that server with high CPU usage over the weekend perhaps. If that isn’t in the contact, that is something that could be charged for, or time where you could be deployed working on “revenue generating activities.”

So, that’s the dark-side. How do you cope being in Vader’s pocket? Few approaches that have worked for me. First is maintain the relationships, often just explaining the dividing wall helps, both parties will understand what is going on. Those beers down the local with those folks get more important rather than less.

Second, being limited to a contract can be horrid, no debate about that, but look to see if there is a service improvement programme, or if there is a way you can count preventative maintenance against the run cost. Be creative. Be abstract. Find ways of approaching the powers that be and record your ideas. It might be that it takes a major system blowing up before someone will listen to you, but then you can stand up and make a difference. As the Chicane song goes, Don’t Give Up.