Don’t Install Microsoft SQL Server until you’ve Read This...
When it comes to getting Microsoft SQL Server running smoothly and efficiently, it’s all in the implementation.
Get your implementation right, and SQL Server is sure to impress you with its reliable performance and power. Do a SQL implementation badly and you won’t be making the best use of your time and resources – as well as leaving yourself open to security threats.
Life IT (www.lifeit.co.uk) certainly knows a thing or two when it comes to best practices for a SQL implementation. As accredited Microsoft partners, their team of skilled experts can get your Microsoft SQL Server installation up and running quickly, securely and efficiently.
Here are just a few of the factors to consider during SQL implementation...
Which version of SQL Server suits your needs?
Microsoft produces several different variants of the SQL Server platform, each tailored for different uses and types of user, from the basic “Express” version to the full-featured “Datacenter” edition. Unless you’re an SQL expert, it can be hard to choose the one that suits you best. Experienced SQL support providers such as Life IT will choose the right version with the right features for you.
How do you configure SQL Server to work as hard as possible?
To ensure you’re making the most of your SQL Server installation, it’s important that it’s configured to make the best of your hardware – and to meet your own precise needs. By using the services of a certified Microsoft partner such as Life IT, you won’t have to worry about how to configure your installation – everything will be taken care of.
SQL implementation is complete and it’s running well – how do you make it stay that way?
Following successful SQL implementation, it’s important to continue to observe and review performance. Regular health checks and system reviews should be made, and your SQL Server set-up should be monitored closely by your database administrator. If your company lack people with the right skillset to do this, Life IT can provide expert SQL support – either remotely or on site.
What if things go wrong?
Although unlikely, disasters can hit even the healthiest, most closely-monitored SQL installations. If you need advice or support regarding SQL disaster recovery procedures, Microsoft experts such as Life IT can help you minimise data loss.
How do you upgrade hardware and/or software?
Again, if your internal systems team lack the knowledge and skills to migrate your Microsoft SQL Server to new hardware, or to upgrade to the latest versions of the software, there’s no need to worry. You can rely on the talented consultants at Life IT to provide help and support at every step of the way.
Discover more about Life IT’s SQL implementation and support services at www.lifeit.co.uk/infrastructure/microsoft.

What others say about us

“Having migrated from IBM Domino to Microsoft Office 360 (Business Cloud), we are delighted with the results – and have 1000 happy internal customers who much prefer Outlook to Domino. Life IT were flexible, fair and supportive when schedules had to change due to other Gurit projects.  We had direct access to engineers and technical staff and a dedicated team who were easy to work with.  The whole project was done in a very friendly environment and I would definitely recommend Life IT for these sorts of migration projects.”

Henrikki Häkkänen,
Global IT Services Manager — Gurit Services AG

“Without the professional and expert support of Life IT, we wouldn’t have had the quality product we now have. They gently but insistently pushed the boundaries of our assumptions during the analysis phase, getting us to challenge our mind-sets and think outside the box. They then worked seamlessly as part of our team and delivered to time and to budget – no mean feat”.

James Hacking
Head of Technical Services—HCSS

“As we’d already invested significantly in Lotus Notes and Domino, a solution that built on our existing investment and skills was ideal. Life IT understood what was important to us and delivered a solution that met our needs. We’ve already seen the number of ‘distress calls’ to the sales office reduce as our sales managers can easily access customer data off line wherever they are and we’ve had positive feedback all round about the ability to update their call reports instantly on the road.”

Colin Mosley
Head of IT—Polyflor

“The Life IT solution has provided us with a significant reduction in support and maintenance costs and is an easy to use, more resilient and more easily maintainable system. As a business that handles thousands of transactions a day from 12 different own brand or white label websites it was vital that the whole process was seamless and, with the renewal of the support and maintenance contract from our existing supplier looming, it was also vital that the project came in on deadline. Life IT achieved this and more as they provided us with additional MI functionality and supported our staff whilst transferring their skills.’

Andrew Kirkham
Head of IT Development—DLR

“Life IT are doing a great job providing a very professional and efficient service. They are almost silently efficient and just get things done – only escalating issues when necessary. Their expertise in the AS400 is a key strength ensuring a real depth to their service and they keep us up to date with advances in technology too. So from an AS400 perspective I have very little to worry about.”

John Geary
IT Service Delivery Manager

“After the restructure I was left with a critical resource gap which quickly needed filling, having worked with Life IT before I gave them a call. Their response was swift and efficient. They now work as a virtual Center Parcs help desk team providing a strength and depth of support. Their flexible working based on a time bank system is real value for money. So not only do I get an expert and efficient service, I have reduced my resource costs!”

Kerry Moakes
Head of IT—Center Parcs

“We wanted flexible support to ensure 24/7 cover and Life IT worked with us to deliver this. Life IT has become integrated into the Bentley way of working and their role has expanded into looking at the technical side of the application as well as the support. “Our relationship has been built up over a significant period of time and both sides have worked hard to develop a supplier/customer relationship that can be used as a model throughout Bentley. We are now in the position where we have a pro-active partnership, Life IT are treated as part of Bentley, and that is a credit to them”.

Chris Sayers
Senior IS Manager—Bentley Motors

Support options

From full 24 by 7 operations to month end support and holiday cover, we can tailor a fixed price solution to fit seamlessly with your IT department.

So we offer a wide range of technical support services including IBM i, System P, Domino and SQL Server, to proactively monitor the availability and performance of your systems within a fixed price contract.

The key to our Application Support is that it’s ‘tailored’ to your exact requirements, with the flexibility to increase the resources and hours of cover as required.

With a Life support contract, you have access to a multi-skilled team with hardware, operating system and application skills as well as the latest IBM i certifications.

We provide any combination of application, operational and technical support, no matter how current your environment is and no matter how long support is projected for.

Life IT offer bespoke managed Microsoft SQL Server support services which are tailored to our customer’s requirements to ensure their systems are optimized, stable and secure, as well as prepared for future upgrades and updates.

IBM
IBM Premier Business Partner
CoolSpools By Ariadne Software
Maxava
Lenovo
Microsoft Partner
NetApp
Mellanox Technologies
Enforcive
Veeam
VMware
CTERA