Utilities · Autonomous Database

A utility moved to Autonomous Database and cut DBA hours by 60%.

A regional utility was spending most of its database team on patching and tuning instead of value work. We moved the estate to Autonomous Database, and routine DBA effort fell by 60%.

Electricity pylons against the sky representing a regional utility
60%
reduction in routine DBA hours
0
planned patching downtime
0
data loss at cutover
24/7/365
managed support
The situation

Where they started.

The utility ran a mix of Oracle databases that supported metering, billing, and outage management. A small team spent the bulk of its week on patching, backups, index tuning, and capacity firefighting, which left little time for the data work the business actually wanted. Every patch cycle carried risk, and tuning was reactive because nobody had the hours to get ahead of it.

They wanted to free the team from undifferentiated maintenance, keep the regulated workloads safe, and stop carrying the risk of manual patching, without giving up control of the data.

What we did

The work.

  • Profiled each database to confirm which were sound candidates for Autonomous Database.
  • Confirmed the licensing and BYOL position before any workload moved.
  • Migrated the estate to Autonomous Database with tested cutovers and zero data loss.
  • Let automatic patching, backups, and tuning take over the routine maintenance load.
  • Set policy driven scaling so capacity follows the billing and metering cycles.
  • Handed the team a clear run model with our managed support behind them.
The architecture

The OCI architecture used.

Autonomous Database took the repetitive maintenance off the team while leaving them in control of the data and the policy. The saving was in hours returned, not capability lost.

CapabilityBeforeAfter on Autonomous Database
PatchingManual, risky, scheduled around outagesAutomatic, online, no planned downtime
TuningReactive when something slowed downContinuous and automatic, ahead of the problem
ScalingCapacity planning by guessworkPolicy driven, follows the billing cycle
BackupsManual verification each cycleAutomated with tested point in time recovery
The team stopped firefighting patches and started doing the data work the business had been asking for. The hours did not disappear, they moved to work that mattered.
Related

Where this connects.

Solution

Autonomous Database

How we plan and run Autonomous Database on OCI.

See Autonomous DB
Workload

Oracle Database on OCI

The full picture of running Oracle databases on OCI.

See Oracle DB
Service

OCI Managed Services

The managed run that sits behind a self managing estate.

See managed services

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