On Co-Sourcing Your DBAs in 2018...

... And on self doubt and impostor syndrome building and delivering said services.

"Why are you building and growing a specialized managed service practice in 2018? Isn't that a crowded field on it's way out?" is a question I've been asked a few ways lately as we expand the team at Straight Path and double down on some of the "same old" services. In all actuality, it's really not a bad question...

"Impostor Syndrome" is a well-documented and discussed emotion that many in tech feel and as a (until 7/1 when I find out if I was renewed) Microsoft Data Platform MVP and blogger/speaker in the tech community, I am well acquainted with it. As a business owner, worrying about the team you are building, you get an extra dose of impostor syndrome - only instead of "am I really good enough?", the question is "will their jobs be safe? Will their families eat?" So when I get asked that, and I look at the landscape of the world, every so often I get an initial gut check of anxiety or fear. Does that happen to you? Sometimes it helps to talk to your fears, though.

Four fears in particular always risk inducing paralysis:

1. "The cloud! Automation! You are building a buggy-whip business while the car is about to roll out of factories!!! "
2. "But look at the competition! There are big companies, small companies, individual consultants. You know a lot of them. You are friends with a lot of them! What about the competitive landscape?! Are you crazy?"
3. "You are trading your time for money. And now your team's time for money! Don't you know services is dead! It's all in Software or apps and Software as a Service!!!"
4. "Why would someone outsource such an important role?"

Those fears are all originate deep in my amygdala. I appreciate the opportunity to address them, to calm myself down, and to focus on building the best team and practice we can build with the values and mission that have always been important to me. The thing is, these fears all have answers. And it turns out that some of them end up becoming differentiators among some of the competition (note I said some, there are quite a lot of folks going to market with the same values and approach and I would gladly give them overflow business, and with many I hope it is true in reverse).

My Answers

Maybe typing these out to myself will remind me the next time that little nugget of brain tissue starts panicking. Maybe you give yourself fears like that and my little conversation with my fears will help you chat with yours.

In order of the questions above:

1. I fully agree! Automation is here. We embrace that at Straight Path. We use it to our advantage. For many of our co-sourced DBA clients and a few project based clients - we help them get into the cloud, we automate them, we use what I'm fearful of! We're bringing one into Azure SQL elastic pools, another into an all aws environment. It's here. The automation features that came out in SQL Server 2017, but first in Azure SQL, are really great. Change is coming. That doesn't eliminate the need for a team to come alongside folks and help them out. In fact there is a value in being able to say, "we've been there, we've done that, we have the scars, we have clients who were in the battles with us still love us! We can help you navigate the landmines!" And here's the deal - as a small company, we actually find some of the repulsion to "Oh No! Consultants!" goes away when folks realize we aren't looking to become squatters and multiply a team behind us. In 20 years? There will still be DBAs. They just won't be doing basic index tuning, managing backups or restore tests or implementing encryption themselves. They won't be fighting with the "SAN Admins" who may not even really exist by then! ;-) Instead, they'll be a specialized breed that understands all of the options and know where to put the pieces and parts in a hybrid world. In fact in 20 years, the "Co-Sourcing" model will make even more sense. Why bring on an expensive Senior DBA resource with their benefits and training needs just for your database-insurance and a few hours per month of truly needing that level when you can just pay for what you need, as you need it? This automation and these changes actually help our cause, I think. They will help us make a difference for more companies and more team members.
2. When I first went into business on my own, competition terrified me. I've since learned a few things: 1 - The sea is really big - there is enough market share for everyone. 2 - We aren't "right" for every client, likewise the competition isn't right for every client. We allow opportunities to walk away, in fact we encourage a client at the start to know where we excel, where we are weak, and what they'll get with us and help them walk away if we aren't right! It's almost folksy - for instance all the clients will always have my cell phone, and I answer, no matter how large the team gets, we believe in the values we put on our site and we want a client to feel like they are our family - and vice versa. But we don't have account execs, and customer engagement managers and well polished uniform checklists. We have our standard practices, but every client gets a different flavor on the side. Some people LOVE that individualized attention and our approach - because we get the job done and they know they are in good hands and like the relationship we build. Some people actually hate it! They want a bit of a factory touch. They like the layers of people talk to and marketing team helped checklists. We aren't for them, and we are glad to refer them to great companies who are perfect for them. It's freeing to say, "nah, you aren't for us". 3 - Finally, competition makes you strive to do a better job - Without competition, our cars wouldn't have the features they have, our gadgets wouldn't improve. Competition in our economic system makes you want to rise to the top and be different. We win. Our clients win. And our competitors also win. And there is enough room to have a three way win like that in this global economy.
3. What can I say. I am trading time for money. And that has made me lose a few of those hairs on the top of my head. Now I'm trading a wonderful team's time for money, and working hard to make sure they are treated fairly, have insurance, 401(k)'s, are taken care of in the event something terrible happens to them or their family, and that they get treated fairly as we become more profitable (it's hard to be highly profitable at first when you are reinvesting, growing with great team members and stashing a company emergency fund away so you can run your company debt free the whole way through! All the profit is already covering benefits, training, conferences and the new folks!) But you know what? That's always going to happen. Services are here to stay. I enjoy people. I care about relationships. I believe the values on our about us page - and I can live that all out each day because we're trading hours for dollars. But wait! There's more! Because people are so quick to understand the value of Software as a Service - they instantly understand what I mean when I describe what we do as a sort of Database Administrator as a Service. You pay 1/6 to 1/3 of the cost of a full time DBA but you get a team. A team of experts who can flex up as needed, flex down as needed. You get our monitoring tools, you get our eyes on your issues, before your customers get their eyes on them! While we let the team have down time, training time or family time, the company as a whole rarely is "gone on vacation" - so now you have the benefit of having two DBAs for the price of less than one as far as vacation coverage and overlap around hiring/firing/quitting. And experts, too. People get that. It's OpEx instead of HR expense. It's scalable. It's just talented humans, instead of software, making the difference. Sure, someday perhaps AI will make us run for the hills, but I still have to try 4 times to get my Alexa to play the song I want sometimes - we have time to keep making a difference while we also build up our project work bringing folks to Azure, HA/DR projects, query tuning, basically doing "database things". I am trading time for money, and I wouldn't have it any other way. The margins are lower, but I get to make a difference and take care of an amazing team and create jobs. That's cool!
4. I agree. NO ONE should outsource their DBA team! It's a vital role. I'm biased from a 20 year career in the space, but I say it is one of the most important roles in any company. I don't like that word for what we do at Straight Path. It's co-sourcing. Maybe semantics? But it goes to our attitude. The team we have been assembling is a team that takes ownership, that takes pride in what we do, that treats our client's environments as they would expect to if they were their full time DBA. We aren't using a factory process and saying "Alert! You have an alert! Have a good day and good luck!" We are coming alongside, helping our clients, watching them learn and grow, making it better for all. I consider it success when we are able to knock some hours down for one of our Database Administration managed service clients. It means we made a difference and things are improving and we've empowered our clients to do more with their team. We are there for the emergencies, the patching, the problems. We stress out when a problem comes. We fight vendors on their behalf. We even get into it with our client's developers at times if it is for the good of everyone! The stance I take.. The stance I expect all of our team to take is ownership, we call it "on it". So that normally brings me back to calm by realizing that there are customers who still appreciate that. There is business for our style and our approach, and there appears to be enough of it to keep going and conservatively adding to the team so far.

It's easy to get caught up in fears. But sometimes we can ask ourselves for the rational response to them. Sometimes we can get better because of them and let them be used to improve us. Sometimes, the fears are right and it's time to reevaluate what you are doing. But impostor syndrome style self doubt shouldn't be entertained without the benefit of some logic and analysis first.

You can read more about us over at our "about-us" page, or about our Remote DBA service here.

Have a great day!

-Mike