Highly available SQL Server systems, matched to your requirements.
We plan and implement SQL Server infrastructures. We align architecture, edition and core configuration with what your business actually needs: availability, performance and cost-effectiveness.
From the first draft to a tested failover.
Always On Availability Groups
Keep databases available on multiple servers, synchronously or asynchronously, with carefully planned listeners, replicas and failover rules.
Failover Cluster Instances
Protect the entire instance on shared storage when architecture and operations point that way.
Disaster recovery
Second site, backup and restore strategy, measurable targets for data loss (RPO) and recovery time (RTO).
Migration & consolidation
Version changes, new hardware, or fewer but better-utilized servers, planned with a way back and with tests.
Edition & cores
Derive the right edition and core configuration from your requirements, not from a license list.
Handover to operations
Documentation, failover tests, monitoring integration and, if you wish, support by our team.
Edition and cores from your point of view.
We don't sell SQL Server licenses. That is why, when choosing edition and core configuration, we can stand on your side entirely without revenue pressure.
Which edition makes sense rarely depends on a single feature. We look at availability goals, load, growth and operations together and make the trade-off transparent for you.
- Availability goals
How much data loss and downtime is tolerable? - Feature requirements
Which features does the application really need, today and foreseeably? - Load and growth
How many cores can the workload sensibly use, and where is the bottleneck actually? - Platform
Physical, virtualized or mixed, with the consequences for architecture and operations. - Operations
What can your team operate safely in the long term?
How an infrastructure project works.
- 01
Requirements
Availability goals, applications, sites, existing platform.
- 02
Architecture design
Topology, edition, cores, storage and network, with reasoned alternatives.
- 03
Build & tests
Implementation and failover tests under realistic conditions.
- 04
Handover
Documentation, operating procedures, knowledge transfer to your team.
- 05
Operations
If you wish, with DBA Pool, co-managed operations or PSG MX.
Have existing systems checked.
Not every project starts from scratch. For existing environments there is our SQL Server Health Check, tailored to your question.
Answered briefly.
Do we need Enterprise Edition for high availability?
Not necessarily. Standard Edition also offers high availability, though with limitations, for example with Basic Availability Groups. Which edition fits depends on availability goals, number of databases, readable replicas and performance requirements. That is exactly the trade-off we work through with you.
Availability Group or Failover Cluster Instance?
Both ensure availability, but at different levels: Availability Groups replicate databases to multiple servers, Failover Cluster Instances protect the entire instance on shared storage. The choice depends on storage architecture, sites, requirements for readable copies and your operations.
Does PSG sell SQL Server licenses?
No. We do not sell SQL Server licenses and therefore advise on edition and core configuration with no sales interest of our own.
Do you take over operations after implementation?
If you wish, yes: with the PSG DBA Pool together with your team or as a co-managed service 9x5 (Mon–Fri, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. CET/CEST) for your database servers. For critical applications, PSG MX adds continuous performance engineering.
What if performance is still poor despite new hardware?
Then the cause often lies not in the infrastructure but in queries, plans or data access. That is exactly where our performance engineers and PSG QX come in. Getting infrastructure and performance from one team is one of the reasons customers work with us.
What availability does your business need?
In the first conversation we clarify the starting point, the goals and the sensible next step.