Database Design, Development and Administration Services

The data layer decides how fast your application runs, how far it scales, and how badly things go when something fails. We design it properly, fix it when it was not, and run it so you do not have to.

Most performance problems are database problems

When an application gets slow, the usual first response is to add servers. It rarely helps, because the bottleneck is almost never CPU. It is a query doing a sequential scan across two million rows because nobody added an index. It is an ORM issuing 400 queries to render one page. It is a schema that made sense when the business was a third of its current size.

Databases fail quietly. They work fine at 10,000 records and fine at 100,000, and then somewhere past a million the response times go from 200ms to eight seconds over a few weeks and nobody can point to what changed.

We work on the data layer directly: design, migration, tuning, and ongoing administration.

What we do

Database design and architectureSchema design for new applications. Normalization decisions, indexing strategy, partitioning, and a data model built for how the business will actually query it, not just how it stores it.

Performance tuning and query optimizationQuery analysis, execution plan review, index strategy, connection pooling, caching layers, and configuration tuning. Usually the highest-return work available on an existing system.

MigrationsVersion upgrades, platform migrations such as MySQL to PostgreSQL or on-premise to cloud, and consolidation of systems that grew separately. Planned, rehearsed, and executed with a tested rollback.

Backup, recovery, and continuityMost businesses have backups. Far fewer have ever tested a restore. We design backup strategy against your actual recovery objectives and verify it works before you need it.

Security and access controlRole and privilege design, encryption at rest and in transit, and audit logging.

Managed administrationOngoing monitoring, maintenance, tuning, patching, and on-call for businesses without a DBA, which is most businesses under a certain size, because a full-time DBA is an expensive hire for a part-time need.

Platforms

PostgreSQL is our default recommendation for new applications. We also work in MySQL and MariaDB, including legacy version upgrades, and MongoDB for schema design, aggregation pipelines, and sharding.

Cloud and self-hosted deployments both supported.

Engagement options

	Health Check and Tune	Design or Migration	Managed DBA
Best for	Existing system that is slow	New build or a platform move	No in-house DBA, production workload
Performance audit	Included	Included	Included
Query and index optimization	Included	Included	Ongoing
Schema review	Included	Included	Included
Configuration tuning	Included	Included	Included
Schema design or redesign	Not included	Included	As needed
Migration planning and execution	Not included	Included	Included
Backup strategy and restore testing	Reviewed	Included	Tested quarterly
Monitoring and alerting setup	Not included	Included	Included
Ongoing maintenance and patching	Not included	Not included	Included
On-call incident response	Not included	Not included	Included
Capacity planning	Not included	Included	Quarterly
Timeline	1 to 2 weeks	2 to 12 weeks	Ongoing
Price	On request	On request	On request

Related: Software Development, Data Scraping, SEO, because slow databases produce slow pages, which suppress rankings.

Frequently asked questions

What do database services cost?

Health checks and tuning sit at the low end, design and migration projects scale with data volume and complexity, and managed administration is a monthly figure that is typically a fraction of a full-time DBA hire. That comparison is the one most clients are actually making.

How do I know if my database is the problem?

Common signals: pages that were fast a year ago and are slow now, performance degrading as data grows rather than as traffic grows, reports that time out, and adding servers not helping. The health check answers it definitively.

Can you migrate us from MySQL to PostgreSQL?

Yes. We handle schema translation, data migration, application query changes, and cutover with a rehearsed rollback. Timeline depends on data volume and how deeply the application couples to MySQL-specific behavior.

Will there be downtime during a migration?

Usually minimal and often none for reads. We plan the shortest viable window, rehearse the cutover on a copy of production, and always have a tested rollback. We will give you a realistic window rather than an optimistic one.

Do you work with our existing developers?

Regularly. Many engagements are database specialist work supporting an in-house application team.

Is my data safe with you?

We work under NDA, use least-privilege access, and can operate entirely within your infrastructure without data leaving your environment.

PostgreSQL or MySQL for a new project?

PostgreSQL, usually. Better standards compliance, stronger JSON support, better concurrency behavior under load, and a more capable extension ecosystem. MySQL remains reasonable for simple read-heavy workloads and where your hosting or team expertise favors it.

Free database health check

Schema review, slow query analysis, index and configuration audit, and backup verification. Written findings ranked by impact. If your database is in good shape we will tell you that.