Oracle Database Administrator for a Payment Platform Provider

About Our Client

The Client is a European provider of e-payment solutions, including tools for card issuing, financial product and service management, and financial risk mitigation.

Lack of Database Management Competencies Placed Additional Burden on Developers

The Client’s e-payment platform operates on dozens of Oracle databases. Prior to the engagement with ScienceSoft, the Client’s developers were responsible for performing routine database management tasks (e.g., addressing performance issues, deploying regular backups, and patching software) alongside their main responsibilities. Since database management was not among the developers’ core skills, this approach eventually accumulated multiple database problems, such as wrong configurations, inefficient usage of storage and compute resources, and more.

Recognizing the lack of in-house database administration skills, the Client turned to ScienceSoft, trusting its decades of experience in database development and a long-standing partnership with Oracle.

Oracle Database Optimization and Continuous Support

ScienceSoft’s Oracle database administrator started by auditing the Client’s databases and their configurations and gathering information on the major issues faced by developers. After the audit, the administrator performed the following fixes:

• Adjusted database configurations, which helped increase database performance and optimize memory allocation. Most adjustments were made to the System Global Area (SGA) and Program Global Area (PGA).
• Deployed comprehensive backup and recovery mechanisms to prevent data loss. For instance, our expert deployed development sandboxes to let developers work in environments that don’t pose a risk to the stability of data in production. The developers also benefit from new rollback capabilities, allowing them to quickly revert changes, which significantly reduces downtime and accelerates the debugging and recovery process.

After the introduced adjustments, the Client asked ScienceSoft’s administrator to stay with the team and continue supporting the databases and assisting the developers. Our expert handles support requests, e.g., query speed degradation, verification of backup completeness and validity, changes to user access permissions, and more. The administrator also addresses alerts generated by the database monitoring tool.

Centralized Database Administration Improved Database Performance and Helped Free Up Developers’ Time

With the assistance of ScienceSoft’s database administrator, the Client achieved better performance of Oracle databases supporting its e-payment platform. The deployed backup and recovery mechanisms enhanced data integrity.

As of May 2025, the database administrator stays with the Client to monitor and maintain database health and handle support requests from the platform’s developers, letting them focus on their primary responsibilities.

Technologies and Tools

Oracle.