Education / Healthcare | Oracle Database Consulting Services

Pythian's expert Oracle consulting: Supporting mission-critical university and hospital systems

Pythian provides comprehensive Oracle Database consulting and high-level expertise to this educational institute, which operates as two distinct customers: the campus IT system supporting PeopleSoft (student information), and the hospital system managing mission-critical, HIPAA-protected electronic medical records. The long-standing engagement focuses on advanced services like Exadata work, Data Guard implementation, performance tuning, and automating complex Oracle database upgrades across hundreds of systems.

Pythian's role is not just operational support but is strategically focused on upskilling the university's internal database administrators (DBA), acting as an "expert educational resource" and thought leader to drive continuous transformation. While the customer is committed to stable on-premise environments, Pythian's services also act as a crucial "insurance policy" to ensure the superior performance of critical applications and prevent disaster situations, freeing the internal staff to focus on other technologies and projects.

Pythian provided high-value Oracle consulting for an educational institution’s IT and healthcare departments, focusing on complex upgrades, performance, and upskilling internal database administrators (DBA).
35,000+

Students benefit from streamlined services

The university’s student body now benefits from data systems that improve their academic experience, as well as their on-campus medical services.

4000+

Academic staff with enhanced insight into student progress

With their databases now supported by our expert Oracle Database consultants, the university is able to provide its academic staff with a more streamlined and insightful experience.

Customer

Customer

Industry

Education / Healthcare

Location

Utah, United States

Solution

Oracle Database consulting services

Platform

Oracle Database
  

Overview

For a decade, Pythian has been a strategic partner to this major educational institution, providing advanced Oracle Database consulting and expertise across two distinct customer operations: the campus IT system, which manages PeopleSoft (student information), and the hospital system, which handles mission-critical, HIPAA-protected electronic medical records.

Pythian's long-standing engagement goes beyond standard operational support. Our advanced services are crucial for the superior performance of these highly critical applications and include Exadata specialization, implementing Data Guard for robust disaster recovery, performance tuning, and automating complex Oracle Database upgrades across hundreds of systems.

Crucially, Pythian's role is not just about technical execution; it is strategically focused on upskilling the university's eight internal DBAs. By acting as an "expert educational resource" and thought leader, Pythian drives continuous transformation, emphasizing the augmentation of internal skill sets rather than outright outsourcing. We serve as a vital "insurance policy," providing expert guidance, handling high-value development-type work, and preventing disaster situations. This partnership frees the customer's internal team to concentrate on other technologies and experimental hybrid cloud initiatives.

  

The challenge

The university needed to augment internal DBA skills and ensure stability of their critical applications

The university's primary challenge revolved around resource and skill-set augmentation, specifically within its internal database administration (DBA) teams. Initially seeking to solve basic resource shortages, the engagement evolved to address a more complex need for high-level expertise and upskilling. The customer needed an "expert Oracle Database resource" to mentor their eight internal DBAs, enabling them to handle day-to-day operations while relying on Pythian for higher-value, complex tasks. This need for external, advanced guidance was essential for driving continuous transformation and direction regarding the future of their systems, especially given the broad scope that included non-Oracle technologies.

A second set of challenges centered on maintaining and transforming a highly critical and complex application stack. This included the need to manage comprehensive upgrades and automate the secure deployment of new Oracle Database versions across hundreds of systems, ensuring maximum performance and stability for both the campus's mission-critical PeopleSoft (student information) system and the hospital's HIPAA-protected electronic medical records. Furthermore, the university required services that acted as a layer of protection, necessitating the need for a service provider familiar with advanced solutions like Exadata optimization and Data Guard implementation. The university was intent on preventing disaster situations and guaranteeing the high performance of their applications, which were all running on a stable, long-term on-premise environment with no immediate plans for a migration of any sort.

Resource and skill-set augmentation

The university initially faced resource shortages, which evolved into a need for high-level expertise and a strategic partner to upskill their eight internal DBAs, enabling them to focus on day-to-day operations while Pythian handled higher-value, complex tasks and acted as a thought leader.

Complex application stack transformation

They required assistance with the continuous transformation of their systems, including comprehensive upgrades and the secure, automated deployment of new Oracle Database versions across hundreds of systems.

Maintaining critical application performance / stability

The university needed to guarantee the superior performance and stability of two distinct, mission-critical application sets: the campus's student information system and the hospital's HIPAA-protected electronic medical records.

Preventing disaster and ensuring continuity

They required a partner with advanced knowledge (e.g., Exadata, Data Guard) to solve hard problems, prevent disaster situations, and guarantee the longevity and stability of their significant on-premise technology investment.

  

The solution

Pythian's strategic Oracle consulting services allow the university to augment and transform its IT department

Pythian delivers Oracle Database consulting services to the educational institution, aiding them in two vital areas. Those areas include supporting the campus IT system, which contains and manages student information, and managing the hospital database system that handles HIPAA-protected electronic medical records.

This engagement is a strategic partnership focused on upskilling and augmenting the university's internal team, rather than a full outsourcing model. Pythian acts as a trusted resource, dedicating consulting services to higher-value development work and comprehensive system transformation.

Key services delivered include:

  • Exadata performance enhancement.
  • Data Guard implementation for robust disaster recovery.
  • Oracle Database performance tuning.
  • Automating the secure deployment of new Oracle Database versions across hundreds of databases (upgrade of Oracle databases from 11G to 19C for the customer’s healthcare allotment, and upgrade of Oracle databases from 12C to 19C for their IT allotment).

Pythian serves as a crucial layer of protection, ensuring the superior performance and stability of mission-critical applications and preventing disaster situations.

Pythian’s Oracle consulting solutions have been specifically tailored to uphold the university's commitment to stable, powerful on-premise environments. While the university explores and evaluates experimental hybrid cloud initiatives (leveraging AWS, Azure, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure [OCI]) Pythian's immediate focus is guaranteeing the longevity and maximum performance of their significant on-premise investment. By consistently managing complex upgrades, automation, and providing thought leadership on advanced features, Pythian frees the internal staff to explore other technologies like SQL Server and MySQL and engage in non-Oracle projects, solidifying the relationship as one of strategic transformation and resource augmentation.

Advanced Oracle consulting and expertise

Provided Oracle consulting for both the campus IT systems and the hospital's HIPAA-protected electronic medical records, including Exadata specialization and performance tuning.

System transformation and automation

Automated the secure deployment of new Oracle Database versions across hundreds of databases and assisted with comprehensive upgrades, advanced compression, and the instantiation of Oracle software on new Exadata hardware.

Disaster recovery and stability

Implemented and supported advanced features like Oracle Data Guard for robust disaster recovery and multi-tenancy to ensure the stability and superior performance of mission-critical applications.

Skill-set augmentation and thought leadership

Acted as an "expert educational resource" to upskill the university's internal DBAs, focusing the engagement on higher-value development-type work and providing thought leadership on the future direction of their Oracle systems.

  

Technologies used

  • Oracle Database
  • Oracle Exadata
  • Oracle Data Guard
  • PeopleSoft
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • MySQL
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS)
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)
  

Key outcomes

Pythian delivers stability, skill augmentation, and strategic Oracle Database transformation

By partnering with Pythian, the university successfully resolved its challenges around resource augmentation and internal skill-set development. Pythian's role transitioned from addressing initial resource shortages to becoming a resource meant to guide the university in a direction that would optimize and streamline the use of their Oracle Database.

As a result of this engagement, the university’s eight internal DBAs have successfully upskilled their understanding of their data ecosystem, enabling them to handle day-to-day operations while Pythian tackles equally valuable development-type work, comprehensive upgrades, and hard-to-solve problems. This model ensures the internal staff is augmented, freeing them to concentrate on other innovative initiatives that could propel the effective operation of the university to an even higher standard.

A second major business outcome is the continuous transformation and stability of the university's mission-critical application stack. Pythian's advanced Oracle Database consulting services guarantee the superior performance of both the campus’s student information system and the hospital's HIPAA-protected electronic medical records. By handling these complex and time-consuming tasks, Pythian ensures the long-term health and modernization of their core systems, driving operational excellence and allowing the university to focus on its primary educational and healthcare missions.

Ultimately, the partnership provides the university with a crucial shield against disaster, ensuring application high-availability and business continuity. The high-level expertise delivered by Pythian minimizes risk and solves critical problems, ensuring the stability and longevity of the university's significant on-premise data footprint. This strategic assurance, coupled with the thought leadership provided on the future direction of their Oracle systems, solidifies a business outcome of strategic transformation and reliable system performance, ensuring that critical services—from student enrollment to medical records—remain consistently available and highly performant.

Resource and skill-set augmentation

Successfully upskilled the university's eight internal DBAs, transforming the engagement from basic resource support to a strategic partnership focused on higher-value development work and complex problem-solving, freeing internal staff to focus on other technologies.

Continuous transformation and modernization

Ensured the long-term health and modernization of core systems by automating the secure deployment of new Oracle Database versions and consistently handling comprehensive, complex upgrades across hundreds of databases.

Enhanced critical application performance and stability

Achieved superior performance and stability for two distinct, mission-critical application sets: the campus's PeopleSoft student information system and the hospital's HIPAA-protected electronic medical records.

Risk mitigation and business continuity

Gained crucial layers of protection, minimizing risk, preventing disaster situations, and guaranteeing the high availability and longevity of the university's significant on-premise technology investment.

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