A specialist or an MSP for your SQL Server?
Short version: an MSP for broad day-to-day IT, a SQL Server specialist for the hard parts — licensing, recovery, performance, migrations. An MSP keeps the lights on across networks, helpdesk and a dozen platforms; a SQL Server specialist has fixed your exact problem before. Here is the honest difference, and when each is the right call.
| Generalist MSP | SQL Server specialist · sqldba | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Networks, helpdesk, cloud, a dozen platforms | SQL Server. Nothing else. |
| Who fixes your SQL problem | Whoever is on rotation; SQL Server is one platform of many they cover | A senior DBA who has fixed your exact problem before |
| Licensing | Rarely audited; estates drift toward over-provisioned | Audited instance by instance — usually 20 to 40% recovered |
| Recoverability | Backups configured; the restore rarely tested | Backups restore-tested and timed against your objective |
| Compliance evidence | Best-effort, assembled when an auditor asks | Each finding mapped to the control it satisfies |
| Best for | Broad, day-to-day IT across the business | The hard SQL Server parts: risk, performance, licensing, recovery |
When an MSP is the right call
For broad day-to-day IT — networks, devices, helpdesk, general cloud — a good MSP is exactly what you want, and we will tell you so. SQL Server is usually one line on a long services list for them, and for routine running that is fine.
When you need a specialist
A licensing liability you cannot explain. A migration that stalled half-done. A recovery that has to work the first time. Performance nobody can get to the bottom of. These are where a generalist hits its limit, and where SQL Server being the whole job changes the outcome.
We are happy to work alongside your existing provider — as the escalation point, the overflow on a busy estate, or the deep dive nobody else runs. We will also tell you, plainly, when someone else is the better fit.
The things people ask.
Do we have to drop our MSP to work with you?
No. Most of our clients keep their MSP for the broad IT and bring us in for SQL Server specifically — as the escalation point, the overflow on a busy estate, or the deep dive nobody else runs. We work alongside your provider, not over the top of them.
When is an MSP the right choice and not a specialist?
When your need is broad day-to-day IT — networks, devices, helpdesk, general cloud — a good MSP is exactly right, and we will tell you so. SQL Server is where a generalist hits its limit: licensing liability, a stalled migration, a recovery that has to work first time. That is where a specialist earns its keep.
Is a specialist more expensive?
Usually it pays for itself. A single licensing audit typically takes 20 to 40% off the SQL bill, and a mis-sized Enterprise instance costs about four times what Standard would. We have taken over NZ$50 million off client licensing across 20,000+ assessments. You see the number before you commit to anything.
What does "SQL Server is all we do" actually mean?
It means there is no networks team, no helpdesk, no other practice splitting our attention. Performance, high availability and DR, migrations, licensing, compliance and security on SQL Server — that is the whole business, run by people who have done it for 20 years.
See what a specialist finds — free.
A read-only health check on one instance, with no production impact, and a graded report in plain English. Keep it whether or not we ever work together.