Introduction Total Cost of Ownership (TOC) of software systems, especially organizations is an issue that has raised concerns. While this activity does not earn revenue like other functions such as software development or manufacturing, the integrity, and functioning of the database are critical. This paper examines the cost factors involved in database management and analyzes two options: one where database development and maintenance could be done by hiring full-time employees or second by outsourcing or in-sourcing the work to other parties. The paper analyzes concerns such as security and data theft with problems related to both options. TOC of Database Design and Development According to a white paper published by MySQL (MySQL, 2006), the TOC of database design and development is made up of different cost components such as software, hardware, staffing, and training. Of these components, staffing and training costs account for 21 % and 19 % respectively while hardware and software costs are 17% and 15% respectively and the downtime and maintenance costs are 28%. These components need to be addressed while considering steps to reduce the TOC. The hardware costs are related to the current technology and affordability and this is a technical issue. Using open source applications such as Linux can reduce software costs. Optimizing the process can reduce downtime and maintenance costs. If full-time employees are used for database development and management, the cost components of staffing and training can be brought down by outsourcing or insourcing. Long Term Implication on proceeding with the Project Hiring Full Time Employees While planning a project, the option of hiring full-time employees needs to be considered. Having a full-time employee means having a dedicated employee who can be motivated to give their best. The productivity can be kept high, targets can be met and the organization is relatively insulated from a shortage of skilled workers. Hadzima (Hadzima 2005) suggests that the total cost of an employee that the organization has to bear is 2.7 times the basic salary. Different components such as recruiting expenses, basic salary, employment taxes, benefits, and others make up the costs. The basic salary varies between organizations but a basic minimum salary of USD 50,000 can be assumed. So this suggests that the total costs of the employee would be about USD 135000. A large software development project would require many developers and programmers and the employee cost can go up to a few million dollars. According to Willis (Willis Mushrush, 5 May 2002), the problem of employee turnover and attrition is quite severe and the average employee attrition percentage is 14.5 and it is estimated that it costs on an average USD 3600 to replace an employee. The hidden costs are that when an employee leaves, the organization has also lost the training and knowledge that was imparted to them. Outsourcing or Insourcing The concept of outsourcing IT development is accepted and is regarded as one of the key business processes to reduce costs. Many companies in India and China have been given software application development and maintenance work at the enterprise level, for q