People Tolerance People make errors, and errors cause downtime. Substantial work has gone into making the daily operation and administration of the database easier. Many database systems include GUI-based administration tools, global control of all database objects, and interfaces to system management tools. It is important not just that the vendor has it checked, but that there is a continuous process of improving the GUI-based administration tool and widening the areas of coverage, including things like performance monitoring. In 1998, the East Coast of the United States endured the worst hurricane season on record, while the Midwest was plagued with floods.
Natural disasters occur mercurially all the time and can severely affect business operations.
For many years, having a fully redundant computer system was a very expensive undertaking. It was also difficult to maintain. Hardware prices have plummeted along with system sizes and environmental considerations. Operation techniques and products make management of an offsite installation much easier. The requirements placed on the database vendors include full database replication, partial database replication, and remote failover capabilities.