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Consider out-sourcing of basic functions. There is a very large presence of competent and capable service organisations and individuals who can manage your database needs. A simple check of the Yellow Pages will highlight the fact. With the outsourcing of some/all database functions you will not need to worry about maintenance and management or the day-to-day minutiae that can plague the non-expert. There is also a good reason to believe that you can save on costs as well. Good internal costing data or projections can help you make a determination on the potential for cost savings using an outsourcing approach. According to research company Gartner, the following 10 factors determine costs for database systems. Each of these costs can be reduced by careful planning. Service level needs Staff skill levels Rate of application change Process maturity Scope of services deployed Use of automated tools Database consolition potential Database growth rates Database complexity Database size