The cost of database downtime — and the ROI of fixing it
Database incidents are expensive. Database talent is scarce. Here's the math behind adding an autonomous DBRE to your team.
Cut incident duration
SIXTA delivers root cause analysis in minutes — tracing from alert to specific query, table, and fix. No more cycling through dashboards to find the answer.
Average MTTR with SIXTA: 8 min
At $14K/min, that's $616K saved per incident
Your SREs resolve database incidents without waiting for a DBA
Today, every database incident ends the same way: the SRE pages a DBA and waits. SIXTA gives your on-call engineers the diagnostic depth to resolve database issues themselves — root cause, affected queries, and a recommended fix, delivered in minutes.
With SIXTA: 5 min resolution, no escalation
Capability: Database autonomy for on-call
Catch problems early
SIXTA detects degradation patterns days before they breach thresholds — catching the bad query in staging, the vacuum that's falling behind, the index that no longer fits.
Proactive catches per month: varies by env
Each prevented incident: $100K+ avoided
At 7,000 databases, the math changes
Based on parameters from a former Head of Data at a tier-1 European bank.
SIXTA interventions/DB/year: 6
Avg time saved per intervention: 1h
Hours reclaimed/year: 42,000
DBA cost (24/7, fully loaded): €60K/yr
Annual savings: €294K
Equivalent headcount freed: ~5 DBAs
| Hire a DBRE | Outsource (Consulting) | SIXTA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual cost | $180–250K fully loaded | ~$154K avg contract | Fraction of either |
| Time to value | 4–6 months (hire + ramp) | 2–4 weeks (scheduling) | Days to connect, weeks to baseline |
| Availability | Business hours, minus PTO | Scheduled 4-hour blocks | 24/7/365 |
| Emergency coverage | On-call rotation needed | Not included | Always monitoring |
| Knowledge retention | Walks out the door with attrition | Leaves when engagement ends | Compounds over time |
| Scalability | 1 person = 1 person | More hours = more cost | Covers tens to thousands of databases |
| Proactive detection | Depends on the individual | Only during engagement | Continuous baseline monitoring |
Consulting cost data from Vendr transaction records. DBRE salary data from ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn, and BuiltIn (2025).
We can walk you through the full assessment — bottleneck diagnosis, capacity model, and remediation plan — on a live call. Book a call
Every new query reviewed before it reaches production
In another deployment, SIXTA reviews every new query generated by development teams — simulating execution against real production workload baselines, flagging regressions, and delivering recommendations directly to the developers who wrote them.
This is work that typically consumes a full-time senior DBA: triaging new queries, assessing production impact, and feeding guidance back to engineering. SIXTA handles it continuously, at a pace no individual can match.
See the ROI for yourself
We'll deploy SIXTA in your environment and prove the value before you commit. No long-term contract required upfront.
Meet Your New DBRE