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SQL Server consulting in Fort Worth: the short answer
Red9 supplies senior-only SQL Server consulting, performance tuning, managed DBA services, and emergency response to companies across Fort Worth and Tarrant County, including Grapevine, Southlake, Keller, North Richland Hills, Mansfield, and Burleson. We have worked a single database engine since 2014, and no second one. Every engagement begins with the free 145-point health check. Our client list runs to 120+, from seed-stage startups up to the Fortune 100; Managed Services and Emergency Services clients get a production incident answered within 15 minutes, and each fix arrives with the numbers from either side of it.
Looking for a SQL Server consultant on the Fort Worth side of the Metroplex? Book your free assessment.
A fighter production line runs on Fort Worth's west side, the largest freight railroad in the country is headquartered downtown, the Barnett Shale sits under Tarrant County, and AllianceTexas has made the north of the city a logistics corridor.
Lockheed Martin's Aeronautics plant, Bell's rotorcraft operation, and the reserve base at Carswell Field put a dense aerospace supply chain inside Tarrant County. Program, parts, and quality data here is contractual, so a late report is a contract problem. We tune those databases and log every action.
BNSF runs its network from Fort Worth, American Airlines is headquartered on the east side, and AllianceTexas has stacked distribution capacity around Alliance Airport. Freight databases run enormous numbers of tiny lookups, where a few milliseconds a call becomes hours a day: case #2 below.
The Barnett Shale made Fort Worth an operator and services town, and the measurement, production, and land data from gas operations keeps growing whether prices do or not. These tables reward partitioning over hardware. We size the growth and schedule verified integrity checks.
Fort Worth carries a large food and beverage distribution business, a health system built around a children's hospital and a county network, and the retail operations serving both. These systems usually reach us mid-migration. Case #1 below covers a cutover and its aftermath.
We work with companies right across Tarrant County: Fort Worth, Grapevine, Southlake, Keller, North Richland Hills, Mansfield, and Burleson, out to Weatherford, Denton, and Cleburne, and statewide across Texas, all over secure remote access. Work gets scheduled around your shift and release calendar on Central time.
Principal-grade input on the architecture, edition, and capacity decision a Fort Worth team is about to sign off. The cheapest moment to challenge a design is before it ships.
From $4,995 / 20-hr block (hours do not expire)Senior administrators carrying the daily load: alerting, patching, restore verification, index and statistics upkeep, and the failed jobs nobody chases. No new headcount required.
From $395 / moYou get an engineer who has already seen this failure mode, with a 15-minute response for Managed Services and Emergency Services clients.
From $2,500 / incidentStatements ranked by daily cost, then covered, re-keyed, or rewritten outright. We change the SQL when the SQL is the problem, which indexes alone cannot solve.
Version moves, Azure SQL, or AWS RDS, planned and cut over with the two weeks afterwards included. The SQL Server 2016 extended-support date is July 14, 2026, with 2017 following in October 2027, which makes this a budget-cycle item.
A free read-only sweep of 145 checks over configuration, backups, security, and query cost, handed back sorted by what each fix returns. Run the same audit yourself whenever you want.
Failover that has been timed under load. We design and tune clusters and Always On Availability Groups, and bring in log shipping, replication, or Change Data Capture (CDC) when only changed rows need to travel.
Groundwork on the databases your team wants an assistant querying, ChatGPT (OpenAI) or Claude (Anthropic), plus the RAG pipelines, vector search, and analytical traffic those tools point at SQL Server. When reporting starts crowding the transactional box, we move the offload, SSRS and Power BI datasets included, onto Snowflake, Redshift, or whichever warehouse you run.
"These folks are MS SQL Server experts! They took on management of five of our servers -- quickly assessing their current state, recommending (and then implementing) a holistic range of best-practices, and continuing on to provide proactive monitoring and ongoing optimizations. Our system availability improved, our system speed improved, our security improved, and -- perhaps just as importantly -- my sleep at night improved knowing the Red9 team was taking care of the database servers."
"Our SQL issue has been resolved. Thanks again for helping us out on this!"
"Red9 has taken ownership of our servers ensuring they remain healthy by monitoring and tuning inefficient queries."
Four stages, measured in days, and whoever audits the estate is whoever changes it. The ranked plan and its price land before any commitment.
Which instances the business runs on, what the complaint sounds like from the floor, and what shipped shortly before it appeared. The third question is usually the whole case.
145 checks across instance configuration, whether backups restore inside your target, where security stands open, and what every statement costs a day, ordered by payback. Rather see it yourself first? The same read-only audit runs against your own instance at no charge from our self-serve Health Check.
One session on the report, in priority order, with hours and cost against each finding. You leave with a ranked plan and a firm figure.
On approval we work the list and capture readings around every change, so each gain is something your team can verify. Managed services afterwards stop the estate sliding back.
Three genuine Red9 projects, each traced from the first review to the closing number. The figures were recorded by the clients themselves, before and after. Names stay private, as they asked.
The problem. A beverage retailer needed both of its SQL Servers moved to SQL Server 2022, and the estate was in poor shape going in. The data-warehouse server had pushed the client's SQL usage metric 87% higher to 208.76%, with 199 P2 blocking-query incidents as the loudest signal. The transactional server had deadlocks up 63.6% to 463 and two broken backup chains. A staging environment had also fallen over.
What we did. Staging came first, fixed with tempdb changes and disk IOPS work. Then we cleared the alert backlog on the transactional server, repaired both backup chains, corrected a replication discrepancy on a product table, and finalized the VM SKU and disk layout for the new warehouse build. The cutover for both servers completed on March 2. In the two weeks after it we found backup jobs running in the middle of the working day and moved them to a night window, rebuilt every index that had failed to come across on the search database, and wrote automation to catch missing indexes and raise them for review from then on.
Both broken, both fixed, and the jobs moved out of business hours.
The result. Both servers landed on SQL Server 2022 on schedule, staging came back with latency halved from 250 ms to 125 ms and still elevated, and the warehouse capacity problem stayed open with a dedicated alert on it. The missing-index automation means the next migration surfaces those gaps for review instead of waiting for somebody to notice.
What the reports showed. The client's own SQL usage metric had reached 208.76%, well past the point where demand outruns the instance, with blocking as the visible symptom. The staging outage traced to tempdb configuration combined with a disk tier that could not deliver the IOPS the workload assumed.
What the post-migration pass caught (findings summarized, identifiers withheld):
-- Post-cutover review, SQL Server 2022 -- P1 backup jobs : running 10:00-16:00 -> moved to night window, IOPS impact cut -- P1 missing indexes : search database indexes absent after migration -> all recreated -- P2 capacity signal : no alert on SQL usage -> dedicated alert built -- automation : missing-index detection and creation now scheduled
Each item shipped with its own rollback, so the client could sequence the work against its trading calendar.
The problem. An apparel and e-commerce company had a customer purchase-order lookup running about 50 times a day at 6,177.73 ms each. For a query returning a single order reference, it was consuming 3,072.79 ms of CPU and 3,645,912 logical reads a run, which came to roughly 182 million pages read a day.
What we did. We captured the plan and Query Store history, then built one index on the customer and order-date columns the query filters, with the returned order reference included so nothing has to be looked up afterwards. Before-and-after readings came from the same window, and a DROP INDEX rollback went with it.
3,072.79 ms of CPU down to 0.78 ms for the same answer.
The result. The lookup answers in under 7 milliseconds and reads 22 pages to do it. Daily read volume for that one statement dropped by more than 182 million pages, which took real pressure off a server that also runs the order pipeline.
What the review found. The query filtered a large orders table on customer number and order date with nothing indexed behind either column, so every execution scanned the table end to end and then fetched the order reference row by row.
What we changed (identifiers generalized for privacy):
-- Customer PO lookup: ~50x/day, 6,177.73 ms avg, 3,645,912 reads/run. CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX IX_Red9_Orders_Customer_OrderDate ON dbo.[Orders] (customerNumber, orderDate) INCLUDE (poNumber); -- rollback: DROP INDEX IX_Red9_Orders_Customer_OrderDate provided
Two key columns plus one included column turned a full scan into a seek that returns from the index alone: 6.62 ms, 0.78 ms of CPU, 22 reads.
The problem. An identity-verification SaaS company had an auto-ship customer query running for 53 minutes, or 3,200,290 ms, per execution. It read 942,222,862 pages doing so, and with 12 sessions running it concurrently the instance sat at around 70% CPU. The plan said the logic itself was the problem.
What we did. We read the statement rather than the wait stats. It used a NOT IN operator against a view, and in this plan that produced an expensive anti-join across the whole view result. We rewrote it as NOT EXISTS, which lets the engine stop at the first match per row. Testing ran against a restored copy of the database so a change of this size could be validated safely.
All running the same statement, holding CPU near 70% on the instance.
The result. A statement that occupied a server for the better part of an hour now returns in under a tenth of a second, and it reads 30,312 pages instead of 942 million. On the restored copy, 12 concurrent sessions of the new version cost a fraction of what the old one did.
What the review found. In this plan the NOT IN form produced a costly anti-join, and nullable values make NOT IN behave differently from NOT EXISTS. The NOT EXISTS form gave the engine an anti-semi-join it could short-circuit, and the read count fell from 942,222,862 to 30,312.
What we changed (identifiers generalized for privacy):
-- Auto-ship customer query: 3,200,290 ms, 942,222,862 reads, 12 concurrent sessions. -- before: WHERE customerId NOT IN (SELECT customerId FROM dbo.v_excluded_customers) -- after: WHERE NOT EXISTS (SELECT 1 FROM dbo.v_excluded_customers x WHERE x.customerId = c.customerId) -- rollback: prior statement text retained
One operator change, no schema change, and the query went from 53 minutes to 92 milliseconds.
Those three sets of readings belong to other companies. Give us 30 minutes and we will read yours.
Get a Free SQL Server Assessment ➜Rather talk it through? A senior DBA answers at 1-877-891-1870.
The specialist reading your plan is the one writing the fix, with 15 years or more behind the call.
SQL Server has been the only platform we work since 2014, over 10,000+ audited databases.
Duration, reads, and CPU recorded on both sides of every change, in tools your engineers already have.
Any hour of any day, Managed Services and Emergency Services clients reach a senior DBA within 15 minutes.
No. Virtually every client of ours runs over secure remote access, and nothing in the measurement changes. A senior DBA stays reachable through your whole Fort Worth workday on Central time, with 24/7/365 emergency cover beyond that for Managed Services and Emergency Services clients. Access is yours throughout: we connect over your VPN or bastion host on least-privilege logins you create and can revoke on the spot, with more controls layered above, and each change arrives as a script your engineers read before running it.
What each option is actually worth on the day a Fort Worth production database starts holding up shipments.
| Red9 | In-house DBA hire | Generalist IT / MSP | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seniority | Principal-grade SQL Server specialists averaging 15+ years, with nobody junior beneath them. | A single hire owns everything, and the Metroplex market bids hard for that person. | Generalists reaching SQL Server between a dozen other systems. |
| SQL Server focus | SQL Server is all we do. | Shared with every platform the role inherits. | One entry on a long supported-products list. |
| Emergency response | Somebody on duty at every hour of the year, and a 15-minute response for Managed Services and Emergency Services clients. | Only what one person can hold while awake and in town. | A support queue counted in hours. |
| Proof | Numbers captured either side of every change, and your engineers can rerun them. | Rarely captured anywhere anyone else can read. | Reported as a summary rather than a measurement. |
| Cost model | Priced per project, per month, or per incident, and there is no salary to carry between problems. | A loaded Fort Worth salary of roughly $140,000 to $165,000, plus benefits and a long search. | Folded into a bigger invoice where the database share never surfaces. |
| Ramp-up | Reading your plans inside the week. | Months to hire in a competitive metro, then months to ramp. | Slow to engage, with the context retold on every ticket. |
Senior SQL Server cover can be running before your next release window. Get a Free SQL Server Assessment ➜
Founder & Partner
25+ years making SQL Servers faster.
Chief Operating Officer
Chief Revenue Officer
Behind them is a senior-only DBA bench averaging 15+ years, with a single named lead answerable for your outcome throughout.
We support Tarrant County teams over secure remote access, across Fort Worth, Grapevine, Southlake, Keller, North Richland Hills, and Mansfield. The same senior DBA answers whether the instance sits downtown, out by Alliance, or in a plant on the west side.
Coverage runs across Tarrant County and the rest of Texas. Explore the areas we serve.
Five things worth pinning down before you hand over a login.
Ask what fraction of their billable year is SQL Server. The rare failures only become familiar to people who work one engine.
Get the name and the years for whoever will hold your credentials, and a commitment that it stays that person.
Some queries cannot be indexed out of trouble. Ask for a case where they changed the statement itself.
The response time, and exactly who qualifies for it, belong in the agreement as numbers.
Ask what happens after cutover. The trouble arrives afterwards, and a fixed-fee move usually ends the day it lands.
| Headquarters | Alpharetta, GA (Atlanta metro) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2014 |
| Focus | Microsoft SQL Server only |
| Team | Senior-only DBAs, 15+ years average experience |
| Clients | 120+, from startups to the Fortune 100 |
| Databases audited | 10,000+ |
| Rating | 4.9 out of 5, 120+ reviews |
| Emergency response | 15 minutes, 24/7/365, for Managed Services and Emergency Services clients |
| Engagement models | Scoped project, monthly retainer, or per-incident |
| Service area | Fort Worth, Tarrant County, and the western Metroplex, plus nationwide via secure remote access |
Yes. Red9 covers Fort Worth and the western half of the Metroplex, through Grapevine, Southlake, Keller, North Richland Hills, Mansfield, and Burleson, with a senior SQL Server consultant assigned to the account. Remote is what almost every client of ours uses, and in a metro where a site visit can mean an hour on I-30 each way, it gets a senior DBA onto the estate sooner. Managed Services and Emergency Services clients also hold a 15-minute emergency response.
15 minutes, any hour, any day of the year, and a senior DBA answers instead of a ticket queue. This response-time SLA is available to current Managed Services clients and Emergency Services clients. See Emergency Services ➜
The free 145-point health check comes first, so the number afterwards is priced against findings. Managed services and remote DBA then run from $395/mo, a 20-hour senior DBA block is $4,995 and the hours do not expire, and 24/7 emergency response opens at $2,500 per incident. Against a loaded Fort Worth DBA salary of $140,000 to $165,000, set out in the comparison above, a month of managed services costs about four percent of a month of that hire. Larger programs are quoted after the check.
The cutover is rarely the hard part. What bites afterwards is the housekeeping: backup jobs that quietly land in the middle of the working day, indexes that never came across, and a capacity signal nobody is alerting on yet. On one migration we ran, in case #1 above, all three appeared in the first two weeks, so we moved the backup window to nights, rebuilt every missing index, and wrote automation to catch the next one.
Usually with one index, and the numbers are often absurd. A lookup returning a handful of values will read an entire table when nothing supports its filter, and at 50 runs a day that still adds up to 182 million pages. We match an index to the predicate and include the returned column. One lookup shaped exactly like that, in case #2 above, fell from 3,645,912 reads a run to 22.
Read the query, because hardware does not fix a bad relational operator. NOT IN against a view, a scalar function in a predicate, or an implicit conversion can each leave a perfectly good index unused, and more cores only spread the same waste wider. We rewrite the logic instead. One 53-minute statement, shown in case #3 above, became 92 milliseconds when NOT IN was rewritten as NOT EXISTS, with no new index at all.
Yes. Nonprofits and government agencies in Fort Worth get the same free 145-point health check, on the same terms, and it returns 145 findings in risk order with a cost attached to each one, written so a board or a commissioners court can work through it. Managed services and remote DBA run from $395/mo. A 20-hour senior block is $4,995 and the hours do not expire.
Supported versions, cloud platforms, and the mechanics of a typical engagement all live on our SQL Server consulting page.
Half an hour is enough to show you where your SQL Server bleeds speed, uptime, and money, and what each of those takes to recover. The free SQL Server assessment puts findings and price on the table before anything is signed.
Schedule My Call Now ➜Rather talk it through? A senior DBA answers at 1-877-891-1870.
