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SQL Server consulting in Minneapolis: the short answer
Red9 provides senior-only SQL Server consulting, performance tuning, managed DBA services, and emergency response to companies across the Twin Cities: Minneapolis and St. Paul, plus Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Edina, Plymouth, and Minnetonka. Since 2014 we have worked nothing but this one database engine. The free 145-point health check always comes first. There are 120+ clients on our books, from seed-stage startups up to the Fortune 100; Managed Services and Emergency Services clients see a production incident answered within 15 minutes, and no fix leaves without the readings from before and after it.
Want a SQL Server consultant who already knows Twin Cities workloads? Book your free assessment.
For its size, Minneapolis-St. Paul carries an extraordinary number of corporate headquarters, and headquarters mean reporting: quality data, category data, positions, claims, and forecasts, all consolidated somewhere and all read against a deadline.
Medical Alley makes this one of the densest medical technology clusters anywhere, with device manufacturers, health-tech platforms, and one of the country's largest health insurers based in the metro. Their complaint, quality, and traceability records stay queryable for years, so retention and partitioning matter more than hardware.
Two national retail chains are headquartered here, surrounded by consumer brands, agencies, and supply-chain operators. Their SQL Server estates run item, inventory, and promotional data through a calendar with a very unforgiving fourth quarter. We tune for the peak and check the plan still stands in February.
Between a large national bank, several asset managers, and a deep insurance sector, the Twin Cities run a lot of position, policy, and payment data on SQL Server, where the overnight window is fixed and the numbers have to be right by morning. We have taken a positions-update procedure from 15 seconds to four: see the case below.
Minnesota's food, agribusiness, and industrial manufacturers move commodity, production, and distribution data at volume, often through ERP systems that predate everyone still running them. Those estates reward careful indexing and honest measurement far more than another processor licence.
We work with organizations across the metro: Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Edina, Plymouth, and Minnetonka, out to Maple Grove, Rochester, and Duluth, and throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin, all over secure remote access. Scheduling follows your calendar on Central time.
Principal-level advice for a Twin Cities team weighing architecture, licensing, or how much longer the current design will carry the load. Better used before the decision than after it.
From $4,995 / 20-hr block (hours do not expire)Senior administrators running your estate day to day: monitoring, patching, verified backups, capacity planning. The function is covered without adding a role you then have to keep filled.
From $395 / moThe engineer who answers has met this failure mode before, with a 15-minute response for Managed Services and Emergency Services clients.
From $2,500 / incidentWorkload ranked by daily cost, the top of the list rebuilt, and duration, reads, and CPU captured either side. Procedure logic counts as much as indexing in what we look at.
Version moves, Azure SQL, or AWS RDS, planned around your close and your peak season. Extended support for SQL Server 2016 ended July 14, 2026, and 2017 goes in October 2027, so this belongs on the current roadmap.
A free read-only audit of 145 points covering configuration, backups, security, and performance, delivered as a fix list in impact order. Run it yourself on your own instance whenever you want.
Recovery with a rehearsed, measured time behind it. We design and tune failover clusters and Always On Availability Groups, then add log shipping, replication, or Change Data Capture (CDC) where only the deltas have to move.
Groundwork on the databases your team wants an assistant to query, whether ChatGPT (OpenAI) or Claude (Anthropic), plus the RAG pipelines, vector search, and analytical load those tools add to SQL Server. Where reporting has outgrown the production box, we relocate the offload, SSRS and Power BI datasets included, to Snowflake, Redshift, or your existing warehouse.
"We utilize Red9's SQL Server expertise and service in multiple ways. They monitor/manage our SQL Server performance, making suggestions when necessary."
"SQL Server Replication - expert and professional assistance. My whole experience was excellent from start to finish."
"Provided some great next steps!"
Four steps, one senior DBA carrying the work from audit through execution, and a roadmap with its expected return in your hands before any spend is approved.
Which instances the business depends on, what goes wrong, and who downstream notices first. That conversation happens before anything is scoped.
145 read-only checks over instance configuration, whether the backup chain would restore, where security is exposed, and what is slowing queries, all ranked by what fixing it returns. You can also try the same audit on your own server first through our self-serve Health Check, at no cost.
We read the report with you top to bottom, with hours and cost attached to each finding, so you finish the call holding a ranked plan and a firm number.
On approval we work the roadmap and meter every change on both sides, which makes each gain something you can check rather than accept. Managed services keep the estate there afterwards.
Three real Red9 projects, tracked from the opening look to the closing measurement. Each figure came off the client's own instrumentation, before and after. The names are withheld at their request.
The problem. A healthcare training provider had three procedures at the top of its resource list. The heaviest read 3,611 pages per call to answer a single-row question. Another ran roughly 120,000 times a day. Neither had an index that matched what it was asking for, and one existing index was missing the columns that would have made it useful.
What we did. We filled out the incomplete index with the columns the group lookup needed, created a new index for the admin-request path, and added index coverage for the third procedure, then re-measured all three.
At roughly 120,000 executions a day, with reads down from 1,178 to 12.
The result. Three procedures that had been sitting at the top of the resource list dropped off it. The heaviest reads five pages instead of 3,611, and the busiest one, at around 120,000 calls a day, improved 108-fold.
What the review found. One index existed but lacked the included columns the group lookup needed, so the engine went back to the table on every row. The other two paths had no index at all.
What we changed (identifiers generalized for privacy):
-- Top three procedures: 3,611 reads/call on the heaviest, ~120,000 calls/day on the busiest. CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX IX_red9_admin_request_status ON dbo.[admin_request] (requestId, requestTypeId, requestStatusId); -- existing group index extended: INCLUDE (userId, isAdmin) added -- third procedure given covering index on its product-chunk path -- rollback: DROP INDEX and prior index definitions supplied
Filling in the include list on one index and adding two more is the whole change set, and it took 3,611 reads per call down to five.
The problem. An investment management firm ran a current-positions update procedure about 500 times a day, averaging 15 seconds each, which came to roughly two hours of SQL time daily and very heavy reads. A second procedure handling option exercise and expiry took seven seconds a call and read 828,942 pages.
What we did. Three changes, deliberately combined: a new nonclustered index on the net-position table, a rebuild of an existing index with the columns the procedure actually returns, and a rewrite that replaced table variables with temp tables so the optimizer had statistics to work with.
Out of the two hours a day this procedure had been taking.
The result. The positions update completes in four seconds reading 626 pages, the option procedure returns in 70 milliseconds, and roughly an hour of daily SQL time went back to the overnight window.
What the review found. The procedure staged intermediate results in table variables, which give the optimizer no row estimates, so the plan was built on guesses. On top of that the net-position table lacked a supporting index and an existing one was missing its output columns.
What we changed (identifiers generalized for privacy):
-- Positions update: ~500 executions/day at 15 s, 404,940 reads each. CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX IX_red9_net_position_option_type ON dbo.[net_position] (portfolioId, optionType) INCLUDE (quantity, markValue); -- existing index rebuilt with covering INCLUDE columns -- procedure rewritten: table variables replaced with temp tables (statistics available) -- rollback: DROP INDEX plus prior procedure definition supplied
Statistics on the staging set plus two usable indexes is what took the read count from 404,940 to 626.
The problem. A specialty manufacturer had an authorized-order-count procedure running about 9,739 times a day at 258.66 ms per call, roughly 42 minutes of SQL time daily, and generating 427,590,795 logical reads across those runs. The query wanted a count by location; the engine was reading a release table to get it.
What we did. We captured the Query Store baseline, created one nonclustered index on the release table keyed on the ship date with the ship site carried as an included column, and captured the same measurements again afterwards.
Across about 9,739 executions every day, with CPU following it down.
The result. The procedure answers in 17.35 ms, reads 72 pages instead of 43,905, and the instance does 426.9 million fewer reads a day. The manufacturer got that from a single index with a rollback script attached.
What the review found. The count filtered a release table on a date column with no index, so every call scanned. At 9,739 calls a day that turned a small question into the instance's biggest read source.
What we changed (identifiers generalized for privacy):
-- Order-count proc: ~9,739 executions/day, 258.66 ms each, 43,905 reads per call. CREATE NONCLUSTERED INDEX IX_red9_release_header_lastship ON dbo.[release_header] (lastShipDate) INCLUDE (shipSite); -- before/after captured with Query Store; DROP INDEX rollback provided
A single-column key with one included column was enough, because the procedure only ever needed the site for a date range.
Other companies measured those results on their own instances. Give us half an hour and we will tell you what yours is carrying.
Get a Free SQL Server Assessment ➜Rather talk it through? A senior DBA answers at 1-877-891-1870.
Principal-grade specialists do the work themselves. Nobody is being trained up on your production instance.
A single engine since 2014, 10,000+ databases audited, thousands of servers behind us.
Duration, reads, and CPU on both sides of every change, in tools your team can run without us.
A senior DBA answers inside 15 minutes at any hour for Managed Services and Emergency Services clients.
No. Secure remote access is how almost every client on our books works with us, and the measurements land the same way. A senior DBA stays reachable across your whole Minneapolis workday on Central time, with 24/7/365 emergency cover on top for Managed Services and Emergency Services clients. You hold the access: we come in over your VPN or bastion host on least-privilege logins you issue and can revoke in seconds, with further controls stacked above that, and every change reaches you as a script your team reviews before it runs.
How the three options actually differ once a Minneapolis production database starts missing its window.
| Red9 | In-house DBA hire | Generalist IT / MSP | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seniority | Principal-grade SQL Server specialists averaging 15+ years, with no junior layer beneath. | One person owns the whole discipline, and their absence is the risk. | Wide IT coverage, with SQL Server handled around everything else. |
| SQL Server focus | SQL Server is all we do. | Split across every platform in the estate. | One capability among dozens. |
| Emergency response | Around the clock, with a 15-minute response for Managed Services and Emergency Services clients. | Bounded by one calendar and one set of waking hours. | A support queue measured in hours. |
| Proof | Readings from both sides that your team can take again. | Rarely captured in a form anybody can audit. | Usually claimed rather than measured. |
| Cost model | Scoped project, monthly retainer, or per incident, with no headcount or benefits. | A loaded Twin Cities salary near $130,000 to $155,000, before benefits and slack weeks. | Rolled into a larger bill where the database share is invisible. |
| Ramp-up | Working the estate within days. | Months of hiring, then months of context. | Slow to start, with the background retold on every ticket. |
Senior SQL Server cover can be running before your next close. Get a Free SQL Server Assessment ➜
Founder & Partner
25+ years making SQL Servers faster.
Chief Operating Officer
Chief Revenue Officer
Behind them stands a senior-only DBA bench averaging 15+ years, with one named lead personally answerable for your outcome.
We support Twin Cities teams over secure remote access, from downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul out through Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Edina, and Plymouth. The same senior DBA takes the call whether the instance sits in a Minnetonka office or a Maple Grove plant.
Coverage spans the Twin Cities metro and the rest of Minnesota. Explore the areas we serve.
Five things to settle before anyone gets a login.
Ask how much of their work is SQL Server. All of ours has been, every year since 2014.
Get the name and the years of whoever will be on the instance, and check that it stays that person.
Ask for daily totals as well as per-call figures. Both matter, and only one of them is easy to flatter.
A consultant who only adds indexes will miss the table variables and the rebuilt-in-full procedures.
Real projects, real figures, and a rollback for every change. Anonymized is fine.
| 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 | Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the Twin Cities metro, plus nationwide via secure remote access |
Yes. Red9 supports Minneapolis and the Twin Cities, from downtown and the North Loop across to St. Paul and out through Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Edina, and Plymouth, with a senior SQL Server consultant named on every account. Remote is how this market works and how virtually all of our engagements run. Secure remote access and a 15-minute emergency response for Managed Services and Emergency Services clients get a senior DBA onto the problem long before a January drive across the metro would.
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 145-point health check costs nothing and obliges you to nothing. Managed services and remote DBA run from $395/mo. A 20-hour senior block is $4,995 and the hours do not expire. Emergency response is billed per incident from $2,500. A loaded Twin Cities DBA salary sits at roughly $130,000 to $155,000, which is the number in the comparison table above, so a senior block runs under two weeks of that hire with none of the search. Larger scopes get a fixed quote after the audit.
Medical technology estates accumulate. Complaint records, quality events, test results, and traceability data all have to stay queryable for years, which turns retention into a design question rather than a storage one. We partition the largest tables so a lookup does not walk a decade of history, move the analytical reporting off the transactional path, and put integrity checks and restore tests on a schedule somebody signs. We comply with HIPAA and SOX, sign NDAs on every engagement, and carry cyber insurance.
Often both, and the code half gets overlooked. Table variables with no statistics, a rebuild that could be an update, and a missing covering index tend to appear together in the same procedure. In case #2 above, a positions-update procedure came down from 15 seconds to 4 by combining a new index, a rebuilt one with the right included columns, and replacing table variables with temp tables; its reads fell from 404,940 to 626.
At that frequency, an order of magnitude is a realistic target and the daily read total is where you see it. Per-call figures on their own can flatter a change. In case #3 above, an order-count procedure running about 9,739 times a day went from 258.66 ms to 17.35 ms per call, with per-execution reads down from 43,905 to 72 and the daily read total falling from 427.6 million to 701,208. One index did that, and the rollback script went out with it.
Yes. Nonprofits and government agencies get the same free 145-point health check, on the same terms, and the report comes back as ranked findings with a price against each one, pitched for a board or a council packet. 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, platform options, and the way engagements are structured are covered on our SQL Server consulting page.
Give us 30 minutes. We will show you where the estate is losing speed, uptime, and money, and what closing each gap costs. The free SQL Server assessment puts the findings and the price in front of you before anything is signed.
Schedule My Call Now ➜Rather talk it through? A senior DBA answers at 1-877-891-1870.
