A page that got slower every month
Fine at launch, unusable at scale. Usually one query and one missing index, found by measuring rather than guessing.
Database Development
Most performance problems people blame on hosting are a missing index or a query running once per row. Both are cheap to fix and cheaper to avoid, and neither shows up in testing because the test database has four hundred rows and production has four million.
The design work is mostly about deciding what must be true. Constraints, foreign keys, and the right types push correctness into the database, where it holds for every path into the data rather than only the one the application uses.
Migrations get treated as production changes, which they are. Reversible, tested against a copy of real data, and staged ahead of the deploy that needs them. Shipping code ahead of its schema is how a live site starts throwing on every profile page, and we have the date on that lesson.
// what you get
What's included.
- Schema design with real constraints, keys, and types rather than everything as text
- Query and index tuning against production-sized data
- Migrations that are reversible, tested, and staged before the code that needs them
- Data migration from spreadsheets and legacy systems, with the history preserved
- Backups, point-in-time recovery, and a restore that has actually been rehearsed
- Reporting views and read replicas, so analytics does not slow the application
// where it fits
The situations this is usually bought for.
Data that contradicts itself
Two records disagree because nothing stopped them. Constraints applied after a cleanup keep it from happening again.
A backup nobody has ever restored
An untested backup is a hope. The work is rehearsing the restore and writing down how long it took.
// built
Where this shows up in our own work.
School websitethrivelearningcenter.org
Thrive Learning Center
A homeschool partnership in Encinitas with 540 students and 300 classes. Programs, events, tours, and membership all run from a CMS the office staff edit themselves, down to the academic calendar families print at home.
SaaS productboardwing.com
Boardwing
Board meeting software: drag-and-drop agendas, one-click meeting packets, and an AI copilot for the busywork, so boards can focus on the decisions.
// usually bought with
- Software DevelopmentThe internal tools nobody sells off the shelf, live in days rather than quarters.
- Cloud InfrastructureHosting sized to the business, with backups, monitoring, and a bill you can explain.
- System IntegrationMake the systems you already bought talk to each other, reliably enough to trust.
// say hello
Tell us what you are trying to fix.
Discovery calls are free and usually last 30 minutes. We listen first, and we will tell you honestly if database development is the wrong thing to spend money on.