Database DevOps sounds scary and technical, but it’s a simple set of methods that most organisations would benefit from using!
DevOps combines software development (‘Dev’) and information-technology operations (‘Ops’) to shorten the systems development life cycle.
These processes allow development teams to coordinate and quickly deliver features, fixes, and updates that align with business objectives.
Database DevOps is a set of processes that improves and encourages collaboration, communication, and coordination between developers and database administrators.
By implementing Database DevOps processes, organisations can produce software and products quickly and reliably. Additionally, Database DevOps utilises tools to automate and facilitate code creation, testing, and deployment.
Traditionally, databases were seen as entities separate from the rest of the application, with a different team responsible for managing them. This trend resulted in overly long development cycles and a disconnect between the database and the rest of the software.
With Database DevOps, the database is considered a critical part of the software application and the continuous integration and delivery process. This strategy facilitates fast changes and improved collaboration between the database and application teams.
Database DevOps represents continuous integration, fast delivery, infrastructure as code, monitoring systems, and observability.
It also often involves using automation and tools to facilitate collaboration and communication between database administrators and developers.
Implementing Database DevOps can help organisations to develop and maintain a competitive advantage by enabling rapid responses and quick updates based on the customer or client’s needs.
Database DevOps allows businesses to streamline their software development, database management, and IT operations. As a result, companies can create and implement fixes and updates faster and more efficiently than competitors.
There are several benefits of Database DevOps; however, three of the most prominent benefits are:
Deployment of updates and fixes is much quicker when organisations frequently apply integration and delivery processes to their databases.
Database DevOps helps to promote and improve collaboration and teamwork between database and application teams because the database is considered a critical part of the software application.
Organisations that implement Database DevOps can improve the reliability and performance of their systems by using database monitoring tools and automating database processes.
To properly benefit from Database DevOps, organisations that implement DevOps into their business processes need to follow these essential guidelines:
Companies should create and maintain a robust continuous integration and delivery process. This allows organisations to make quick and agile database changes and deploy updates without worry. Companies should look to automate the build, testing, and deployment processes wherever possible.
Using code to manage the organisation’s underlying IT infrastructure enables businesses to implement more automation techniques and manage the database environment easier. Companies should also seek to implement infrastructure as code in a sustainable, maintainable, and scalable way.
Organisations should create strong and effective data monitoring and observability practices. This is important because good database observability lets organisations verify that their databases and applications work correctly. Organisations can use tools to track the performance and status of their databases and implement notification processes that can highlight any issues to the team.
Database DevOps is an essential collection of practices that helps facilitate communication and collaboration between the organisation and database administrator teams.
By implementing Database DevOps strategies and processes, companies can deliver and deploy software faster, improve the reliability of their updates, and generate a competitive advantage due to faster response times.