Exploring The Benefits and Challenges of Embracing DevOps
Is your database team ready for major change which will enable you to innovate and deliver solutions more rapidly?
Delivering tech solutions at speed has become a priority for companies who want to be compliant to regulatory changes such as GDPR, as well as answering the constantly evolving needs of customers. IT teams are under more pressure than ever before to innovate and respond to changes in the market. As a result, trends such as Agile working practices have become the keystone of technical operations, which is where DevOps comes in.
Understanding DevOps
Traditionally, organisations have relied on conventional methods of software development and infrastructure management to produce solutions either for an in-house team, or for customers. But with the need for speed and improved efficiency, DevOps has combined various tools, principles and business cultural philosophies to transform the way and rate at which apps and services can be provided. The question posed to tech teams now, is how and when to include database development within your DevOps strategy.
Challenges For Integrating Database Into DevOps
Database development for many companies has been an organic process, which has grown and evolved over many years. You might have a hybrid database culture with both onsite and cloud database platforms to consider – some might be traditional, others might be open source. The truth is that every company has a different approach to how they’ve managed their database development over the years. But the one thing that all companies now have in common, is that integrating your database environment within DevOps is inevitable if you don’t want to get left behind.
Advantages of Database in DevOps
Historically, development DBA and production DBA were separate teams, with one handing over to the other, and very little communication between the two. DevOps flips this model on its head and turns database management into an entirely collaborative strategy, which enhances the speed at which solutions can be delivered. Plans, changes and updates can be explored between the two teams, and better yet, quality assurance and security teams can also be heavily involved, which further simplifies the process and the time to complete a task, or project stage. Software changes can be produced rapidly, whilst code changes are quickly tested, assessed and optimised before going live.
How Easy Is It To Incorporate Database in DevOps?
If it was simple for database teams to embrace DevOps then everyone would have already done it. There are certainly some stumbling blocks and one of them is that it requires a great deal of preparation to completely change the culture and operations of your database development processes. This can be time-consuming and costly to some businesses. However, ignoring DevOps is something companies will do at their peril. The truth is that some of your main competitors will already be doing this, and appealing better to your customers as a result.
So, don’t risk losing your target market because you’ve failed to innovate as quickly as your closest rivals. Even if you don’t feel quite ready to fully embrace the DevOps methodologies for your database team, it’s time to put a plan in place to allow you to future-proof your database development going forward.
