As organizations move to embrace DevOps, some have inadvertently left database administrators (DBAs) behind. As a result, developers increasingly find themselves managing databases, as DBAs can’t keep up with the rate of change introduced by DevOps processes. To help narrow that growing gap between developers and DBAs, Datical created a namesake platform that applies continuous deployment/continuous integration (CI/CD) processes the management of databases.
An update to the Datical platform now adds real-time views and dashboards that illustrate the status of database deployments. DevOps teams now can simulate the impact of changes before they are deployed in a production environment and enforce rules to meet audit and compliance requirements. A new management tool also makes it easy to track database changes across the pipeline as well.
Pete Pickerill, vice president of product strategy for Datical, said Datical 5 now makes it possible to automatically apply the updated changes to a database without many of the steps that slow down application development on top of databases.
Finally, with this release, Dacital also provides a mechanism for centrally managing all the credentials attached to database.
While agile development methodologies have lead to an increase in the rate at which code is being written, database management continues to act as a drag on the rate at which applications are being deployed and updated. Datical decided to address that problem by creating a platform that specifically applies DevOps processes to the management of databases, said Pickerill.
Organizations that still rely largely on manual database processes often find the level of tension between developers and database administrators to be high. Developers often will simply opt for a database they can manage themselves rather than engage a DBA. That can result in suboptimal choices being made for different classes of application workloads that become apparent once the application starts to scale. The challenge and opportunity is to put tools in the hands of DBAs that enable them to respond rapidly to changing application dynamics, said Pickerill.
Of course, in many instances developers have simply taken over the database administration task. But every minute spent on those tasks is one less minute a developer is writing code. The more efficient option is to find a way to integrate DBAs into the overall DevOps process. The effort requires both providing DBAs with access to new tools as well as changing an IT culture where many DBAs assumed the application development strategy revolved around their ability to find time to manage a database. Today, DBAs are now being asked to manage a multitude of types of databases that are being deployed in unprecedented numbers. Clearly, processes rooted in approaches to database management developed a decade ago or longer no longer suffice.
Not every DBA will make that transition. But at this juncture it’s clear that fundamental change to the way databases are managed is now a matter of when rather than if.
— Mike Vizard
