Ben Rees

3 June 2015

Why our customers are ready for ReadyRoll

We’ve just finished the acquisition of ReadyRoll, a database migrations and deployment tool that makes it easy for software teams to develop SQL Server databases within Visual Studio. That’s the headline news, but why did we do it, and are our customers really ready for it?

I’ll answer the second question first. Yes. With SQL Source Control, Redgate does a great job supporting developers and DBAs working in SQL Server Management Studio. But what if developers want to work with a tool they’re more familiar with like Visual Studio?

This is where ReadyRoll steps in. By using a migrations approach for all database changes, it offers repeatable and consistent deployments within Visual Studio.

That doesn’t compete with SQL Source Control, it complements it, and follows Redgate’s belief that our customers should be able to work the way they want to, by plugging into the tools they already use.

So whether they prefer a state-based approach in SSMS, or a migrations-only approach in Visual Studio, Redgate now has a solution for them.

As to why we acquired ReadyRoll rather than develop our own tool, that’s easy to answer as well.

ReadyRoll slots perfectly into the suite of Database Lifecycle Management products we now have. So perfectly that if we were to develop our own migrations-only product for Visual Studio, it would be remarkably similar to ReadyRoll.

So why compete with Daniel Nolan, the founder of ReadyRoll, when we can reward him for the work he’s done so far – and gain his domain expertise as well? Daniel will now become part of the Redgate product management team and continue to develop ReadyRoll, this time with the resources of Redgate behind him.

By acquiring ReadyRoll, we gain a product that already has a pedigree and that we know works. Perhaps as importantly, it frees up our precious development time. While Daniel works on improving ReadyRoll and making it even more indispensable, we’ll be developing DLM Dashboard and concentrating on SQL Source Control 4. Expect more features, improvements to the UI, easier configuration, and a long list of bug fixes.

The result? A complete portfolio of DLM products that, quite simply, no one else can match. Something our customers will be even more ready for.