It requires about 5 TB of disk space to create or refresh ten copies of a 500 GB database, when you use a traditional provisioning technique such as restoring from a backup. SQL Clone creates just one full copy, called an ‘image’, and then multiple clones can be created from that image. Changes made to a clone are stored locally, so each clone is independent of any other.

Even a 64 TB database requires only tens of MB of local disk space and, suddenly, creating ten copies of a 500 GB database requires only a little over 500 GB of initial storage space. This smart reuse of bytes removes the need to spend hours juggling disk space, and allows teams to work in isolation on their own workstations to develop, test and fix code.

Even if you have enough disk space to accommodate multiple database copies, traditional provisioning processes are fundamentally too slow to support the team’s requirements. SQL Clone allows you to copy a database up to 64 TB in just seconds. This rapid provisioning allows individuals to work on their own isolated copy of the database, test in parallel and experiment while being able to refresh clones in seconds, on demand.

With SQL Clone's PowerShell automation, images and clones can be created easily and quickly, for example during a night-time maintenance window.

The SQL Clone web app offers a single source of truth for the creation, management and removal of images and clones. Take a central view of what clones have been created, how much disk space they’re using, when they were created, and by who.

Teams enables you to manage access to database instances, images and clones for multiple teams and Active Directory groups. Control which instances specific users can use to create clones and images, enabling safe self-service and delegation for DevOps and CI.

SQL Clone frees up time previously spent on restoring backups, managing disk space and handling sensitive data. This enables DBAs to be more effective in helping to improve DevOps processes and advise on concerns such as database architecture, performance, security and configuration.

The tiny footprint of clones and precise control over user permissions enables the transition to dedicated development environments to boost experimentation and problem-solving. Automation and self-service means data can be refreshed instantly, and on demand, so data compatibility issues can be found earlier. And Teams keeps developers focused on the images and clones assigned to their project.

The result for the business is a shift towards continuous delivery of tested, reliable changes to the customer.

Remove the risk of exposing sensitive data in non-production environments by running masking operations during the image creation. Clones will contain masked data and will look and perform like real data for development and testing purposes.

SQL Provision integrates SQL Clone with Data Masker for SQL Server. Using SQL Provision, you can run masking sets defined in Data Masker during the image creation in SQL Clone. Masked data still looks and performs like real data and the process is simple and repeatable.