Based in Aabenraa, Denmark, Sydbank is a leading, innovative bank offering financial services to personal customers, small businesses, and large corporations, with assets of approximately DKK 194 billion.
Database deployments required manually writing scripts, which were then reviewed by several team members. This process was time-consuming and error-prone, often resulting in one person becoming a bottleneck for delivery.
Adoption of Redgate Flyway Enterprise was initially piloted by one team, leading to an organization-wide rollout, driven by its intuitive interface and ease of use, and supported by comprehensive documentation.
Redgate Flyway Enterprise has helped streamline team processes, enhanced overall quality of deployments, increased developer satisfaction levels, and reduced errors, making Sydbank a more agile and efficient organization
Headquartered in Aabenraa, Denmark, Sydbank is one of the leading and most innovative banks in the country. With a strong presence across Denmark and northern Germany, Sydbank offers a comprehensive range of financial services to personal customers, small businesses, and large corporations alike.
With assets of approximately DKK 194 billion, Sydbank is dedicated to providing highly personalized service and competitive products. The bank emphasizes the importance of technology and IT, ensuring that customers have access to advanced digital banking solutions, including a robust NetBank platform for managing daily finances. Sydbank’s commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction makes it a key player in the Danish banking sector
Jess Buskov Lund, Senior VP- Head of Data and Business Enablement, is part of the Sydbank Digital Banking Division which has approximately 90 developers and DBAs, who manage around 190 databases, totaling over 20TB of data. Together with the rest of the IT department, they operate like an in-house software company.
194 billion DKKIN ASSETS190databases20 TB data“Our manual process involved creating scripts and deploying through a ticketing system, which led to inefficiencies and delays - impacting our business and customers.”
Jess Buskov Lund , Senior Vice President of Data & Business Enablement
Previously, Sydbank’s database deployments involved manual processes, which were time-consuming and error-prone. This often resulted in bottlenecks, as one person would become the single point of contact for delivery failures. Jess recognized the need to resolve this issue, “In the data team, we are not adding value by pressing F5 to run a script for someone. And if we’re not adding value we’re just wasting ours, and other people’s time”. So he sought out a solution that would streamline and stabilize their database management process.
The team recognized that increased automation was essential to their strategic direction and the primary reason for choosing Redgate Flyway Enterprise. Managing dependencies across multiple databases manually, including Azure SQL Server and Visual Studio, led to frequent issues, such as missing references and inconsistent data states. This complexity made it difficult to ensure reliable and synchronized updates across all databases, which was crucial for maintaining data integrity and operational efficiency. They were also conscious of the need for enhanced security and compliance, and saw these as significant challenges to address.
Additionally, integrating with GIT posed its own set of challenges. The team struggled with managing migration scripts across different environments, which complicated the development and deployment process. The lack of a streamlined version control system for database changes meant that developers often faced conflicts and errors when merging changes, leading to delays and reduced productivity.
Before adopting Redgate Flyway Enterprise, Sydbank was using an ad-hoc release system with a standard ticketing system, which was not fit for purpose. This system led to mismatches between the code in the version control system (VCS) and the ticketing system, causing contradictions and confusion among developers as to which was the right version to be deployed.
“Redgate Flyway Enterprise has not only standardized our processes, but reduced errors and improved documentation across the team. ”
Jess Buskov Lund , Senior Vice President of Data & Business Enablement
The challenges faced within Sydbank’s team led them to Redgate Flyway Enterprise, which has become essential for managing its databases. Initially, one team piloted Redgate Flyway Enterprise, and after experiencing significant success, the solution was rolled out across the organization, facilitated by comprehensive documentation to help onboard the team. The concept of compliance by default within their processes was also a significant benefit and made for a key purchasing decision.
The decision to choose Redgate Flyway Enterprise was influenced by its intuitive interface and ease of use, which stood out compared to other tools in the market. This, coupled with the positive impact Sydbank had seen with their existing Redgate solution- SQL Toolbelt Essentials, reinforced their confidence in adopting Redgate Flyway Enterprise. The trust built through their previous experiences with Redgate played a crucial role in Sydbank’s decision, and currently 50% of Sydbank’s developers now use Redgate Flyway Enterprise, with plans for further expansion.
To support the rollout, Sydbank created its own Confluence page, leveraging Redgate’s documentation to ensure teams had easy access to necessary resources, an approach which meant easy adoption and ease of use among developers.
“In the time we've saved on fixing errors, and waiting, I can be working on higher quality jobs, not just remedial tasks. So it's about a lot more than just time savings.”
Agnete Nørskov Nielsen , Data Analyst
The transition to Redgate Flyway Enterprise has resulted in significant improvements in efficiency, reduced errors, and increased independence across the developers. Christian Broe Petersen, Data Engineer, outlines that “We have saved around 2 hours a day across the data platform team, as we don’t have to be interrupted with those manual tasks anymore”. With this time freed up, and developers spending much less time waiting around and manually fixing errors, they have seen a notable improvement in code quality.
With around 50% of Sydbank’s developers now using Redgate Flyway Enterprise for database deployments, this shift in approach of database management processes underscores its continued strategic importance to stay ahead of the curve and deliver value to the business and customers quickly.
Additionally, Redgate Flyway Enterprise has built-in enhanced data security as standard, which has been described by Christian as a huge additional benefit to the business, “We are sure that whatever we put into production, we have the correct version approved and 100% documented”. This transition has also reduced the risk of both data and human errors, and improved and aligned standardized working practices across teams, further highlighting the widespread benefits of adoption.
Moreover, the customer success relationship has been invaluable to Sydbank’s adoption and rollout of Redgate Flyway Enterprise. With the dedicated Customer Success Manager and fast response times cited as key drivers of Redgate Flyway Enterprise’s successful internal implementation.
The move to Redgate Flyway Enterprise has not only streamlined the team’s processes but also enhanced the overall quality of their deployments, increased developer satisfaction levels, reduced errors, and boosted independence. Ultimately meeting their strategic goal of implementing automation to make Sydbank a more agile and efficient organization.
Redgate Flyway Enterprise has helped streamline the team’s processes, enhanced overall quality of deployments, increased developer satisfaction levels, and reduced errors, making Sydbank a more agile and efficient organization.
Based in Aabenraa, Denmark, Sydbank is a leading, innovative bank offering financial services to personal customers, small businesses, and large corporations, with assets of approximately DKK 194 billion.
Database deployments required manually writing scripts, which were then reviewed by several team members. This process was time-consuming and error-prone, often resulting in one person becoming a bottleneck for delivery.
Adoption of Redgate Flyway Enterprise was initially piloted by one team, leading to an organization-wide rollout, driven by its intuitive interface and ease of use, and supported by comprehensive documentation.
Redgate Flyway Enterprise has helped streamline team processes, enhanced overall quality of deployments, increased developer satisfaction levels, and reduced errors, making Sydbank a more agile and efficient organization
“Our manual process involved creating scripts and deploying through a ticketing system, which led to inefficiencies and delays - impacting our business and customers.”
Jess Buskov Lund , Senior Vice President of Data & Business Enablement
Headquartered in Aabenraa, Denmark, Sydbank is one of the leading and most innovative banks in the country. With a strong presence across Denmark and northern Germany, Sydbank offers a comprehensive range of financial services to personal customers, small businesses, and large corporations alike.
With assets of approximately DKK 194 billion, Sydbank is dedicated to providing highly personalized service and competitive products. The bank emphasizes the importance of technology and IT, ensuring that customers have access to advanced digital banking solutions, including a robust NetBank platform for managing daily finances. Sydbank’s commitment to innovation and customer satisfaction makes it a key player in the Danish banking sector
Jess Buskov Lund, Senior VP- Head of Data and Business Enablement, is part of the Sydbank Digital Banking Division which has approximately 90 developers and DBAs, who manage around 190 databases, totaling over 20TB of data. Together with the rest of the IT department, they operate like an in-house software company.
“Redgate Flyway Enterprise has not only standardized our processes, but reduced errors and improved documentation across the team. ”
Jess Buskov Lund , Senior Vice President of Data & Business Enablement
Previously, Sydbank’s database deployments involved manual processes, which were time-consuming and error-prone. This often resulted in bottlenecks, as one person would become the single point of contact for delivery failures. Jess recognized the need to resolve this issue, “In the data team, we are not adding value by pressing F5 to run a script for someone. And if we’re not adding value we’re just wasting ours, and other people’s time”. So he sought out a solution that would streamline and stabilize their database management process.
The team recognized that increased automation was essential to their strategic direction and the primary reason for choosing Redgate Flyway Enterprise. Managing dependencies across multiple databases manually, including Azure SQL Server and Visual Studio, led to frequent issues, such as missing references and inconsistent data states. This complexity made it difficult to ensure reliable and synchronized updates across all databases, which was crucial for maintaining data integrity and operational efficiency. They were also conscious of the need for enhanced security and compliance, and saw these as significant challenges to address.
Additionally, integrating with GIT posed its own set of challenges. The team struggled with managing migration scripts across different environments, which complicated the development and deployment process. The lack of a streamlined version control system for database changes meant that developers often faced conflicts and errors when merging changes, leading to delays and reduced productivity.
Before adopting Redgate Flyway Enterprise, Sydbank was using an ad-hoc release system with a standard ticketing system, which was not fit for purpose. This system led to mismatches between the code in the version control system (VCS) and the ticketing system, causing contradictions and confusion among developers as to which was the right version to be deployed.
“In the time we've saved on fixing errors, and waiting, I can be working on higher quality jobs, not just remedial tasks. So it's about a lot more than just time savings.”
Agnete Nørskov Nielsen , Data Analyst
The challenges faced within Sydbank’s team led them to Redgate Flyway Enterprise, which has become essential for managing its databases. Initially, one team piloted Redgate Flyway Enterprise, and after experiencing significant success, the solution was rolled out across the organization, facilitated by comprehensive documentation to help onboard the team. The concept of compliance by default within their processes was also a significant benefit and made for a key purchasing decision.
The decision to choose Redgate Flyway Enterprise was influenced by its intuitive interface and ease of use, which stood out compared to other tools in the market. This, coupled with the positive impact Sydbank had seen with their existing Redgate solution- SQL Toolbelt Essentials, reinforced their confidence in adopting Redgate Flyway Enterprise. The trust built through their previous experiences with Redgate played a crucial role in Sydbank’s decision, and currently 50% of Sydbank’s developers now use Redgate Flyway Enterprise, with plans for further expansion.
To support the rollout, Sydbank created its own Confluence page, leveraging Redgate’s documentation to ensure teams had easy access to necessary resources, an approach which meant easy adoption and ease of use among developers.
The transition to Redgate Flyway Enterprise has resulted in significant improvements in efficiency, reduced errors, and increased independence across the developers. Christian Broe Petersen, Data Engineer, outlines that “We have saved around 2 hours a day across the data platform team, as we don’t have to be interrupted with those manual tasks anymore”. With this time freed up, and developers spending much less time waiting around and manually fixing errors, they have seen a notable improvement in code quality.
With around 50% of Sydbank’s developers now using Redgate Flyway Enterprise for database deployments, this shift in approach of database management processes underscores its continued strategic importance to stay ahead of the curve and deliver value to the business and customers quickly.
Additionally, Redgate Flyway Enterprise has built-in enhanced data security as standard, which has been described by Christian as a huge additional benefit to the business, “We are sure that whatever we put into production, we have the correct version approved and 100% documented”. This transition has also reduced the risk of both data and human errors, and improved and aligned standardized working practices across teams, further highlighting the widespread benefits of adoption.
Moreover, the customer success relationship has been invaluable to Sydbank’s adoption and rollout of Redgate Flyway Enterprise. With the dedicated Customer Success Manager and fast response times cited as key drivers of Redgate Flyway Enterprise’s successful internal implementation.
The move to Redgate Flyway Enterprise has not only streamlined the team’s processes but also enhanced the overall quality of their deployments, increased developer satisfaction levels, reduced errors, and boosted independence. Ultimately meeting their strategic goal of implementing automation to make Sydbank a more agile and efficient organization.
