Top of the list when considering Database DevOps is, predictably, increasing the speed of delivery in order to release value to the business faster. There are many other advantages to be gained, however, from minimizing application downtime and freeing up developers for more added value work through to increasing the protection of production databases and meeting audit and compliance requirements.

73% of respondents in The State of the Database Landscape Survey stated they have already adopted Database DevOps across all or some of their projects, or are planning to do so in the next two years. This finding is a significant highlight because it demonstrates that the understanding of the advantages of DevOps has filtered down from application development to database development.

It’s also a major signal that those with slower plans or no plans to adopt DevOps for database development will fall behind their competitors by not gaining the same advantages across their business.

That’s not to say there are no challenges when integrating database changes into the DevOps process. For nearly two thirds (59%) of survey respondents, the challenge centers around aligning application and database development into one workstream, or synchronizing the changes in development. Another third are more concerned about protecting data and meeting security and compliance requirements.

All of these cases stress the importance of integrating database development processes with those of application development by, for example, using the same version control, continuous integration and continuous development practices and tools. Doing so overcomes different development approaches while also providing the audit measures necessary to demonstrate regulatory compliance.

A typical way to introduce DevOps is to start with one team, demonstrate the advantages to be gained, and then roll it out across multiple teams. We see the same kind of issues arising when this happens.

Once again, skillset and knowledge gaps appear, alongside integration with existing processes and standardization and alignment. These are followed by coordination, version control strategies and a cultural resistance, indicating a reluctance to change workflows.

That said, there are rewards waiting for those who introduce Database DevOps. Big rewards in terms of how fast teams can deploy database changes into production environments once DevOps is in place.

Nearly a third (31%) of survey respondents reported that they deploy changes to production in one business day or less. The same question was asked in Redgate’s 2021 Database DevOps Survey, at which time only 19% did so. So there has been an increase of around 50% in those teams who can now confidently release database changes. As importantly, 40% of respondents in 2021 were taking one month or more to deploy changes to production, and this has now fallen to 28%.

All of which is a good indicator that, as organizations overcome the challenges of adopting Database DevOps, they can release changes faster. An important point to note here is that when integrated into the same DevOps workstreams for application development, using the same tools and processes, Database DevOps also enables organizations to keep their data safe.

The biggest obstacle to implementing DevOps for over two thirds of the survey responders appears to be a skills and knowledge gap. 42% cite a lack of skills in the team, and a further 29% cite a lack of understanding of DevOps in general. Alongside this, there is a fear of disruption to existing workflows and a lack of alignment between development and operations teams.

What is more worrying here is that it appears to be underpinned by the lack of awareness of benefits to the business, the lack of budget to invest in new tooling, and the lack of support from executive leadership. This calls for refreshed thinking among the C-level and IT management as well as development teams.