Quite simply, if it isn’t included in the DevOps workflow, it slows down and hinders the pace of development that can otherwise be achieved.

The topline findings of the report back this up – elite performers deploy code 46 times more frequently, recover from breaking changes 2,604 times faster, and have a 7-times lower change failure rate.

Crucially, the lead time from committing changes to being able to deploy them is less than one hour in the highest performing organisations – and between one and six months in low performers.

That said, achieving a seamless DevOps process that spans both database and development isn’t always straightforward.

Traditionally there has been a gap in mindset and outlook between application developers who are busy building and deploying new code, and database administrators who are tasked with ensuring business-critical databases are always available and the data they contain is safeguarded.

Attitudes are changing, however, driven by the need to work together. In the State of Database DevOps Survey, for example, 58% of respondents reported that collaboration between developers and Database Administrators (DBAs) was either good or great.

So how can you build a similar common understanding and atmosphere of collaboration?

Looking at the analysis in the 2018 Accelerate State of DevOps Report, I think there are four key areas to focus on.

Ensure consistency

Making changes to the database should be part of the DevOps process, and use the same tools and approaches to ensure consistency.

In many ways, database development is where application development was ten years ago, so applying the lessons learned then can help accelerate database DevOps now.

Look at adopting approaches such as configuration management and continuous delivery, with database changes stored as scripts in version control tools, so they can be handled in the same way as application changes.

Use monitoring and observability to learn for the future

Visibility of what is happening across DevOps processes is critical to being able to spot issues early and take preventative action.

This proactive monitoring needs to include the database, providing clear, understandable metrics and reports that can be shared across the wider team.

These should also to be linked to business SLAs in order to achieve a comprehensive picture of your entire infrastructure and what it means to the organisation’s performance.

As well as monitoring tools, the DORA report also highlights a newer category of the tool – observability.

Rather than focusing on pre-set metrics, observability solutions allow teams to actively debug their systems and to look at performance patterns that they’ve not defined in advance.

Companies with monitoring and observability solutions were 1.3 times more likely to be in the leading group when it came to DevOps performance.

The report also found that those companies that scheduled comprehensive debriefs and analysed the data in order to continually improve would probably also be in the elite group when it came to DevOps.

Build a common, open culture

You’d expect the DORA report to find differences between industries when it comes to DevOps performance, with slower moving or more highly regulated industries (such as government) lagging behind more fast-moving sectors, such as retail or tech.

Yet, the data didn’t bear this out – high performers exist in every industry, showing that every team has the potential to deliver successful DevOps.

Rather than the sector, much of the difference in performance can be linked to the overriding culture of the organisation.

For DevOps to achieve its potential, teams have to be open to change, willing to collaborate and share, and committed to continually learn and improve.

To create the right culture for DevOps, leaders need to build trust with their teams, empower them with autonomy and rely on strong communication to ensure that everyone understands their role and overall objectives.

Encourage collaboration and support across the organisation

We’ve touched on the different backgrounds of developers and DBAs. As a DBA myself, I’ve seen how this can manifest itself in terms of mutual suspicion and concerns that DBAs will delay deployments, and developers will cause the database to fail when their latest updates are deployed.

These old ideas need to be put aside, because greater collaboration also brings new opportunities, particularly for DBAs. For example, some organisations now add a DBA to the DevOps team around major releases, so that they can provide advice and coaching to developers.

They may not be doing any work in terms of coding, but instead, are using their knowledge to help ensure the process goes smoothly.

Summary

DORA’s recognition of the importance of the database to DevOps should act as a timely wake-up call to those companies that still see DBAs and developers as operating in separate silos.

Breaking down barriers is essential to introducing successful DevOps and provides opportunities for DBAs to learn and grow their skills while ensuring their organisation stays ahead of the competition through faster, higher quality DevOps performance.

Written by Steve Jones, Redgate Software

The post Why the database is at the heart of DevOps success appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

The longest-running research of its kind, the Accelerate report from DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) has consistently shown that higher software delivery performance delivers powerful business outcomes.

Interestingly, a new theme in this year’s report was to identify the technical practices that drive higher performance and unlock competitive advantage. They include monitoring and observability, continuous testing, ‘shifting left’ on security and, importantly, database change management.

Software delivery performance

In terms of DevOps itself, the report shows that the highest performing organisations which adopt DevOps release changes 46 times more frequently, have a change failure rate that is 7 times lower, and are able to recover from breaking changes 2,604 times faster.

Crucially, the lead time from committing changes to being able to deploy them is less than one hour in the highest performing organisations – and between one and six months in low performers. Between 46% and 60% of changes deployed by low performers also require some form of hotfix, rollback, or patch.

Database development has entered the picture because deploying changes to the database is often the bottleneck in software development and slows down releases. To address this, the report investigated which database-related practices help when implementing continuous delivery to improve software delivery performance and availability.

Continuous delivery

The results revealed that teams which do continuous delivery well use version control for database changes and manage them in the same way as changes to the application. It also showed that integrating database development into software delivery positively contributes to performance, with changes to the database no longer slowing processes down or causing problems during deployments.

The starting block is communication, cross-team collaboration and visibility, which echoes Redgate’s own 2018 State of Database DevOps Survey earlier in the year. This showed that 76% of developers are now responsible for both application and database development, and 58% reported their development teams and DBAs work on projects together.

“DevOps has become widely accepted in application development and it’s increasingly being recognised that database development can’t be left behind,” comments Stephanie Herr, Database DevOps Product Manager, Redgate.

“Tools are now available that integrate with and plug into the same version control, continuous integration and release management tools used for applications. More importantly, the business case for adopting DevOps for the database has now also been demonstrated.”

Written from press release by Leah Alger

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Out of 700 organisations surveyed, 82% said they have adopted DevOps or are planning to do so in the next two years, while more than 50% of respondents said they have implemented the DevOps process on some, or all, of their projects.

However, the survey found a significant number of “laggards” are turning their backs on DevOps, with 36% of respondents admitting they have no plans to implement DevOps within the next two years.

‘DevOps has a positive impact on GDPR’

While 60% of respondents in retail and IT services are already using DevOps, less than 40% of those in the government, education and not-for-profit sectors have adopted it.

The research also pinpoints that DevOps has a positive impact on regulatory and compliance requirements – a vital issue regarding the forthcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) which is to come into place on the 25 May 2018.

The survey found that DevOps is increasingly seen as a business priority – just 12% cite lack of awareness of the business benefits as the main obstacle to adoption, a fall of a third from 17% in 2017.

‘Key cultural requirements’

However, 40% of the laggards who have no plans to adopt DevOps blame a lack of awareness of the business benefits as their main challenge, demonstrating a need to educate management on the advantages that DevOps brings.

The survey also found that traditional barriers between developers and database administrators (DBAs) are breaking down a key cultural requirement for DevOps to succeed.

Mary Robbins, Redgate product marketing manager, commented: “It’s heartening to see how DevOps adoption is accelerating, with organisations moving forward significantly since our last research a year ago.

‘An increasingly data-driven world’

“This is changing the challenges they face – having demonstrated the business benefits of database DevOps, organisations are now looking to overcome implementation challenges, such as skills gaps and changing how they operate.

“However, while the majority are pushing forward with DevOps, a significant proportion risk being left behind, missing out on the advantages this new way of working delivers in an increasingly data-driven world.”

The 2018 State of Database DevOps Survey was based on a survey of 700 SQL Server professionals from around the world.

Written from press release by Leah Alger

The post Redgate says ‘database teams increasingly turn to DevOps’ appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

ROI of Database DevOps research Whitepaper studied by experienced IT Director, David Linwood, discovered the key success factors of DevOps when undertaking an MSc research project.

Linwood assembled a list of the most cited DevOps metrics, comparing them with the views of IT professionals who practice DevOps over a six month period.

‘CEOs are concerned about higher revenues’

The results insight the top seven benefits of DevOps that emerged, which are headlined by faster speed and lower cost of releases, improved operational support and fixes, and a quicker time to market.

Linwood then studied the benefits from the perspective of the different stakeholders – the CEO, CIO and IT Manager.

Linwood said: “The only way to get a real understanding of the benefits of DevOps is to look at it through the lenses of those involved. CEOs, for example, are concerned about lower costs and higher revenues.

“CIOs, on the other hand, are more interested in cross-team collaboration. For IT Managers, higher performance and a reduction in defects are the major focus.”

‘Savings to be gained’

The second part of the research shows financial savings through adopting elements of DevOps for the database. The ROI of DevOps for applications shows database cannot be left behind, especially when tooling has emerged that integrates with infrastructure, which has already been put in place for applications.

However, according to Linwood, the value of introducing DevOps for the database can still be questioned.

Linwood shows the method of calculating the cost of software development, together with the cost of introducing new DevOps processes and tools.

‘DevOps for database is business imperative’

In database provisioning, continuous integration and automated deployment, and performance monitoring, substantial ROI figures emerge, demonstrating why DevOps for the database is now a “business imperative”.

Kate Duggan, Redgate Marketing Manager, added: “This whitepaper is an important step forward in validating DevOps for the database.

“DevOps for applications has already moved from the backroom to the boardroom. Including the database is the next natural step, and CEOs, CIOs, and IT Managers can now see the benefits of adopting it, and the ROI that justifies it.”

To download a copy of The ROI of Database DevOps Whitepaper, visit https://www.red-gate.com/solutions/database-devops/entrypage/db-devops-roi

Written from press release by Leah Alger

The post Study reveals the ROI of database DevOps appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

It is something of an achievement to make the final list in a competitive and growing field and the number of big hitting companies listed is a strong testament to their fine work.

The list has leading financial service companies Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Allianz Insurance and Banco Santander all included.

The Leading Vendor category is packed full on major firms: Aqua Security, CA Technologies, OpsGenie, Plutora, Puppet and Redgate Software.

The Best Use of DevOps Technology, sponsored by Automic, has an impressive array of companies, with data software company Actifio, two banks in Barclays and Lloyds, energy company Centrica, digital and technological specialists Cognizant, investment bank Nomura, software outsourcing company Qarea, and software testing specialists Tricentis all in the category final list.

Devops Online is looking forward to an amazing awards evening on 18 October at Marriot Grosvenor Square, London, and hope to see you there.

Book your table here: http://www.devopsindustryawards.com/attend/book-your-table/

The post Exclusive: DevOps Industry Awards finalists announced appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

State of Database DevOps survey

1000 companies and organisations from around the world participated in the survey, over half of which employ 500 people or more, a new survey from Redgate Software reports.

With an equal split of respondents at developer level and manager level or above, the results present the most accurate picture ever gathered of the true state of DevOps for the database today.

Adopting a DevOps approach

Chief among the findings is that 47% of respondents have already adopted a DevOps approach to some or all of their projects – and a further 33% plan to adopt it during the next two years, new research from

Notably, rates of current adoption increase with company size, reaching 59% among companies with over 10,000 employees. However, only one fifth of respondents are applying DevOps practices like continuous delivery to their database, as well as their application.

IT services, retail, finance, and healthcare

A deeper analysis of the results provides some fascinating details about the sectors where DevOps is particularly favored. The highest levels of adoption are in IT services and retail, with finance and healthcare not far behind.

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, there are lower levels of adoption in the Government, education, and non-profit sectors, where a higher number of respondents also thought it unlikely they would adopt this new way of working within the next two years.

The need for more education and training

Among those heading towards DevOps, the biggest barrier they face is a lack of appropriate skills in the team, highlighting a need for more education and training. For those respondents with no plans to move towards a DevOps way of working, a lack of awareness of the business benefits of DevOps is cited as the main obstacle, followed by a lack of budget to spend on new tooling.

Integrating database changes

When it comes to integrating database changes into a DevOps process, the main driver is to increase the speed of delivery of database changes. However, as to be expected, priorities vary according to the role of survey respondents.

Developers want to be freed to do more value-added work, for example, whereas database administrators are driven by a desire to reduce application downtime and improve collaboration between development and operations teams. IT directors and C-level executives are more concerned with the need to minimize the risk of losing data.

While the greatest challenge to database DevOps is seen to be applying consistency across application and database development, 68% of those who have already adopted DevOps practices say it would take less than a year to move to a fully automated database development process.

Edited from press release by Jordan Platt.

The post Which companies are adopting DevOps – and why appeared first on DevOps Online North America.

The State of Database DevOps Survey, which will be published in its entirety in the New Year, involved over 1,000 people from companies across the globe, and the respondents included database administrators, IT directors and developers.

Three DevOps findings

Firstly, nearly half (47%) of the companies in the survey have already adopted DevOps across some or all of their IT projects, and many more are preparing to follow them. Only a fifth of the respondents have no DevOps plans over the next two years.

Secondly, the main factor holding companies back from taking up DevOps is the lack of knowledge and skills in implementing it. This is surprising on the one hand, with the wealth of information that appears to exist about DevOps. It’s understandable in other ways, however, because unless you already practice DevOps, it’s hard to simply start doing it, particularly when there are cultural and organisational issues to overcome first.

Thirdly, the database brings its own challenges to DevOps. There are hurdles to synchronising application and database changes, and differences between the ways application and database developers work.

The database in the DevOps process

When published, the complete survey will go into more detail about the frequency of database deployments, the drawbacks of siloed database development, and the drivers for including the database in the DevOps process.

“This is an important piece of work,” says Kate Duggan, Redgate Product Marketing Manager, “because it gives us a real picture of DevOps for the database. Given the number of respondents, as well as the range of companies and organisations they represent, it’s an accurate snapshot of the promise of DevOps for SQL Server professionals – and the challenges our customers face.”

Edited from press release by Jordan Platt.

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