Grant Fritchey, DevOps advocate, Redgate Software, believes that DevOps is all about a cultural change to how you manage your IT resources.
The biggest challenge when implementing DevOps is learning all the necessary tooling in support of automation. During his Data Summit Connect 2021 presentation, “Automating AWS Database Deployments,” he showed the tools and mechanisms needed to get databases deployed through AWS, with additional steps and tools within AWS to expand the complexity and functionality of the database deployment process.
DevOps is an agile culture that better supports collaboration between people that uses automation and tooling in support of process, Fritchey said.
“People are at the top,” Fritchey said.
AWS offers tools such as CodeCommit, CodePipeline, CodeBuild, and CodeDeploy that can assist DevOps teams.
CodeCommit is a repository based on Git, he explained. It is a source control management system on AWS.
“I love it, it’s a great tool, and works well,” Fritchey said. “But you have to get your code into it.”
CodePipeline is a management system which has a set of triggers. It can control decisions, direct actions and is the first step for continuous integration, he said.
CodeBuild is simple to understand, Fritchey noted. It’s a series of command line arguments that can be run pre or post deployment. It can generate artifacts from SQL as a record for deployments and more.
CodeDeploy can consume artifacts and deal with environments.
He recommends starting with source control, practicinf command line, building a CI process to start, an expanding from there.
Chris Paap, senior solutions marketing manager, Nutanix, noted that speed, efficiency, and consistency are critical to the success of DevOps database deployment and management.
When databases are spread across AWS and on-premises, normally tedious and time-consuming tasks become even more difficult.
He explained how one-click automation of common tasks, standardization of implementation using best practices, and role-based access for database deployment can reduce the burden on DBAs while delivering faster and more consistent results for the DevOps team.
The challenges that DevOps databases are encountering include risk, cost, complexity, and agility, Paap explained. With AWS DevOps teams can gain more choices and better ease of use.
Existing processes are unpredictable, includes multiple steps and teams, introduces friction and complex processes, lowers business agility, decrease innovation rates, and increases time to market, according to Paap.
To simplify these processes, DevOps teams can use automation, which eliminates friction and the complex processes. It increases business agility, increases innovation, and reduces time to market, Paap noted.
“When it comes time to troubleshoot, because you don’t have these manual jobs and you have that standardization layer that can help, the time to resolution is much faster,” Paap said.
A fully automated process can integrate with existing platforms, avoid human delays, and empower IT users, he said.
More information about Data Summit Connect 2021 is available here.
Replays of all Data Summit Connect 2021 sessions will be available to registered attendees for a limited time and many presenters are also making their slide decks available.