Red Gate Software, the database and .NET tooling company, today announced a new focus for its products: Database Lifecycle Management (DLM), the database component of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM).

Simon Galbraith, Red Gate CEO, said, “With DLM, we want to make the database a first-class citizen in the ALM process.

“Developers and DBAs will be able to treat databases just like any other part of the application. That includes adopting modern development processes, such as continuous integration and continuous delivery, to ship often, and ship safe.

“We’re just a few months away from releasing a full suite of tools that make this possible. Crucially for developers and DBAs, these tools will plug into whatever architecture they’re already using for ALM.

“For example, we have three engineering teams – about 60 people – working on database integration for tools from other ALM vendors: Octopus Deploy, Microsoft Team Foundation Server, Atlassian Bamboo, and JetBrains TeamCity.

“We plan to partner with other vendors in the ALM space to take this further.”

David Atkinson, Red Gate Product Strategist, said, “Building tools that work with existing architecture will make adoption easier for our users and give them flexibility in what they use.

“They can adopt a single tool to address a particular pain point, like source controlling their database, a group of tools to deliver processes such as continuous integration, or every tool to enable true DLM.”

Alongside its upcoming suite of tools for Database Lifecycle Management, Red Gate is launching two new products to help with database deployment: SQL Lighthouse and SQL Release.

SQL Lighthouse, currently in beta, checks for database drift – undocumented changes in database state, caused by hotfixes and other ad hoc changes, which can cause problems at deployment.

SQL Release is a PowerShell tool that plugs into release management tools and allows them to deploy databases.

Red Gate Software invests $2,000,000 in Octopus Deploy
Red Gate Software, the database and .NET tooling company, today announced a $2,000,000 investment in Octopus Deploy, a specialist in release management tools.

The investment follows Red Gate’s announcement that it is retiring Deployment Manager, its own release management tool, to partner with other vendors in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) space.

Simon Galbraith, Red Gate CEO, said, “Octopus Deploy is the best release management tool out there. That’s why we’ve invested in it. We’re recommending it to our customers as a replacement for Deployment Manager and many of them have already switched.

“This investment ensures that Octopus has sufficient resources to support our customers as they switch and to continue developing the tool.”

As well as investment, Red Gate is giving Octopus Deploy access to expertise in areas such as marketing and sales. Galbraith said, “Our intention is to free the Octopus Deploy team to build the best tool they can.”

The investment is the first in a series of partnerships that Red Gate plans to make in coming months, as part of its new focus on Database Lifecycle Management – the database component of ALM.

Galbraith said, “We want the database to be a first-class citizen in the ALM process. That means we want to partner with other release management providers, build system providers, and issue tracking providers.

“We’re investing financially and with our people – we already have 60 people in three engineering teams working to make databases integrate smoothly with tools from other vendors, including Octopus Deploy, Microsoft Team Foundation Server, Atlassian Bamboo, and JetBrains TeamCity.”

“Plug-ins powered by our industry-standard SQL Compare engine will be available in a few months, so database developers and DBAs can ship often, and ship safe.”