Seeking to narrow the time gap between DevOps applications and the database management systems that drive them, Datical Inc. is expanding its database automation tools  to support the IBM Corp. Db2 platform on the z/OS operating systems.

The company already supports Oracle Corp.’s namesake DBMS as well as IBM Db2 for Linux, Unix and Windows; Microsoft Corp.’s SQL Server; and EnterpriseDB Corp.’s Postgres DBMS.

Datical’s platform provides a database change management system that can be integrated with the automation tools that DevOps teams already use. “DevOps and agile techniques have led to more frequent deployments but also more frequent database changes,” said Pete Pickerill, vice president of product strategy at Datical. “This is about providing the same level of automation for the database that exists for the application.”

Introduced in 1983, Db2 is the world’s sixth most popular database, according to DB-Engines. More importantly, it’s the relational engine of choice at many large enterprises, particularly the version that runs on the z/OS mainframe platform.

Datical’s product manages application database changes alongside application code and keeps everything – including code, people and processes – in synch as new releases move from development to production. “We can do a lot of automated validation, such as enforcing naming standards, coding standards, functions and procedures,” Pickerill said. “All of that validation happens at initial build time instead of waiting for a database administrator to approve it. We’re applying automation to the validation process so DBAs spend much less time reviewing scripts and don’t have to examine every line of SQL.”

The company provides a library of standard rules but also enables developers to build their own. Turnkey integration is available with automation tools from IBM, CA Technologies Inc. and the Open Source Jenkins toolset. There’s also a command line interface developers can use to integrate with other automation tools.

The company claims it can reduce downtime related to database errors by between 80 and 90 percent. “It’s about discovering the bad programming practices or changes earlier when they’re easier to address,” Pickerill said. The Datical platform is licensed on a logical partition basis. Pricing wasn’t disclosed.

Image: Datical