Datical Inc., which makes software that automates the release of databases in sync with applications, is teaming up with Pivotal Software Inc. to make it easier for users of Pivotal’s DevOps-oriented Concourse continuous development platform to use Datical services.

Datical manages application database changes alongside application code and keeps everything – including code, people and processes – in sync as new releases move from development to production. It’s targeting a shortcoming of the typical application development process: “We are still manually updating our databases whenever we release an application,” said Robert Reeves, Datical’s co-founder and chief technology officer. The use of a manual update process “is mind-blowing with all the other technologies we’re adopting,” he said.

Concourse is a continuous integration/continuous delivery open source project that’s popular with Pivotal Cloud Foundry users because of its container-based builds, flexible integrations and visual dashboard. Inability to quickly change database schemas is a bottleneck in the agile development process that can delay code releases by days or longer, Reeves said.

Datical automatically examines SQL scripts created by developers and aligns them with a common object model. “We create a package so you have an immutable artifact that goes from development to test to production just like your app code,” Reeves said. The software checks for inefficiencies, such as the use of multiple indices or joins, and flags them before changing the schema.

“We do all the things that a database administrator does with a SQL script,” Reeves said. “We’ll review to make sure it’s syntactically correct and adheres to corporate and regulatory standards.”

The software currently works on Oracle Corp.’s namesake DBMS; IBM Db2 for Linux, Unix and Windows; Microsoft Corp.’s SQL Server; and EnterpriseDB Corp.’s Postgres DBMS. Future support is planned for Hadoop, MongoDB, Cassandra and MySQL and its variants, Reeves said.

Datical’s containerized image can be run with Concourse as part of a testing pipeline to enable application development teams to push application and database changes through the release cycle at the same time. The company’s will cross-sell each other products, although the arrangement isn’t exclusive, Reeves said.

Image: Flickr CC