In today’s fast-changing database environment, development teams are always looking for ways to improve their deployment processes. While Azure DevOps offers a solid framework for application development, integrating Redgate Flyway into this setup can greatly simplify and enhance database deployments. It’s important to recognize that Flyway works alongside Azure DevOps, boosting its capabilities rather than replacing them.

Flyway doesn’t replace Azure DevOps – it enhances it

Azure DevOps provides a wide range of tools for managing the application lifecycle, including version control, build pipelines, and release management. However, challenges can arise in database deployments, such as schema versioning, migration consistency, and rollback mechanisms.

This is where Flyway comes into play. Flyway is a database migration tool that focuses on simplicity and convention over configuration. By incorporating Flyway into Azure DevOps, teams can automate database migrations, ensuring that schema changes are versioned, tested, and deployed consistently across all environments.

Streamlining the deployment process

• Version Control: Flyway allows teams to manage database migrations alongside application code in Azure Repos. This integrated approach ensures that both application and database changes are in sync, minimizing discrepancies between development and production environments.
• Automated Deployments: By integrating Flyway into Azure Pipelines, database deployments can be carried out smoothly as part of the overall application release process. This alignment brings database and application deployment closer together, resulting in a more cohesive and efficient release cycle. This automation reduces the need for manual intervention, lowering the risk of human error and ensuring consistent deployments.
• Fix Failed Releases Faster: Flyway’s support for undo migrations gives teams the option to reverse changes rapidly, or deploy fixes faster, to help you get systems back online more quickly if something goes wrong.

Addressing industry trends

Redgate’s 2025 State of the Database Landscape report highlights a significant trend towards consolidating database platforms. The proportion of organizations using a single database platform has increased from 21% in 2023 to 26% in 2024. This shift aims to simplify the complexities associated with training, integration, and monitoring.

By integrating Flyway with Azure DevOps, teams can effectively navigate these complexities, ensuring that database deployments are both streamlined and consistent, no matter the underlying platform.

Conclusion

Incorporating Flyway into your Azure DevOps workflow doesn’t replace existing tools, it enhances them, leading to a more robust and efficient database deployment process. This integration allows development teams to manage database changes with the same level of rigor and automation as application code, resulting in more reliable and predictable deployments.

To gain a deeper insight into the current database landscape and the advantages of such integrations, consider looking into Redgate’s 2025 State of the Database Landscape report.