Redgate just launched SQL Clone, a new product that can provision copies of databases in seconds. By copies, I mean full sized, up to 2TB copies of your database, each separate and isolated, and built in seconds. What’s even more amazing is that each of these copies takes just a few MB of space.

As a launch contest, Redgate is giving away 5 Amazon Echo Dots to some lucky individuals. The overall winner will also receive a copy of SQL Clone. To enter, you need to to tell us what “skill” for Alexa you would build. Perhaps you want to know if any backups failed. Maybe you want to know how many deployments you’ve made to your database. Perhaps you just want to have the Dot remind you to pull the lasagna out of the oven. Just let us know in the comments section below to enter and good luck.

At Redgate, we had some fun with SQL Clone and an echo, building an Alexa skill that provisions a database using your voice. Not terribly practical, but that might be fun if a developer gets annoyed and wants to yell at Alexa to create a a new database clone. You can see how they built the real skill here (or watch the video).

Over the last few years I’ve been talking DevOps for databases with lots of people, and one of the obstacles many people face is using a shared database for development.

Why? Often because the developers need a certain amount of data and they use a copy of production. They also don’t have (or want to use) the disk space to give everyone a copy of the database. With SQL Clone, you can see that my 97GB database uses only 49MB for each developer.

Take a walkthrough of SQL Clone and see how it works for you. Download the 14 day free trial and see how SQL Clone might help you smooth your database development process.

Terms and conditions apply: http://www.red-gate.com/products/dba/sql-clone/entrypage/competition-terms-and-conditions

Filed under: Blog Tagged: Redgate, SQL Clone, syndicated