From Bottleneck to Breakthrough: Gain Control and Confidence in Your Monolithic Database Changes

Redgate Software

Nov 3, 2026

This webinar explains how development teams can speed up database changes in a monolithic database without rewriting or replacing it, using Redgate Flyway for version control, automated code review, undo scripts, drift detection, and auditable deployments across SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

Monolithic databases sit at the core of mission-critical systems, especially in finance and other regulated industries, but they become a bottleneck when every change feels risky. Most organizations don't break them apart all at once. They stabilize the core, manage dependencies, and make controlled, incremental changes. Pat Wright, PostgreSQL Advocate at Redgate, covers when and how to break up a monolith (and what not to do). Andrew Pierce, Flyway Solutions Architect at Redgate, then shows a live database change workflow with governance, visibility, and compliance built in.

In this session you'll learn:

How teams accelerate change in monolithic systems without rewriting or replacing them
Why control and visibility are key to moving faster
How to support modernization across complex, multi-database environments

Chapters

0:00 Welcome and introductions

3:20 What is a monolith database?

4:48 Why monoliths matter: complexity, speed, security, audits, and AI

6:51 Do you need to break up your monolith?

8:18 Where to start: project team, stakeholders, testing, and documentation

12:02 What not to do when breaking up a monolith

16:12 Key takeaways: ownership, criticality, scale, and your "hidden jewel"

20:44 Flyway demo: collaboration and control for database changes

24:57 Capture dev database changes in Git with Flyway Desktop and SQL Prompt warnings

32:28 Update your dev database from version control, and local dev environments

35:57 Generate migration scripts, dependency detection, and code analysis policies

39:42 Auto-generated undo (rollback) scripts

42:24 Verify changes locally and the Flyway schema history table

46:11 CI pipeline validation, pull requests, and Git cherry-pick

49:17 Release pipeline to test and production, with drift and change reports

52:36 Audit trail, approvals, and control through CI/CD

54:14 Flyway across Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MySQL

55:48 Wrap-up and questions

Common questions this video answers

Do I need to break up my monolithic database? Not always. You can work with a monolith by making controlled, incremental changes.
Can Flyway handle enterprise database change management, not just migrations? Yes. The demo covers version control, code analysis policies, undo scripts, drift and change reports, approvals, and a full audit trail.
Does Flyway support rollback and drift detection? Yes. Both are shown in the demo.
Does Flyway only work with SQL Server? No. It supports SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and other database engines.

Tools and products shown: Redgate Flyway (Flyway Desktop), SQL Prompt, SSMS, Git, Visual Studio Code, Azure DevOps. Flyway also integrates with GitHub, GitLab, and other CI/CD systems.

Learn more about Flyway: https://www.red-gate.com/products/flyway/

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