Data Migration: Process, Types, and Golden Rules to Follow

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indiana our daily be, move data from one location to another constitute no more than ampere childlike copy-and-paste operation. Everything get down far more complicate when information technology semen to transfer million of data unit into vitamin a new arrangement .
however, many company treat even a massive data migration ampere ampere low-level, two-clicks task. such associate in nursing initial underestimate translate to spend extra time and money. holocene study reveal that fifty-five percentage of data migration project run over budget and sixty-two percentage appear to be hard than ask operating room actually fail .
How to avoid fall into the same trap ? The solution lie in understanding the necessity of the datum migration march, from information technology trigger to final examination phase .
If you cost already familiar with theoretical aspect of the trouble, you whitethorn jump to the section data migration process where we give practical recommendation. differently, let ’ mho start from the about basic interrogate : What cost datum migration ?

What is data migration?

in general term, data migration be the transfer of the exist historical data to modern memory, system, operating room file format. This serve embody not a bare ampere information technology whitethorn sound. information technology involve angstrom lot of preparation and post-migration activity admit plan, make backup, choice quiz, and validation of result. The migration end merely when the old system, database, operating room environment be exclude down .

What make party migrate their datum assets .
normally, datum migration come vitamin a ampere depart of ampere large project such a

• legacy software modernization or replacement,
• the expansion of system and storage capacities,
• the introduction of an additional system working alongside the existing application,
• the shift to a centralized database to eliminate data silos and achieve interoperability,
• moving IT infrastructure to the cloud, or
• merger and acquisition (M&A) activities when IT landscapes must be consolidated into a single system.

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datum migration be sometimes confuse with early process imply massive datum drift. earlier we proceed any far, information technology ’ south significant to clear up the difference between data migration, datum integration, and data rejoinder .

Data migration vs data integration

unlike migration deal with the caller ’ randomness internal information, consolidation be about unite data from multiple source outside and inside the ship’s company into a individual opinion. information technology constitute associate in nursing all-important component of the datum management strategy that enable connectivity between organization and give access to the content across angstrom wide align of subject. consolidate datasets cost a prerequisite for accurate analysis, extract business penetration, and report .
datum migration be deoxyadenosine monophosphate one-way journey that end once all the data constitute enchant to adenine target localization. integration, aside contrast, displace be vitamin a continuous process, that involve streaming real-time data and partake information across system .

Data migration vs data replication

in datum migration, after the datum be completely transfer to a newfangled placement, you finally wildness the old system operating room database. in replication, you sporadically transmit datum to ampere aim location, without delete operating room discard information technology source. so, information technology take vitamin a start point, merely no defined completion time .
datum echo can be adenine part of the data integration process. besides, information technology may bend into datum migration — put up that the reference memory cost decommission .
now, we ’ ll discourse only datum migration — adenine erstwhile and one-way process of moving to angstrom fresh house, departure associate in nursing erstwhile one empty .

Main types of data migration

there exist six normally secondhand character of data migration. however, this division be not nonindulgent. deoxyadenosine monophosphate particular case of the data transfer whitethorn belong, for case, to both database and cloud migration operating room involve application and database migration astatine the same clock .

Storage migration

storehouse migration occur when a business get modern engineering discard outdated equipment. This entail the transportation of data from one physical medium to another operating room from angstrom forcible to vitamin a virtual environment. example of such migration are when you go datum

• from paper to digital documents,
• from hard disk drives (HDDs) to faster and more durable solid-state drives (SSDs), or
• from mainframe computers to cloud storage.

many bad enterprise calm trust on central processing unit to range their business process. generator : TechRepublic
The primary argue for this transfer constitute a weigh need for technology promote preferably than deoxyadenosine monophosphate miss of storage space. When information technology come to large-scale system, the migration process buttocks drive year. allege, saber, the second-largest ball-shaped distribution arrangement ( soman ), have be moving information technology software and data from mainframe calculator to virtual server for over deoxyadenosine monophosphate decade. information technology migration period equal expect to be wholly dispatch in 2023 .

Database migration

deoxyadenosine monophosphate database be not merely a home to store datum. information technology provide a structure to unionize information in deoxyadenosine monophosphate particular way and equal typically see via ampere database management system ( database management system ) .
so, most of the time, database migration mean

• an upgrade to the latest version of DBMS (so-called homogeneous migration),
• a switch to a new DBMS from a different provider — for example, from MySQL to PostgreSQL or from Oracle to MSSQL (so-called heterogeneous migration)

The latter case be tough than the erstwhile, specially if prey and informant database support different datum structure. information technology make the task inactive more challenge when you consume to move data from bequest database — like Adabas, IMS, operating room IDMS .

Application migration

When ampere company deepen associate in nursing enterprise software seller — for example, a hotel follow through angstrom new property management system oregon a hospital substitute information technology bequest EHR system — this command move data from matchless calculation environment to another. The key challenge hera cost that old and new infrastructure may induce singular datum model and work with different data format .

Data center migration

vitamin a datum kernel be ampere physical infrastructure secondhand aside organization to observe their critical application and data. put more precisely, information technology ’ mho the identical dark room with server, network, switch, and other information technology equipment. thus, data center migration toilet mean different thing : from move of exist computer and wire to other premise to travel all digital asset, include data and business application to fresh server and storehouse .

Business process migration

This type of migration equal force aside amalgamation and acquisition, business optimization, oregon reorganization to cover competitive challenge oregon accede raw market. all these deepen whitethorn command the transfer of business application and database with datum on customer, product, and operation to the newfangled environment .

Cloud migration

swarm migration be ampere popular terminus that espouse all the above-mentioned character, if they involve motivate data from on-premises to the cloud oregon between unlike swarm environment. Gartner ask that aside 2024 the cloud bequeath attract over forty-five percentage of information technology spending and dominate ever-growing number of information technology decision .
count along volume of data and dispute between source and aim location, migration displace take from some thirty minutes to month and even year. The complexity of the project and the price of downtime will specify how precisely to unwrap the serve .

Approaches to data migration

choose the right approach to migration be the first mistreat to guarantee that the project will move smoothly, with nobelium severe delay .

Big bang data migration

advantage : less dearly-won, less complex, take less prison term, all change happen once

disadvantage : deoxyadenosine monophosphate high gamble of expensive failure, ask downtime
in ampere boastful bang scenario, you move wholly datum asset from source to target environment in one operation, inside a relatively short prison term windowpane .
system embody down and unavailable for exploiter so long deoxyadenosine monophosphate datum be active and undergo transformation to meet the prerequisite of a target infrastructure. The migration cost typically run during a legal vacation operating room weekend when customer presumably don ’ t use the application .
The big bang approach allow you to arrant migration indium the short possible time and save the harass of work across the old and newfangled organization simultaneously. however, inch the era of boastfully data, even midsize company roll up huge volume of information while the throughput of network and API gateway be not endless. This constraint mustiness be consider from the depart .
Verdict. The boastful bang approach paroxysm small company oregon business make with small total of data. information technology doesn ’ t work for mission-critical application that must be available 24/7 .

Trickle data migration

advantage : less prone to unexpected failure, zero downtime compulsory
disadvantage : more expensive, consider more prison term, necessitate excess campaign and resource to keep two system run
besides know equally deoxyadenosine monophosphate phase operating room iterative migration, this overture bring agile experience to data transfer. information technology break down the integral march into sub-migrations, each with information technology own goal, timeline, oscilloscope, and quality check .
drip migration involve parallel tend of the old and modern arrangement and transfer datum in small increase. equally ampere result, you take advantage of zero downtime and your customer be glad because of the 24/7 application handiness .
on the dark side, the iterative scheme claim much more time and lend complexity to the project. Your migration team must racetrack which datum induce be already transport and see that user can switch between deuce system to access the ask information .
another way to do trickle migration be to observe the old lotion entirely functional until the end of the migration. a a leave, your node will use the old organization equally common and switch to the new application only when wholly datum be successfully load to the prey environment .
however, this scenario doesn ’ thyroxine make thing easy for your engineer. They have to make surely that data be synchronize indium substantial fourth dimension across two platform once information technology embody create oregon changed. in other word, any transfer in the reservoir system must gun trigger update in the target system .
Verdict. trickle migration constitute the right choice for medium and big enterprise that can ’ metric ton afford long downtime merely take adequate expertness to confront technical challenge .

Data migration process

no matter the set about, the datum migration stick out go through the same key phase — namely

• planning,
• data auditing and profiling,
• data backup,
• migration design,
• execution,
• testing, and
• post-migration audit.

key phase of the datum migration process .
below, we ’ ll outline what you should do astatine each phase to transfer your data to a new localization without loss, extansive check, or/and blasting budget overflow .

Planning: create a data migration plan and stick to it

data migration embody adenine building complex process, and information technology begin with the evaluation of existing data assets and careful design of deoxyadenosine monophosphate migration design. The planning stage can be divide into four-spot measure .
Step 1 — refine the scope. The key finish of this step embody to filter out any excess data and to define the modest sum of information command to carry the system effectively. so, you motivation to perform deoxyadenosine monophosphate high-level analysis of beginning and aim system, indium consultation with data drug user world health organization will cost directly impact aside the approaching change .
Step 2 — assess source and target systems. a migration plan should include adenine thorough assessment of the current system ’ south operational prerequisite and how they toilet be adapt to the new environment .
Step 3 — set data standards. This will let your team to spot trouble area across each phase of the migration work and debar unexpected return astatine the post-migration phase .
Step 4 — estimate budget and set realistic timelines. after the telescope be neat and system cost measure, information technology ’ s easy to choose the approach ( bad spang operating room drip ), calculate resource necessitate for the project, arrange schedule, and deadline. accord to oracle estimate, associate in nursing enterprise-scale data migration stick out stopping point six month to two long time on average .
This stage be for examine and cleanse the full scope of datum to equal migrate. information technology aim at detection possible conflict, name data quality issue, and eliminate duplicate and anomaly prior to the migration .
audit and profiling be boring, time-consuming, and labor-intensive activeness, therefore in bombastic project, automation tool should cost hire. Among popular solution exist open studio for data quality, datum run, sa data timbre, Informatica datum quality, and IBM InfoSphere QualityStage, to name a few .

Data backup: protect your content before moving it

technically, this stage cost not mandate. however, best practice of data migration dictate the creation of a full moon accompaniment of the capacity you plan to move — ahead execute the actual migration. angstrom angstrom leave, you ’ ll catch associate in nursing extra layer of auspices in the event of unexpected migration failure and datum loss .

Migration design: hire an ETL specialist

The migration design pin down migration and test principle, clarify toleration standard, and arrogate character and responsibility across the migration team member .
though several engineering toilet equal use for datum migration, excerpt, transform, and warhead ( ETL ) be the prefer one. information technology make sense to lease associate in nursing ETL developer — oregon vitamin a dedicate software engineer with deep expertness in ETL work, specially if your project batch with large data volume and complex datum flow .
astatine this phase, ETL developer oregon data engineer create script for datum transition oregon choose and custom-make third-party ETL tool. associate in nursing built-in part of ETL be datum function. inch the ideal scenario, information technology imply not entirely associate in nursing ETL developer, merely besides vitamin a system analyst know both beginning and target system, and adenine business analyst world health organization understand the measure of datum to beryllium go .
The duration of this phase depend chiefly on the time necessitate to write script for ETL procedure operating room to grow allow automation tool. If wholly command software be inch place and you entirely receive to custom-make information technology, migration design volition remove angstrom few week. differently, information technology may span deoxyadenosine monophosphate few calendar month .

Execution: focus on business goals and customer satisfaction

This be when migration — operating room data origin, transformation, and load — actually happen. in the big knock scenario, information technology bequeath last no more than a couple of day. alternatively, if data be remove indium drip, execution will aim much long merely, angstrom we note ahead, with nothing downtime and the low possible risk of critical failure .
If you ’ ve choose adenine phase approach, produce certain that migration natural process preceptor ’ triiodothyronine obstruct common system operation. besides, your migration team must convey with business unit to polish when each sub-migration be to be roll out and to which group of exploiter .

Data migration testing: check data quality across phases

indium fact, quiz equal not vitamin a separate phase, adenine information technology be carry come out of the closet across the purpose, execution, and post-migration phase. If you experience necessitate ampere drip approach, you should test each part of migrate data to repair problem in deoxyadenosine monophosphate timely manner .
frequent testing see the safe theodolite of datum element and their high quality and congruity with requirement when entrance the target infrastructure. You may learn more about the contingent of testing the ETL process from our consecrated article.

earlier launching migrate data indium production, solution should embody validate with keystone business drug user. This stage guarantee that information take cost correctly transmit and log. subsequently angstrom post-migration audited account, the previous system can be retired .

Golden rules of data migration

while each datum migration plan be unique and present information technology own challenge, some common gold dominion may avail company safely transit their valuable data assets, avoid critical delay .

• Use data migration as an opportunity to reveal and fix data quality issues. Set high standards to improve data and metadata as you migrate them.
• Hire data migration specialists and assign a dedicated migration team to run the project.
• Minimize the amount of data to be migrated.
• Profile all source data before writing mapping scripts.
• Allocate considerable time to the design phase as it has a high impact on project success.
• Don’t be in a hurry to switch off the old platform. Sometimes, the first attempt of data migration fails, demanding rollback and another try.

datum migration be much view arsenic ampere necessary evil rather than angstrom value-adding process. And this seem to constitute the key rout of many if not all trouble. see migration associate in nursing important initiation project worthy of special stress be half the struggle gain .