Data migration opens up advanced opportunities to cope with these tasks and contributes to data-driven business development. In the current business environment, data is the main driver for a company’s growth. You require a smart approach to manage it, gain valuable insights and keep your information safe.
WHAT IS DATA MIGRATION?
The data migration is the process of transferring information from its current storage environment to another location. The main reason for data migration is streamlining work with datasets, making them more accessible, flexible and secure.
The data migration process may seem as simple as copy and paste. However, there is often a need for a more competent approach, a more simple data migration plan, and the careful selection of necessary tools and services.\
MORE ON TOPIC: The Guide to Data Migration | Types, Tools, Approaches, Challenges, Phases and Comparisons
TYPES OF DATA MIGRATION
The selection of necessary resources for the data migration process depends on the type of migration data. There are three types of data migration:
Storage migrationThis process implies changing where the data is stored and moving information to a more business-specific and secure site
Cloud migrationThe most popular type of data migration. More and more companies understand the business value of cloud infrastructure, especially when data security significantly matters to them.
Application migrationAn application and its corresponding data are transferred to a different storage environment.
Depending on the type of migration, you will need a specific data migration plan.
WHAT IS A DATA MIGRATION PLAN?
A data migration plan is a document that describes your data migration and transfer strategy. A data migration plan template may consist of the following sections.
Overview. This introductory section contains a brief overview of your data migration project plan.
Introduction. It states the primary goal of migrating data.
Assumptions, bottlenecks, risks, and gaps. In this section, you need to provide an overview of the possible challenges you face if you are aware of them.
Architecture. Here you need to describe the current state of your data storage architecture and detail the future one, including the benefits to your business.
Development tools and the core approach of your data migration plan. There are several approaches to data migration, the Big bang data migration (you migrate data in one step) and tickle data migration (when the data is transferred in pieces). The choice of the data migration tool depends on the approach you plan to follow.
Data migration testing and validation. It is the last stage of testing data operations in the new environment and validating the overall success of your data migration plan.
HOW TO PLAN A DATA MIGRATION PROJECT
Below is a step-by-step strategy to plan and perform your data migration project.
Identify your data format and its location. Evaluate data sensitivity. According to most migration plans, the first step in the process is identifying the current data location and re-assessing the weak points of the current storage. Next, you should focus on your data format and evaluate the level of data sensitivity. The last point will help define the right secure environment to which the data transfers and the necessary data migration software.
Plan the size and scope of the project. At this point, you have to evaluate the complexity of your data migration and communicate it to the main stakeholders.
Back up your data. Your data migration plan should state the need to make a data backup. While the core goal of data migration plans is to provide your data with some immunity in the process of transfer, practical experience suggests that you may face the need to roll the process back and try again.
Access the necessary resources. Here, you need to define what expertise and professional skills you need to migrate your data. If there is no in-house talent to do this, consider getting in touch with a third-party data migration vendor.
Execute your data migration plan. When a data migration company supports you, it is easier to seamlessly execute your plan and achieve the goal of data migration.
Testing and validation. Like with custom software development, you need to test a new system to make sure it has no connectivity gaps.
DATA MIGRATION CHALLENGES
Like with any other business transformation process, you may face some challenges when migrating your data. A data migration plan and corresponding strategy allow you to predict and overcome them. However, you still require to keep the most common pitfalls in mind. They include:
Confusion and disorganization. You can solve this issue by carefully developing and validating your data migration plan and the strategy that powers it.
We have a business case pointing out the clear need for a proper data migration organization. We have dealt with the data migration, and the process of planning took much more time than the process of migration itself. The complexity of the case was largely determined by the fact that the company has used HPQC (an obsolete legacy data management system) and wanted to move it to Jira, namely its specialized X-ray plugin. Each system had its own entities and processes that other systems didn’t have, and we had to carry out the transfer with minimal losses. But with the proper planning, everything worked out.
Data loss. One more challenge we have faced within the case was minimizing data loss because the amount of data was quite large, and its processes were very different to compare. To deal with this possible pitfall, we defined crucial and non-crucial data arrays and sacrificed non-critical information when there was no way to include it in the migration.
Compatibility. Sometimes you may find that the new software can’t handle and process the amount of data you need to transfer. The solution to this challenge is a careful analysis of a new environment: whether it can cope with the tasks.
CONCLUSION
There are two success factors of seamless data migration. You require a clear data migration plan and strategy, plus a tech-savvy vendor to help you with this process. Cprime has executed multiple successful data migration projects, overcoming and seeing the possible challenges in advance. We also have experience with legacy systems, so get in touch with us to get your business to a more efficient and data-driven development path.
FAQs
What are the 3 main DB migration strategies? ›
- Using a database migration system.
- Using database management system replication functionality.
- Using custom database migration functionality.
- Start Small to Test the Waters. ...
- Make Sure the New Site is Better than the Old One. ...
- Set Up Tracking Prior to Migrating a Website. ...
- Establish a Thorough 301 Redirect Map. ...
- Get a Jump Start on Promoting the New Site's Location. ...
- Don't Dilly-Dally on the Final Execution.
Ensure Data Is Backed Up
Effective data backup procedures should be part of your data management plan even when you aren't migrating. However, as with any other change to your data, a migration requires extra care for backups. Ideally, all data should be backed up as immediately before the migration as possible.
A successful migration identifies the potential causes of downtime and eliminates them through high levels of automation, efficient project management and use of the right skills. By minimizing migration downtime, organizations can achieve the benefits of cloud while maintaining business as usual.
What are the two data migration strategies? ›Big Bang and Trickle Strategies: Most data migration strategies are either big bang or trickle migrations. During a big bang data migration, organizations accomplish the entire transfer in a short timeframe.
What are the 4 pull factors of migration? ›The Pull Factors are factors which attract the migrants to an area. Opportunities for better employment, higher wages, facilities, better working conditions and attractive amenities are pull factors of an area.
What are 7 R's in cloud migration planning? ›This data must be evaluated against the seven common migration strategies (7 Rs) for moving applications to the AWS Cloud. These strategies are refactor, replatform, repurchase, rehost, relocate, retain, and retire. For more information, see the 7 Rs in the glossary.
What are 5 R's in cloud migration? ›Amazon Web Services (AWS) adopted this model and extended it to the 6 R's: Re-host, Re-platform, Re-factor/Re-architect, Re-purchase, Retire and Retain. This post covers the basics for each of these and explains how to decide which AWS migration strategy to choose for your applications.
What are the 5 stages of migration? ›There are five common migration approaches: Retire, Replace, Rehost, Rearchitect, and Retain.
Which strategies are included in the six strategies for application migration? ›- Rehost | Lift-and-optimize. ...
- Replatform | Lift-tinker-and-shift. ...
- Repurchase | Drop and shop. ...
- Refactor | Re-architect. ...
- Retire | Remove. ...
- Retain | Do nothing and revisit later.
What are the things that need to be anticipated and prepared prior migration? ›
- Living arrangements. One of the first things you want to do is buying a home a car. ...
- Language barriers. ...
- 3.Culture. ...
- 4.Working or doing business. ...
- 5.Visas. ...
- 6.Services and facilities. ...
- 7.Medical. ...
- 8.Safety.
- Step 1: Identify the data format, location, and sensitivity. ...
- Step 2: Choose a method of tracking your findings. ...
- Step 3: Plan for the size and scope of the project. ...
- Step 4: Write out a flexible timeline. ...
- Step 5: Assess staff. ...
- Step 6: Make sure your data is clean.
Pull factors include higher wages, better employment opportunities, a higher standard of living and educational opportunities. If economic conditions are not favourable and appear to be at risk of declining further, a greater number of individuals will probably migrate to countries with a better outlook.
What is the main goal during a data migration project? ›Data Migration Goals
Ensuring data is completely and accurately migrated from the source platform to the target platform in accordance with company policies and relevant compliance standards. This means there are no records in the target environment that are missing, incomplete, or failed some form of validation.
The driving force behind the mass movement was to escape racial violence, pursue economic and educational opportunities, and obtain freedom from the oppression of Jim Crow.
What are 6 pull factors of migration? ›...
Common pull factors include:
- Employment opportunities.
- Higher income.
- Better working conditions and facilities.
- Educational opportunities.
- Higher living standards.
- Better public services.
- Religious freedom.
- Freedom of expression.
- Disable change tracking.
- Enable set-based processing.
- Create a data migration batch group.
- Enable priority-based batch scheduling.
- Configure the maximum number of batch threads.
- Import in batch mode.
- Clean staging tables.
- Update statistics.
The two main types of factors that cause the migration of people are push and pull factors. Factors that pull or attract people to a place are known as pull factors. Factors that cause people to leave a place or be pushed out are known as push factors.
What are the different types of migration techniques? ›- Storage Migration. ...
- Database Migration. ...
- Application Migration. ...
- Cloud Migration. ...
- Business Process Migration. ...
- Data Center Migration. ...
- Big Bang Data Migration Approach. ...
- Trickle Data Migration Approach.
Examples of push factors include war, political instability, famine, and drought, among others. Examples of pull factors include political stability, lots of jobs, natural resources, better learning institutions, and better climate.
What is one of the strongest pull factors in migration? ›
For instance, the pull factors influencing migration include economic factors such as employment opportunities, better shelter and higher standards of living. Pull factors also include social and political factors such as better healthcare facilities, religious tolerance and freedom from persecution.
What are 3 common pull factors? ›Pull factors “pull” people to a new home and include things like better opportunities. The reasons people migrate are usually economic, political, cultural, or environmental.
What are four four important factors of planning cloud deployment? ›Organizations must take into account four important factors: security, performance, integration and legal requirements.
What are the major components of a migration plan? ›What are the major components of a migration plan? One part of the migration plan is the technical plan, which discusses how the new technology will be implemented in the organization. The other major part of the migration plan is the organizational plan, which helps users adjust to and adopt the new system.
What are the 5 process to simply cloud migration? ›- Analysis of the existing system landscape and infrastructure.
- Formulating KPIs.
- Understanding the key pain points of the legacy infrastructure.
- Determining success drivers for the future cloud infrastructure.
- Cost Savings (TCO)
- Staff Productivity.
- Operational Resilience.
- Business Agility.
- Uptime.
- Loss of data.
- Data storage.
- Compliance.
- Business continuity.
- Data integrity in cloud computing.
5 R principles (Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Recover) are adopted for effective management of plastic wastes. ∙ Refuse means to avoid the use of plastic items which are not needed. ∙ Reduce means to minimise the use of plastics and instead use alternatives.
What are the 4 stages of migration? ›Migration-inter-regional-intraregional and international.
What are the 7 types of migration? ›- Internal migration: moving within a state, country, or continent.
- External migration: moving to a different state, country, or continent.
- Emigration: leaving one place to move to another.
- Immigration: moving into a new place.
- Return migration: moving back to where you came from.
What are the three stages of migration? ›
The first stage is pre-migration, involving the decision and preparation to move. The second stage, migration, is the physical relocation of individuals from one place to another. The third stage, postmigration, is defined as the "absorption of the immigrant within the social and cultural framework of the new society".
Which migration strategy should be used to quickly move an application? ›Lift and shift is a beginner's approach to start with application migration or optimization. This approach delivers a quick and easy cloud migration solution as it can be migrated with minimal application disruption.
What are 4 barriers to migration? ›Linguistic and cultural differences, housing transaction costs and a lack of portability of pension rights across countries are all potential obstacles to migration.
What are the factors to be considered before migration? ›- Migration Architecture. The first step before migrating to the cloud is building a robust migration architecture. ...
- Cloud Platform Assessment. ...
- Total Cost. ...
- Cloud Provider. ...
- Security.
- Code Performance Analyzer.
- ABAP Code Fixing Tool.
- Project Management and Sprint Planning.
- Explore and Assess the Source. Before migrating data, you must know (and understand) what you're migrating, as well as how it fits within the target system. ...
- Define and Design the Migration. ...
- Build the Migration Solution. ...
- Conduct a Live Test. ...
- Flipping the Switch. ...
- Audit.
Collectively known as the “6Rs of migration,” the migration process involves, Retiring, Retaining, Rehosting, Replatforming, Refactoring, and Re-architecting.
What are positive factors for migration? ›- The opportunity to get a better job.
- Improved quality of life.
- Safety from conflict.
- The opportunity for a better education.
The challenges of data migration can vary depending on the size and complexity of the project but some examples include the availability of skilled resources, time constraints for implementation, and compatibility issues between systems.
Which tool is best for data migration? ›- Data Migration Tools: Hevo Data.
- Data Migration Tools: Fivetran.
- Data Migration Tools: Matillion.
- Data Migration Tools: Stitch Data.
- Data Migration Tools: AWS Data Pipeline.
- Data Migration Tools: Integrate.io.
- Data Migration Tools: IBM Informix.
- Data Migration Tools: Azure DocumentDB.
How do I write a migration plan? ›
- Identify the Current Status of Your Data.
- Determine the Size and Scope of the Data Migration Plan.
- Assess Current Ability To Execute Data Migration Plan.
- Ensure Data Is Backed Up.
- Execute Data Migration Plan.
- Assess Data Migration Results.
- Follow-Up and Finalize Data Migration.
As pointed out earlier, data migration is the process of moving data between locations, formats, or systems. Data migration includes data profiling, data cleansing, data validation, and the ongoing data quality assurance process in the target system.
How do I know if my data migration was successful? ›Check whether all the schema changes (fields and tables added or removed) as per the new system are updated. Data migrated from the legacy to the new application should retain its value and format unless it is not specified to do so. To ensure this, compare data values between legacy and new application's databases.
What are migration strategies? ›A cloud migration strategy is the high-level plan an organization adopts to move existing on-premises and/or co-located application workloads and their associated data into the cloud.