Transferring data from one physical medium to another, changing data format to another, or transferring data from one application to another, typically a newer one. These are all examples of a process konwn as data migration.
This requirement typically results from adding a new data system or storage medium. Furthermore application migration or consolidation, in which legacy systems are replaced or supplemented by new software that shares the same dataset, is typically the business engine. Data migrations are becoming more common these days as companies migrate from on-premises infrastructure and applications to cloud-based storage and applications in order to simplify or transform their businesses.
Businesses are generating ever-growing volumes of data today, and they are under increasing pressure to optimize the value they derive from it. In this environment, performance is increasingly dependent on selecting the best environments for your workloads and ensuring that your data is processed efficiently and easily available.
While from the surface the transferring data from one place to another might seem a relatively simple process, a very large percentage of such data migration projects quickly run into difficulties, that often result in un expected delays, budget overruns or outright project failure.
This stems from the fact that the act of migrating also implies significant effort to correct, clean and enrich the original data set in order for it to be useful in the receiving system. Naturally this is also dependent on the type of migration in question.
Types of data migration
Upgrading infrastructure or expanding a data center into the cloud has many business benefits. This is a natural progression for many companies. Companies that use the cloud expect to concentrate their workers on business goals, boost top-line growth, increase agility, reduce capital expenditures, and pay just for what they need on demand. On the other hand, the form of migration would decide how much time IT workers will devote to other projects.
Examples of different types of migration:
Migration of data storage: Moving existing arrays from data to more modern arrays allows other systems to access them. It provides dramatically quicker efficiency and cheaper scale while allowing planned data management features, including cloning, snapshots, and disaster retrieval and backup.
Migration of the cloud. The transition of data, software, or other business elements from a data center on-site to a cloud or from one cloud to the next. It also involves storage migration in many situations.
Migratory use. The way a request program is transferred from one setting to another. You may migrate the whole application to a cloud from an IT center, move between clouds, or shift the application's underlying data to a new application form hosted by a software provider.
Risks with data migration
As briefly outlined above the data migration project might be threatened by several risks in some cases even resulting in failure of the entire process. These ‘unseen’ risks have their origins in the nature of the original data itself as well as the expected outcome on the receiving system. In turn these can stem from the following high level interactions expected of the data set;
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How data attracts other data to it as it grows
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How data is integrated into a business and its relevance to the evolving business.
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How data becomes customized over time, as for instance more operational fields are added
Key points for Data Migration Success
In order to avert the risks associated with Data Migration it is of utmost importance for the project leader to correctly analyze the source data, in relation to the destination as well as the expected outcome. Crucially however it is vital to exhaustively identify all the necessary Data Correction, Data Validation and Data enhancement steps to be executed. Following this a project plan and associated activities are drawn up. The plan if correctly executed should thus result in a successful Data migration project that meets it objectives, budgets as well as deadlines.
For more information on the topic please contact Datatech as we have highly qualified consultants handling Data Migration in Malta and Libya.
