Data Migration

                                                                                 Data Migration

What is data migration?

In general terms, Data Migration is the transfer of the current historical data to new storage, system, or file format. This process isn’t quite as basic as it might sound. It includes a great deal of preparation and post-migration activities including Planning, creating backups, quality testing, and approval of results. The migration ends just when the old system, database, or climate is closed down.

Normally, Data Migration comes as a piece of a bigger undertaking, for example,

• legacy software modernization or substitution,
• the development of framework and capacity limits,
• the presentation of an extra framework working alongside the existing application,
• the shift to a centralized database to eliminate information storehouses and accomplish interoperability,
• moving IT infrastructure to the cloud, or
• merger and acquisition (M&A) exercises when IT landscapes should be merged into a solitary framework.

 

Main type of Data Migration

There are six ordinarily utilized sorts of Data Migration. In any case, this division isn’t severe. A specific case of the data transfer might have a place, for instance, to both database and cloud migration or include application and database migration simultaneously.

Storage Migration

Storage Migration happens when a business gains modern technologies discarding out-of-date equipment. This involves the transportation of information starting with one physical medium then onto the next or from a physical to a virtual climate. examples of such migrations are the point at which you move information

• from paper to digital documents,
• from hard disk drives (HDDs) to quicker and more durable solid- state drives (SSDs), or
• from centralized server PCs to cloud storage.

The essential justification for this shift is a pressing need for innovation updates instead of an absence of extra storage space. When it comes to large-scale systems, the migration process can take years. Say, Sabre, the second-biggest global distribution system (GDS), has been moving its software and data from centralized server PCs to virtual servers for more than 10 years. Its migration Period is supposed to be altogether finished in 2023.

Database Migration

A database isn’t simply a place to store information. It gives a structure to organize data with a certain goal in mind and is commonly controlled by means of a database management system (DBMS).

In this way, more often than not, database migration implies

• a move up to the most recent version of DBMS (so-called homogeneous migration),
• a change to another DBMS from an alternate supplier — for e.g., from MySQL to PostgreSQL or from Oracle to MSSQL (so-called heterogeneous migration)

The last option case is harder than the previous, particularly if target and source database support different information structures. It makes the errand even more challenging when you need to move information from legacy databases — like Adabas, IMS, or IDMS.

Application migration

When a company changes an enterprise software vendor — for instance, a hotel implements a new property management system or a hospital replaces its legacy EHR system — this requires moving data from one computing environment to another. The key challenge here is that old and new infrastructures may have unique data models and work with different data formats.

 

Data Center Migration

A Data Center is a physical infrastructure utilized by associations to keep their critical applications and information. Put more precisely, it’s the exceptionally dark room with servers, networks, switches, and other IT equipment. So, data center migration can mean various things: from migration of existing PCs and wires to different premises to moving every digital asset, including information and business applications to new servers and storages.

 

Business process relocation

This kind of migration is driven by consolidations and acquisitions, business optimization, or reorganization to address serious difficulties or enter new business sectors. This multitude of changes might require the exchange of business applications and databases with data on clients, items, and activities to the new climate.

Cloud migration

Cloud migration is a famous term that embraces every one of the previously mentioned cases, in the event that they include moving information from on-premises to the cloud or between various cloud environments. Gartner expects that by 2024 the cloud will draw in north of 45% of IT spending and dominate consistently developing quantities of IT choices.

Depending upon volumes of information and contrasts among source and target areas, migration can take from approximately 30 minutes to months and even years. The complexity of the project and the expense of downtime will characterize how exactly to unwrap the process.

 

Approaches to data migration

Choosing the right approach to migration is the first step to ensure that the project will run smoothly, with no severe delays.

Big bang data migration

Advantages: less costly, less complex, takes less time, all changes happen once

Disadvantages: a high risk of expensive failure, requires downtime

In a big bang scenario, you move all data assets from source to target environment in one operation, within a relatively short time window.

Systems are down and unavailable for users so long as data moves and undergoes transformations to meet the requirements of a target infrastructure. The migration is typically executed during a legal holiday or weekend when customers presumably don’t use the application.

The big bang approach allows you to complete migration in the shortest possible time and saves the hassle of working across the old and new systems simultaneously. However, in the era of Big Data, even midsize companies accumulate huge volumes of information while the throughput of networks and API gateways is not endless. This constraint must be considered from the start.

Verdict. The big bang approach fits small companies or businesses working with small amounts of data. It doesn’t work for mission-critical applications that must be available 24/7.

Trickle Data Migration

Benefits: less inclined to surprising disappointments, zero free time required

Inconveniences: more costly, takes additional time, needs additional endeavors and resources to keep two systems running

Otherwise called a phased or iterative migration, this approach carries Agile experience to information transfer. It separates the whole process into sub-migrations, each with its own objectives, timetables, extension, and quality checks.

Trickle migration involves parallel running of the old and new systems and transferring data in small increments. As a result, you take advantage of zero downtime and your customers are happy because of the 24/7 application availability.

On the dark side, the iterative strategy takes much more time and adds complexity to the project. Your migration team must track which data has been already transported and ensure that users can switch between two systems to access the required information.

Another way to perform trickle migration is to keep the old application entirely operational until the end of the migration. As a result, your clients will use the old system as usual and switch to the new application only when all data is successfully loaded to the target environment.

However, this scenario doesn’t make things easier for your engineers. They have to make sure that data is synchronized in real time across two platforms once it is created or changed. In other words, any changes in the source system must trigger updates in the target system.

Verdict. Trickle migration is the right choice for medium and large enterprises that can’t afford long downtime but have enough expertise to face technological challenges.

Data migration process

No matter the approach, the data migration project goes through the same key phases — namely

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

 

                                                                                                                                                   Blog By: Priyanka Rana