Data Migration is the data transfer between different types of file formats, databases and storage systems

Data Migration

Why Data Migration?

Data Migration projects within organisations are common and often the result of a need to:

Replace inadequate legacy systems
Transfer data to the cloud, eliminating on-premise IT infrastructure costs
Reduce operational costs by moving to a system that demands less storage space
Achieve a competitive advantage
Adopt or refresh a Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity Plan

Database, Application, Storage and Cloud are all types of data migration. Extract, Load, Transform (ETL) is widely acknowledged as the preferred data migration technology as it can handle the complexity of big data sets and integration between multiple systems and platforms.

A successful enterprise data migration includes a number of key steps:

Identification of your business objectives

Any good project, whatever its type must have at least one objective. For a Data Migration project that may be a platform move (i.e. on-premise to cloud), technology refresh or database application replacement. Remember to keep your objective in mind throughout the project.

Comprehensive data analysis

Know your data before you move it. How much do you have and in what format, what are your storage requirements and what is the anticipated growth of that data.

Data collection and cleanse

Tidy-up the data before moving it. This should include deleting obsolete, out-dated and unused fields. Use a data integration platform (like FME!) to convert enterprise wide data into a single format.

Data sort and validation

Categorising of your data in accordance with your migrationrequirements i.e. data organised by product type. Assess your data rules and map out any exceptions