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Know What Makes a Perfect Data Migration Strategy

What are the Best Practices and Strategies For Data Migration

By Sheza GaryPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Big data has become integral for most modern businesses. And data migration, as well as data integration, need a seamless process. Without a proper data migration plan, companies are likely to face hassles, such as running over budget, ending up with enormous data processes, or inefficient data operations.

What is Data Migration?

When businesses move data from one system to another, it is called data migration. It seems to be a straightforward affair on the surface, but that is not so. It also involves changing storage, database, or application.

If the extract/transform/load (ETL) process is involved, then the data migration will call for at least the transform and load steps. Meaning, the data you extract has to undergo a sequence of functions in preparation. You can then load the data into the target location.

There is not one but multiple reasons for migrating data. You need to migrate data while overhauling an entire system, upgrading databases, establishing new data warehouses, or merging data from a recent acquisition. Data migration also becomes necessary when you deploy a new system to your existing applications.

Why is a Data Migration Strategy Important?

When you migrate data, regardless of the underlying purpose, the goal is only one--increasing competitiveness and performance.

You should be careful while migrating data as if you get it wrong, then inaccurate data is likely to result, and that will contain unknowns and redundancies. You can get such unwanted results even when the source data is accurate and usable. At the same time, issues that existed with the source data will be intensified when the data is wrongly migrated into a new system.

A faulty data migration strategy will create many problems, such as missing deadlines, exceeding budgets, or causing the migration project to fail. Therefore, you need to make sure that your data migration strategy is free of faults.

To execute a successful data migration project, you need to consider the following factors:

● Carry out a complete audit of the source data before migration. If you do not, then unexpected issues might arise post-migration.

● If you identify any issue with the source data, resolve that before migration. It might call for software tools or third-party resources.

● As data degrades over time, have the appropriate controls in place to maintain quality in data. Degraded data is unreliable.

● Have a mechanism in place to track and report on data quality as that will enable you to understand better the data integrity. Make sure the tools and processes you use are highly usable and capable of automating processes wherever possible.

Data Migration Strategies

You have the freedom to formulate your strategy for data migration in more than one way. But, you need to consider the specific needs of your business to establish the most effective approach.

Despite the availability of many ways of formulating your data migration strategy, two categories: "big bang" or "trickle."

Now, let us understand what they are:

Big Bang Migration

In a Big Bang data migration, you complete the entire data transfer within a specific time. During the process, live systems undergo downtime while data moves to the new database through ETL processing and transitions. And the business, during the transaction, has to operate with the corresponding resource offline.

Trickle Migration

In the Trickle data migrations, you can accomplish the migration in phases. During the data transfer process, the new and old systems run in parallel, eliminating downtime or interruptions. It enables data to migrate continuously.

The implementation is a bit complex when compared to the Big Bang method. However, if done right, it reduces risks substantially.

Best Practices for Data Migration

You can implement either of the data migration strategies, but there are some best practices that you should not miss out on, such as:

● Make sure that you back up the data before executing the migration strategy as you cannot afford to lose data.

● Ensure that you stick to your original migration plan and do not abandon the plan when you see things going on smoothly, as the migration process is complicated, and things might go out of hand anytime.

● Test the data migration during the planning, designing, and implementing phases to ensure that you have attained the correct outcome

Six Typical Steps in a Data Migration Strategy

Your data migration strategy will involve your business's specific needs, but the migration pattern is typical. The following are the steps:

Explore and Assess the Source

You need to thoroughly understand the data before you migrate it and know how it will fit into the target system. Therefore, it will help if you know beforehand what data is there and what is missing.

Define and Design the Migration

This phase involves determining the data migration type to implement-- big bang or trickle. You also need to draw out the technical architecture of the solution and detail the process of migration.

Build the Migration Solution

You need to ensure that the migration process is right. An easy tactic to implement is to break the data into subsets and construct categories, one at a time. And you should run a test subsequently.

Conduct a Live Test

Do not fall behind in conducting a test of your data migration design with real data so that you can ensure the correctness of the migration.

Flipping the Switch

You can proceed with the implementation after the testing is over. But, do not go off the style defined in the original plan.

Audit

Finally, you need to set up a system for auditing the data so that you can ensure the correctness of the migration.

Conclusion

If you want to upgrade your business's systems, moving to the cloud, or consolidating data, you cannot escape data migration. You need to ensure that everything goes right, and there should be no room for error. The tips described in this article will help you to attain your objective successfully.

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