At a glance, the process of data migration seems almost deceptively simple. You’re simply moving data from one place to another. It’s a process that millions of businesses and organizations undertake every year for a wide variety of reasons.
However, if the data migration process is not done perfectly then the result may be negative. This could be lengthy and expensive problems for your business further down the line. Not all data is created equal. This means that the chances of a successful data migration depend largely on the systems that data is traveling between. It also depends on how the data is formatted.
The market for data migration services is expected to be worth a staggering $12 billion by 2022. This is because good practice is increasingly important for security, efficiency, and legality concerns. If you’re wondering where to start, look no further. Here’s everything you need to know about successful data migration.
Know What Kind of Data Migration You’re Doing
Across all industries, there are usually four clearly defined types of data migration. It’s crucial to know which data migration process applies to your company before going forward. There are:
- Storage migration: Often described as the most simple form of data migration. This one simply involves moving sets of data from one piece of hardware to another. This could be physical hard drives, USB flash drives, or even disks.
- Application migration: This one is much more comprehensive. When an application “vendor” or host is changed, pretty much everything else needs to be changed. This is because all applications operate on a specific data model.
- Business protection migration: This one most often applies to businesses that undergo a merger. Therefore they need to align data with their partner. This can take the form of moving all data to the other business’s network, or creating a new one that can host the data of both businesses.
- Database migration: This describes the process of shifting whole databases from one place to another. This is usually done to allow for software upgrades.
Identify the Key Challenges
Anyone who knows first-hand what is data migration will be aware of the challenges that come with it. There are the challenges of making sure personal data is transferred securely in a way that complies with data protection laws.
There are more practical issues of merging two differently formatted types of data into a common “data warehouse”. There are the logistical issues around letting all stakeholder know about the data transfer.
There’s the issue of “clean-up” and making sure anything left on an unused server is deleted. Compile your checklist before starting.
Use the Right Tools
If you plan to migrate data efficiently, you’ll want to be using the right data migration tools. You should consider hiring expert migration support services that will be able to streamline the process for you.
You should also have some comprehensive tools to allow you to continue the process. If you’re undergoing cloud-based data migration, then solutions such as Alooma or FiveTran are what you should be looking for.
If you’re undergoing so-called “on-premise” data migration, then you should take a look at installing Microsoft SQL or IBM Infosphere as a bare minimum.
Learn More
To learn more about how to ensure effective data migration and to find the right services for your company, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today. We have all of the expert advice you could ever need.
