Data is the salient and paramount element that drives the success and affluence of any enterprise. It influences major aspects of planning and strategizing stages while playing a major role in optimization of processes.
According to technical experts, data has changed tremendously with time in terms of nature, quality and quantity. With legacy systems becoming inefficient to cope up with diverse datasets, enterprises are compelled to migrate to modern-day data processing systems.
What is Data Migration?
Data migration is referred to as the process of transferring data from one location to another new and improved system or location. It effectively selects, prepares and transforms data to permanently transfer it from one system storage to another. With the focus of enterprises increasing on optimization and technological advancements, they are availing database migration services to move from their on-premises infrastructure to cloud-based storage and applications.
Types of Data Migration
System up-gradations and cloud migrations provide businesses with opportunities to surge their agility, enhance growth, and determine business priorities. It reduces the amount of capital expenses while transferring applications to an improved and innovative environment.
There are three main data migration types:
- Cloud Migration: It is the process of moving data, applications and all important business elements from on-premise data center to the cloud, or from one cloud to another.
- Application Migration: Involves transfer of application programs to a modern environment. It may move an entire application system from on-premise IT center to the cloud or between clouds.
- Storage Migration: It is the process of moving data to a modern system from outdated arrays. It enhances the performance while offering cost-effective scaling.
Many service providers offer business process migration which is related to an enterprise’s business activities. It replaces and updates business management tools and moves data from one database or application to another.
Benefits of Data Migration
Some benefits reaped by enterprises from database migration solutions include:
- The process ensures comprehensive data integrity
- Reduces media and storage costs with significant improvements in ROI
- Minimizes disruption to daily business operations with minimal manual efforts
- Upgrades underlying applications and services while boosting efficiency and effectiveness
- Helps in scaling of resources to meet growing needs of business datasets
While providing numerous benefits to enterprises, data migration also helps in building customer base as it eliminates various obstacles that may hamper the customer-company relationship.
Steps to a Successful Data Migration
Data migration is a complex procedure. Since it is more than just transferring content from one place to another, it requires the expertise of globally recognized certified consultants to successfully implement a data migration process. Here are the steps involved in the procedure:
- Development of strategies that solidify objectives
- Overall assessment and analysis of the content
- Preparation
- Classification, extraction and categorization of the content
- Validation, staging and checking of content
- Exportation
- Decommissioning and disposing off old systems
Database migration automates data synchronization with minimal disruptions and turmoil. It helps enterprises to meet recovery point objectives while ensuring a smooth and efficient functioning.
