The Data Migration Journey: Why and How to Migrate
As businesses look to grow existing IT assets, they may find they’re limited by decisions made 5-10 years earlier. This is an issue commonly associated with legacy applications, which can inhibit future growth. This has led to a number of organisations migrating applications to the cloud, with the obvious benefits being elasticity and scalability.
Elasticity is the ability to grow or shrink infrastructure resources dynamically as needed to adapt to workload changes, maximising resource use. Scalability, on the other hand, includes the ability to increase workload size within existing infrastructure without impacting performance.
However, the journey to cloud migration in 2024 comes with some new considerations. Let’s explore how businesses are navigating these changes, particlarly in the area of data migration.
Data Migration and the Cloud
With many businesses looking to migrate to the cloud, the most pressing concern is often around data. What happens to the data I just spent 5 years collecting? This data is generally business-critical, so it can’t be abandoned. The answer: data migration.
Getting your data from point A to point B might seem easy – just a “Control C, Control V” task. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Unless you want to manually input every piece of data collected over the past several years, a data migration strategy is essential.
Migration Steps
There are three key steps to a data migration:
1. Extract data
2. Transform data
3. Load data
Doesn’t sound too hard, right? So, why are only 60% of data migrations completed on time? One reason could be the IT department’s limited resources. With businesses already stretching their IT resources, it’s difficult to add a full-scale data migration to the mix. Other tasks are prioritised, and suddenly the data migration is two months overdue.
Alternatively, outsourcing the migration comes with its own risks. If the migration agency doesn’t conduct a detailed analysis of the client’s infrastructure at the beginning of the process, issues may arise down the line. A strong understanding of the architecture allows the migration agency to anticipate potential problems.
Once the new architecture has been tested and approved, it’s time to migrate the data. A migration script, typically using SQL (Structured Query Language), will move the data to the new database. After migration, audit trails and logs are crucial to ensure that the data has been correctly transferred.
Updates for 2024
In 2024, the cloud migration landscape continues to evolve, and several new trends and technologies influence the data migration process:
1. Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud: Many businesses now adopt multi-cloud or hybrid cloud strategies to avoid vendor lock-in and enhance flexibility. This adds complexity to data migration, as organisations need to ensure compatibility and smooth data flow between different cloud environments. Data migration tools must now support diverse platforms to facilitate a seamless transition.
2. Increased Use of Automation: Advances in AI and machine learning have led to the development of more sophisticated migration tools that can automate various stages of the data migration process, reducing the manual workload and improving the success rate of migrations. These automated tools not only simplify migration but also identify and resolve issues faster, contributing to the on-time completion of migration projects.
3. Zero Downtime Migrations: The expectation for zero or minimal downtime during migration has become more prevalent, particularly for mission-critical applications. Modern strategies like phased migration, data replication, and real-time syncing are increasingly important in 2024. Businesses now have access to tools that can synchronise data between the old and new environments to ensure continuous availability during migration.
4. Data Privacy Regulations: With data privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA still in full force, and newer regulations potentially emerging, compliance during data migration has become a top priority. Businesses need to ensure that data remains secure and compliant throughout the process, necessitating careful planning and risk assessments to avoid breaches or non-compliance penalties.
Stay Secure
The most important consideration when conducting a data migration is security. You need your data to remain secure while it’s moved from the legacy application to the cloud application. This means using encrypted connections, monitoring access logs, and ensuring that data governance policies are enforced during the migration.
