Data migration is the process of moving data from one system or storage device to another. This can include moving data from the source operating system to a new target system, application migration of data from one app to another, or storage migration from on-premises data storage to a cloud platform, such as data warehouses and data lakes. Although there are various ways of moving data, every type of migration can benefit from having a migration strategy.
Ensuring proper data transfer is a key component of data migration plans. This means that there need to be contingencies in place to ensure no data is lost as part of the transfer. This will often require ensuring that the current data storage solution is backed up in a secondary location before starting any migration. Data management is an especially important consideration when conducting a database migration. This includes ensuring there is adequate memory and data storage available, as well as monitoring the build of the database both before and after all data migration projects.
When moving to the cloud or across cloud services, there are a variety of migration tools available that can help simplify the process of moving data. Data migration tools are often specialized for different types of data, such as specialty software for creating a data warehouse or data lake from on-premises data storage, or tools for moving from one cloud database to another. Depending on the type of migration, these tools may be able to help set up data pipelines that allow for automatic processing and analyzing of data as it is ingested. This type of data integration can help streamline business processes and analyses going forward. Data migration tools often have built in redundancies to help prevent data loss or corruption as part of the migration process.
Some benefits of data migration include: