Sometimes you need to move your data, whether it’s to downsize unnecessary files, move from paper to digital, or migrate from one development language to a new development language. Data security or fueling big analytics requires a clean set of data, and data migration may be necessary. Much like a physical move, it’s essential to take the same fundamental steps in database migration.
Data Migration Step 1: See What You Have
Analyze the format of your content. Is there duplicate data? Take a look at your shared drives. Consider how your data is used and stored. Taking a close inventory of your data will help you know what to migrate and what to discard – making the data migration process efficient.
Data Migration Step 2: See What You Can Throw Away
One of the worst parts of any move is opening up boxes and seeing that you’ve packed a bunch of unwanted stuff. Data migration follows the same rules.
Rule out what data is outdated and unnecessary. Like the three piles technique (keep, place in storage, throw away), you can categorize data while downsizing. ROT or redundant and obsolete data that no longer has any business or legal value has no place taking up space in your migration.
Data Migration Step 3: See What You Have Left to Migrate
You can organize your data into categories for a smooth database migration process. This step includes compressing content, creating more advanced metadata, or converting files into a universal format. It is also a good time to digitize any paper data you might have accumulated. As security becomes a more significant concern, this step can assure a more confidential format. Digitizing the paper will help you in the long run; you’ll never have to worry about a lost file folder again. You can categorize your data by age, file name, or size.
Moving Day!
Choose how you’re going to migrate your data. Manual isn’t always the best option. Choosing a technology partner with the right skills may be a good choice. Make sure your partner has a reliable data migration software solution. No one wants to be in the middle of a full-scale data migration and realize they can’t meet all their needs.
Do your research in advance. An enterprise legacy migration requires not only thought but expertise.
Throughout the database migration process, you will have cleaned up your content, created a more streamlined process, and made it more accessible. Time well spent!