{"id":4908,"date":"2016-10-25T10:24:16","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T15:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/?p=4908"},"modified":"2016-10-08T10:37:59","modified_gmt":"2016-10-08T15:37:59","slug":"reducing-the-stress-of-data-migration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/reducing-the-stress-of-data-migration\/","title":{"rendered":"Reducing The Stress Of Data Migration"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"enterprise-data-migration\"<\/a>Life is never static, and for businesses the occasional relocation of data archives, mission-critical applications, infrastructure and services may prove necessary. It can be a complex and at times risky endeavor. There are ways to make the process less stressful, and to reduce the potential for such migrations to be costly, disruptive, or in some cases even disastrous. That\u2019s what we\u2019ll be looking at today.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Need For Migration<\/span><\/h2>\n

Organizational changes, operational needs and financial considerations are among the factors that may dictate a complete or partial move to new premises. Space within an existing site may become too restricted, or land rates and rental charges too high. A downturn in the market or a hostile takeover may force the closure of some offices, or a compulsory relocation to a new host site. Regulatory compliance issues may also make a move necessary.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Benefits And Drawbacks<\/span><\/h2>\n

There can be any number of motivations for migrating data center operations, and a number of positive considerations such as moving to a new environment better suited to your organization\u2019s needs, and providing a higher level of protection for an enterprise\u2019s vital information. A shift to virtual infrastructures may reduce a company\u2019s need for physical servers or other hardware.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In addition, migration may yield other benefits such as:<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00b7 Reduced operating and business costs<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 The opportunity to construct new operating platforms<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Consolidation of data center resources after an acquisition<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Opportunities to exploit \u201cas a Service\u201d options to improve and streamline business operations<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Making use of containers and virtualization to enhance infrastructure<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Segregating portions of a business that may have been sold off<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Improving network resiliency and Data Recovery<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Enabling service providers to better manage their clients<\/span><\/p>\n

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Weighing against these are the persistent nagging doubt that something could go disastrously wrong during the move, and a number of other factors<\/a> including:<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00b7 The competency or otherwise of IT staff to effectively complete a move, based on the latest technologies<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Inadequate knowledge or understanding of the applications, hardware and infrastructure that has to be moved<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Poor planning and migration strategy<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 An overload of inputs from various divisions within the enterprise, leading to a lack of overall clarity and\/or over-reaching ambitions<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 A lack of flexibility in the face of changes which will inevitably occur during the migration process \u2013 which can be both time-consuming and extensive<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Escalating or unbudgeted costs<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00b7 Technical hitches such as data cleansing, the migration of perimeter defenses, moving legacy applications, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Little wonder that the prospect of migrating may be a source of tension and dread. But a systematic approach and careful planning<\/a> will go a long way toward easing the process.<\/span><\/p>\n

Knowing What You Have To Move<\/span><\/h2>\n

Whether it\u2019s to another floor, another state, or virtually to another continent, you\u2019ll need to take stock of your existing data center assets, to determine which of them will be involved in the move \u2013 and the optimal order in which they should be migrated.<\/span><\/p>\n

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This will require you to take a comprehensive inventory of what you have \u2013 one which may involve delving into archives, silos, and physical repositories to root out bits of legacy hardware and software whose presence might otherwise be missed.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s necessary to not only know what assets you have, but also how they work and how they integrate with each other. This includes the legacy infrastructure and applications whose operations may not currently be documented.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Prior to the move (and as part of the planning process) network tracing tools may be deployed to observe how various components of your system interact over time \u2013 an aid in establishing the components of active legacy applications, and their relationships with other software and hardware.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Minimizing Downtime And Data Losses<\/span><\/h2>\n

Contingency measures should be put in place to minimize unplanned or extended downtime<\/a> during the migration process. This is especially important for mission-critical applications and assets. Some additional investment in fault tolerance and robust equipment may be called for.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sensitive and business-critical data will also require protection against its potential corruption or loss during a move, and being able to call on clean backups is a must. Encryption of sensitive information should be maintained throughout, and disaster recovery protocols should also remain active during the migration period.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Doing A Test Run<\/span><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s a good idea to conduct a test of your migration strategy under controlled conditions, to observe how your existing software and assets perform in their new environment. This may reveal issues that would otherwise not have shown up until after the move \u2013 by which point it will be too late to take remedial action, if any is required.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Compatibility Issues<\/span><\/h2>\n

If your on-site legacy applications aren\u2019t compatible with hardware in the new location, it may be necessary to physically relocate your existing equipment. Alternatively, it may be possible to use an emulator to facilitate the move. Some allowance may also be made for the time and expense required for making changes to software code, to ensure compatibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Addressing The Characteristics Of The New Network<\/span><\/h2>\n

The new environment will have its own unique characteristics, which may or may not raise issues with your existing applications, domain settings, security policies, etc. Because of this, it\u2019s essential to have a detailed plan in place for positioning each element of your network in its new setting. If this necessitates rewriting application code or buying in new assets, then provision should be made for this in advance.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Minimizing Latency<\/span><\/h2>\n

Servers may be relocated in batches, to reduce downtime. But this may have the effect of increasing latency, as applications remaining on site are required to communicate with assets in the new location over greater distances. Having a detailed knowledge of which applications operate together and how frequently they exchange data will help in drawing up a migration schedule that minimizes this effect.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Migrating To The Cloud<\/span><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s possible that the new data center won\u2019t be in a set physical location, but in the cloud. Whether it\u2019s a public, private, or hybrid deployment<\/a>, there are certain precautions that may be taken to help ensure a smooth transition<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Ensure Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery<\/span><\/h2>\n

Take the time to determine how your business functions line up with your systems and applications, and their various inter-relationships. You should have a business continuity and Disaster Recovery (DR) plan in place, and you should ensure that its business impact analysis section is fully up to date at the time of the move. You should also check that your recovery time objectives (RTOs) have been correctly assigned in terms of the business, your clients, and a regulatory compliance perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Establish Your And Your Provider\u2019s Roles<\/span><\/h2>\n

The Service Level Agreement (SLA) with your provider should spell out their responsibility as regards redundancy, uptime, etc. In choosing a vendor, their approach to data handling, backups, and data recovery should be taken into account before any contract is signed.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Establish How Software Licenses Are Affected<\/span><\/h2>\n

You\u2019ll need to do an audit to find out how your various application licenses (generally site-based) apply in the case of relocation. Some may allow the running of a secondary instance of the software at no additional charge, while others may charge a reduced rate for the provision of a separate license. Your cloud vendor may also include licensing as part of their package. You\u2019ll need to check this.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Don\u2019t Neglect Security<\/span><\/h2>\n

Encryption, backups, and Disaster Recovery are just part of the picture. You\u2019ll need to consider the ongoing security measures in place as migration proceeds, and take steps to ensure the integrity and safety of your data and equipment both on site and in transit. Your Risk Assessments, project management and governance skills will be called into action. In addition, you may also call upon the services of a specialist consultant, or a dedicated migration management platform, to assist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Infographic Flowchart<\/span><\/h2>\n

This data migration chart <\/a>will help you remember these steps as you plan your data center move.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life is never static, and for businesses the occasional relocation of data archives, mission-critical applications, infrastructure and services may prove necessary. It can be a complex and at times risky endeavor. There are ways to make the process less stressful, and to reduce the potential for such migrations to be costly, disruptive, or in some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-it","category-how-to","category-tech"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4908"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4924,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4908\/revisions\/4924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poweradmin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}