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Data migration is the process of transporting data between computers, storage devices or formats. It is a key consideration for any system implementation, upgrade or consolidation. During data migration, software programs or scripts are used to map system data for automated migration.
Data migration is categorized as storage migration, database migration, application migration and business process migration. These scenarios are routine IT activities, and most organizations migrate data on a quarterly basis.
Techopedia Explains Data Migration
Data migration occurs for a variety of reasons, including:
- Server or storage equipment replacements or upgrades
- Website consolidation
- Server maintenance
- Data center relocation
Data migration may impact business operations when it creates extended downtime, compatibility and performance issues. Organizations use various strategies to minimize such impacts, including effective planning, technology, implementation and validation.
Planning, migration and validation are key to effective data migration. Planning requires a clear understanding of design requirements, such as scheduling, replication requirements, hardware requirements, data volume and data value. Prior to data migration, an organization typically communicates methodologies, installs migration software and configures required hardware.
Automated data migration minimizes human intervention and application downtime and enhances migration speed. Migration documentation facilitates tracking and reduces future migration costs and risks.
Once data migration is complete, an organization validates statistics to determine data accuracy. Finally, data cleaning facilitates improve data quality via the removal of unnecessary or repetitive data.
