Massive data migrations always begin with the best intentions. More often than not, organizations are simply trying to get their arms around all their data to better optimize and transform their company.
Unfortunately, data migrations are often viewed as risky and difficult endeavours, and for good reason. According to Gartner, 83% of them fail.
So before your organization begins the long journey of a data migration, here are a few important things you need to think about first.
Can your destination actually hold all the data you plan on migrating?
The amount of enterprise content being created today is staggering. There is simply too much data being created too fast. And yet, the largest application implementation can often only handle a sliver of the content a company produces. This problem is not often considered, and should be.
What is the lifespan of the application you’re migrating into?
Let’s say your organization can overcome the typical risks and challenges of a massive migration. Have you thought about what happens next? Even if your migration is a success, how long will it be before you’ll need to migrate again?
Often times after a migration, companies believe their data is safe and protected within an ECM or another security system, but as time passes, more information is create outside these systems. That, combined with a merger or any other business related data creation, you will again need to embark on another migration.
What is the ROI for moving?
Too often, organizations aren’t strategic in their choice to migrate their data. It takes a significant amount of resources to complete. This prompts the questions: What value is your organization getting in return? Is it quantifiable to assess if a migration is the right decision? What are the costs to move this into another repository instead? Understanding the full picture is key before committing such a large amount of resources and effort.
What are you planning on migrating?
There is probably a lot of data that you likely won’t want to migrate, let alone keep at all. It’s critical to understand what exactly will be moved over to the new destination in the migration. Cleaning data and getting rid of ROT is a great way to reduce the amount of information that needs to move, and it helps save on storage associated costs.
How will you categorize information in the new system?
Once your data has reached its destination, how will you ensure that it is placed where it belongs? If you haven’t yet, it’s time to start thinking about how you’ll ensure the content has the right metadata associated with it to ensure it’s findable.
Is a massive data migration worth it?
This is a great question. And the truth is that it depends on the organization and their data strategy. Though migrations may help to address a short-term issue, it isn’t a final solution to organizational related data challenges.
If you’re still not sure if a migration is right for you, we have many resources to help. Connect with our knowledgable staff today.