The Efficient Way To Manage Data Migration

Planning is the most crucial portion of a migration. Every migration requires a certain amount of strategic digital transformation of the content moving from the source repository to the destination. Considerations should include folder structure, metadata mapping, security, search capabilities, and many other elements that will help users to find pertinent content. It is critical that you spend the time to identify the problems you have and what is needed to move ahead.

Why Do Migrations Fail?

There are several explanations for this, most of which center around not planning. While most organizations share the same desire to procure data easily, they frequently contrast on how they arrive there. There are many locations at your disposal when referring to data cataloging, but without a thought-out plan in place, these tools can fail to perform. Be sure you’ve done your due diligence before migrating.

Wave has been expertly handling enterprise migrations and giving strategic planning services since the ’90s. We’ve expertly handled migrations for customers utilizing OpenText, Microsoft, IBM, Paperclip, and more.

Our experienced team appreciates the particular challenges that can arise in both current and traditional ECM applications and we’ve distilled our approach over the years as technology has evolved. Utilize our expertise to deploy a prosperous migration and digital transformation.

What Should You Consider When Planning A Data Migration?

Take An Inventory

Take the appropriate amount of time to understand what you own, how it’s organized, how much and what kinds of data you own, and any features you require such as versions, explanations, and protocols.
Clean & Organize

Data migrations resemble moving to a new residence- determine what you want to bring along with you and what you don’t need. It’s possible that you have data that is obsolete. While reviewing your information, take a moment to pinpoint areas for improvement specifically as it relates to your organizational procedures and metadata.
Test The Migration Process

Next, you should test your migration and determine a criteria to see how long the migration will be. Also, perform a data swap test to make sure your migration pipeline is snag-free.
Check In Regularly

If you notice that your migration will take longer than planned during the benchmarking process, be sure to implement routine checkpoints during that window and be sure no errors arise. If they do, you can fine-tune your project plan.
Validate Your End Result

To ensure that your end result in the destination system is equivalent to what you began with in the source program, have a validation procedure in place. If you’ve performed data cleanup during the migration, your validation should be able to account for that.
Account For New Content

Sometimes you aren’t able to make the whole system non-editable during a migration, and new content is created. You’ll want to ensure to justify any new metadata and any new information that’s created.
Leverage AI Where Possible

Many programs now offer Artificial Intelligence elements that can automate the information organization part of your migration. Should you decide to use this element, you can utilize existing metadata, and improve it with the help of your AI tools.