Over time, most IT companies that have been on the market for a long time start to use different types of information systems (IS) to automate and support business processes. These systems serve companies for years and sometimes even decades. At some point, the maintenance of any database becomes very expensive, and technological limitations do not allow the development of IP as per new business requirements. What is more, companies strive to protect outdated databases from external intrusions and minimize the risk of losing valuable data. And all these issues can be solved with the database migration.
So why should companies migrate data, and why is it profitable in the long run? We will answer these questions further in the article.
Migrate or Not to Migrate?
The benefits of gradual database migration can only be tracked in the long term. Considering the option of moving away from the old system through modernization on the existing platform, the company may face multiple difficulties. First of all, this is an expensive and multi-step process. In this case, the new system will receive the necessary data from the old databases, which will still be working. As a result, businesses have to pay for both platforms whereas they only need just one. The cost of the equipment necessary for the functioning of the entire set of IT systems and maintenance is increasing.
However, database migration will guarantee cost savings and trigger an increase in the efficiency of the entire IT department. With the right approach to the process of transition from legacy systems to new ones, it can be the beginning of a digital transformation in the company. For example, if you migrate from Oracle to a well-developed target architecture, you can get fundamentally new features.
So here are a couple of reasons for a business to migrate a database:
- Database migration provides independence from sanctions policy and helps to reduce licensing costs;
- The transition to modern systems helps to reduce the cost of supporting and maintaining the IT landscape;
- Migration provides a transition to an open-source database. As a rule, it is easier to find developers for such systems;
- Migration allows you to minimize the cost of server hardware and build clusters on more affordable components;
- In the case of database-driven applications, migration is required to keep functionality updated, add new capabilities, and resolve query scaling issues as the number of users grows.
All in all, database migration allows you to reach a new level, ensure the reliability and safety of data, introduce regulations for backing up and storing copies. In the long term, this will significantly save the company’s resources for maintaining the IT infrastructure.
How Much Will You Pay?
There is no fixed rate as such. The cost varies significantly for different systems and can range from thousands of dollars for medium-sized companies to hundreds of thousands for large corporations. The pricing depends on the following factors:
- The amount of stored code running on the database side;
- The volume of the database and the available temporary technological window for switching from one system to another;
- Semantic differences in the programming languages of the source and target databases.
The cost of the process increases when there is no way to freeze the development of the original database while preparing for migration. In addition, the process of moving from one system to another may be also associated with architectural improvements to the original database, which also introduces additional costs.
