12 July 2017 Stanislav Andrenko
Our customer needed to reduce the licensing costs of their Oracle database. We came up with a comprehensive solution by migrating their database to SQL Server platform. We also remed...
Migration Options
The Database Migration projects are usually part of larger application modernization efforts. DB Best realizes that no two database migration projects look the same. Based on your business needs, we can provide you with a variety of choices including retiring the application, multiple levels of interoperability, just moving the data, or doing a complete “fork-lift” replacement on the application and database. The choice is yours – just let us know how we can help!
Here are the five migration options that we look at when trying to understand your application portfolio.
Five Application and Database Migration Options
Retire the Application
Based on our migration assessment, we can help you identify unneeded applications as the first step to reduce maintenance costs.
Interoperability with the Current Application
In this option, enterprise customers are essentially leaving the current data transaction as is and implementing new capabilities outside of the current data platform. An example of this would be where a customer has an Oracle DB and would build SQL Server Integration, Analysis, Reporting, and Business Intelligence Services outside of the current data-store.
Migrate the data exclusively
DB Best can help you efficiently modernize and migrate your legacy database applications to database technologies such as SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, etc. We can deploy the new database solution in your data center or on clouds platforms like Azure AWS or GCP with minimal to no impact to your business continuity. By utilizing a set of automated tools as well as proven data migration methodologies we can rapidly migrate your schema and data to your target database platform, perform unit and integration testing, and finally execute the necessary application remediation efforts to recreate the application connection points to the new database. Your organization will quickly achieve the performance, scalability, security, and flexibility that are all part of your new data platform.
Rewrite the Application and Optimize for New Database Platform
It is often most cost-effective to rewrite the application to gain the performance and flexibility that you require. DB Best has deep knowledge of all major development tools and frameworks – from the Desktop / Mobile Devices to the Web to the Cloud – we can easily help you modernize your application to take advantage of any new platform.
Rehost the Application
Simply rehosting the current solution on a more cost-effective platform can provide immediate benefits. Whether it’s moving from the mainframe to an x64 platform or rehosting to Microsoft Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud Platform, DB Best can help you achieve the scale, reliability, and lowered TCO you desire.
Let's talk more about which options are right for you
Contact us We are the experts in Database Migration
DB Best goes well beyond standard point-to-point migration service providers – we take a vested interest in your migration strategy, providing innovation, back-end integration, accelerated return on investment, and most importantly an end-to-end solution that meets your business needs.
Starting with a migration complexity assessment, our database engineers can quickly create a strategic migration plan for migrating and transforming your current database assets. Based on this analysis, our team of experts will help you evaluate and implement the most cost-effective solutions for migrating and modernizing your database applications.
Over the last decade, DB Best has created and refined a multi-step program for helping our customer migrate their database assets. Our DB Best 12-step database migration plan allows us to easily develop a project plan using our years of experience in understanding the level of effort of each step, as shown below.
We support multiple database platforms for online transaction processing (OLTP) and data warehouse workloads as a migration target for either on-premises or on Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform.
Migration Stages
Within the 12 step migration process, there are various stages that require particular attention. Here are the types of steps we perform within each of these critical stages.
Migration Readiness Stage
- Assess database environment, evaluate risks, and create a business case
- Identify SMEs and stakeholders
- Plan capacity, including hardware and software infrastructure
- Define engagement model
Migration Stage
- Analyze existing database and design target database to provide the same functionality
- Create prioritized migration roadmap based on business objectives
- Migrate database objects including tables, views, triggers, PL/SQL packages, Java code, and stored procedures, making any changes to the different ways that other databases implement the functionality vs. the new database engine
- Migrate data
- Verify database schema and validate that the data was migrated correctly
Extract, Transform, and Load (for ETL Based Apps) Stage
- Design and develop ETL packages for parallel data load so that the data being loaded in the previous database is also being loaded into the new database. Furthermore, any data extraction processes from the original database will also need to be replicated within the new target database instance
- Test data load performance
- Setup and validate security, monitoring and replication functions
- Validate data in the target database for technical accuracy and functionality
Application Remediation Stage
- Perform integration testing with the applications that were previously consuming data from the original database and make the necessary modification to ensure they work with the new target database instance
- Perform user acceptance testing
- Training and knowledge transfer
- Implement production environment
- Post production support
Testing and Validation Strategy
Your business relies on the quality and reliability of your information assets. At DB Best, we utilize a set of automated tools as well as proven methodologies to validate each step of your database migration process.
- Database Structure – We will compare configuration on sources and targets as well as data files, table spaces, transaction logs, and all other objects.
- Database Integrity Validation – Next we will validate how database objects are maintained on target as compared to the source database, review any and all code that has the ability to modify the data on the database, and test every stored procedure and trigger.
- Data Format Confirmation – We will ensure target data type formats match source data type formats and run a series of equivalent queries against both (source/target) to validate results.
- Performance Testing – We will confirm target database performance has achieved and/or surpassed previous benchmark performance levels.
- Security Validation– The DB Best team will validate that the same privileges and permissions are manually created on the target database. Furthermore, a review of the client application will be done to confirm end-user authentication and permission-level mapping has been maintained.
Database Unification for ISVs
As an independent software vendor with solutions built on Oracle, you’ve realized by now that your customers no longer want to run your applications in their data center.
They prefer the convenience of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions so that their DBAs can spend more time adding value to their business instead of supporting your application.
Simply fork-lifting your Oracle Database to run on virtual machines in the cloud requires extensive provisioning to meet scalability, high availability, and secure solutions.
To help ISVs like you make the jump to managed database platforms like Amazon Aurora for PostgreSQL, Azure SQL Database, and Google Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, we have developed a proven process called Database Unification.
The key benefits of Database Unification include:
- Lowering operating costs by moving to SaaS model in the cloud using a less expensive database platform at its core.
- Stay relevant as your competitors running on open-source MySQL or PostgreSQL don’t have to pay on-premises licenses for Oracle and other traditional databases.
- Meet stringent governance and security regulations using the cloud along with the latest innovations for databases like row-level security, data encryption, and high-availability.
- Build on a platform designed for the future that can use the latest technologies for deep learning, big data analytics, and more.
Check out the link below to learn more about our Database Unification process.
What makes DB Best Unique
DB Best developed a state-of-the-art database migration technology, which was subsequently acquired by Microsoft SQL Server group in 2005, becoming the foundation for the Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) product line. We have a great set of products that we’ve released that also accelerate the migration process including Database Compare Suite, OraMigrator, DB2Migrator, and MySQLMigrator.
Over the last few years, we’ve also been working with the AWS team to suggest improvements to the AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) to help customers migrate their on-premises OLTP workloads from Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and MariaDB to the Amazon RDS and Amazon Aurora platforms. We also helped AWS with suggestions to improve data warehouse migrations from Oracle, SQL Server, Teradata, IBM Netezza, Greenplum, and Vertica to Amazon Redshift.
To help customers migrate both OLTP and DW workloads between different targets and sources, we’ve created the DB Best Migration Platform to assist in the automation of our 12-step migration process. This tool integrates the best parts of SSMA, SCT, our products, and internal tools to dramatically reduce the costs and risks associated with database migration projects. Key abilities of the platform include:
- Schema conversion
- Data Migration – Including tools for parallel loading terabytes of data
- Schema comparison
- Data comparison including fast data comparison
- Creating and running test scripts
Check out the video below for how we can put the DB Best Migration Platform to use for you!
Contact us
Our technology partners
Our experts are trained and certified with our featured technology partners. As a partner, we have access to programs that can provide co-funding resources to help cover some of the migration costs if you are eligible.
Technologies we use for database migrations
Here are several of the technologies that our experts and DB Best use to help estimate the level of effort for your database migration project and perform the automation of the database migration process.
Why migrate
Learn the main reasons why you should consider database migration to the modern database platform and discover the generic migration benefits from the following video.
Contact us today
Learn More
We have a great set of blog posts, white papers, and data sheets to help you better understand our capabilities as the leader in database migration services.
Blog posts
Architecting highly available and scalable system when migrating to SQL Server on AWS
Comprehensive Java app upgrade while migrating to SQL Server
8 June 2017 Stanislav Andrenko
One of the largest transportation companies in the United States needed to migrate their Oracle-based application to SQL Server platform. The customer’s application code had high que...
Improving the web app performance while migrating from DB2 to SQL Server
4 May 2017 Stanislav Andrenko
One of the largest life insurance companies in the United States supported a reporting application. Their system included Java based web app and Informatica data management solution c...
Increasing database performance by migrating from Ingres to SQL Server
18 July 2017 admin
One of our customers needed to migrate their Ingres Database system to Microsoft SQL Server wanting to improve the performance of their system. We came up with a migration solution ...
Helping our customer to convert Oracle schemas with hierarchical queries to SQL Server
20 June 2017 Andrey Ivanov
One of the world’s largest information technology companies decided to migrate their Oracle database to SQL Server. They leveraged SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) for Oracle to...
Migrate Sybase ASE databases to SQL Server for a security technologies company
25 August 2017 Bill Ramos
DB Best recently completed a project to migrate Sybase ASE databases to SQL Server for a global leader in security technology. Faced with skyrocketing license costs with SAP to renew t...
Migrate Sybase Java applications to SQL Server for content services provider
4 October 2016 Bill Ramos
A leading provider of content services for the legal industry looked to DB Best to help them modernize their aging Sybase ASE and IQ solutions that were built on top of an old IBM AIX ...
Migrating Oracle database to SQL Server for a leading US healthcare company
17 March 2017 Stanislav Andrenko
One of the leading US healthcare organizations needed to upgrade their health record system in an effort to drive down costs while enabling new capabilities. We replaced the customer's...
Moving Oracle Forms to The Web as a Part of Database Migration Project
16 May 2017 Andrey Ivanov
A government healthcare organization wanted to move their Oracle Forms to a modern web-based UI. We offered to migrate their source Oracle database to SQL Server while converting the d...
Oracle to Azure SQL Database shift may save up to $1 million
16 June 2017 admin
‘Low-performing and costly’ - these were major characteristics of the Oracle system of one of our customers, a leading US automotive corporations. In this regard, it was quite natu...
Quick and easy automatic approach to database conversion
12 May 2017 Stanislav Andrenko
One of the largest US educational organizations has been running their data handling system in Oracle environment. They wished to reduce maintenance costs due to expensive Oracle licen...
Remote migration from Oracle to SQL Server using SSIS
4 May 2017 Stanislav Andrenko
A global financial software provider needed to migrate their billing solution from Oracle to SQL Server for one of their strategic clients located at the other end of the world. The ac...
Using PostgreSQL in cloud alongside with Oracle to enhance the database system performance
15 June 2017 Andrey Ivanov
One of the leading independent software vendors in educational domain needed to expand their original Oracle database system. They wanted to add a new PostgreSQL database running on AW...
Using Sybase SQL Server application unification to reduce migration risks
14 March 2017 Bill Ramos
A financial service software provider needed to upgrade their customer facing applications to SQL Server while keeping their Sybase ASE database. Our Sybase SQL Server Application Unif...
Comparing data in your databases using DB Best Database Compare Suite
9 July 2019 Andrey Ivanov
Subject/Title: Data comparison — regular and detailed / Comparing data in your databases using DB Best Database Compare Suite Type of Content: A blog post that starts a series of art...
Database Compare Suite update 4.14 brings Amazon DynamoDB support
2 May 2019 Andrey Ivanov
DB Best announces the release of a new version of an ultimate DBA tool Database Compare Suite. The latest version supports Amazon DynamoDB. This is the second NoSQL database platform s...
Reference data sheet
Database Compare Suite Datasheet
30 October 2018 Bill Ramos
Database Compare Suite is a complex solution to simplify schema and data manipulation tasks in both homogeneous and heterogeneous database environments. This simple but very effective ...
Modernize Your Data Estate Datasheet
2 November 2018 Bill Ramos
Read our Modernize Your Data Estate datasheet to discover the benefits of your on-premises modernization and cloud migration efforts. If you are tired of the increasing database plat...
Modernizations to Microsoft's Data Platform
21 September 2016 Bill Ramos
Cloud services such as Microsoft Azure, coupled with database technologies like SQL Server, enable organizations to quickly create and scale solutions that solve challenges and fuel ne...
Data Management Services for Microsoft Azure
8 November 2016 Bill Ramos
DB Best Technologies is internationally known for comprehensive Data Management Services, database development and migration, and the creation of highly successful web and mobile syste...
Amazon Web Services Migration
17 November 2016 Bill Ramos
DB Best Technologies is internationally known for comprehensive Data Management Services, database development and migration, and the creation of highly successful web and mobile syste...
Data Management for Amazon Web Services
8 November 2016 Bill Ramos
DB Best Technologies is internationally known for comprehensive Data Management Services, database development and migration, and the creation of highly successful web and mobile syste...
Oracle to SQL Migration
21 September 2016 Bill Ramos
Leveraging Microsoft SQL Server, DB Best can help Oracle customers achieve the performance, scale, and security that their mission-critical applications require while keeping costs und...
Sybase to SQL Server Migration Datasheet
23 September 2016 Bill Ramos
The number one reason businesses want to migrate from Sybase to SQL Server is reducing Total Cost of Ownership. The DB Best team developed a unique methodology for migrating Sybase app...
Case Studies
Migrating critical apps from Sybase ASE to SQL Server
30 August 2016 Bill Ramos
Our client, a global leader in security technology, had two mission-critical yet aging PowerBuilder applications running against Sybase ASE that were out of compliance given the lack o...
Reference white paper
Guide to migrating from Oracle to SQL Server and Azure SQL Database
8 October 2015 Bill Ramos
This white paper explores challenges that arise when you migrate from an Oracle 7.3 database or later to SQL Server 2014. It describes the implementation differences of database objec...
Guide to migrating from Sybase ASE to SQL Server 2014 and Azure SQL Database using SSMA
15 November 2015 Bill Ramos
Summary: This white paper covers known issues for migrating Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise database to SQL Server 2014. Instructions for handling the differences between the two pla...
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