Legacy System Migration Step-by-Step
When We Need Legacy System Migration
What is system migration? Long story short, it’s data transfer from one software, systems, applications, etc., to another (usually from the old and obsolete system to the new one).
Legacy system migration moves data from outdated software or hardware that is still in use but can not ensure the implication of new technology – like on-premise to cloud migration. It is also related to modernizing old systems and updating hardware infrastructure.
Here are the main drivers that force system migration:
- There are new technologies available that can perform all the tasks better.
- The old system no longer functioned as it was planned. Organizations have unique technological needs.
- The old system is so outdated that there is no support for it.
- The organization is facing business changes and implementing a set of innovations.
Legacy System Migration Strategy
What does it mean to migrate to a new system successfully? In most cases it will include efficient performance in a recent hardware or software solution. The critical problem is to find a way to slowly, piece by piece, replace the old system with a new one. That is where we need to define a legacy system migration strategy.
Here is a legacy system migration checklist to ensure that the process is run correctly:
- Identify the data you will move to a new system. Be clear with what information you need to move and what format it should be after migration. Also, check all protection measures if you are relocating sensitive data.
- Determine your time, technical and financial requirements for migration. Defining all essential things at the beginning of the process is critical. For instance, you may find that system migration will take too long. That means the whole business operation should be managed by other tools in the meantime. Estimate the budget and technical requirements first, as it may be difficult to change something while working with changing hardware.
- Make a backup of data. It is massive protection from possible data losses. In case the migration fails, you will have all the data for recovery.
- Create a system migration plan. It should be clear to follow and easy to manage.
- Test the new system. You can test the system after each step of system migration to ensure everything works appropriately.
- Run regular system checkups. Another vital step is continuous testing for efficient system performance. Ensure that you can run system checkups even after the relocation of the system is completed.
How to Run a Legacy System Migration
After defining a migration plan, below are the next steps you need to consider if you want to launch an effective legacy system replacement strategy.
Ensure that all stakeholders know about system migration. Migration will touch all business departments, and it’s essential to get support from all stakeholders of the organization. Explain to them why the organization needs to transfer everything to the new system and ensure that all departments send their own requirements.
Analyze all business processes as-is. Before you decide what strategy to apply or how to perform the migration, you need to be aware of all business processes in the organization. It can be critical to have an in-depth analysis to ensure that the new system will handle everything properly.
Define key milestones and project timelines. The whole process will be more effective if you have a timeline for each milestone in the system migration. It will underline the accountability for each step of the migration.
Choose the best technology for your business needs. Research what works the best for the same type of business, define what challenges each technology can bring and how it will benefit the new system. It is best to leverage technological solutions for new systems to migrate all the data.
Ensure continuous monitoring of the new system. After you finish the migration, you still need to ensure that a new system performs correctly. You can use such performance metrics as conformance, rework, the lag time between process steps and others. It will help to compare a legacy system to a new one.
Challenges of a Legacy System Migration
When you decide to relocate data and apps from an outdated system to a new one, you also need to consider a few challenges related to the migration process. Here are a few of them:
- Hardware compliance. Start with an environmental audit to understand if an old system can be entirely replaced.
- Software compliance. Also, determine all corporate and individual standards for the software solution you will return.
- Audit software license compliance. The new system may require a new license that can purchase or remove some software.
- User data audit. Migration requires high data protection measures, especially for user data storage.
Final Thoughts
A legacy system migration process requires a professional approach and qualified support in migration strategy development. To ensure a valuable and efficient migration, you can learn from industry leaders or hire a specialist to complete the process in time.
Cprime provides data migration for different types of enterprises and businesses and can support the company with a migration specialist.
