Data Migration and Why is it Needed ?

Data Migration:

In simple definition, data migration means moving the data from point A to point B. These points can be any storage arrays, JBODs, internal disks etc. 

Data migration is the process of transferring data between data storage systems, data formats or computer systems. A data migration project is usually undertaken to replace or upgrade servers or storage equipment, for a website consolidation, to conduct server maintenance or to relocate a data center.

Though Data Migration is a quite complex procedure but below diagram explains it in a simpler way.

Reasons to move the data :

• Data Growth: We all might have seen the exponential growth of data over the years and at one particular point of time the array in your environment might not be able to hold the complete data of your company. In that case you might have to replace your smaller array with a larger capacity array and in those scenarios data migration will come into picture.
• Technical Refresh: The need to migrate due to ageing technology is called technical refresh and it's one of the main reasons to migrate the data for most of the companies.
• Performance Improvements: Performance improvement can be achieved by many other ways but if nothing works out and it's really required to replace the old array with a better performing latest array then also a data migration will come into picture.
• Information Life Cycle Management: All information is not created equal and should use most appropriate storage is a key element of ILM. The fact that the priority/value of the information increases/decreases over the time, leading to the need to migrate the data after it's original prioritization and placement. For example data might have to be moved to lower or higher tier or array.
• Risk Reduction: To lower the risk of data availability and data loss conditions, data migration to a more highly available storage platform leads towards mitigating this risk.
• Consolidation, localization and regulatory compliance: These are more of business reasons to migrate the data rather than technical. Consolidation of storage due to a merger, centralization or data center migrations needs data also to be migrated accordingly. Localization needs for distributed operations and is a reverse of centralization. Regulatory compliance may require you to keep the archived data accessible for a certain period of time.
• Complexity and transformational migrations: To optimize the infrastructure, simplify management, reduce risks, lower cost and effectively transform the entire IT infrastructure may lead to data migration.