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Home Business How to project manage a data migration

How to project manage a data migration

by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
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How to project manage a data migration

By Darwin Lee, CEO at Transvault

Data management is a constantly evolving task. As organisations grow and exceed the functional, physical or commercial limits of their storage, so does the need to effectively transition some or all of their data from one system to another.

Enterprises are no strangers to this challenge, with some of the most complex data migration scenarios faced by legal firms or organisations that service compliance-heavy sectors.

Common challenges include the sheer scale of LLP email estates, third-party archives, litigation hold requirements, complicated delegate access and macro trends like security and availability concerns, blind subpoena and law enforcement requests for data, geographic sovereignty and complex change management controls.

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With such a maelstrom of legal, technical and organisational complexity, it’s no wonder senior executives are still searching for effective data migration playbooks to lead their businesses and maintain a competitive edge in this digital age.

But first, what is Data Migration?

Data migration means many things to many people. The CFO sees this term as a cost consolidation process, CIOs see this as a technical project and compliance officers often have no choice but to label data migration as a risk, little else. For Information Workers who use the data, it means a relocation of data, which can lead to great benefits if completed successfully.

Every data migration demands careful planning, strategic execution, stakeholder buy-in and a deep understanding of the security challenges and technical intricacies involved to ensure success. This is particularly true when migrating from on-premises to the cloud or vice versa, as a growing list of organisations have been doing.

To help illustrate best practice, let’s focus on one of the more common types of data migration that occurs – switching email archive storage systems.

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This example involves moving historical emails, properties and attachments from one email system to another, often necessitated by system upgrades or transitions to more advanced communication and collaboration platforms.

Even in this example, there are several challenges when it comes to preserving data integrity: ensuring seamless access to historical emails, maintaining compliance with data protection regulations, preserving email properties set by each user, and limiting downtime for email services.

Why is Data Migration Necessary?

Organisations opt for data migration for various reasons or events. Identifying these events and how they might impact your data management ahead of time can help prepare for migration.

The most common triggers for a migration include:

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  • Technology upgrades – moving on from legacy systems or outdated data management systems.
  • Business expansions – scaling businesses need to effectively manage an increase in data, which typically requires migration to a more capable platform.
  • Mergers and acquisitions – integrating the data of different businesses under one unified system.
  • Policy changes – staying compliant with stringent regulations can necessitate a detailed data migration and hosting strategy.
  • Proactive improvement – sectors like legal and healthcare are undergoing large digital transformation initiatives to become more efficient, compliant and secure.

Policy changes are particularly important to pay attention to. Understanding the data regulation climate is central to any migration strategy.

Project managers need to ensure that data management is compliant with regulations throughout the migration journey, which is why stakeholder management and being conscious of the interplay between different departments is vital.

Strategically Planning for Your Migration Journey

What does an effective strategic plan look like for a successful data migration? We break down the key components.

Data Auditing

Assessing what you have is the cornerstone of any successful data migration so that data can be appropriately prioritised, processed and positioned. Addressing the needs of the affected information workers by scheduling the migration, confirms that the resulting business change is well-managed. Aligning data migration objectives with business goals ensures that the project not only meets short-term needs but also contributes to long-term success.

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That’s the top-level overview of what a plan should include, but where should you start when it comes to your actual data?

Completing a data audit of your whole business helps create a data blueprint and a roadmap for the migration journey, which means identifying existing data sources and the potential challenges of changing them. This is a critical consideration within legal services. ‘Chain of custody’ – a sequential audit trail of information movement – is only understandable if you map where data is, how it flows, how it interlinks and where it’s stored.

Once you have an idea of your data footprint, which systems influence each other and the imposed data regulations, you can create a priority list of what needs to be transitioned and when.

Proactive Problem Solving

Plans were made to be broken, except in the world of technology migrations!

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No matter how much planning goes into a project, data migrations are layered with unexpected challenges such as data loss risks, unplanned system downtime, and disruptions to business.

Having a secondary plan (and ideally a Plan C) is sensible for minimising the impact on the business and people. A plan must include proactive measures to mitigate risks and a robust contingency plan to address unforeseen issues.

Having a team with a diverse skillset to oversee elements of the migration journey can help offset some of those common pitfalls. A cross-functional team including senior management, IT professionals, data analysts, and users can help ensure your roadmap is built with mitigating risk factors in mind.

The Technology of Migration

Choosing the right migration tools can be overwhelming. There are many options on the market, so evaluating and integrating new technologies can seem daunting.

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Running systems to maintain your data is one thing, but executing a project to reliably move that data to a new location requires a whole new level of expertise and experience. Migration solutions build knowledge into a repeatable and automated process, supplemented by professional support services.

Weigh the costs of these solutions against the scale of your migration requirements – perhaps your entire data infrastructure needs to be digitised or moved from legacy systems. In that instance, finding a partner to manage your migration journey would be more cost-effective and efficient for the business.

The Criticality of Security

Data security for data storage is a high investment area in most businesses to ensure preservation of data privacy and compliance. The same level of consideration is required when moving that data.

Imagine spending significant sums to protect your data only to have it exposed by a migration solution which is not sufficiently proven secure. Consider the length of experience, and security focus, of any migration solution to understand if they consider this a high enough priority. If not, you could run the risk of your data security and data compliance failing to meet business requirements.

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Top Project Management Tips

No two businesses are the same when it comes to their data; therefore, no two data migration projects are the same. Each journey needs a bespoke, flexible and sustainable plan.

If data migration projects reveal gaps in business processes, they typically lead to changing requirements for the plan. Identifying and accepting these requirements and, most importantly, being agile when addressing them is doubly important.

Test, Test, Test

Thorough testing is essential to identify and fix issues before, during and after migration. The longer data has been stored and the larger its volume or complexity, the higher the probability of data or system issues arising.  Utilising realistic test conditions and plans, and putting your new systems through their paces can help validate the accuracy and reliability of migrated data.

Not only should you be testing the reliability of your data, but also the security systems in place that protect it. Data protection regulations serve as a (non-negotiable) guidebook, providing you with the best practices for avoiding data breaches or privacy issues.

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Make sure your project lead or migration partner is fully aligned with the latest standards for your industry and geographic considerations when it comes to encryption protocols, access controls, and data monitoring.

You should also be testing your project roadmap. Reflecting on it with key stakeholders, and establishing data quality benchmarks within your plan will ensure that the migrated data meets predefined standards and business needs. This involves proactively cleansing and validating data to eliminate duplication, inconsistencies and errors that can crop up over time.

Futureproofing Data

A successful migration project means that you probably won’t need to migrate again for a long time. That means staff need to be skilled up on best practices vital for long-term data sustainability:

  • Document your new processes and create comprehensive documentation to help your team in the future.
  • Conduct a ‘retrospective’ (review meeting) to understand what worked, what could be done better and where risks escalated.
  • Perform cost analysis a sufficient time after a migration is complete – it’s easy to think the job is complete the moment the project is done. Allowing this period will give you the chance to assess the true success and any return on investment (ROI) you had planned.
  • Don’t just dump a load of reading material for your people to wade through – prepare guided training sessions for internal teams to facilitate a smooth transition to the new data environment and any operational differences.

There are also some additional steps you can take to make life easier. Use your best negotiating position before you commit to a new hosting provider to contractually establish a simple and low-cost exit to avoid vendor lock-in, structuring your data to make it easier to take advantage of new technologies and risk mitigation strategies and generally simplifying your data management. The right steps will be as unique to you as your data is.

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Bearing this in mind and adapting your approach can help mitigate the need for another major data migration in the future, but whatever the situation, seek support from a trusted and proven source.

If you operate in the legal industry, search out specialists in the sector to help plan your migration from the earliest possible stage. Look for other success stories and case studies in your market to better understand what the common challenges are before, during and after data migrations.

Most of all, plan. Plan with your people in mind. Plan for the future. Plan with the help of experts.

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