How to Properly Test Your Data Migration Processes

Regardless of the business attempting it, data migration (or the process of moving data and systems to a new piece of infrastructure) is critical to get right. One way to improve your chances of success is to create and follow a migration strategy, evaluating it as you go. Let’s walk through some practices involved in doing so.

What Goes into Proper Data Migration Testing?

Data migration testing needs to address the various parts that any migration will inherently have: before the process takes place, what goes on during the migration itself, and what happens afterward. Being prepared to evaluate your process at all three stages based on predetermined metrics is therefore critical to your success, as there is no shortage of things that can go awry during any data migration.

It is also important to acknowledge that, before we go any further, data migration is something that requires some pretty advanced IT capabilities and skills. In short, it’s something that you’ll want to entrust to the professionals—professionals like the ones we have at Horne & Benik. We urge you to reach out and consult with us before diving into any major processes.

That being said, we wanted to run through a few critical steps to attend to at each of the aforementioned three stages.

What Needs to Be Done Before Your Migration Starts

Your first step needs to be to determine how much needs to be migrated—otherwise, you’ll have no scope of reference as to your success once the process is finished. Planning this process and making the preparations for it—like making sure that your data is protected from any negative impacts by backing it up in a properly configured backup solution—will be an important next step. 

You also need to ensure that you and your team also know what your proposed timeline looks like, and have a sufficient budget to cover these plans. Finally, it is also important to consider your cybersecurity and regulatory compliance needs, so that you can be sure that all of your systems meet the requirements.

What to Do During the Migration Process

As you’re completing your migration, there are a few things you can do to assist the testing process. For instance, breaking up the data you’re migrating into smaller batches makes the testing process more efficient. This is also a good time to set access permissions for your employees to fit the needs that their roles call for.

What Should Come After Your Migration

Once your migration has been completed, you should go through and test your new solutions to ensure that it was successful, checking that your data all made it over and that it is properly formatted for your new system. You should also check your new systems’ performance and security, stress testing them and running penetration tests to confirm they are reliable and secure.

Reach Out to Us for Assistance with All This

At Horne & Benik, we specialize in fulfilling the IT needs of our clients, from basic maintenance to advanced network configuration. Whatever it is you require, give us a call so we can help you out! Reach out at (603) 499-4400 today.