Data Migration for Web Sites

Now that you have your new dynamic web site developed with fresh content, and tested it a zillion different ways, it is time to implement the final phase of the changeover process, data migration. Data migration for a business, like a bank, would require exporting existing data on their customers and importing that data to the new system, in other words, populating the database.

Data migration is the process of importing recorded information that exists in your current storage system, like database records, text files, spreadsheets, images and documents to a new system. This is achieved by means of entering the data manually, moving disk files from one computer to the other, through software, or via database insert queries. The method used will depend on the old system, the new system and the data being migrated.

Before the migration process can begin, the database administrator must construct the new e-commerce databases. This tedious and pain-staking process involves entering the field definitions to develop the various tables. Logically the database administrator will need to develop various user permissions, or access privileges, for both internal and external users. Then he/she will need to generate stored actions and prompts.

Last, the database administrator must optimize the database for performance. This decreases the response time for queries. He or she should be considering performance issues throughout the development cycle.