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15 Best Practices for Successful Data Migration

 

Reflecting on 25 years of bluesource_ A vision for the future
Plan your next migration with confidence. Get practical guidance and discover how to reduce risk, avoid delays, and protect user experience. 

Data migrations are becoming more complex, more frequent, and are businessā€‘critical. M&A activity, data centre moves and department restructuring all mean that data is fluid within a business. Whether youā€™re moving archives, email, file data, cloud workloads or entire digital estates, the risks are real.  


Due to the sporadic nature of migrations, itā€™s rare for internal teams to have the relevant experience in both the source and target systems to confidently deliver a successful migration. Especially when you add time and budget constraints and other business priorities to the mix. 

As GartnerĀ® states, 

ā€œData migration projects are one of the most challenging undertakings for any organization, irrespective of their size or technical maturity. These projects might appear simple and straightforward on paper, as they primarily involve moving data from a source system to a target system. However, in reality, they frequently exceed budgets, miss deadlines or fail to meet quality requirements.ā€ 

Best Practices for Migration

Reasons for migrations vary from organisation to organisation and include; modernisation, gaining new capabilities, getting better value through better price-to-performance, aligning to evolving strategy or mergers or acquisitions. However, regardless of the motive, the roadmap for success remains constant.  

Bluesource migrations in numbers

7PB+
Of data
400TB
Every year
70B+
Emails received
99.99%
Success rate

In our view, these GartnerĀ® best practices provide a blueprint that closely aligns with stages we have developed for migration success, based on our 20+ years of migration excellence.

Major migrations donā€™t happen often in your business, but they are part of our everyday activities. We handle around two complex migrations per month. Our experts have the knowledge and experience to deliver a seamless experience that minimises risk and disruption to your business. 

We know that migrations arenā€™t ā€œjust another IT project.ā€ They can impact compliance, legal teams, business continuity, and operations. GartnerĀ® ā€˜15 best practices for migration successā€™ highlight the key areas you need to be aware of to help you get ahead of the common migration challenges before they become blockers, whether you choose to conduct the migration yourself, or user external experts. 

 

 

 

 

Ready to Discuss Your Migration Plans?

 If you'd like to talk through your current environment or future roadmap, our experts are here to help.  

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 GartnerĀ®, 15 Best Practices for Successful Data Migration, By Masud Miraz, Henry Cook, Melody Chien, 7 April 2025

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