A new website (DataMigrationPro) specific to data migration launched last week. It's worth checking out if you're a DBA, Database Developer, ETL Specialist, or Data Architect.
Dylan Jones contacted me a while ago as they were planning the site. He believes, and I agree, that successful data migration projects require a specific set of skills and processes.
Best practices for migrating / integrating / consolidating data between systems evolve from hard-won skills and are certainly not taught in any college curricula. Don't believe me? Just talk to anyone who's lived through
- an ERP implementation.
- an upgrade of a customized ERP.
- a replacement of a legacy system that integrates with at least 2-3 other systems.
- a SOA initiative.
- The list goes on...
Well-run data migration initiatives require both hard and soft skills, including
- data quality assessment
- data remediation
- etl coding
- data governance
- business process design
Tools help, and several are available. Having peers to learn from helps every bit as much. I think the data migration community has the potential to fill a gap, giving us a place to go.
Want to get an idea of what's available? Try the Knowledge Index -- it's a compilation of internal and external articles, blogs, wikis, etc. This screen shot shows the results filtered to just blogs and wikis:
I plan to participate in this community -- as soon as I come up for air (more on that in another post later today).
5 comments:
A very interesting website, especially since the company behind it is taking a low key approach, I hope they can fund and support it over the long haul.
There are some blogs behind a membership firewall that need to be made public or else they wont get enough readers to survive. You need search engine visitors and easy RSS subscription to keep a blog ticking over.
Yeah, I'd vote for making the blogs public as well.
Keeping the forums behind registration doesn't worry me..that's pretty common.)
I agree about making sure as much as possible is out in the open. I also worry about the potential for balkanisation if too many cross-cutting communities open up (just look at how many overlapping Oracle sites have sprung up recently - I can't keep up with all of them).
Still, data migration has been a poor sister of ETL/EAI for a long time - good on Dylan (it's Dylan Jones, by the way) for doing something about it.
Ack! I've changed it to Jones -- thanks for pointing out the error. (Sorry Dylan!)
No worries Beth, I forgive you!
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to register and get involved, much appreciated.
I also hear your feedback folks.
We're starting to release blogs outside of the firewall, that should happen later this week. (RSS, tagging and bookmarks will be standard features).
You're right, data migration is poorly covered at present and needs a much wider debate.
The interest groups will still remain in the firewall as I feel people do need somewhere to privately seek help or bounce ideas around without the entire world reading about it.
We will of course continue to review the site and react to great feedback like this.
Thanks again for your support.
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