When planning an application data migration, especially a migration from one instance to another on the same vendor platform, many organizations first impulse is to take the “do-it-yourself” (DIY) approach. This is understandable, after all, how difficult can it be to move the data?

Most such organizations learn the hard way that a DIY migration can be much more difficult than expected. In this article, we discuss some of the reasons why DIY migrations from one instance to another can often lead to failed projects or large time and cost overruns.

The Pitfalls

Many DIY migrations follow this unfortunate sequence of steps:

Export data from the source system to spreadsheet or xml files.
Massage the data to make it compatible with the target system.
Copy and paste the data into new files ready for importing
Import the data into the target system using native tools such as import sets and transform maps (this may require some development).
Encounter numerous data errors.
Remove loaded data and start over from step 1.
Eventually, run out of money, time, or executive patience.
Declare the project a failure.

Here are some of the reasons that DIY migrations end up being so much trouble:

Many iterations are required to get the data in the right format for the target system leading to far more time and money being needed to complete the project.

All the manual transformations, copying, and pasting is error-prone and introduces a great deal of rework.
The data structures, types and values of the target system may not match that of the source system(s). Data from a single table in the source may be split into different tables in the target, requiring additional work to manage the changes in data and ensure the data relationships are maintained correctly.
Reference field Sys-Id values such as assigned users and groups may not be the same on source and target so additional work is required to update all references to point to the correct records in each case.
Some objects, such as complex data types, attachments, and workflows, can’t be migrated using simple text but need to be formatted and re-connected to different target records to ensure the users of the new application do not lose any data integrity.
Spreadsheet applications are notorious for making unanticipated transformations to your data, such as trimming leading zeros, so “01234” becomes “1234” which is not an accurate reflection of the source data.
If you have custom tables or fields in your source system that will not be in the new system then additional transformations to combine fields or push to different locations will be required.
Native exporting and importing often has limits on the volume of records that can be processed.
Migrated records may be updated on the source platform later so the whole process needs to be repeated.

So, how can you avoid the pitfalls that can sabotage your project?

It’s quite simple: Don’t do DIY migrations. They are simply too risky for anything other than the smallest basic systems.

A Better Approach: Tool-Based Migration

A faster, more reliable, and more comprehensive approach to ServiceNow instance migration is to engage the services of a competent migration partner with access to robust migration tools such as the Precision Bridge Data Migration tool.

Precision Bridge data migration performs all the data transformations for you, sparing you the error-prone and time-consuming process of doing it manually. Moreover, the tool can migrate your historical ticket data, knowledge articles, assets, audit information, attachments, workflows, and complex data types to ensure complete information continuity on day 1 in the new environment.

Each Precision Bridge migration is supported by over 100 migration templates specifically designed to accelerate and streamline the migration of a wide range of applications to ensure optimal delivery and data integrity.

So, if you have a data migration project coming up, avoid the inevitable stress of a DIY migration by leveraging automation.

Contact Precision Bridge today for more information on how Precision Bridge can simplify your ITSM application migration project.