Legacy systems have been around forever and have been known for their performance and efficiency. But like all good things come to an end, legacy systems also have started showing lots of signs of failure in the last few years.
Hardware migration has become an important consideration among various organizations looking to transform their IT structure to meet the changing demands of the market. Hardware migration can be a very tedious and daunting process, which is why in this article we give you a guide to ease your process.
What is Hardware Migration?
The term ‘hardware migration’ means the transfer of data, applications and services from one hardware platform to another. With emulation companies like Stromasys this migration happens hassle-free without affecting the experience of the end user. This is normally carried out for better performance, increased efficiency, and to cut down maintenance costs.
Now let us discuss when and why hardware migration is important.
• Performance Optimization: Modern hardware boasts of increased speed, efficiency, and reliability in comparison to the older one.
• Cost Efficiency: Preserving traditional systems is often costly. Replacing older hardware with newer ones can always be less costly in terms of operational and maintenance costs.
• Enhanced Security: Outdated systems often don't get certain support and upgrades for bug fixes thus posing some risks to businesses.
• Scalability: Legacy systems have lesser threshold in comparison to modern systems and therefore cannot accommodate the growing needs of an organization.
• Regulatory Compliance: A large number of industries have compliance needs that require their legacy systems to be up to date.
Steps to Hardware Migration
• Step 1: Assessment and Planning
To begin with, it is necessary to evaluate the current situation of your company’s hardware and to determine the necessity of migration. The evaluation of your legacy hardware decision should be based on how it performs, whether it can or cannot integrate with your systems, support you need from the vendor and more. Create a migration timeline containing the framework of when and how you intend to migrate along with resources required for the move and associated risks.
• Step 2: Define Goals
Establish very clear goals of the migration before it begins. These goals could be about costs or efficiency or cloud readiness but having goals will help direct the process and decision.
• Step 3: Choose the Right Platform
Choose the platform and method that best fits the needs of your business. This could be a new model of your current legacy system, a virtualized system or cloud solution.
• Step 4: Data Backup and Validation
For purposes of data protection, make a copy of all important data before attempting to migrate it. After that, check the backup with the original data in order to make sure that everything is perfected fine. But with emulation solutions like Stromasys, you would not have to worry about this since they have a simple lift and shift migration, retaining all the data in your legacy system.
• Step 5: Testing
Check migration in the staging environment so as to spot any discrepancies, before completely migrating. Testing plays the vital role to make sure that applications and data run well on the new hardware.
• Step 6: Execution
With your trusted partner, perform the migration exercise as you have planned. This phase requires transferring of data, installing new equipment and some tests of the new equipment.
• Step 7: Post-Migration Evaluation
After the transfer has been accomplished one should keep a close watch on the newly migrated system and look out for some instability or decline in efficiency. Correct any problem where it is identified and ensure the system is running most smoothly.
Some of the difficulties of hardware migration include
• Data Loss or Corruption: Thus, failure to properly manage data during its migration can result in loss or data damage. This risk is however checked by regular backups.
• Downtime: Mobility causes business interruptions. As such, there exists a need to ensure that there is minimum time that is spent in such downtimes which basically entail proper planning and fast response.
• Compatibility Issues: It may be necessary to require reconfiguration of different applications or system programs that interfaces with the new platform may not work as required.
Realizing Strategies for Hardware Migration
• Engage Experts: Consult with other IT experts or seek help from hardware migration service companies along with a demo to make this process a lot easier.
• Communicate Effectively: In case of any alterations or interruptions, notify the stakeholders of the development.
• Leverage Automation Tools: Minimize the amount of manual work and increase accuracy utilizing migration tools and software.
Conclusion
Hardware migration is an important project for companies intending to upgrade their IT infrastructure. All in all, if the migration process is well planned, implemented and tested out, it is very much possible to accomplish the migrations smoothly and with little to no disruptions to your business. If you are considering migration for your organization, Stromasys solutions have an option for you, no matter what your legacy system.
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