Data migration go-live strategy

• Q1. How will the business cut-over(s) occur?

Will it be phased, pilot, parallel running or <shudder> big bang?

• Q2. Can / will transitional storage be used?

Will data be held in a temporary storage areaa while it is manipulated annd transformed, requiring down-time by the business (e.g. big complex databases of transactional data from one provider's system to another)? Or can it be carried across in one transaction (e.g. mirroring & switch-off, or changing the IP address of a server or a drive mapping)?

• Q3. Will data synchronisation be required?

Will it be necessary to keep two live systems synchronised during the migration, for example as a multi-database application is migrated piecemeal? And if so, will it be unidirectional or bi-directional? Relevant to phased, pilot and parallel running.

• Q4. How much downtime can be tolerated?

Bearing in mind testing will be required during that down-time. Parallel running allows plenty of testing.