How to migrate on-premise data from ERP to Cloud?

Being an entrepreneur, it is really disheartening to encounter errors or data loss with providing your services to multiple users nationally or internationally with multiple servers and IP addresses accessing your on-premise server. Hence, sometimes the server crashes and data get lost.  So, to avoid such a situation you must have your data over the cloud environment, which will handle all the load and you will be relieved from stressing situations of data losses. 
Therefore, to migrated data from an on-premise server to a cloud server you would require to follow the given series of well-defined steps to perform a seamless integration with the server and to transfer data with implementing security. 

Preparation

The initiation phase requires a deep inspection of your on-premise ERP data before beginning the migration process. Here’s what you would need to check:
    • Audit Existing Data: Audit your ERP data properly to check its quality, structure, and consistency. Also, wherever required- identify and address any data issues, inconsistencies, or redundancies.
    • Data Mapping: To ease your transfer process and to avoid compatibility issues you would need to create a structured mapping document that will mention how your existing data will be mapped to the cloud environment.
    • Backup Data: Most important is to take a full backup of your ERP data to avoid data loss during the migration process. Also, ensure to store this backup in a secured location, separate from your on-premise server.

Set Up Cloud Infrastructure

Once you are final with the preparation process, you would need to set up a cloud infrastructure that will host your ERP system. Follow the given process to set-up your cloud infrastructure:
    • Provision Cloud Resources: Choose your preferred cloud environment  where you would be provisioning the necessary virtual machines, databases, and storage resources. The currently prevailing cloud environments are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Alibaba Cloud, IBM Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Wipro Cloud, and many more.

    • Configure Security: Now, implement a robust security measure to protect your data and prevent unauthorized access. The security measures include data encryption, identity and access controls, incident response, and regulatory compliance settings.

Data Migration

The data migration process involves extraction of your data from your on-premise server and uploading it to the cloud-based ERP system as pre-configured. The step-by-step process is as mentioned below:
    • Select Migration Tools: Opting a good tool or service for data migration would minimize the risk of errors and downtime. The tools such as AWS Database Migration Service or Azure Data Factory would help you automate the migration tasks.

    • Data Transfer: The following steps will guide you through the migration process:
    • Data Extraction: Initiate the process by extracting data from your on-premises ERP server using the selected migration tools.
    • Data Transformation: Then convert your data into a format that is compatible with the cloud infrastructure, if necessary. This involves data cleaning, normalization, or enrichment.
    • Data Restoration: Now restore the transformed data on to your Cloud server. This will start the process of uploading and after completion you cloud see your data files on your cloud infrastructure.

Testing

Once your data is in your cloud environment then you would need to test it to check its functioning correctly and integrating seamlessly with other systems as well. The following steps are necessary to put in:
    • Verify Data Integrity: Check and verify your cloud data with the on-premise data and see if it is accurate in size and files.
    • Conduct Functional Testing: Then start functional checking of the cloud data by opening it and operating it. Check if it still meets the desired needs of your organization.
    • Performance Testing: Then perform certain system performance test to check expected loads and to identify any performance issues.

Compliance and Security

The final step is to confirm that your ERP system is compliant with relevant regulations and industry standards. Hence, the following process is required to perform appropriate security measures and controls:
    • Ensure Compliance: Verify your cloud infrastructure, by using applicable regulations, such as GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS.
    • Maintain Security: Setup a foolproof monitoring and auto-updating security measures to protect your data from theft and unauthorized access.
Once you have setup your cloud security you have completed the process of data migration from your on-premise ERP server to a secured, scalable, and fast Cloud environment. This will help you boost your business process and give a more competitive control to your market. Currently, many businesses are running their services over cloud and hence, they are scaling and are performing well internationally as well.
  

Author

Ms. Payal Nambiar, Founder and Director, B-Square Solutions.