Imagine trying to keep up with the evolving needs of higher education institutions while ensuring your systems are cost-effective and scalable. This was the challenge faced by our client, a company providing a suite of software solutions for educational institutions. They needed to modernize one of their core components—an Operational Data Storage (ODS) system, which essentially served as a Data Warehouse for preparing data for BI (reporting), originally built on Oracle—by migrating to PostgreSQL in AWS. The primary goal of […]

At ABCloudz, we know that a successful migration or modernization project relies on a solid foundation and a well-defined approach. Our approach is encapsulated in the 12-step Migration and Modernization Methodology, which we’ve developed and refined over 20 years of practice. It has proven so effective that it was adopted by AWS to guide their cloud migration best practices.To illustrate this methodology in detail, we’ve created a series of four blog posts, each covering a critical phase of the migration […]

Welcome to the fourth and final blog post in the overview series dedicated to our 12-step Migration and Modernization Methodology that was adopted by AWS. We started by defining workloads and examining their interdependencies, which set the stage for capturing the current architecture and designing the future state architecture as part of the first step of the methodology — Future State Architecture Design. Next, we focused on gathering and analyzing project artifacts to inform a detailed effort estimation and project […]

Welcome to the third blog post in the overview series dedicated to our 12-step Migration and Modernization Methodology that was adopted by AWS. In our first and second blog posts, we explored the critical role of defining workloads in migration projects and laid out the process of capturing the current architecture and designing the future state architecture as part of the first step of the methodology — Future State Architecture Design.This provided a solid foundation for understanding the scope and […]

Welcome to the second blog post in the overview series dedicated to our 12-step Migration and Modernization Methodology that was adopted by AWS. In the first blog post, we began exploring the first step of the methodology — Future State Architecture Design.We focused on the definition of a workload and outlined how categorizing system components into specific workloads provides a solid foundation for the entire project. However, workload definition is just one part of the broader Future State Architecture Design […]

Welcome to the first blog post in the overview series dedicated to our 12-step Migration and Modernization Methodology that was adopted by AWS. In any migration or modernization project, it’s crucial to start with a clear understanding of the system’s components and their relationships. This is where workload definition comes into play. Defining workloads correctly sets the stage for the entire project, making it possible to scope, assess, and plan each step with precision. Workload definition is one of the […]

ABCloudz recently helped The Morning Star Company, one of the world’s largest producers of tomato products, migrate their Oracle database to SQL Server. The Morning Star Company operates three processing facilities in California, handling nearly 10% of the global tomato production. Their IT infrastructure included both Oracle and SQL Server databases, but due to the high cost of Oracle licenses, the company decided to gradually retire their Oracle servers and migrate to SQL Server. They reached out to ABCloudz for […]

Migrating Oracle databases to PostgreSQL or MySQL with AWS Schema Conversion Tool (AWS SCT) can present a range of challenges, from unsupported data types to limitations in automated code conversion and potential performance issues. AWS SCT offers powerful capabilities to automate these migrations, but it may not always deliver optimal results or handle complex Oracle constructs efficiently. In these cases, manual adjustments and optimizations are required to ensure a seamless transition to the target database. At ABCloudz, our team has […]

Migrating databases from Oracle to Microsoft SQL Server can be a complex endeavor, especially when it comes to dealing with differences in schema structures, data types, and specific SQL clauses. The SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) is a robust tool designed to automate these migrations and minimize manual effort. However, SSMA might not always produce optimal results, and understanding how to overcome these limitations is crucial for a successful migration. At ABCloudz, we’ve encountered these challenges firsthand. Through our experience, […]

When migrating from Oracle to PostgreSQL, one of the most important differences to consider is the treatment of null and empty string values. In Oracle, null and empty string are treated as the same entity, but in PostgreSQL, they are distinct. Failing to account for this distinction during migration can lead to logical errors and unexpected behavior in the database. This post will explore key nuances and demonstrate how to handle these differences effectively. Comparing null and empty string In […]

When working with PostgreSQL, database developers may encounter a limitation when attempting to create routines with more than 100 arguments. PostgreSQL enforces this restriction by setting FUNC_MAX_ARGS to 100 during the server build. Although this limitation is rarely an issue, complex procedures, particularly those migrated from Oracle, may have a significantly higher number of arguments. This blog post outlines a solution to handle such situations by utilizing composite data types to bypass the argument limit, ensuring routine compilation without significant […]

Migrating databases from Oracle to SQL Server can be a daunting task, especially when dealing with date and time data. While tools like the SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA) offer automated solutions, relying solely on these tools might not always yield the best performance. In this blog, we share examples of how to optimize conversion of Date and Time Conversion functions, after it was generated by SSMA. Key differences between Oracle and SQL Server Oracle and SQL Server handle date […]

The AWS SCT Extension Pack is designed to emulate Oracle’s system functions, procedures, and other database objects within PostgreSQL. This emulation is achieved by creating a special schema in PostgreSQL, named aws_oracle_ext, where these functions and objects are stored. This pack simplifies migration by replacing Oracle-specific calls with their PostgreSQL equivalents, ensuring that the code functions correctly post-migration. For example, consider the following transformations: Oracle PostgreSQL SELECT sysdate FROM dual; SELECT aws_oracle_ext.sysdate() SELECT to_char(sysdate, ‘dd.mm.yyyy hh24:mi:ss’), to_char(sysdate, ‘dd.mm.rrrr’) FROM dual; […]