As anyone who has moved homes knows, signing the paperwork is just one step on a long journey. Moving to a new house is a complex process that requires thoughtful preparation long after the commercial aspects are complete.
What other tasks are there? Taking an inventory, carefully wrapping and packing your goods, proper labelling, and delivering each package to the correct location in the new home. You then need to unpack each box and put things in the proper place. It all takes planning and careful management.
Moving your data to a new home can seem just as daunting. Among the very first things to consider is how to inventory what you have today, how to classify it, and how to evaluate that data. All of this should be done before even thinking about data migration.
In many large organizations, data repositories proliferate with each acquisition, merger, and business unit expansion. This can lead to multiple redundant applications serving the same business need in different areas of the organization. Often, the people who installed and configured these products are no longer in the company. The new staff tasked with maintaining these systems are usually afraid to do anything more than add data to the existing repository.
The result? These legacy repositories are often bloated with no-longer used reports that consume resources and bring no value to the business. Further, many of these repositories will contain legacy data formats such as AFP or DJDE/LCDS, which are at odds with the world of Windows desktops.
Throw in a platform adjustment — perhaps a migration from the EBCDIC-encoded, big-endian mainframe to an ASCII-encoded, little-endian Intel platform — and you open up another set of questions. Such as “how do I continue to collect my reports while maintaining stable business practices and workflows with all that complex change going on?”
The good news is that you can de-risk with LRS.
Having completed almost 60 data migration projects from 21 different products to LRS software, the LRS Consulting Services team has all the bases covered. Some of the more popular conversions have been from CA-View, CA-Dispatch, BMC Control-D, ASG-ViewDirect (Mobius), RSD EOS, IBM RDMS and IBM Content Manager on Demand. Whether migrating from these or other archives, our LRS PageCenterX software can import your reports with minimal (if any) JCL changes by converting existing report definitions and capture rules.
Historical reports already archived in your data repositories can be migrated to the PageCenterX solution. If they are in a legacy format, they can be modernized along the way through conversion to PDF. In this way, users can view the fully-composed reports rather than just text on green-screens.
Users get to view their reports in a convenient, browser-based interface with a familiar folder structure. What’s more, the process gives you the opportunity to reduce bloat by rationalizing your workflows where appropriate and removing unused reports from the migrated system.
Whether your motivation is cost, better licensing terms, or a desire to change platforms, LRS can help your data find a new home.