Two decades ago, cloud migrations were considered to be high-intensity projects only taken on by the most innovative companies. Not long ago in 2018, however, Rightscale estimated that 96% of organizations were using the cloud in one way or another.
But some databases and applications seem better suited for cloud adoption than others. Since Oracle EBS is an incredibly robust suite of over 200 applications with many custom possibilities, it is often one of the last applications suites companies will consider moving to an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) cloud.
If you know how to address the complexity of Oracle EBS and take the necessary preparation steps, however, you can have your Oracle EBS cake and eat it with cloud availability, flexibility, and scalability too.
In this article, we will discuss the key Oracle EBS areas to review before you start the migration process.
1. Interface Jobs
The very first thing you’ll want to do when preparing for a cloud migration is to look at your interface jobs. This is key because it will dictate several decisions you make later and determine the level of complexity of your cloud migration. Review each interface job and its transaction volume stats. You'll want to ensure that the connectivity still works, and the job runs and completes as expected.
2. Application Versions and Certification Status
In addition to the version and certifications for Oracle EBS, you’ll want to check the versions and certification requirements of the database, browser, O/S, Java, and more to ensure they will all function optimally in the cloud. Remember, premier support for Oracle EBS 12.1.3 ends December 2021. Plan time for pre-migration upgrades, if necessary.
3. Current Storage Solution
Review your current storage solution and database IOPS requirements to meet your business needs so that you're able to identify the cloud platform offering appropriate storage and see if any VM limitations are in place. If you use Oracle RAC, then you need to keep that in mind when making your selections.
Each cloud platform provides different options, and the essential areas to review are:
- Virtual machine size
- Network throughput
- Disk types and configurations
- Regions
4. Data Migration Strategy
Review your data migration strategy to ensure cutover time is minimal. The cloud platform you choose significantly impacts the potential downtime you may experience and, as we all know, downtime is frowntime!
Identify the allowed downtime for cutover so you know how much time you're working with. You have to take a much different approach with a zero-downtime strategy than you would with 48 hours of allowable downtime, for example.
5. Storage Footprint
Evaluate your storage footprint and the potential cost reductions available on the cloud. If you have compression and deduplication in your current solution, when it goes to the cloud, your data is going to expand.
In addition, look at your on-premises production and non-production database storage utilization and cost. With your selected cloud options and the potential limitations around storage, understand the overall impact and change it may have on your Oracle EBS implementation.
6. Testing Strategy
Keep post-migration surprises at a minimum by evaluating your testing strategy. We recommend performing your testing as if it's user acceptance testing (UAT) in your proof of concept (POC) phase. Use a KPI testing strategy that includes regression and load testing scenarios, and use a production-like environment to run the scenarios. You want to look at jobs running and completing, the runtimes, and the volume details.
7. Future State Backup and Monitoring Solutions
Review and understand the database backup solutions on your target cloud platform, and go over clone processes and SLAs with your teams to check the operational requirements. In addition, explore the monitoring tools and integration with the ITSM solution to understand the changes that the cloud platform brings for O/S and DB-level monitoring for operational needs.
Final Thoughts
An Oracle EBS cloud migration might be more complex than other databases and applications, but approaching it with an eye for detail will pay off in the long run. When you review these seven factors before executing your Oracle EBS cloud migration, you turn the unknown into the known and maximize your potential for success. For more information on how to execute a successful EBS migration, visit the Datavail website.