The Three Questions You Should Ask Yourself Before Any Data Migration

Data migration isn’t just about moving data from one system to another. It’s about preserving business continuity, ensuring financial accuracy, and maintaining customer trust. One wrong move can result in corrupted records, compliance violations, or even financial losses. When dealing with sensitive financial systems, the stakes are higher.

I’ve led multiple high-stakes migrations, but the most intense one was at Prosper Marketplace Inc.

Prosper is a peer-to-peer marketplace for loans, savings, and earnings. There was a transition from Experian to TransUnion. During this full-scale migration, every transaction, every credit history, and every compliance metric had to be preserved flawlessly. Migrations like this teach you hard lessons. Always plan for migration to avoid problems.

The Right Questions to Ask

Before touching a single transaction, I always ask three key questions.

1. What’s being moved? What kind of data is being moved? Is it structured customer records, unstructured logs, or a combination?

   
   

2. Where is it going? Can the new system handle legacy formats, large data volumes, and compliance requirements?

   
   

3. What can’t be lost? Some data is critical for operations, while other records are just digital baggage.

The Foundation of a Smooth Migration

Governance is the foundation of a smooth migration. Without proper governance, data migration turns into chaos. I’ve seen projects where teams assumed someone else was responsible for a dataset, only to realize no one owned it.

To prevent this, clear governance protocols were established.

1. Defined Roles & Responsibilities

The first significant aspect was to define roles and responsibilities. IT teams managed operational data. Compliance teams handled regulatory records. Finance teams ensured transaction histories were accurate.

2. Decision-Making Workflows

When conflicting data formats arose, there was a structured escalation process to resolve issues before they became showstoppers.

3. Risk Management Protocols

Every potential failure scenario—including data loss, system downtime, and security breaches—was mapped out with a contingency plan in place.

I ran mock migrations to test every step before the actual migration. One of these tests caught a major issue: a script was stripping leading zeros from customer account numbers. Had this gone live, thousands of accounts would have mismatched. That single test saved us from a major operational disaster.

Avoiding Dirty Data Nightmares

One of the biggest challenges I faced was dealing with inconsistent date formats.

The old system stored dates in three different formats:

• MM/DD/YYYY
• DD-MM-YY
• An unrecognizable custom format

These discrepancies would have caused reporting errors and transaction mismatches.

The Solution

1. I used Tableau Prep to visualize inconsistencies before migration.

2. Automated validation rules to enforce a uniform format.

3. Engaged stakeholders—people who use the data daily know its quirks best.

   
   

By migration day, thousands of duplicate records were cleaned in standardized formats. This ensured data integrity.

Choosing the Right Migration Strategy

I’ve seen migrations fail simply because companies rushed the process. One organization attempted an overnight migration of all its financial records. By morning, the system had crashed under the weight of incomplete, corrupted records. Their team spent weeks rolling back changes and recovering lost data.

Why I Prefer a Phased Approach

1. Migrate historical data first, then recent transactions.
2. Test migrations with small datasets before scaling up.
3. Use an incremental cutover instead of a risky “big bang” migration.

At Prosper, key migrations were scheduled over long weekends to minimize downtime. But here’s a pro tip: always have a rollback plan. System snapshots were taken at every stage so we could immediately revert if something went wrong.

Protecting Data in Transit

Financial data is a prime target for hackers, and a migration window is the perfect time for an attack. Why? Because systems are temporarily vulnerable.

These processes were implemented to secure the migration.

• Role-based access controls (RBAC) to restrict who can access sensitive data.
• End-to-end encryption (TLS, VPNs) to protect data in transit.
• Real-time monitoring using OSSEC to flag suspicious activities immediately.

Security isn’t just about blocking hackers. It’s also about compliance. The migration was aligned with__PCI DSS__ regulations to avoid legal trouble.

Post-Migration: The Work Doesn’t Stop There

Once the migration is complete, the real work begins.

1. Data Reconciliation – We cross-checked migrated records against the original dataset to catch any discrepancies.

2. Compliance Reviews – Auditors verified that all regulatory requirements were met.

3. Performance Monitoring – These three parameters were tracked.System speed to identify slow queries, error rates to catch data corruption, and downtime occurrences to ensure seamless operations.

   
   

One of the best tools implemented was a visual dashboard that tracked migration progress, error rates, and performance in real-time. It gave executives immediate insights into how everything was running.

Lessons Learned

I’ve led multiple migrations since my Prosper Marketplace project, but the core lessons remain the same for high-stakes data migration.

• Know your data before you touch it.
• Governance prevents disaster. Clear accountability is key**.**
• Clean before you move. Messy data creates long-term problems**.**
• Use a phased migration strategy. There’s no need to rush it**.**
• Test everything. Catching minor errors early prevents significant failures**.**
• Secure your data. Hackers love migration windows**.**
• Validate post-migration. Assume nothing is perfect until proven otherwise**.**

Migration isn’t just about moving data. It’s about business continuity, financial accuracy, and customer trust. Migration doesn’t just preserve data, it transforms businesses.