Summary

  • Customer: Financial Consulting Firm
  • Country: Colombia
  • Product Used: Ispirer Toolkit customization + Ispirer Toolkit License
  • Source Technology: Microsoft SQL Server
  • Target Technology: Java, PostgreSQL
  • Extension Stage: 35 000 LOC
  • Extension Stage Duration: 3 months
  • Project Scope: 300 GB, 3000 Tables, 815000 LOC
  • License Duration: 12 months

The project's extension phase achieved 90% automation in migrating SQL Server business logic to Java.

Results

The migration project yielded several notable benefits for the client, including:

  • The customer decided to move business logic from SQL Server to the application layer, as it adheres to OLTP way to work with data, and aims at high throughput and low latency for each operation
  • Migration to PostgreSQL allowed to enhance the system efficiency, due to PostgreSQL's high compatibility with cloud providers.
  • Cost reduction owing to elimination of SQL Server.

Customization of Ispirer Toolkit allowed to significantly accelerate the migration from SQL Server to Java

Background

Our client is a Colombian subsidiary of a global financial consulting firm with over 10 000 employees. The company collects, maintains, and provides accurate and comprehensive information about individuals' and businesses' credit histories and financial behaviors. It helps people keep track of their financial history and how they manage money. The company collects and aggregates information on more than a billion consumers and 65,000 businesses in over 30 countries around the world.

Challenge

Our client utilized a SQL Server database for storing, processing, retrieving, and managing their clients' financial data.

The company had a plan to migrate their entire SQL Server database to the cloud. This involved transferring tables and data from the Microsoft SQL Server database to PostgreSQL. Furthermore, due to several compelling reasons, the company intended to convert their SQL code to Java. The project encompassed a substantial volume of 300 GB of data, 3000 tables, and a codebase of 815,000 lines of code.

Given the intricacy of this undertaking, the company initiated a quest to identify an appropriate solution, ultimately turning to our team for support and expertise.

Solution

After conducting an in-depth analysis of our company's capabilities and past successes, the client made the informed decision to entrust Ispirer with their critical modernization project. This choice was influenced by our team's vast expertise, specialized migration software tailored for seamless database migration, particularly in migrating from SQL Server to PostgreSQL. Moreover, the pivotal aspect was our team’s specialization in migrating SQL objects and data.

Given the rich expertise in converting sql objects, our team easily delved into the client’s project. Our developers diligently examined the client's requirements and meticulously formulated a detailed migration plan, tailored to meet the client's specific needs. Since the client had a unique request to move their Transact-SQL to Java, our team came up with a clear roadmap consisting of two stages:

  • Extension stage. The migration direction from SQL Server to Java was new to Ispirer Toolkit. That is why in order to optimize migration as much as possible and automate it by 90%, it was decided to customize the toolkit.
  • License of Ispirer Toolkit. This stage implied using customized Ispirer Toolkit for ultimate automation of the migration process. The customer team converted Transact-SQL to Java automatically as well as migrated data from Microsoft SQL Server to PostgreSQL with no hassle. Ispirer software accelerated database migration 3 times.

Throughout the project, the Ispirer team implemented a number of unique conversion solutions. Among them are the following:

  • Converting an INSERT statement in combination with a SCOPE_IDENTITY()to get the last identity value inserted into an identity column.
  • Conversion of procedure with multi Result Sets.
  • Conversion of DATEDIFF method. For seamless conversion, Ispirer experts developed an equivalent. Also the team developed a method which tries to cast String to Timestamp without an explicitly specified format.
  • Conversion of sp_send_dbmail method which sends an e-mail message to the specified recipients. For this purpose, a utility class called MailService was developed.
  • Conversion of xml Data Type and its Methods that are used to query an XML instance stored in a variable of xml type. To implement it, a utility class called XMLUtils was developed.

Outcome

The migration project took 15 months, involving the transfer from SQL Server to PostgreSQL while simultaneously migrating business logic to Java. It encompassed 300 gigabytes of data, 3,000 tables, and 815,000 lines of SQL code. This complex undertaking required meticulous planning and coordination, resulting in a successful transition. The client now benefits from a cost-effective, feature-rich cloud-based application.

The client achieved remarkable efficiency gains in their transition from SQL Server to PostgreSQL, thanks to the tailored Ispirer Toolkit. By partnering with Ispirer, the customer avoided the need to assemble a dedicated team of Java developers. The implementation of Ispirer Toolkit not only eliminated this requirement but also led to a remarkable cost reduction, cutting migration expenses 3-5 times when compared to manual migration.