Overview
A British multinational consumer goods company sought to modernize its database infrastructure by transitioning its Oracle databases to PostgreSQL. The company had over 100 databases under evaluation, with 70 selected for migration. These databases were spread across multiple Oracle versions (11g, 12c, 18c, 19c) and hosted on Bare Metal Servers (BMS), with configurations like Real Application Clusters (RAC) and Data Guards to provide high availability and disaster recovery. This infrastructure was essential for the company's digital transformation.
The Challenge
The company needed to migrate its databases while reducing operational overhead and dependency on a single vendor.
- Database migration: Evaluate Oracle databases on BMS and migrate them to Cloud SQL-PostgreSQL
- Operational efficiency: Reduce operational overhead and infrastructure costs while standardizing database management across the company
- Cost and vendor lock-in: Eliminate Oracle licensing costs and reduce dependency on a single vendor
- Optimized environment: Use PostgreSQL's fully managed service to improve database performance and scalability
The Objective
The company aimed to migrate its Oracle databases to Cloud SQL-PostgreSQL.
- Database assessment and migration: Evaluate and migrate over 100 Oracle databases to Cloud SQL-PostgreSQL to improve scalability and reduce costs
- Cost reduction: Eliminate licensing fees and reduce infrastructure overhead by standardizing database management
- Vendor independence: Minimize reliance on a single vendor by transitioning to an open-source PostgreSQL solution
- Operational efficiency: Use PostgreSQL's managed service to create a more flexible and reliable database environment
The Solution
HCLTech used the Database Migration Assistant (DMA) tool to assess the company’s Oracle database landscape (110 databases). The process involved gathering inventory, running scripts and providing recommendations for migration.
The company migrated 70+ production and non-production Oracle databases to Google Cloud SQL PostgreSQL using the following tools:
- DMA: For assessing the current Oracle database setup
- Database Migration Service (DMS): For migrating data and objects such as views, tables, functions and stored procedures
- Gemini database: To provide AI-driven code conversion suggestions during migration
- Database Validation Tool (DVT): To ensure data integrity and successful migration
The Impact
The migration enabled AI-driven optimizations, better project coordination and infrastructure improvements.
- Reduced database license costs and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by 35%
- Accelerated time-to-market by 25% through faster database migration
- Increased open-source database adoption on the cloud by more than 30%
- Improved migration efficiency with AI-driven insights from Gemini
