Moving Large Datasets to Oracle EPM Cloud: How to Do It Right

From greater accessibility and flexibility to cheaper storage costs, migrating your financial data to Oracle EPM Cloud has many benefits—but the project needs careful handling. The challenges involved with moving large datasets to the cloud include:

• Selecting the right storage methodology; files, objects, and databases need different handling methods.
• Preparing and cleansing the data (e.g. removing scratch files and backups, or archiving and compressing large amounts of relatively small files).
• Optimizing network transfer speeds and replicating data to multiple regions or cloud providers.
• Scaling the data migration process and avoiding bottlenecks.
• Validating data integrity by checking for corruption and usability after the migration.
• Preparing the data for use once it’s in the cloud.

The good news is that moving large datasets to the cloud is eminently doable as long as you’re able to put in the time and effort—and if you work with the right cloud migration partner. Datavail recently helped one of our clients, a large operator of hundreds of gas stations and retail locations across North America, upgrade their aged Oracle Hyperion HFM deployment and migrate their enterprise performance management (EPM) data to the cloud.

The steps for managing migrations with datasets of this size can include (plan for adjustments based on organizational variety):

1. Gathering requirements and performing in-depth analyses of the client’s IT systems.
2. Identifying points of improvement while maintaining on-premises functionality. For example, Datavail decreased the number of custom dimensions from 4 down to 2, so that the client could use the standard-size Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close (FCCS) application.
3. Building and converting the client’s metadata, including their alternate hierarchies. This included using the Oracle Smart View metadata feature, which is only available in the cloud, to build hierarchies much more quickly than on-premises.
4. Discovering errors and inefficiencies within the client’s datasets and reporting functionality.

Datavail has helped more than 150 clients move their enterprise data to the cloud—whether it’s Oracle EPM Cloud like the client in this post, or Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, OCI, or much more. To learn more about how our client saved hours of time during their financial consolidation processes, check out our case study Major Retailer Improves Productivity by Moving to Oracle EPM Cloud.”