Accelerating Data Migration 96x for Emergency Services

Our client, a national emergency services organisation, was migrating many of their bespoke IT solutions into a cloud-based enterprise workflow management platform. This was a large, complex programme of work involving the migration of decades of legacy system data across multiple applications, with strict deadlines and real operational risk.

The programme required specialist data engineering expertise, particularly around Azure Data Factory, which was a key component of the industrial-scale migration solution. The client and their systems integration partner needed a team that could embed quickly and deliver under pressure.

When DataSing joined the programme, the target migration date was running at 'amber' status due to a variety of technical and delivery challenges.

DataSing were engaged to lead the data migration strategy for a number of legacy IT solutions. Our role evolved from hands-on data engineering to technical leadership and strategic direction across the migration programme.

We provided strategic data migration planning and executive stakeholder management, and were invited to participate at overall programme steering meetings. Our team undertook detailed migration planning for decades of legacy data, developed complex data analysis and transformation logic, and designed and built the migration architecture using Azure Data Factory.

Our data engineers developed transformation code that cut end-to-end migration timelines well beyond what was originally expected. We chaired twice-daily stand-ups with the client and external suppliers to make sure day-to-day activities contributed to overall objectives, raising risks and issues as required.

This engagement required close collaboration with numerous third parties, including the lead systems integrator, offshore development teams, platform consultants, and the client's own staff. We also provided programme management cover during periods of staff absence, covering both migration and implementation workstreams.

DataSing's Azure Data Factory-based solution resulted in 40,000 objects (over one million rows of data) completing migration in 30 minutes. Prior to our involvement, this was forecast to take 48 hours.

We upheld the ambitious target migration date, which had been at risk when we joined the programme. DataSing became the architects of all data migration business logic, the most complex aspect of the extract, transform, and load methodology.

Our team established themselves as technical leaders of the multi-party consortium responsible for the migration programme, and both the client and their integration partners indicated a desire to include DataSing in future platform migrations.