4 Data Migration Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
As organizations centralize operations or transition to modern platforms, data migration becomes an essential—yet complex—initiative. Consider these challenges:
- 64% of enterprises manage over a petabyte of data, requiring significant planning and infrastructure to migrate
- Legacy systems often lack compatibility with modern platforms, requiring specialized handling
- Pre-existing data quality issues—including duplicates and formatting inconsistencies—can propagate into the new system if left unaddressed
Further complicating matters, a lack of technical expertise can introduce delays, errors, and cost overruns—ultimately compromising decision-making, operational efficiency, and even the performance of tools like generative AI.
Despite these obstacles, the most common data migration challenges stem from four critical pitfalls. The good news? Each one is preventable with the right approach.
1. Data Loss
Data loss during migration can delay initiatives, hinder operations, and compromise trust in reporting and analytics. Unfortunately, this risk is more common than many expect. Frequent causes include:
- Human error—accidental deletions, incorrect file naming, or overlooked dependencies
- Hardware failures—crashed drives, network outages, and system malfunctions
- Software incompatibility—format conflicts, schema mismatches, or platform bugs
- Cyber threats—interceptions, tampering, or theft of data in transit
- Intentional deletion—unauthorized activity by internal or external actors
- Power outages or disasters—unexpected interruptions during the transfer
To mitigate this risk:
- Implement comprehensive backups prior to initiating any migration activities
- Conduct migration simulations in a sandbox environment to identify issues before impacting production
- Employ robust encryption protocols during data transmission
2. Extended Downtime
Large-scale migrations often take longer than anticipated. Unaccounted-for dependencies, unexpected system behaviors, and technical setbacks can all contribute to prolonged downtime.
Downtime is not only inconvenient—it’s costly. Some enterprises report losses ranging from $10,000 to over $1 million per outage, depending on the duration and scale of disruption.
To mitigate this risk:
- Execute phased or incremental migrations, transferring data in smaller, controlled segments
- Maintain partial system functionality throughout the migration
- Identify and isolate issues early, without compromising the entire environment
- Create a comprehensive migration roadmap that includes timelines, system dependencies, contingency planning, and testing protocols
At TEKLEIGH, we help clients develop customized migration roadmaps that anticipate risks, reduce disruptions, and align with strategic business objectives.
3. Compatibility Issues
Incompatibility between systems is a leading cause of data corruption, misalignment, and post-migration errors. Differences in data formats, field structures, or system logic can result in information being placed incorrectly—or lost entirely.
To prevent compatibility issues:
- Conduct a pre-migration technology assessment to evaluate platform compatibility, data dependencies, and infrastructure readiness
- Standardize and transform data formats before migration, ensuring proper mapping across systems
- For organizations with fixed platform commitments (e.g., Snowflake, AWS), perform a mapping and transformation audit to prepare for integration challenges
TEKLEIGH’s strategic assessment and technology integration services are designed to uncover these issues early and design tailored solutions that reduce error rates and optimize platform interoperability.
4. Cost Overruns
Data migration projects are notorious for exceeding budgets—often by 14% to 30% of their original projections. These overruns typically result from:
- Incomplete planning or unclear project scope
- Lack of contingency planning for unexpected challenges
- Underestimating data quality issues and cleanup efforts
- Complexity of bridging legacy and modern architectures
- Skill gaps among internal teams
- Prolonged downtime requiring additional remediation resources
For private equity firms and enterprise investors, overlooking these costs can significantly reduce ROI—particularly during acquisitions or post-merger integrations.
To prevent cost overruns:
- Establish a realistic budget informed by detailed technical assessments
- Include contingency funds to address unexpected events
- Align internal and external resources to close skill gaps before execution
Data Migration Best Practices
To address the four most common pitfalls, we recommend the following practices:
- Define clear objectives and a comprehensive migration plan, including timelines, resources, and risk management strategies
- Create verified backups of all data before initiating migration
- Conduct pre-migration assessments of both data and technology infrastructure
- Clean, transform, and validate data prior to migration
- Run pilot tests on sample datasets to detect compatibility or mapping issues
- Adopt a phased migration approach to reduce business disruption
- Monitor the migration process in real time, with active alerts for errors or inconsistencies
- Validate data integrity and completeness post-migration
- Implement governance and compliance controls to maintain quality and consistency post-migration
Ownership of these best practices is critical. For many of our clients—including private equity firms—data migration represents a key opportunity to generate value. By aligning in-house IT resources with external expertise, organizations can accelerate their timeline, reduce risk, and improve return on investment.
Recommendations
To further improve outcomes and ensure migration success, consider the following strategic actions:
- Involve stakeholders early in the planning phase to align goals, data requirements, and compliance needs
- Invest in data quality tools to support cleansing, validation, and deduplication
- Assign clear ownership for governance, risk mitigation, and documentation
- Incorporate business continuity planning to handle unexpected migration delays
- Track key metrics such as downtime, error rates, and cost variances to refine future initiatives
Final thoughts on avoiding these data migration pitfalls
Data migration is a critical—but high-risk—initiative. A successful migration requires not just technical execution, but also strategic foresight, skilled resources, and proven methodologies.
At TEKLEIGH, we’ve led over 800 successful engagements over the past 12 years. Our approach ensures your migration is efficient, secure, and aligned with your long-term business goals.
Looking for a more reliable way to execute your next migration?