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Plan to migrate WebSphere Commerce
Most businesses treat investments in technology updates and migrations as overhead expenses. Even though you may need to upgrade or migrate to the latest WebSphere Commerce version to take advantage of the technological offering, providing a business justification to do so requires outlining the business benefits, strategy and migration plan.
Each business works with a unique set of requirements and challenges. As such, it is unlikely that there is a methodology that would fit the requirements for all businesses. However, there are a number of best practices which can guide you through these migrations. The following items can impact the migration:
- The level of customization of the site.
- The size of the WebSphere Commerce site.
- The level of integration of WebSphere Commerce with third-party systems.
- Overview of a migration project
A migration project for any live WebSphere Commerce site is an activity that should be carefully thought out. There are three main phases to the migration project – the planning phase, the practice phase, and the production migration phase. Each of these phases requires its own skills and resources. Allocating sufficient time for each activity is crucial to ensure that no key tasks are forgotten.
- High level steps for an sample switchover migration
A switchover migration is a migration performed on new hardware, enabling the existing production system to be left in place until the moment that the new WebSphere Commerce site is ready to handle traffic. The traffic is then redirected to the new site, and the old hardware can be used to add capacity or serve as performance test systems. This sample switchover migration plan can be used as an example to plan and size the own project.
- Create a migration plan
Migrating to a new version of WebSphere Commerce impacts several aspects of the business.
- Introduction to WebSphere Commerce migration
Migration involves moving the WebSphere Commerce product to a new version level, while attempting to preserve all previous configurations. During migration, components from previous releases are replaced by new software installed at the new version level. The migration process does not involve adding new or custom features, rather, it is focused only on moving the configuration from one software level to another, ensuring that all existing function continues to work.