Plan to migrate WebSphere Commerce

Most businesses treat investments in technology updates and migrations as overhead expenses. Even though we might 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 one methodology would fit the requirements for all businesses. Best practices, however, can guide you through these migrations. The following items can affect your 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 must 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.

• Migration diagram
  The following diagram provides a visual representation of your overall migration path when you migrate from Feature Pack 6+ (version 7.0) or WebSphere Commerce Version 8 to version 9.0, including the development and runtime environments.

• Creating a migration plan
  Migrating to a new version of WebSphere Commerce impacts several aspects of your business. Review the resources provided to help create your migration plan.