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Case Study
Accelerating a Cognos Data Storage Migration
Industry:
Banking
Focus:
Cognos data source migration
Senturus helped our client, a large US bank, prepare for a massive, phased data storage migration from on-prem Teradata to Google Big Query. Leveraging our Migration Assistant, we efficiently inventoried over 20,000 Cognos reports and 400 packages to determine which called to the data source being moved. Results: an accelerated migration timeline, a stable transition of content, reduced reporting downtime and an improved overall project success rate.
Challenge
The client was operating Cognos on top of an on-prem Teradata data warehouse and moving the data source to Google Big Query. They needed to determine which of their 20,000 Cognos reports and 400 packages called to Teradata and, of those, which had been used in the last six months. Compounding the challenge, the client was doing a phased migration of tables to the new data platform and needed to know which reports were ready for repointing after each phase. Additionally, they had already identified a set of function incompatibilities between the databases and needed to locate and reconfigure them prior to migration.
The client was facing a daunting, time-consuming manual task, having to go into each report and model to answer these questions. They had no clarity about the scope of the project nor how long it would take. The migration was mission critical: as one of the largest banks in the U.S, they could not afford a protracted implementation timeline nor reporting downtime.
Solution
Senturus deployed the Migration Assistant and developed a series of custom reports. The solution provided the client an inventory of their Cognos content with drill-down visibility to the data source tables. They could view details including lineage, table relationships and enriched statistical report use details. Additionally, content with incompatible functions was flagged and highlighted for easy identification and reconfiguring. Senturus also meshed the client’s project timeline with the Migration Assistant report data. With that, they could sync up items for migration, know what was ready for migration and what still needed to be worked on.
The solution allowed the client to easily drill into report and packages for information they could use to accelerate the migration such as
- Identify what reports and packages were in or out of scope: i.e. called the Teradata source and were run within the last six months.
- Efficiently reconfigure functions incompatible with Google Big Query prior to migration.
- Prioritize reports for migration.
- Know which reports and packages could be repointed because all the tables had been migrated.
Benefits
- Provided significant time and cost savings. Having a detailed, drill-through inventory of reports and packages removed the massive task of a manual audit.
- Avoided reporting downtime. Knowing when tables were ready for migration, paired with the ability to pinpoint and proactively address incompatibilities in functions between data platforms, enabled a migration with little or no system interruption.
- Provided ability to develop and execute a realistic migration timeline. Clarity about the project scope with detailed information about the Cognos content store provided the needed insights to move knowledgeably move forward.
- Optimized the Cognos environment. The client was able to identify and eliminate little used and duplicate reports prior to migration.
- Enabled IT to inventory locally stored My Folder content. Understanding the quantity of locally saved Cognos reports and the data they rely on provides helpful information that is virtually unattainable manually.
By unravelling the troves of data in the client’s Cognos store, the Migration Assistant provided the insights necessary to significantly accelerate the migration process, saving time and money.
About our client
This client is one of the largest banks in the U.S. with a customer base that spans retail, small business, corporate and investment clients.