Between a rock and a hard place: why 93% of telecoms CIOs fear complex data migrations.

Powerful commercial drivers in the global telecoms market are having profound effects on the telecoms business. Service providers are well aware that to remain competitive in the next-generation market they have to slash their operating costs and invest in an agile IT infrastructure. Failure to transform their legacy IT infrastructure will mean that they will not be able to fully capitalise on the billions they have already spent on cutting-edge network technology, as they will be unable to launch long-awaited next-generation services quickly, efficiently and cheaply, or bill for them.

Service providers know that their legacy IT infrastructure is currently an obstacle rather than an enabler to their future plans. They also know that competitors unhindered by legacy problems are poised to enter their markets, and that leading-edge operators have already embarked on extensive transformation programmes. Yet many are hesitant and fearful of application transformation. The negative experiences they've had in the past with complex migrations has put them off the entire process--despite the fact that they know that application renewal is critical to the long-term health of their organisation. A new survey undertaken by Celona Technologies has revealed the extent of fear in the telecoms industry. Ninety-three per cent of respondents said that they are anxious about complex application migrations. Fifty-nine per cent confessed that they were so worried about the consequences that they had decided not to go ahead with a migration in the past.

But the current commercial environment means that these IT managers are not only being forced to acknowledge their fears but are having to confront them, as business managers demand a lower cost, more agile, more business-driven infrastructure.

The reasons why IT staff fear complex application migrations are numerous and not entirely unique to the telecoms market. Mention data migration to IT managers in any industry and the wince will be universally understood! And this fear is not unfounded. According to the Standish Group, for example, more than three-quarters of migrations fail--either entirely or by running over on time or budget. John Morris, data migration expert and CTO of specialist data migration consultancy Iergo Ltd agrees: "The complexity of data migration is the most frequently underestimated area of any IT or business change project--and the one most likely to cause delay or project failure." Celona's survey found that in the telecoms market IT staff have a good understanding of the issues they face and of why projects fail. Respondents cited a number of reasons for migration failures, including the problem of managing parallel migrations, the fact that dependent systems cannot be migrated simultaneously and that the migration tool 'sets' the process, as well as the challenge of data and process being split between source and target. Forty-three per cent of respondents said that a principal cause of failure was that business priorities changed during the migration--clearly a particularly significant factor in the dynamic world of telecoms and one that is unlikely to go away. But the most cited reason was that data complexity and cleanliness were poorly understood, with 60% of respondents believing this was responsible for migration failure. "The telecoms environment is especially challenging," explains John Morris "due to the complexity of the data sets, the pressure on existing operational support systems (OSS) and the background of constant business change".

Telecoms IT professionals are under few illusions that the problem will lessen over time, with 89% saying that data complexity is getting worse. Nearly half confess that they are already in trouble, with 47% admitting that their migrations were already behind schedule.

But does it have to be this way? CIOs we speak to desire a better migration experience that delivers three things:

* Reduced risk--maintaining data availability through the migration, and allowing business-as-usual to continue

* Increased migration speed and less slippage--with migration starting sooner and delivering faster time-to-benefits and new revenue opportunities

* Improved agility--supporting business change during the migration process and beyond.

The good news is that data may be becoming more complex, but data migration tools are also evolving. Next-generation data migration tools support faster data migration at lower risk, and natively support service-oriented principles and data federation, improving agility. They are built using open principles, help service providers buffer themselves against inevitable change and are re-usable (thereby protecting service providers' investment).

What's needed in the telecoms market is a new solution to a new problem. The telco world is complex, demanding and changeable, and as Celona's survey has shown, this complexity is expected to increase, not go away. Traditional data migration solutions such as ETL are perfectly valid for the purposes they were designed for--bulk loading of data warehouses--but they have been misapplied to application-level migrations. Likewise general tools may struggle in the demanding telecoms environment and effort has to be put into tailoring them to its specific needs. This effort, even when effective, costs valuable time and money and creates the 'set in stone' effect which creates lack of flexibility and throw away configurations and scripts.

In contrast, third-generation tools are built to natively support complex applications transformation migrations. Such tools complement the SI offering by making them more efficient at delivering migrations and therefore potentially more profitable. While operators also benefit from a better, more efficient and therefore quicker migration. An example of such a tool is Evolve, Celona's third-generation application-level migration tool, which is being used by leading operators such as the UK's BT to deliver complex migrations not just on time, but ahead of time.

Key findings from the research

* 93% of telecoms IT managers say they are fearful of undertaking complex application level migrations

* 59% say they have been discouraged to the extent they have decided not to go ahead with some migrations

* 60% of respondents say a principal cause of failed migrations is that data complexity and cleanliness are poorly understood

* 43% say a principal cause of failure is changing business priorities

* 89% say data complexity is getting worse

* 47% say their data migrations are not on schedule

* 36% say they worry that they will not be able to get some or all of their data across

* 33% say they fear they will never finish the project.

www.celona.com

Tony Sceales, Celona Technologies

RELATED ARTICLE: IT Security Moving Higher Up Corporate Agenda

With increased focus and media attention on the protection of corporate data and systems, IT security is moving higher and higher up the corporate agenda. A recent IDC survey showed that 56% of organizations expected their IT budget to increase over the next 12 months with 83% expecting their security spend to increase. Organizations surveyed had an average annual IT expenditure of [pounds sterling]5.4 million. The same survey showed that currently security spend accounts for 6% of IT budgets and this is set to grow to 11% within the next 12 months.

The Western European security software market grew by 19.1% in 2006, compared to 2005, and will continue to grow from 2006 to 2011 with a CAGR of 11.4%. "Growth is still important in this area because the need for security grows with the need for IT. Regulation compliance, IT weakness, complexity, and attacker agility are the main drivers of investment," said Eric Domage, IDC's Western European Security Software research manager.

With this in mind, IDC is pleased to announce that the annual IT Security Conference will be taking place in London on September 25, 2007. IT security touches every part of the organization and with so many solutions coming to market there is great need for IT professionals to be kept informed of the latest security advancements.

IDC's annual IT Security Conference in September provided insight into defining the risks at play and will offer practical advice on developing a holistic, effective security program that will become a core part of the organizational culture and business routine. Featuring insight from leading IDC analysts, enterprise security practitioners and subject matter experts, the agenda addresses chief security concerns for 2007 and beyond, including:

* Identity Management--The Cornerstone of a Total Integrated Security Architecture

* Using Security as a Service to Benefit IT Strategy

* Implementing Dashboard Technology to Proactively Manage Service Levels

* Developing a Secure Mobility Strategy

* Protecting the Organization from Malicious Attack

* Automating Information Management to Enable Compliance and Governance

* Tackling Insider Threat Management to Facilitate Comprehensive Endpoint Security

Every year, IDC's IT Security Conference attracts senior IT decision makers from major enterprises. Confirmed sponsors for this year's event already included Siemens, Novell, Kaspersky Lab, Attachmate, Postini, Presence Networks, Secure Computing, SkyRecon Systems, Sophos, NetIQ, and a case study sponsored by E.ON.

www.idc.com