Near Zero Downtime: migrations without time pressure

Near Zero Downtime: What is it all about?

SAP itself gave the Near Zero Downtime Migration, also known as NZDT, its name. This methodology aims to ensure the highest system availability possible during a transformation - regardless of the system volume or how complex or extensive your migration project may be. The goal of NZDT: The customer should be able to continue his productive business with almost no restrictions during a migration.

Small time windows vs. high transformation volume

As corporations grow, so does the volume of data they produce. Once a system volume of 20-30 terabytes has been reached, conventional migration tools are usually no longer able to migrate the corresponding data easily within a weekend. Such a system size becomes even more problematic in the case of selective migration. The consequence for customers: Long and costly downtimes of productive systems. In some cases, however, downtimes of more than 48 hours are not possible at any time of the year.

This is also confirmed by our recent Transformation Study 2022, which surveyed over 200 IT managers with transformation experience. 50% of the participants stated that they can only cope with downtime of a few hours without consequences for business operations. For 80% of the respondents, a maximum of one weekend of downtime is acceptable. This requires new approaches and solutions.

The solution: NZDT and Natuvion DCS

Natuvion provides a remedy to this problem with the NZDT methodology and the smart transformation tool Natuvion DCS. Thanks to NZDT technology, it is possible to transform systems 1:1 in a short time. In addition, the functional scope of the Natuvion DCS has been perfectly adapted to this method, so that all functions of the Natuvion DCS can be used and a selective transformation can be performed. Furthermore, in the case of a selective migration, it is possible to reuse the selection logic of the regular transformation for the delta migration. The latter then goes through the same process as the regular migration.

The basic NZDT project procedure is as follows:

Initial Downtime

• 1:1 copy of the productive system
• Activation of NZDT technology on the productive system
• Reactivation of the system

• Tracking of system changes
• Regular transformation
• Testing of the new productive environment

Final downtime

• Delta-migration
  

Migrate without pressure

The fact that the transformation in the NZDT process does not have to take place within a specified time window provides a number of advantages and opportunities. Among other things, it is no longer necessary to focus so strongly on increasing performance during the preparation time. In addition, any errors that occur during the regular migration can be dealt with without pressure. And if more time is to be invested in testing the new productive environment, the delta migration can easily be postponed.

The Near Zero Downtime methodology can be applied to any transformation project. Scenarios such as a big data transformation or a database switch are particularly well suited for the NZDT method.