IBM Lift is a tool provided to migrate on-premise databases to IBM Cloud.
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Oracle GoldenGate
Score 8.7 out of 10
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Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) GoldenGate is a managed service providing a real-time data mesh platform, which uses replication to keep data highly available, and enabling real-time analysis.
It's well suited for data migration, that's probably why it's called "lift". Although it's designed for migrating data from on-premises data centers to IBM Cloud, it actually can do more than that. In our case, we only use it to extract data from DB2 into CSV files. It's especially helpful when the data size is very big because it can handle that very fast.
Oracle [GoldenGate] is well suited for data replication where real-time results are important, such as data reporting. There is potential to have the users query the replicated database, which can have separate resources set up to be compressed or using lower performing or cheaper resources. As mentioned, columns with LOBs can become a headache, as they will need to be synchronized in their own group many times. Tables containing data in CHAR, VARCHAR, NUMBER, DATE, or other non-LOB columns, however, are able to be replicated quite seamlessly. [Oracle GoldenGate] does provide a way to review errors that are encountered, so that is a positive if their is scrutiny around data integrity.
Even though it can be hectic to migrate data into the cloud with IBM Lift, the support team is free and highly knowledgeable. Also, IBM Lift is well documented in detail explaining all methods to migrate data easily.
Once set up, it's very easy to use and keep running, it's getting to that point that can make it cumbersome to some. Also, depending on the data that you want to replicate, the configuration files can become quite cumbersome to maintain. Learning curve can be high for some who are not as experienced with databases and transactions.
Oracle Support for Oracle GoldenGate has been quite responsive and quite helpful in the few situations where we've needed it. Furthermore, the documentation on Oracle GoldenGate is so good that we often do not need to contact support with issues as the fix is already documented and able to be run by us without needing to open a ticket.
We've had Oracle consultants come as well for training days to talk about new features, parts of Oracle GoldenGate we may not be using and things of that nature. The consultants they send are great as they're very knowledgeable about all things Oracle GoldenGate and great resources for any questions or concerns you may have with the product.
We used Oracle University for our Oracle Golden Gate Training and it was top notch. We were able to turn our whole DBA team to Oracle GoldenGate newbies to Oracle GoldenGate troubleshooting experts in a matter of a few days, while this obviously did not come cheap, the company felt that it was worth the investment.
If Oracle GoldenGate is new to your organization, expose as many DBAs as possible to it. Having your whole team fluent in it will overcome early operational hurdles and allow it to more quickly become an accepted and supported part of your supported platform for your team that will enable the business to use it to its fullest.
Before Implementing IBM Lift at SquareTrade, we were using AWS Database Migration Service, which was not only expensive but didn’t offer automatic rapid recovery from common issues during data migration.
Oracle is tightly integrated with Oracle Exadata and is a better fit for using Oracle databases.Both products support heterogeneous databases but using Exadata, it just seemed to make better sense to use the Oracle GoldenGate product. We also take advantage of the Oracle GoldenGate Veridata product to compare datasets and make sure they are still in sync.
Have never had any issues with scaling Oracle GoldenGate itself, however Oracle GoldenGate Monitor does have scaling issues, but with Oracle GoldenGate now able to be monitored by Oracle Enterprise Manager, this is no longer an issue, in my opinion.
IBM Lift being encrypted under 256-bit ensures that we safeguard data right from migration to the cloud.
Additionally, we save a lot since it is free to migrate data and we don’t incur any extra or additional fees to perform any data migration after paying for a subscription fee.
Automatic data recovery from common problems ensures that we don’t lose even mild data while migrating into the cloud.
Oracle GoldenGate guarantees our standing-by database in passive data center, is always in "pre-warmed" status, as the data is always in-sync with the master database in our active data center. At any time, the standing-by database can kick in in case the active DC encounters the serious issue. This significantly increases the IT application's high availability and promise to "business as usual".