Key Considerations for Successful Data Migration From BigQuery to Snowflake

Maximizing Efficiency and Innovation: A Comprehensive Guide to Navigating Your Migration from BigQuery to Snowflake

Migrations are a critical phase of any organization’s data journey. Often, they happen behind the scenes, with technical stakeholders trying to make the process seamless for end users. In many cases, the goal of minimizing interruption can be critical for maintaining stakeholders’ trust. 

However, migrations can also serve as an opportunity — instead of doing a ‘lift-and-shift’ migration, just moving data from point A to point B and upholding the same structures and processes, some organizations use the pivot point as a chance to explore legacy data, consolidate fragmented departmental silos into a holistic source of truth, and better understand their business and use cases in the process. Or, of course, they may also choose a little of column A and a little of column B.

At DAS42, one of our core services is moving clients from legacy systems to a modern, cloud-based architecture built around Snowflake. But recently, we’ve seen an uptick in migrations from Google BigQuery specifically. Moving from one cloud tool to another has different considerations from moving from older on-premise systems to the cloud. In some ways, the road may be smoother, but teams who lack expertise in legacy and new systems will inevitably make assumptions about what is possible, resulting in trip-ups and roadblocks.

A collaborative partnership between industry experts, technology innovators, and forward-thinking organizations is at the heart of successful data migration. DAS42 and Snowflake played an instrumental role in guiding news media giant Business Insider through a migration journey from BigQuery. After the first migration phase was complete, Business Insider leveraged DAS42’s expertise to optimize Snowflake, resulting in a 23% reduction in month-over-month spend. This reduction allowed the team to repurpose the budget for other critical use cases, driving additional value for the organization. The success of Business Insider’s migration journey underscores the transformative power of collaborative expertise. 

As a nationwide team of committed data analysts, scientists, and engineers who share your passion for data, DAS42 is firmly committed to guiding organizations through this journey. We offer the following considerations and insights to guide you and your teams toward the success of your migration journey from BigQuery to the Snowflake Data Cloud.

Outline Business Goals and Challenges

As with most projects, your first step is to be sure you understand and quantify what you seek to accomplish. Dive into your BigQuery challenges, analyzing the various data types and workloads it supports. Understanding these nuances is crucial whether you’re dealing with high monthly costs or aiming for deeper insights from your customer data. Comprehending what has worked well is important to ensure you are crafting a change management strategy for those the shift will impact.

Understand the Differences

Our clients have chosen to migrate for various reasons, ranging from preferring Snowflake’s pricing model to features like its UI, marketplace, data science capabilities, role-based access control, and multi-cloud support.

A certified Snowflake services partner can help you plan to make the most out of your new data cloud if you’re looking to:

• Understand how best to leverage features like Snowflake Marketplace and Data Clean Rooms
• Set up robust role-based access control and masking and governance features
• Understand the Snowflake query profiler
• Determine what optimizations to make given Snowflake’s micro-partitioned structure

Revolutionized Customer Experience

Exploring network traffic data unveils profound insights into customer behavior, preferences, and usage patterns. This information empowers the telecom industry to promptly identify emerging trends, facilitating customized services and offerings for targeted customer segments. The industry can anticipate evolving habits and needs, marking a pivotal shift in customer engagement that will likely lead to a substantial reduction in churn rates and a noteworthy increase in customer retention by leveraging this data’s potential. The outcome is a telecom landscape where each customer interaction is finely tuned, personalized, and crafted to surpass expectations.

Assess Adjacent Tools and Processes

Decoupling the use of a Google cloud–based architecture from the use of BigQuery is a crucial consideration. For many organizations, Google’s architecture is embedded deep in their business, from building-block tools like Gmail and Google Drive to complex marketing tools such as Google Analytics 4 and Google Ad Manager. While some clients in this situation may be shifting their architecture altogether, many may choose to keep Google Cloud Platform (GCP), but see the benefits of using Snowflake instead of BigQuery on top of that. DAS42 offers specialized expertise in this domain, providing invaluable insights and strategies to streamline workflows and optimize performance. In our collaboration with Business Insider, we witnessed firsthand the transformative impact this approach can have.

We also recommend not viewing your migration in a vacuum. Assess your use of ingestion tools, orchestration methods, code repositories, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) practices. Consider not just the data, but the roles and permissions strategy, including use of service accounts.

Evaluate Your Company’s Data Maturity

Assessing your company’s data maturity is the initial stride toward charting a course for successful data migration. The Data Maturity Curve is a six-stage roadmap that navigates your data journey from initial awareness to becoming a fully data-driven powerhouse. To gauge where your organization stands on this curve, take our data maturity quiz today.

Craft a Robust Migration Pathway

Your migration journey consists of several vital phases: planning, development, testing, and deployment. For some time, you will be running pipelines in both systems simultaneously to facilitate your testing. During this phase, allocate resources wisely, recognizing how demanding this can be for your testing customers. A resilient resource strategy ensures support at every stage, paving the way for a successful migration endeavor.

Ensure Stakeholder Alignment Throughout Migration

Stakeholder alignment can make or break a migration. Stay in sync with stakeholders to foster transparency, manage expectations, and overcome hurdles. Keep communication channels open to update stakeholders about milestones, challenges, and successes, fostering a shared understanding.

Opt for the Right Migration Partner

Choosing the right migration partner is crucial in cloud migration strategy. While it’s tempting to choose a partner based solely on familiarity or low pricing, this can lead to overlooking is tempting essential experience. Similarly, assigning the migration project to an ill-prepared internal team often results in errors and extensive rework, ultimately driving up costs in the long run.

At DAS42, we specialize in guiding organizations through complex data migration journeys, reducing spending and implementing scalable solutions that unlock the full potential of your data. Let us help you streamline your data infrastructure and drive actionable insights for your business.

Partnering with DAS42

Partnering with DAS42 is a collaborative journey toward unlocking the maximum value from your data assets and nurturing a culture where data plays a central role in decision-making. We’re committed to understanding your specific challenges and goals, working alongside you to develop strategies that resonate with your vision and deliver measurable results. Ready to take the next step?

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DAS42 is a premier data and analytics consultancy with a modern point of view. We specialize in solving some of the most complex business challenges for the world’s most successful companies. As a Snowflake Elite Partner, DAS42 crafts customized strategies that create a single source of truth and enable enhanced and faster decision-making. DAS42 has a presence across the U.S. with primary offices in New York City and Denver. Connect with us at das42.com and stay updated on LinkedIn. Join us today on our journey to help you realize the possibilities of transforming your business through data and analytics.

[1] Gartner. (2021). 6 Ways Cloud Migration Costs Go Off the Rails. Retrieved from https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/6-ways-cloud-migration-costs-go-off-the-rails

[2] Next Pathway. (2021). Next Pathway Research: 65% of Companies Report Cloud Migration is a Top Priority. Retrieved from https://blog.nextpathway.com/next-pathway-research-65-percent-of-companies-report-cloud-migration-is-a-top-priority