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Many organizations have been struggling with the complexity of their legacy databases. Unfortunately, they often find themselves locked into expensive licenses and restrictive contracts, which can limit their ability to modernize and introduce new functionality. Migrating to open-source databases, especially in the cloud, can solve many of these issues and help build modern, scalable, cost-effective applications.However, database migrations are often highly complex and may require you to convert your schema and code to the new database engine, migrate your data, and switch over your applications, all while guaranteeing minimal downtime and disruption to the business.Last year, we announced the general availability of Database Migration Service in our mission to help migrate your databases to the cloud with a simple and secure migration path. We launched support for homogeneous migrations, where the source and target databases use the same database engine (PostgreSQL, MySQL, or SQL Server). We saw adoption by customers migrating their workloads to Cloud SQL, Google Cloud’s fully managed relational database for PostgreSQL, MySQL, and SQL Server. More than 85% of the migrations using Database Migration Service are created and started underway in less than an hour.Announcing Oracle to PostgreSQL supportOur customers shared that they’d like a similarly simple, easy-to-use experience for Oracle to PostgreSQL migrations. Today, we’re excited to announce the preview of Database Migration Service support for Oracle to PostgreSQL schema and data migrations.Database Migration Service can integrate with the Ora2Pg open-source tool for schema conversion so you can migrate the schema and data of your Oracle workload from on-premises or other clouds to Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL. Ora2pg allows us to map the source to the target, and then our serverless change data capture-based mechanism can move your data securely and with minimal downtime. Database Migration Service can make database migrations fast, cost-effective, and reliable, and you can now use it to modernize from legacy databases to fully managed cloud databases.Database Migration Service has you coveredAdopting a new database technology might appear to be a challenging task at first, but we can make the migration journey easier. We understand that effective and successful modernization can require a well-rounded approach: not only differentiated tooling but also integrated support and expert services you can trust.Database Migration Service is highly reliable and serverless, meaning you don’t need to assign resources to the migration job or predict how many resources it will need. It can move your data from Oracle databases to Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL at scale and with low latency, which can mean minimal downtime at switchover and minimal disruption to your applications and customers.Our integration with the proven Ora2Pg tool for schema migration means you can convert your Oracle schema to PostgreSQL with this popular open-source tool. You simply feed the configuration file after configuring, converting, and applying your converted schema with Ora2pg. Database Migration Service then creates the mapping and moves the data between the source and the target. Stay tuned for enhanced, built-in schema and code conversion capabilities in DMS to create an upgraded schema, code, and data migration experience.“At MLB, we’re on a multi-year journey to modernize our applications with PostgreSQL as the database foundation,” says Shawn O’Rourke, manager of technology at MLB. “A key step in this journey is to reliably migrate our Oracle databases to Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL securely and without any disruption to our services. We’re excited to incorporate Database Migration Service, with its simple, serverless design, into our Oracle migration toolset.”Expert services to help accelerate your migrationBy working closely with experts from Google Professional Services and experienced migration partners, we help make sure you have access to the expertise and experience you need to facilitate successful migrations across your database fleet. From guidance on migration planning to turnkey end-to-end migrations, the combination of Database Migration Service and partner services can ensure a smooth transition to the cloud.“We see tremendous demand from our customers for migrating away from proprietary databases onto cloud database technologies”, says David Yahalom, Managing Principal, Cloud Data Solutions at EPAM Systems. “One of the key success factors in application modernization is real-time continuous data replication within a heterogeneous database environment. Real-time data replication enables near-zero and zero downtime production switchovers while maintaining data integrity. We are very excited about the addition of Oracle to PostgreSQL migration support in Database Migration Service and believe it will be of great value to our customers. It will enable us to streamline database cloud migration initiatives to Google Cloud.”Getting started with Database Migration ServiceYou can start migrating your Oracle workloads today using Database Migration Service:Navigate to the Database Migration area of your Google Cloud console, under Databases, and click Create Conversion Workspace.Use the Conversion Workspace creation wizard to upload your Ora2PG configuration file.Create your source and destination connection profiles. You can use this profile again later for additional migrations.Create a migration job to connect the Cloud SQL destination Connection Profile, Oracle Connection Profile, and Conversion Workspace.Test your migration job and make sure the test was successful as displayed below, and start it whenever you're ready. Once the initial snapshot of data has been migrated to the new destination, Database Migration Service will keep up and replicate new changes as they happen. You can then finalize the migration job, and your new Cloud SQL instance will be ready to go. You can monitor your migration jobs on the migration jobs list, as shown in the image below: Learn more and start your database journey Database Migration Service schema and data migration from Oracle to Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL are available in preview in addition to the previously-announced SQL Server migration preview. If you’re interested in seeing it in action, you can request access now.For more information to help get you started on your migration journey, head over to the documentation or start training with this Database Migration Service Qwiklab. Related Article Best practices for homogeneous database migrations Homogeneous database migrations—across compatible database engines—helps improve app performance. See how to migrate databases to Google ... Read Article
Analysis Summary
# Industry News: Google Cloud Expands DMS to Facilitate Oracle-to-PostgreSQL Migrations
## Summary
Google Cloud has announced the preview of Oracle to PostgreSQL support within its Database Migration Service (DMS). This update enables organizations to move legacy Oracle workloads to Cloud SQL using a serverless, Change Data Capture (CDC) mechanism designed to minimize downtime and eliminate expensive licensing lock-in.
## Key Details
- **Date:** April 6, 2022
- **Companies Involved:** Google Cloud, Oracle, MLB (Customer), EPAM Systems (Partner)
- **Category:** Product Update / Cloud Migration Support
## The Story
Building on its 2021 launch of homogeneous migrations, Google Cloud is tackling one of the most significant pain points in enterprise IT: the migration from proprietary legacy databases to open-source cloud alternatives. The new preview functionality allows for heterogeneous migration from Oracle to Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL.
The service integrates with **Ora2Pg**, a popular open-source tool, to handle schema conversion. Once the schema is mapped, Google’s serverless DMS uses a high-speed, low-latency data replication process to sync the source Oracle database with the cloud destination. This allows for "near-zero" downtime during the final switchover, addressing a primary risk factor for enterprise-scale applications.
## Business Impact
### For the Companies Involved
- **Google Cloud:** Strengthens its "on-ramp" to GCP, making it easier to capture market share from legacy on-premises incumbents.
- **Oracle:** Faces increased competitive pressure as Google lowers the technical and financial barriers for customers to exit Oracle's ecosystem.
### For Competitors
- **AWS and Azure:** Must continue to refine their own migration tools (like AWS DMS or Azure Database Migration Service) to compete with Google’s serverless, ease-of-use claims (85% of migrations started in under an hour).
### For Customers
- **Cost Reduction:** Enables an exit strategy from restrictive, high-cost proprietary licenses.
- **Modernization:** Facilitates the transition to managed services, reducing the administrative overhead of database maintenance.
### For the Market
- **Acceleration of Open Source:** Signals a continuing shift toward PostgreSQL as the industry standard for relational data in the cloud.
- **Erosion of Vendor Lock-in:** Tools like this increase the portability of enterprise data, shifting power from database vendors to cloud platform providers.
## Technical Implications
The use of **Change Data Capture (CDC)** is critical here; it allows for continuous replication of changes as they happen, ensuring data integrity during the migration window. The integration with Ora2Pg simplifies the often-manual and error-prone process of converting PL/SQL (Oracle) to PL/pgSQL (PostgreSQL).
## Strategic Analysis
- **Market Positioning:** Google is positioning itself as the "open" cloud, leveraging open-source tools (Ora2Pg) to attract enterprise customers tired of legacy contract restrictions.
- **Competitive Advantage:** The serverless nature of DMS means customers don't have to provision or manage migration infrastructure, reducing the total cost of the migration itself.
- **Challenges:** Heterogeneous migrations are notoriously difficult. While schema conversion tools help, complex stored procedures and triggers often require manual refactoring that automated tools cannot fully address.
## Industry Reactions
- **MLB (Major League Baseball):** Shawn O’Rourke (Manager of Tech) highlighted the importance of moving to PostgreSQL as a foundation for their multi-year modernization journey.
- **EPAM Systems:** David Yahalom (Managing Principal) noted that real-time data replication is a "key success factor" for their customers migrating away from proprietary engines.
## Future Outlook
- **Enhanced Automation:** Google hinted at "enhanced, built-in schema and code conversion capabilities" coming to DMS, suggesting they want to reduce reliance on third-party tools like Ora2Pg.
- **Database Consolidation:** Expect more organizations to consolidate multiple legacy engines onto unified PostgreSQL-based cloud platforms to simplify their tech stacks.
## For Security Professionals
Migrating to a fully managed service like Cloud SQL shifts several security responsibilities (OS patching, physical security, basic network isolation) to the cloud provider. However, the migration process itself is a high-risk period. Security teams should:
1. **Validate Data Integrity:** Ensure CDC-based replication hasn't introduced discrepancies.
2. **Access Management:** Review IAM permissions for the DMS service to ensure the "least privilege" principle is applied to the migration service account.
3. **Encryption in Transit:** Confirm that the migration path (from on-premises to GCP) is fully encrypted to prevent data interception during the move.