HDP to CDP: Hortonworks to Cloudera Data Platform Migration Essentials

Data Platform Migration

Cloud adoption is now an integral part of any organization’s IT modernization and optimization strategy. With most versions of Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP) nearing their end of life, it has become imperative for organizations to act fast and migrate to modern data platforms in order to mitigate risks of scalability, obsolete technologies & system failure prevalent with legacy systems. Also, organizations need to switch to performant technologies to serve their clients better. In such scenarios, migrating to Cloudera Data Platform (CDP) is a common choice for many reasons – scalability, performance, modern features, and ease of migration.

Learn more about how Infocepts leads large-scale data migrations for global enterprises in numerous verticals.

Essential Strategies to Guide Your HDP to CDP Migration

A successful data platform migration from Hortonworks to Cloudera requires detailed planning and careful execution. This is especially true in larger environments with many workloads, multiple tenants, and complex data dependencies. Below are some of the key steps to employ while embarking on such a migration.

1. Extensive premigration assessment:

   It is important to perform an extensive assessment of technology inventory, security, and data storage aspects to come up with a well-crafted migration plan. To ensure successful data platform migration, businesses need to assess the inventory of all the tools and technologies used in the current Hadoop environment, including third-party vendor software. The inventory of tools may be classified under the following heads.

   

   Analyzing security and governance configurations is also vital. The assessment could broaden the scope to include more tools, such as Ranger and Hadoop Access Control Lists (ACLs). It is also important to consider Kerberos, Active Directory, encryption-at-rest, and encryption-in-transit for improved security during data or application migration over any network.

2. Employ a systematic migration approach:

   The migration approach should consider the systematic migration of data workloads to the cloud with zero disruptions in the existing production processes and in-sync monitoring and operations. Organizations can utilize the DistCp (distributed copy) with Amazon S3 to move data and HMS mirror for Hive data.

   Teams should first deploy a secured cloud environment, then migrate the data first and the data services last. Running workloads parallelly on both HDP and CDP clusters is a good idea to ensure business continuity and always running systems. Using accelerators such as Infocepts Quick to Cloud (Q2C) or Infocepts Cloud Template Library (CTL) can help you with faster and risk-free migration.

3. Determine the best-fit migration approach:

   Organizations generally apply a Lift and Shift approach or a Refactoring / Rearchitect approach for their data platform migration. In the first approach enterprise data and its applications are moved ‘as is’ to the cloud with minimum modifications. It is well suited for organizations who do not need to harness advanced cloud capabilities and also in cases with complex code modifications. The other approach of refactoring or rearchitecting changes an application’s code or architecture and is usually considered in advance cloud migrations since it is expensive, and time-consuming but will pay-off in the long run. A good Cloudera migration strategy must identify how your platform and workloads will need to adapt to the new environment and your future requirements as per business goals and strategy.

   There are many other essential strategies to ensure a seamless and accelerated migration journey from a legacy to a modern platform like Cloudera. Download the Infocepts 5-step Guide to Cloud Migration.

Our Data Platform Migration Recommendations

As you embark on your migration journey, keep in mind the following 3 key recommendations, amongst many more:

1. Use migration as an opportunity to rationalize and decommission unused apps and data pipelines
2. Use data replication technology specialized for Hadoop migration
3. Engage a specialized vendor that utilizes best practices and accelerators to help you reach your goal faster

Interested in learning more? Download our advisory note here for a detailed migration strategy and a modern approach to guarantee your success.