01Migration Assessment & Discovery
We map your current estate, data volumes, integrations and compliance obligations, then size the effort and risk honestly before any work is committed.
Overview
NCS plans and delivers database migrations across Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL and cloud platforms. Every migration starts with a full discovery of schemas, dependencies, integrations and licensing so nothing surprises you mid-cutover.
We rehearse the move before we make it. Dry runs, reconciliation checks and a documented rollback plan mean your cutover window is short, predictable and reversible if the numbers do not match.

What we offer
From first assessment to post-migration tuning, we take responsibility for the whole path, not just the copy step.
01We map your current estate, data volumes, integrations and compliance obligations, then size the effort and risk honestly before any work is committed.
02Lift and shift, re-platform or full modernisation. We recommend the target and the method based on your performance, licensing and cost objectives.
03Schema conversion, data transfer, replication-based sync and a tightly managed cutover window with named owners and a rehearsed rollback path.
04Row-level reconciliation, performance tuning on the new platform and documentation your team can actually run the environment from.
Start with a migration readiness assessment. You get a phased plan, risk register and realistic downtime estimate.
Migrations go wrong quietly. Our process is built to surface problems before your users do.
Why choose
We have migrated business-critical databases for UK organisations for over two decades, including estates where an hour of downtime is measured in lost revenue. That experience shows up as fewer surprises and shorter cutovers.
We refuse to quote a migration blind. Discovery maps dependencies, batch windows, integrations and data quality issues that would otherwise derail the cutover.
Every cutover has a documented rollback with a decision point and an owner, so you are never committed to a migration that is failing its checks.
We stay with you through hypercare, monitoring performance and resolving the issues that only appear under real production load.
Most migrations complete with a cutover window of minutes to a few hours. Using replication or log shipping we keep the target in sync with the source, so the final switch is a short, controlled step rather than a bulk copy.
Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB and cloud services including Azure SQL, AWS RDS, Aurora and Oracle Cloud. We handle both like-for-like and cross-platform migrations.
We reconcile row counts, checksums and business-critical aggregates between source and target, and validate application behaviour against the new platform before sign-off. Nothing is decommissioned until reconciliation passes.
Yes. We assess whether lift and shift, managed database services or full modernisation gives the best cost and performance outcome, then deliver the migration and tune the target environment.
Every migration has a documented rollback plan with a defined decision point. If validation checks fail, we revert to the source platform with no data loss and reschedule after fixing the root cause.
A single database can move in a few weeks. Larger estates with heavy integration and compliance requirements typically run three to six months, delivered in phases so value lands early.
We start with a full discovery of all dependencies and integrations to ensure nothing surprises you during the move. We map these connections early to size the effort and risk accurately before work begins.
Yes, we stay with you through a hypercare period to monitor performance and resolve issues that only appear under production load. We also provide documentation so your team can effectively run the new environment.
Contact us
Talk to our migration specialists about a readiness assessment for your database estate.
Prefer to talk? Call us on 020 3326 7268