For years, brands have struggled to strengthen security against unauthorized third-party sellers. Marketplaces are becoming more complex, making it challenging to stay one step ahead of these disruptors.
How can you take control of your channels, swiftly remove unauthorized sellers, and optimize marketplace revenue?
The experts at Vorys eControl have a few strategies up their sleeves.
No matter what platform you use, unauthorized sellers can wreak havoc on your entire brand. The problem is more than just the unwarranted resale of products — it’s also the negative impact across multiple channels and departments within your organization.
With these distractions, you can no longer focus all of your attention on stopping unauthorized Amazon sellers. Instead, it’s crucial to control your entire omnichannel ecosystem, from Amazon to Walmart to brick-and-mortar distribution.
What exactly can happen to your brand when unauthorized sellers enter the mix?
It tends to surface on one marketplace like Amazon. An unauthorized seller lowers a price, and from there, it’s a race to the bottom. That one unauthorized price drop causes disturbances in average selling price, inventory, and forecasting. Retailers can’t compete with unauthorized pricing, so profitability begins to erode across all channels.
This challenge isn’t specific to one brand, marketplace, or industry — it’s happening to all kinds of brands across the globe. So what can you do about it?
Inspired by other experts in the space, Daren Garcia says, “I wish brands would understand there is no magic bullet to this. You have to put in the foundation. And once you get that foundation in place, now [you] have to go out and use [your] monitoring and [your] data insights to say, ‘where is our strategy being disrupted?’ Meaning where are [you] actually losing sales [and] having [your] brand value disrupted?”
To create a strong foundation, you must put a plan in place. Determine what’s necessary to achieve optimal channel performance and obtain key stakeholder alignment. It’s also paramount to assess where channel disruption is taking place to stop the issue at its root.
Especially when it comes to unauthorized seller issues, you need a legal component to strengthen your foundation. It’s critical to develop reseller, MAP, and advertising policies to ensure you can take legal action if necessary. Although Daren says lawsuits are less common, preparing for any scenario is vital. Daren and his team have orchestrated tens of thousands of enforcement actions over the years, but they seldom have to file a lawsuit. “We’ve had to do it in certain instances,” he explains, “and when you do that, it sends a very clear message.” When you have legal policies in place, unauthorized sellers are less likely to disrupt your business.
Another key aspect of your foundation is data-tech. To fortify your defenses, you'll need to gain insight into your sales, market, and any price disruptions taking place. This requires monitoring your marketplace, search, social media, and retailers and gathering data on violations to implement your enforcement tactics. As Daren points out, taking action in these areas is key to avoiding the negative impacts of unauthorized resellers. “Nobody is coming to save you in this spot — not Amazon, not Walmart, not any marketplace…the only path lies in self-help, and you have to position yourself in a certain way, put certain things in place, and take control.”
When building your strategy, it’s inadvisable to take a fragmented approach. Aligning all the various segments — from strategy to legal to data-tech — is crucial for counteracting the spider web of unauthorized third-party sellers.
Without a foundational strategy, there will be no organization among your legal and tech components. Without your legal policies, your strategy and tech won’t have a solid basis to stand on. Without data-tech, it will be difficult to gain insight and discover where your business is being impacted most. Taking a holistic 360-degree approach and using each component to strengthen the others is critical to protect your brand.
Digital transformation can be overwhelming for brands, especially due to the layers of complexity. You have to stitch together different systems and departments in order to service each customer, all while staying on top of technological innovations.
What are the right ways to go about digital transformation? How can you best plan out this complex process and enhance the user experience?
Most digital experience experts agree that a brand’s transformational journey requires clarity. Without it, Kenneth Parks points out, digital transformation “can be very overwhelming; you can feel totally out of control, [and] you can feel the mission-critical agenda you're working on will never bear fruit.” On the other hand, clarity gives you the freedom to map out your journey.
“Strategy really is about creating clarity on the choices you need to make [and] why those choices may lead you to the right outcomes,” Kenneth says. With clarity comes a sense of purpose and conviction that allows you to undertake tasks in the necessary order using the necessary tools. It also helps you hold true to your North Star and stick to your main goals without losing sight of your vision.
Every brand wants to translate its digital strategy into a rich customer experience that inspires action and results. But how do you do it?
According to Jerry Orabona, “You need the marketing strategy and the vision of what it is that [you’re] going to produce to empower users.” You also need to understand “how [it affects] them from a human perspective before [you] can decide what the technological implications are.” Analogous to Kenneth’s point, you need clarity and vision first before getting into the technical aspects of digital transformation.
Erin Lynch’s expertise in customer experience and digital transformation leads to similar findings. She summarizes the overall vision as a CX platform. “It’s an objective or North Star. It kind of floats above the system of the holistic customer experience,” Erin states. “This CX platform serves to inspire and align the internal stakeholders, [and] the same platform is going to direct the brief for the ideation of individual experiences.” Having a clear vision within your CX platform allows you to align all of the moving parts, which, in turn, lends an improved customer experience.
The world moves quickly, and what was relevant yesterday may not be relevant today. Remaining relevant is a challenge many brands face; however, data can help you stay there.
“Turning insights into action means having the data in place,” Ted Schadler explains. “That data is the place where you can bring experience and relevance together.” When you have an automated system in place to collect data, you can optimize the customer experience to boost relevance and connect the dots between CX and strategy.
A layered challenge to relevancy is that the context changes. Whether it’s a technology change like ChatGPT or a societal impact like the pandemic, our world changes daily — and brands have to keep up. Ted says that “we need to be thoughtful about what we’re doing [and] what we’re presenting to customers, making sure that we’re not missing a relevant shift that has happened.”
Along these same lines, Kenneth reminds us that change is relentless and will be the only constant in our lives. The failure to act early could be the downfall of your brand. Therefore, he recommends “you take the first step; create [and] identify who the priority audiences are, understand them, [and] create the plan or the strategy.”
Although the process is complicated, it’s crucial to pick one place within your ecosystem to start. However, you shouldn’t forget about the strategy as a whole. Your North Star and vision should still be guiding your digital transformation journey.
Because digital transformation journeys can be complex, many brands turn to expert partnerships to help them achieve their vision. But how do you narrow down your options and find the best partner for your brand?
You want someone with end-to-end expertise who understands both your brand’s needs and the needs of the industry. This co-innovation partner should bring together the internal and external parts of digital transformation using best practices and insights from multiple industries. Additionally, if your partner has relationships with various software, cloud, data, and platform providers, they can bring additional assets to the strategy and help you drive a successful solution.
As eCommerce becomes increasingly centralized to meet evolving consumer demands, many businesses are reconsidering the functionality of their monolithic or single-use customer experience platforms. To create a more seamless customer journey, headless and composable commerce options are more flexible integrated concepts that separate the front-end presentation platform from the back-end software to develop a customer-focused, best-in-class tech stack.
Yet some companies are influenced by this solution’s growing popularity and lack consideration for its features, which can give the customer an inconsistent and confusing experience. So what should you know when contemplating headless or composable commerce for your business, and how can you implement one of those approaches seamlessly into your eCommerce system?
To stay in step with competing modern brands, businesses utilize headless and composable commerce to enhance the customer experience. For instance, when employing a subscription program, you can delegate portions of your checkout model to third parties to provide the customer with personalized shopping options. These approaches enable them to improve content management and marketing strategies and boost website speeds.
However, adopting a headless or composable commerce approach is a significant investment that requires careful assessment. You’ll want to consider the alternatives.
Headless and composable commerce approaches may appear attractive initially, but it’s critical to evaluate your current monolithic architecture before moving forward and fully implementing them into your business model. Sometimes, your current system can be optimized to perform functions similar to a headless solution, thereby increasing your conversion rates and average order value in the same manner. In this case, your monolithic program holds greater value and ROI since you wouldn’t have to pivot your entire organization to accommodate a new system.
In a trend-driven digital landscape, headless and composable commerce are marketed as all-or-nothing, comprehensive solutions. Yet, a complete system leads to additional complications as businesses try to address knowledge gaps, liabilities, and risks. Executing a complete transition from a monolithic to a headless architecture requires onboarding, staffing, and training, leading to increased maintenance and costs.
How can you develop an approach that’s right for your company?
Jordan Brannon, President of Coalition Technologies, says that you can take a fragmented approach to composable and headless commerce: “the big key thing is to be thinking about what aspects of a composable or headless solution are going to benefit you; which ones are going to provide value and which ones won’t?” Decoupling your front end from your back end and going headless with your current system will increase flexibility, speed, and control. Composable commerce goes further and is most valuable when implemented with high-volume data hubs, such as warehousing, fulfillment, shopping carts, and CRM software. Adopting a composable architecture enhances responsiveness to market changes by leveraging many powerful technologies.
When you analyze each option, determine which one benefits you most — headless or composable — and create a solid plan for effective implementation. Before selecting an appropriate solution, Jordan recommends simulating the onboarding process to prepare for and mitigate possible complications.
If you’ve decided that composable and headless commerce is an appropriate fit for your business, it’s essential to become familiar with each component. Software platforms integrated with a composable system offer multiple PBCs (packaged business capabilities) that you can extract and curate for a particular business function. For example, they can be employed to personalize content for target audiences without detaching your eCommerce back-end system.
If you’re looking to maximize customer lifetime value, PBCs can also optimize the shopping, post-purchase order, and post-purchase checkout experiences through a CRM solution. These capabilities can also accommodate your monolithic platform.
Whether choosing to maintain your current architecture or adopting a headless or composable approach, it’s essential to modify new systems to support your business endeavors rather than transitioning to a more complex environment.
The eCommerce world is constantly growing and shifting. According to research from NetElixir’s retail intelligence lab, there has been an 8.2% growth rate across categories from 2021 to 2022.
But what should brands prepare for in 2023? How do you compete effectively in the aggressive retail market?
One of the best ways is to plan in advance. Although no one can foresee precisely what will happen in retail in 2023, some predicted key trends could help you jumpstart success in the new year.
Research undertaken by the McKinsey Global Institute shows that 71% of shoppers expect personalized interactions with retail companies. But how do you cultivate personalization throughout the brand experience?
It starts with data. Leveraging big data like psychological traits, digital records, consumer outcomes, and psychological states can help you get to the root of a customer’s behavior and tailor the shopping experience to serve their needs.
Moreover, hyper-personalization can help your brand deduce where to spend advertising dollars. Using AI capabilities, you can decipher who your high-value customers are and target them directly rather than targeting the average customer.
Retail media is a marketing technique that targets consumers in their decision-making phase when they’re near the point of purchase or are choosing between competing brands. Retail media is the third big wave of digital marketing, and it’s transforming the entire advertising value chain.
The team at NetElixir predicts that retail media networks will expand into stores. Founder and CEO Udayan Bose explains, "I think we have to stop talking about online and offline separately and just talk about one shopping experience and the shopping journey." Integrating the online and offline experience allows you to "engage the shopper in a more responsible, creative, and precise manner — a personalized manner across their entire journey, whether it be in-store or online. And that's what I'm really excited about...it's definitely going to be big," adds Udayan.
With the rise of social apps and platforms, social commerce will likely see a significant spike in 2023. Currently, TikTok is leading the charge; however, it’s expected that other video-centered platforms like Instagram and YouTube will also influence the retail space. In line with the social commerce boom is the rise of mobile-friendly eCommerce experiences. NetElixir’s research found that mobile has become the primary shopping method for consumers by a wide margin, so it’s crucial that your brand elevates the mobile experience.
The metaverse is another prominent topic for 2023. This next iteration of the internet is slowly but steadily gaining loyalists and is expected to grow due to continuous innovation. By getting involved early in this space, your company could make considerable progress this year. Udayan reiterates that “this is going to be an important playground for any business [or] any marketer” in 2023.
The rise in chronic illness diagnoses has generated high healthcare costs as patients navigate numerous doctor visits, hospital stays, and surgeries. Many of these conditions are comorbid, meaning patients and health plans must manage the burden and costs of multiple illnesses, which deters members from seeking appropriate care.
Many health plans and medical providers are collaborating to develop digital content and tools to facilitate the healthcare experience and decrease associated expenses. So what should you know about these solutions, and how can you leverage digital resources to engage members and improve their overall experiences with the modern healthcare system?
As patient care and health conditions continue to evolve, insurance providers and institutions must adopt a holistic approach to digital engagement that accommodates each illness. Health plans can leverage existing member relationships to access information that helps customize and advance available medical resources. This member-centric approach to digital content gives patients a diverse experience with their insurance plans, allowing them the freedom to navigate the healthcare system independently.
From a cost perspective, patients often become overwhelmed with managing several conditions. Courtney Sadlon, Senior Program Manager at Wellframe, addresses the cost benefits of digital approaches stating, “Studies over the past couple of years have shown that digital-type approaches are actually not only helping to improve that member experience but ultimately helping to reduce some of the complications associated with managing these chronic conditions, like reducing inpatient admissions and driving members towards preventative health care services, rather than leveraging things like the emergency room.” When patients utilize online resources and manage their health in advance to offset potential illnesses, they can mitigate healthcare expenses significantly.
In addition to providing individualized resources, digital platforms can recommend and provide access to care programs that support customers’ health goals and encourage them to take control of their journey. For instance, patients can use member dashboards and mobile apps through their insurance plans to create daily checklists that hold them accountable for healthcare management.
Some customers may want to implement lifestyle changes to improve their chronic conditions. Holistic care programs provide a nurturing and empowering environment that motivates patients to manage their health. Similarly, comprehensive care programs provide opportunities for daily engagement and informational sessions for patients receiving a chronic illness diagnosis who want to understand their condition or avoid hospitalization.
When deploying digital platforms for customer engagement, it’s crucial to recognize the learning curve that accompanies usage. With customers already struggling to handle health complications and expenses, providers must promote educational initiatives to streamline access.
One instructional approach involves developing software with integrated communication channels so insurance or medical providers can answer common questions regarding care and accessible resources. These channels should be flexible to accommodate members who want to utilize traditional methods to engage with their health plans. Comparably, healthcare institutions can employ surveys to gather patient insights and make adjustments to digital tools based on feedback.
Ultimately, these digital-first strategies should encourage self-advocacy, enabling members to explore and discover relevant medical research that interests them. This foundational component of online engagement promotes digital literacy and empowers patients to seek life-saving care.
Deforestation is a threat to all living things. It contributes to climate change, destroys biodiversity, and leaves the planet without the proper resources to thrive. But is there anything you can do to aid in mitigating deforestation? Can your company work to reverse the damage?
One organization, Kijani Forestry, is leading the charge by planting indigenous trees in Uganda and harvesting sustainably. Co-founder and Co-CEO Beau Milliken explains the process and the crucial steps you (and your company) can take to develop sustainable solutions.
Deforestation is a major issue in Uganda. According to Beau, Uganda was once 50% forest, decreasing to a mere 9% in its current state. Much of this is due to the need for charcoal; locals use charcoal for cooking, making it essential to their lives.
You may wonder, “Can’t they just use a stovetop instead of charcoal?” The short answer is no. You have to consider the country's cultural and economic differences. Many people in rural Uganda don’t have access to electricity, which would be an expensive and complex solution to execute. Additionally, if every Ugandan did have electricity, many would not be able to afford a stovetop. For many, a stovetop would cost 50% of their yearly income, not including the cost of operating the appliance.
The team at Kijani Forestry has found that although charcoal is not the perfect solution, it is the cheapest and most feasible option right now. However, it doesn’t mean that deforestation needs to reign.
Beau is a self-described realist. “You can’t plant trees and expect them not to be used,” he says. But you can focus your efforts on growing more trees and mitigating the long-term effects of deforestation. So how exactly do Beau and the Kijani team do this?
The answer is coppicing. This harvest method allows the tree to regrow from the existing root structure after being cut down to its stump. Because Kijani’s team tends to the existing roots, the tree is able to gain three times the amount of biomass, and Ugandans can continue to get charcoal for cooking.
But Kijani Forestry is focused on more than just growing trees for charcoal. They have a holistic plan to address food security and other household needs by growing fruit trees, timber trees, and pairing crops with indigenous trees that biologically have a symbiotic relationship. Additionally, the Kijani team is creating a profit model where they pay local farmers to grow and harvest the trees, which, in turn, boosts Uganda’s economy and creates jobs within the community.
In an industry that lacks transparency, Kijani Forestry is changing the game. Beau’s mission is to have full transparency on what kinds of trees they’re growing, where each tree is planted, and how their anti-deforestation initiatives are impacting the globe. Taking a realistic approach, the Kijani team is doing more than just planting 10,000 trees and calling it a day. They’re mitigating deforestation by offering sustainable, long-term solutions.
Kijani Forestry’s methods to manage deforestation are quite impressive. But is there anything you and your company can do to aid in these efforts?
Plenty of companies that are serious about net-zero targets are investing in initiatives early on, knowing that they may not get a carbon credit for another five to 10 years. However, as Beau reminds us, “You can claim net-zero, but if you claim that you are changing tens of thousands of lives and restoring forests and doing all these other co-benefits, that actually brings a ton of value to your company.”
Currently, Kijani Forestry has yet to get into any partnerships with corporations, although they're looking ahead to those opportunities. It's crucial that corporations start investing in environmental initiatives to move the needle forward, proving that your company is equipped to partner with others, like Kijani Forestry, and work toward a better future.
As Amazon’s yearly performance continues to skyrocket, brands must develop new measures to keep up with increasing marketplace demands and evolving conditions. Recently, Amazon has placed limitations and prices on 3P seller services, and paid media and customer acquisition costs have risen both on and off the platform. All of this is compounded by inventory shortages, which hamper advertising efforts, decrease conversions, and compromise overall brand success.
So what trends can you observe from Amazon’s 2022 season, and how can you prepare for what lies ahead?
Amazon’s growth fluctuated throughout 2022, with peak performance observed during Prime Day and the Q4 holidays. The platform experienced an overall sales growth of 20% from the previous year, mainly attributed to fruitful Prime Day deals. Comparably, holiday sales increased by 19% year-over-year. On the business side, Amazon’s 1P sellers grew by only 7% during the holidays, whereas 3P vendors saw a staggering 28% growth rate.
While these KPIs seem to indicate success on the platform and profitable opportunities for brands, conversion rates and advertising performance experienced major setbacks. While traffic increased by 20-30% yearly, conversion rates decreased by over 14%, and click-through rates and cost-per-click declined by 8% and 14%, respectively. These measurements resulted from inventory shortages and suppressions at the end of the year, causing brands to redistribute their ad spend in a short time span.
How has this data affected brand performance in 2022?
Brands that incorporated holiday promotions into their advertising budgets observed greater exposure off Amazon, leading to higher conversion rates. Likewise, businesses who monitored their inventory and product SKUs during the December shortage could withdraw their ad spend and promotions before depletion, thereby increasing ROAS.
With 3P seller central becoming increasingly prevalent, Amazon is placing restrictions on inventory and restructuring capacity. This means that brands can view both their capacity for the month and the estimated capacity for the near future. While this appears to enhance inventory planning and replenishment for the holiday season, sellers must bid for additional space, so profitability and sales remain uncertain in 2023.
Following 2022’s reduced advertising performance, budgets are projected to increase by 25%. Nicole Reich, Co-founder and VP of Marketing and Sales at Retail Bloom, attributes this inflation to a “need for omnichannel reports and insights, meaning that as people continue to invest in digital ad spend, they want to understand where those ad dollars are going and what’s impacting the ROI.” These data-driven decisions on ad spending are essential to offset the costs of 3P seller services and drive conversions.
3P seller conditions and ad spend allocations are major factors influencing brand profitability, so driving traffic from other marketplaces is paramount to success. One way to accomplish this is through Amazon Ads. Some of these ads — like sponsored display videos — allow you to promote your brand both on and off Amazon by targeting various products, categories, or audiences and expanding your reach.
For a more data-driven approach, you can analyze your performance on Amazon, develop KPIs for targeting consumers on different platforms, and measure the resulting ROI. Regardless of your chosen method, consider how each performance metric impacts your budget and structure it accordingly to streamline success.
With a rapidly growing digital landscape and a rise in work-from-home environments, many companies are realizing that their security posture is not where it should be. According to a 2022 study by the Identity Defined Security Alliance, 84% of organizations experienced an identity-related security breach within the last couple of years.
Despite advances in the digital world and the development of intelligent cybersecurity systems, many companies are still affected by security breaches. It’s crucial that organizations develop strong security initiatives and continue evolving with the industry. The difficult question is how do you do it?
Before jumping into the “how,” it’s important to understand the basic components of identity governance: who has access to your company’s technology assets, what do they have access to, and how are they using that access?
For example, if you’re onboarding a new hire, you must ensure that they have access to the necessary information right away. Similarly, if you terminate an employee, it’s vital to have a system in place that restricts access in a timely manner. Having dedicated infrastructure helps alleviate human error and keeps track of those three questions.
When you’re planning to implement identity governance initiatives, it can be tempting to only think about short-term security projects. However, Jeff Purrington, an Identity Strategist at SailPoint, advises against it.
Instead, you should build an identity program. This is a more strategic, long-term approach that can help you improve your security posture. Additionally, you can focus your efforts on broad objectives that are less likely to change down the road.
Security projects aren’t useless, but programs allow you to set goals across the enterprise and improve security posture far into the future. “We talk to our customers about how it needs to be a program,” Jeff explains. “When we have a program, we have stakeholders [and] we have funding. These programs tend to be hugely more successful than when we treat them tactically in the short term.”
Identity programs not only improve security posture but also reduce costs and streamline processes.
SailPoint researched the areas of access certification, new user and terminated user access, self-service requests, and password management. They discovered that improved identity governance could save companies an incredible amount of time, revenue, and stress — and it’s not difficult if you have automations in place.
SailPoint has helped companies automate new user access, taking the process down from 14 hours to two and a half minutes. In removing user access, they took the process down from 30+ days to zero days, saving $800,000 in extraneous costs. Additionally, they helped businesses automate 62,000 service requests, resulting in zero help desk calls and $1 million in annual cost savings.
When you get the right people in place, automate controls, and utilize advanced digital tools, you gain higher visibility across your environment, handle help desk tickets swiftly, and reduce the effort expended on all internal audit items.
It’s the end of the year, and Amazon’s 1P vendors are preparing for their annual negotiations. Beginning in January, Amazon meets with its retailers to request a performance review and outline trade terms and regulations for the coming year. While these negotiations are lengthy, they’re crucial for establishing an Amazon partnership that can maximize brand performance on the platform.
There are a few key areas vendors should focus on to prepare for these conversations and ensure a favorable outcome. Here’s what you need to know to achieve success in 2023…
Since Amazon requires an aggregation of performance data at the start of each negotiation, brands need to assemble this data three to four weeks in advance. The most relevant information to have available is prior investments and the previous year's negotiation terms and agreements. Investments may include marketing and freight allowances or any advertising programs utilized in the past, such as Amazon Vine for exclusive buyers or subscribe and save initiatives.
So, how can you gather and evaluate these metrics?
Brands can utilize the sales, retail analytics, and operations reporting portals in their Amazon Vendor Central accounts to view internal data. To help you determine how the funds were utilized, it’s useful to consult with your vendor, finance, or strategic account managers and any additional team members to collect more comprehensive information, like damage allowances, ROI, and ad spend. These professionals often have insights into Amazon’s precise requirements, so you should remain transparent in your communication.
Once you’ve gathered the appropriate criteria, you can leverage them to prioritize your needs and determine the necessary investments for next year’s objectives.
As part of the planning process, Client Management Lead at Media.Monks, Megan Boyko, recommends adopting a holistic approach to optimize your budget effectively for the ensuing year. She notes, “we’re in an environment where inflation is on the rise and fuel costs are on the rise. So how does that play into your budget?” This means that your budget should incorporate both your brand and Amazon’s needs and priorities, market conditions, and competition.
The dynamic market environment directly impacts Amazon’s priorities and motivations. For instance, to offset shipping costs, Amazon may increase freight allowances. So, if you’re planning to launch new products in 2023, it’s beneficial to invest in that category accordingly. By considering how each factor affects the other, you can structure your budget to reflect the negotiating environment.
Negotiations are often difficult to navigate, as both parties face frequent disagreements and confusion. Aligning your internal leadership with Amazon’s management is essential to mitigate conflict. Each team member must collaborate with the corresponding role on Amazon’s team; for example — two senior account managers — one for each party. This ensures that both partners recognize and understand one another’s goals. By coordinating these partnerships in advance, you can foster a transparent and productive dialogue.
Effective preparations and strategic alignments cultivate mutually beneficial business partnerships and expedite the negotiation process, clearing a path for your brand to flourish in the coming year.
With digital transformation on the rise and cloud migration becoming more prevalent, many organizations are moving their legacy applications to database management systems. While there are many platforms to choose from, Enterprise DB Postgres provides end-to-end solutions for cloud migration and comprehensive data management.
So, what are the benefits of Postgres over other database solutions, and how can you facilitate an effective transition to the system?
When selecting a database management system, Oracle remains top of mind for many businesses due to its best-in-class workload and data monitoring capabilities. Postgres provides most of the same functions; yet the system is free and open-source, whereas Oracle is a proprietary database with restrictions surrounding data usage and transfer.
So, how does this fundamental difference impact each database’s features?
One of the leading goals in digital transformation is database compatibility, which is often facilitated by cloud migration. Oracle automates this process, but its licensed cloud infrastructure limits operations to a single environment, hindering migration from legacy systems. Conversely, Postgres offers portability to accommodate your legacy system in any cloud environment. As a result, Stacy Scoggins, Field CTO at Enterprise DB, says that Postgres has “20 to 25% better performance than the options that come from the other [systems].”
While Postgres is compatible with some legacy systems, others contain unsuitable data sets, which presents migration challenges. Case in point, one company attempted to execute a migration to Postgres from an outdated application on a Db2 database stack. This migration failed halfway through the process since the application was only compatible with the database stack. The company recognized that a successful migration would require restructuring the entire application and transferring it to a cloud-based environment. However, this presented logistical challenges surrounding integration and scalability.
What should you consider before migrating to Postgres?
Before initiating migration efforts, Karkavel Jegadeesan, Chief Technology Officer at Platform 3 Solutions, says to “start by analyzing the application. Spend the time…knowing what your services are, how your database is used, [understand] your stored procedures, and the usage of those procedures.” Evaluating each database component allows you to develop an informed strategy to streamline the migration process.
To ensure your legacy database is appropriate for Postgres’ capabilities, it’s essential to validate your database. This is integral to a successful Postgres migration and must occur before the start of the transition. There are several methodologies you can leverage to measure your database’s validity. First, you can compare your current database with Postgres by conducting application tests and analyzing the results for consistency. A similar test is data hashing, which involves compiling algorithms to assess your components’ functionality and compare data sets.
Whichever method you choose, it’s beneficial to facilitate the process using automation.
