Key takeaways
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As we near the end of 2025, it’s impossible to overlook how enterprises are placing a greater emphasis on their databases, not just as repositories of information, but as the foundation of real-time, AI-enabled business operations. Yet, many of these enterprises still rely on aging on-prem Oracle environments that simply can’t deliver the elasticity, cost-efficiency, or performance required for modern workloads.
According to Gartner, most new Oracle workloads will be deployed on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) due to its native compatibility, performance advantages, and lower total cost of ownership.
Migrating Oracle Databases to OCI isn’t simply a move. It’s a modernization strategy. OCI offers enterprises native Oracle feature continuity, end-to-end automation, and deep integration with applications like E-Business Suite (EBS), JD Edwards, and PeopleSoft, making it the most seamless cloud destination for mission-critical Oracle workloads.
Why Migrate Now?
What Enterprises Gain with ITC’s OCI Migration Approach
Migrating mission-critical Oracle Databases to the cloud remains a complex initiative that blends technology, timing, and trust. While Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) provides the most native environment for Oracle workloads, migrations can still fail without a structured, governance-driven approach.
Below are the most common migration challenges, and how the right partner helps enterprises overcome them through automation, visibility, and certified expertise.
When transferring large datasets over the network, interruptions can stall or corrupt the process. IDC (2025) notes that network instability causes up to 22% of all migration delays in enterprise environments (IDC, 2025). Even with OCI’s high throughput, physical shipment (using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Data Transfer Appliance) or virtual transfer (via Oracle FastConnect) can be disrupted.
How the right partner mitigates it:
Enterprises often struggle to keep on-prem and cloud environments synchronized during pilot or parallel runs. Inconsistent replication can cause data drift, especially for high-velocity transactional systems.
How the right partner mitigates it:
Database migration projects can expand beyond original scope due to underestimated workloads, data re-engineering needs, or dependency mismanagement.
How the right partner mitigates it:
Sometimes the migration strategy selected (rehost, refactor, re-architect, or replace) doesn’t align with actual business outcomes, leading to technical feasibility issues or unmet KPIs.
How the right partner mitigates it:
Database cloud migration demands specialized knowledge of OCI networking, security, and automation, skills that are scarce and costly to acquire internally.
How the right partner mitigates it:
Once migrated, some databases experience latency or throughput drops due to suboptimal configuration or overlooked performance dependencies.
How the right partner mitigates it:
Not all cloud providers can fully support the advanced feature set of Oracle Databases — especially Real Application Clusters (RAC), Data Guard, and Database Vault.
How the right partner mitigates it:
The most overlooked migration challenge is often the most damaging: failure to maintain continuous compliance. When controls are manually applied or inconsistently enforced, audit gaps and data sovereignty issues emerge.
How the right partner mitigates it:
With these challenges addressed through visibility, automation, and CSPE-certified expertise, organizations can transform migration risk into measurable value.
Migrating Oracle Databases to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is no longer a one-size-fits-all process. Enterprises now have a rich set of Oracle-native tools, automated pathways, and zero-downtime migration options designed to reduce complexity, risk, and cost.
The right strategy depends on key variables, such as database size, version, platform architecture (endian format), downtime tolerance, and regulatory requirements.
Best For: Small to medium databases, same-endian migrations, and environments where schema-level control is required.
Overview: Oracle Data Pump remains one of the most flexible tools for migrating Oracle Databases to OCI. It performs a logical export/import of schemas, tablespaces, or full databases into a dump file that can be securely transferred to OCI storage and re-imported into the target database.
Advantages:
Best For: Large enterprise databases or migrations between systems with different endian formats.
Overview: Transportable Tablespaces (TTS) and its enhanced version, Full Transportable Database (FTDB), enable faster migrations by copying existing data files directly to the OCI target environment and importing only the metadata.
Advantages:
Best For: Critical production systems that require 24/7 availability.
Overview: Introduced in Oracle Database 19c, Zero Downtime Migration (ZDM) automates the end-to-end migration process using Data Guard replication under the hood. It continuously syncs the source and target databases until final cutover, minimizing downtime to a few minutes.
Advantages:
Best For: Large-scale, multi-database environments requiring continuous data synchronization or multi-cloud deployments.
Overview: Oracle GoldenGate enables real-time replication across heterogeneous systems, making it possible to run on-prem and OCI environments in parallel. It captures changes from the source database and applies them to the target with minimal lag.
Advantages:
Best For: Automated, low-risk migration to OCI Autonomous Database, Exadata Cloud Service, or Base Database Service.
Overview: OCI’s Database Migration Service provides an integrated, fully managed migration experience that automates configuration, validation, and monitoring.
It supports both online and offline migration modes and is designed for minimal manual intervention.
Advantages:
Best For: Enterprises modernizing high-performance or mission-critical workloads.
Overview: For organizations running high-volume transactional systems or analytics workloads, migrating to OCI Exadata Cloud Service or Autonomous Database ensures top performance, scalability, and operational resilience.
Advantages:
| Migration Objective | Best-Fit Method | Recommended ITC Service | Downtime Expectation |
| Minimal downtime for production systems | Zero Downtime Migration (ZDM) + Data Guard | Managed Cloud Migration | Minutes |
| Real-time sync and testing before cutover | GoldenGate Replication | Governance-Driven Migration | Near-zero |
| Large datasets with different endian formats | Transportable Tablespaces (TTS) | OCI Migration Factory | Few hours |
| Small or flexible environments | Data Pump | Standard OCI Migration | Variable |
| Fully managed automation | OCI Database Migration Service (DMS) | ITC Automation Framework | Minimal |
| Performance modernization | Exadata Cloud Service / Autonomous DB | Managed Cloud Modernization | Continuous |
Once migration is complete, the next phase begins: optimizing your Oracle Database environment to fully leverage OCI’s performance, cost efficiency, and governance ecosystem.
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure now offers multiple deployment and service editions designed to meet varying performance, compliance, and administrative needs. Choosing the right combination, and managing it continuously, is key to realizing long-term ROI.
OCI provides flexible database deployment paths depending on business, security, and performance requirements:
| Deployment Type | Description | Best Use Cases | ITC Advantage |
| Autonomous Database | Fully managed, self-optimizing database that automates tuning, scaling, patching, and security updates. | Analytics, SaaS, or AI-driven workloads. | Enables self-healing and AI-driven optimization with zero admin overhead. |
| Exadata Cloud Service | Delivers Exadata performance with OCI elasticity; ideal for large-scale, mission-critical systems. | EBS, JDE, financials, and custom OLTP workloads. | ITC optimizes Exadata configurations with workload profiling and cost modeling. |
| Base Database Service | IaaS-style managed database that offers fine-grained control over OS and DB parameters. | Hybrid environments requiring customization. | Combines flexibility with ITC’s governance dashboards for compliance visibility. |
| VM / Bare Metal DB Systems | Traditional hosted model with full root and database access. | Lift-and-shift migrations or regulated industries. | ITC provides hardening templates and automated patch compliance audits. |
Migrating the database is only the first step. Optimization ensures sustained performance, compliance, and cost control. IT Convergence implements a three-phase optimization model for all post-migration clients.
Migrating Oracle Databases often involves critical enterprise systems like EBS, JD Edwards, and PeopleSoft. OCI provides native integration and certified automation tools that streamline these transitions.
Post-migration management must evolve into continuous governance, ensuring the environment remains secure, efficient, and aligned with enterprise strategy.
IT Convergence’s Continuous Governance Framework integrates:
In 2025, database migration is no longer just about moving data. It’s about building a secure, compliant, and intelligent foundation for digital growth.
Migrating Oracle Databases to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure empowers organizations to modernize without disruption, scale without limits, and govern without compromise. OCI’s performance parity, cost efficiency, and Oracle-native compatibility make it the most strategic platform for running critical workloads, from EBS to analytics, AI, and beyond.
As a certified Oracle Cloud Solutions Provider Expertise (CSPE) partner, IT Convergence helps enterprises transform migration into modernization through:
Whether rehosting, refactoring, or re-architecting, ITC ensures your Oracle Database journey to the cloud is secure, predictable, and future-ready, backed by 27+ years of Oracle excellence and global managed services leadership.
