Probably the single most painful task in data modeling (or any modeling for that matter) is switching tools. Forget the high direct costs like purchasing licenses and the obvious indirect costs of retraining your staff, because it’s the migration of all your meta-data from one tool to the other that looms large on the horizon of pain. I’ve even witnessed people who will remain on an unsupported tool by a defunct vendor rather than pay this painful price. I’ve even seen some people stop modeling rather than migrate.

The migration process is so painful primarily due to five overwhelming challenges:

These challenges are not the only ones – but they represent the bulk of the pain.

So what’s one to do if a data modeling tool migration is in their future? And let’s assume that finding a new job and/or retirement are not viable options J

Fortunately many people are looking to migrate away from market share leading, but overly expensive and complex tools of the past – some of which have had little to no development in quite some time. This provides two major benefits: a common, well known source and sufficient market interest to warrant other vendors investing in migration tools. That’s not a slam per se on these modeling tools – they were all good in their hey-day. It’s simply a benefit to the migration process that they have lots of people who want, or need to migrate, and that their proprietary file formats have been relatively stable.

The solution to all the migration problems is simply o choose a modern and improving tool that inherently supports migration from those tools as part of its basic functionality – and furthermore offers an open exchange format such as XML. That’s where Quest Software’s “Toad Data Modeler” (formerly CASE Studio) excels. Let’s examine how Toad^® Data Modeler handles migrations and saving meta-data in an open format.

Scenario #1: Migrating from Computer Associates Erwin

A long time ago, I worked for Logic Works – the original creator of ERwin (which was first acquired by Platinum and then again by Computer Associates). So I’m not a bigot or otherwise prejudiced against ERwin – truth is I’ve used it on projects for over 15 years. But let’s assume simply that ERwin is where we are and we need/want to move to Toad Data Modeler. The model migration process is actually very easy: we simply launch Toad Data Modeler’s import facility as shown below.

The import screen (shown below) supports multiple source data model file types – and this list will continue to grow over time. In this test case, we simply choose the ERwin XML file format and then press the run button. Note that the import screen has options to retain the original ERwin object display layout/placement (a critical and overwhelming challenge listed above) and the ability to switch the data model from one database to another during the migration process. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

Note – to create an Erwin  XML file, simply open your ERwin data model and select ERwin’s “save as” to choose this format. It should work with most ERwin versions.

So what’s the end result? Look at the original ERwin data model and the resulting data model imported into Toad Data Modeler. Not too bad for literally no work on our part J

Scenario #2: Migrating from Sybase Power Designer

As with ERwin, I’m a very long time user of Power Designer – originally S-Designor from France, which was first acquired by Power Builder and then Sybase. So once again I’m not a bigot or otherwise prejudiced. But let’s assume simply that Power Designer is where we are and we need/want to move to Toad Data Modeler. The model migration process is once again very easy: as before we simply launch Toad Data Modeler’s import facility as shown below – choosing a different data model file source type.

So what’s the end result? Look at the original Power Designer data model and the resulting data model imported into Toad Data Modeler – it even retained the color scheme! Once again - not too shabby for literally no migration work on our part J

Scenario #3: Migrating from Oracle Designer

Toad Data Modeler can NOT yet do this – but it is coming. There is a large modeling market that has essentially been left high and dry by Oracle, who has pretty much frozen their modeling tool offering. In fact three years ago, this topic was the number one issue during the Oracle open forum discussion – and people were none too happy L So Quest sees a real opportunity to offer Oracle Designer users a bright and improving future by having Toad Data Modeler soon support migrations from Oracle Designer (please note that as with any software package, soon never means next release – it’s simply on the product roadmap as high priority). But Quest faces several key challenges in supporting migrations away from Oracle Designer into Toad Data Modeler: