IT Tips & Tricks

Published 28 December 2021

The Pelican: Metaphor for a Smooth-Sailing Data Migration

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Ungainly and, seemingly, not built for flight with their heavy beaks, truncated bodies and short, stumpy tails, the pelican defies all odds the minute it becomes airborne. If you’re facing a data migration, here’s how you, too, can defy the odds.

A small group of us recently gathered on the beach at sunset to celebrate a co-worker’s birthday. We were lucky enough to witness a group of about a dozen pelicans gliding along the shoreline. They seemed to move together as one, and a quick Google search taught us that the collective noun for pelicans is a squadron. Watching them, we realized how utterly perfect that is. When one pelican altered course, even slightly, the others followed. When one pelican either increased or decreased altitude, the entire squadron followed. We realized, then, that pelicans are a perfect metaphor for linked data that sticks together during a migration, with multiple parts traveling as one.

We don’t know exactly what it is that allows pelicans (and other birds) to stick together and swoop and glide in perfect unison, but we’re reasonably sure that evolutionary genetics have played a part. The oldest known pelican fossil, virtually identical to its modern descendants, was discovered in southeastern France and dates back some 30 million years. Clearly, pelicans have had a good head start.

Sure, sometimes a data migration can make you feel like you’ve aged 30 million years, but in the absence of any kind of evolutionary genetic developments in the IT world, one sometimes must seek assistance elsewhere to find the “glue” to hold things together.

Pelicans are a perfect metaphor for linked data that sticks together during a migration, with multiple parts traveling as one.

Defying the Odds

While 80 percent of data migrations fail, yours doesn’t have to. Like the airborne pelican, you, too, can complete a migration with remarkable style and grace. As you probably know, one of the most commonly experienced problems in data migration is lost or missing data. It results in downtime, complaining end-users and grumpy bosses — all of which you could happily live without. Did you also know that one of the primary causes of that missing data is the file links that get broken during the migration?

So, how can you “corral” your linked data so that it migrates as smoothly and gracefully as a squadron of pelicans in flight? Well, while the pelicans can rely on 30 million years of evolution to hold them together, your “glue” is LinkFixer Advanced™.

This smooth-sailing data migration software automates the management and repair of file links, providing a safeguard during data migrations. The world’s first patented software that automatically finds and fixes broken links and, more importantly, the only application that can preserve links in advance of a migration or file-system reorg, LinkFixer Advanced is the evolutionary equivalent of data gliding through a migration like a well-drilled squadron. (For some helpful tips on migration planning, download our free eBook here.)

LinkFixer Advanced supports today’s most common file types and automatically fixes broken links in batch — in any number of files at a time — while also offering the tools to virtually eliminate this type of risk in the future.

Squadron 101: How to Fly

The software itself consists of several automated functions that find, fix, and maintain links, as follows:

  1. The “Inoculate” function protects all your links prior to a data migration, setting them up so that they can quickly be auto repaired when they get broken. Next, having completed your migration, the “Cure” function can automatically fix all the previously inoculated links, and it does it faster than a pelican dive-bombing fish.
  2. If the migration was completed before you had an opportunity to inoculate the links, leaving you with thousands (or millions) of broken links, it’s not too late. The “Modify Links” function can fix any links that were broken during the migration, and it does so faster than any other method you could think up. This process is often called “disaster recovery mode,” and naturally, it restores any data that went missing due to broken links. No squadron stragglers here.

Sometimes a data migration can make you feel like you’ve aged 30 million years.

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With LinkFixer Advanced, your linked data is managed with military precision. If you're ever lucky enough to witness a squadron of pelicans, you'll know what we mean.

  1. Finally, the software also offers a “Move/Rename” function that moves or renames files and folders while automatically handling your links so that they remain fully functional when the migration is complete. (And it’s a whole lot faster than a pelican migration from, for example, California to British Columbia.)

In the final analysis, LinkFixer Advanced offers a remarkably elegant solution to a common problem that plagues IT departments all over the world.

For further information, visit www.LinkTek.com or speak to a friendly Service Consultant at 727-442-1822 for more information. Smooth sailing and happy landings!

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