Migrating from Oracle to SQL using SSMA

Migrating from one database platform to another has been a lot of pain for a lot of people in the past.
Now, we all are aware of ETL tools that allow you to transfer actual data, but in a lot of ways that hasn't been efficient or consistent to guarantee the correct data transfers, data type mappings, and data "consumption".

One of the other issues in database migration, very often relates to application logic, and data specific items such as stored procedures, views and build in functions.

In the past couple of years I had the opportunity to work with several teams and on several projects in "Migration", required the transfer of application logic migration. One of the tools that I have been using for a while is SQL Server Migration Asssistant, or SSMA.

SSMA, is a tool that goes further than what you can do with ETL, it consists of data type mapping, datatype conversion, but also data transfer, and full application logic transfer, ... a stored procedure or package in oracle?, Oracle specific built in functions? ... no problem, SSMA will take care of it for you.

SQL Server Migration Assistant (SSMA is a complete suite of tools that dramatically cuts the effort, cost, and risk of migrating from non-SQL Server Platforms to Microsoft SQL Server. The toole automates almost every aspect of the migration process including assessment, schema and data migration, business logic conversion, and validation.

With SSMA, IT organizations now have the freedom to move to SQL Server and take advantage of SQL Server's exceptional security, scalability, developer productivity, and the industry’s lowest total cost of ownership.

While I've been working with early editions of SSMA, I have always been very excited about the product capabilities, and this FREE migration tool.

SSMA allows you to migrate from Oracle, Sybase, MySQL, Microsoft Access.

You can download SQL Server Migration Assistant for Oracle V4.0, and start with an assessment to identify the load of work that needs to be done, or surprisingly and because of the advanced knowledge that is built inside SSMA, is automated up to 100%.

Also, very useful are the Migration whitepapers