SKYLIFTAI
Case Study

Zero-Downtime Migration to AWS —
Without a Single Agent on Source

UAN Team needed to relocate a 700 GB production Oracle database out of a locked-down third-party US datacentre and into AWS London — with zero business downtime and zero ability to install software on the source platform. MigDB Remote made it possible.

Oracle DB → AWS London Zero Source Footprint 700 GB in 2 Hours MigDB Remote Transatlantic CDC
UAN Team
Oracle Migration to AWS
Locked-Down US Datacenter → AWS London (eu-west-2)
700 GB
Production Oracle DB
2 hrs
DB Migration Time
½ day
End-to-End Cutover
0
Source Agents Installed

"SkyliftAI MigDB helped us migrate from a third-party hosted platform to AWS without any downtime."

— UAN Team

700 GB. 2 Hours. Zero Downtime. Zero Source Footprint.

UAN Team needed to relocate a 700 GB production Oracle database out of a locked-down third-party US datacenter and into AWS London — with zero business downtime and zero ability to install software on the source platform. Using MigDB Remote, the entire database transfer completed in 2 hours, and the end-to-end migration including application cutover finished in half a day, with no measurable latency impact on the live workload.

Migration Architecture
MigDB Remote — Deployed in AWS London, Connected to the US Source over SQL*Net

MigDB Remote was deployed in the AWS London region (eu-west-2) and connected to the on-premise source database over SQL*Net. All migration phases — initial load, change extract, capture, and apply — executed remotely. No binaries, agents, or configuration changes were required on the source platform.

Source · US Datacenter
Locked-Down Oracle Database
Third-party hosted environment
No software installation permitted
No agent, no binary, no replication tool
SQL*Net listener — only allowed ingress
SQL*Net
TLS Encrypted
Standard Ingress
MigDB Remote · AWS London (eu-west-2)
Complete Migration Pipeline — Target Side Only
Provisioned inside private VPC subnet
TLS-secured SQL*Net tunnels to source listener
Initial Data Load — driven remotely
Change Extract & Capture — remote
Apply — from MigDB engine only
CDC runs parallel with bulk load
SQL*Net
Private VPC
KMS Encrypted
Target · AWS RDS London
AWS RDS Oracle — eu-west-2
Private VPC subnet
Receives applied data
KMS-encrypted trail files
Audit logging → customer SIEM
CloudWatch monitoring & alerts

Figure 1 — MigDB Remote in AWS London accessing the locked-down US source database over SQL*Net. No binaries, agents, or configuration changes were required on the source platform.

Constraints That Ruled Out Conventional Migration Tools

Constraints that ruled out conventional migration tools
1

Zero tolerance for business application downtime — the workload could not be paused, even briefly, for cutover.

2

The source database was hosted in a secured third-party environment with no provision to install any software, agent, or replication binary.

3

No access to the on-premise platform to deploy any third-party software components — ruling out classic capture, in-database extracts, and most CDC products that require a source-side footprint.

MigDB Remote — Fully Remote, Source-Side Zero Footprint

MigDB Remote — fully remote, source-side zero footprint

MigDB Remote deployment pattern accesses the on-premise database remotely over standard SQL*Net — the only ingress UAN was willing to expose.

MigDB Remote was provisioned in the AWS London region (eu-west-2), inside a private VPC subnet, with TLS-secured SQL*Net tunnels back to the source listener.

Initial Data Load, Extract, Capture, and Apply phases were all driven remotely from MigDB — no source agents, no installed binaries, no privileged jobs on the source host.

Change Data Capture ran in parallel with the bulk load so the source database remained online and writable throughout the migration window.

Five Phases — Executed End-to-End by the MigDB Remote Orchestrator

The full migration was sequenced into five phases, executed end-to-end by the MigDB Remote orchestrator. CDC ran in parallel with the bulk load, so the source workload was never paused.

1
Schema Discovery & Parameter Generation
Fully automated schema discovery and replicat provisioning — no manual configuration required.
Automated
2
Initial Data Load
700 GB baseline transferred remotely — 50% faster than standard tooling via tuned extract and apply pipelines.
Bulk Transfer
3
Parallel CDC
Change Data Capture starts in parallel with the initial load — source stays fully online and writable throughout.
Live Capture
4
CDC Catch-Up Apply
All accumulated transactional changes applied — brings target to full sync with source before cutover.
Delta Sync
5
Cutover & Validation
Application connections redirected to AWS RDS London — zero downtime, full validation in the same window.
Zero Downtime ✓

Figure 2 — Five-phase migration timeline; 700 GB transferred and applied in approximately 2 hours wall clock.

Measured Outcomes from the UAN Migration

Measured outcomes from the UAN migration

700 GB of production data was transferred from a US hosting center to AWS London with zero source-side agent footprint.

No measurable latency impact and no system downtime were observed during the migration window.

The full database migration — baseline plus CDC catch-up — completed in approximately 2 hours wall clock.

End-to-end migration including application cutover and validation completed in half a day.

The Numbers That Define the UAN Migration

60%
Faster Migration
50%
Cost Reduction
700GB
Data Migrated
75%
Faster Onboarding
20%
TCO Reduction

How Each MigDB Capability Applied to UAN

Capability How it applied to UAN
Zero Downtime Migration
Parallel CDC kept the source online throughout the cutover window.
50% Faster Performance
Tuned remote extract and apply pipelines reduced wall-clock time by half versus baseline tooling.
Scalable Architecture
Horizontal scaling of extract/apply workers handled the 700 GB volume without backlog.
End-to-End Automated Deployment
Schema discovery, parameter generation, and replicat provisioning were fully automated.
Remote Deployment Orchestration
No agent or binary touched the source host — entire pipeline driven from AWS London.
Enterprise Security & Compliance
TLS-secured SQL*Net, KMS-encrypted trail files, audit logging into customer SIEM.
User-Friendly UI/UX
Single-pane orchestration console for monitoring all phases.
Enhanced Monitoring
Per-table lag, throughput, and validation metrics surfaced in real time.
Ease of Troubleshooting
Centralized logs and structured error surfacing accelerated incident triage.
Multi-Region Orchestration
Source in US datacenter, MigDB engine in AWS London, target in AWS — coordinated as one pipeline.

When the Source Is Locked Down — MigDB Remote Delivers

Architect's Takeaway

Most CDC and migration tools assume you can deploy a capture agent on the source host or attach an in-database extract process. When that assumption fails — because of vendor restrictions, compliance posture, or a locked-down hosting contract — migrations stall.

MigDB Remote inverts the model: capture, extract, and apply all run on the target side, reaching back into the source only through the standard SQL*Net listener that the customer was already exposing.

The UAN engagement is a clean demonstration that a 700 GB, transatlantic, zero-downtime migration can be executed entirely from the landing zone, with no footprint on the source platform and no concession on cutover quality.

Your Data.
Any Cloud. Any Time.

Facing a locked-down source environment or zero-downtime requirement? Talk to a SkyliftAI MigDB expert today.

Get Started Today