Driving a Successful Cloud Migration for a Fortune 500 Vehicle Retailer

Seeking to modernize its enterprise data platform, a Fortune 500 U.S. Vehicle Retailer engaged CapTech to oversee the migration of its assets from Teradata to Snowflake, resulting in a new data platform that increased reliability, stability, and flexibility.

A Fortune 500 U.S. Vehicle Retailer sought to transition its data to a new enterprise platform to increase security, reliability, and flexibility. With data and assets spread across more than 60 teams and divisions, business leaders sought a trusted project and program management partner to oversee a seamless transition from Teradata to Snowflake. 

The vehicle retailer lacked a clearly defined cutover approach as well as the necessary structure and processes to execute the transition. As a long-standing partner who supported several large business-critical initiatives in the past, CapTech was engaged to provide delivery management and development operations services and define a detailed cutover approach and strategy.

CapTech provided technical resources to assist with the conversion of Teradata SQL to Snowflake SQL. Even though Snowflake’s SnowConvert tool was available to a limited number of users, the output of the SnowConvert tool required some manual intervention to complete SQL updates. CapTech collaborated with the client to make the necessary updates. Many teams leveraged Teradata macros, stored procedures, and stand-alone queries that required updating. 

CapTech's project manager worked closely with the client throughout the project, meeting with the team weekly to discuss project updates and deliverables. Additionally, the project manager met with each individual team on a bi-weekly basis to address each team’s unique challenges and incorporate them into the holistic project strategy.

During the testing process, the team collaborated with the vehicle retailer to investigate and determine the root causes of Teradata SQL and Snowflake SQL output discrepancies.

Additionally, CapTech’s delivery manager was responsible for the oversight of the data reconciliation process and discrepancy resolution for more than 5,000 enterprise tables that supported key business functions across financing, customer experience, accounting, and strategy. The delivery manager also championed the introduction of a comprehensive business continuity strategy for the Snowflake Platform.

CapTech’s cutover lead partnered with the client’s Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW) leadership team to define, document, and socialize the cutover plan, and define an overall cutover strategy, including a detailed command center plan, to ensure optimal organization during the cutover event.

Working closely with the Fortune 500 U.S. Vehicle Retailer, the CapTech team oversaw a successful Teradata to Snowflake migration by the specified go-live date.

Project highlights include: 

• Tailored approaches for all 60+ teams and divisions, leading to an overall migration that met the unique needs of each team across the business. 
• The completion of the reconciliation identification and discrepancy resolution instilled stakeholder confidence in the data quality and readiness to migrate to the Snowflake platform for all key business functions. 
• Awareness of the disaster recovery capabilities offered by the Snowflake platform gave the vehicle retailer confidence in the availability of data above and beyond the offerings of its legacy platform.