Decision Time
The most popular questions I hear when speaking with clients about Banner SaaS are: “Why would I want to move to SaaS?” and “Where would I even start?” These are great questions, and we could spend a year on both, but no one has that kind of time.
I’m going to give the highlights of each, which I hope will spark other questions along the way.
Why would I want to move to SaaS?
The first true Software as a Service, or SaaS, product emerged in 1999 from Salesforce. As I alluded to in my previous article, it was inevitable that Banner would eventually follow the path of SaaS.
I could list the numerous benefits of migrating your higher ed ERP to SaaS—like reducing your infrastructure; automated and regular upgrades which allow you to take advantage of new features quicker (not to mention save you from late nights, early mornings, and weekends running endless upgrades); and for those interested in the financials, predictable costs.
But what often goes unspoken are the unforeseen—and very human—challenges that can occur during migration: Like being so far behind that you can’t use those new time-saving features that were just announced.
Or trying to plan for the next infrastructure rebuild and how much it’s going to cost, only to find out it’s not in the budget and you need to figure out how to make what you have stretch 3 more years. What about that latest zero-day vulnerability that just dropped, and now you must spend the next 3 days fixing and securing every Banner server while you’re on vacation? Sound familiar?
It’s a big change moving into a SaaS environment, especially when you’ve been in control of your infrastructure for a long time. Being limited to a certain number of environments, like 2, can be a real game-changer for some clients. Letting go is not easy.
However, understanding the migration process might ease the pain of letting go. Ellucian uses a prescriptive approach to align all the validation data with best practices for higher education.
In many cases, institutions are already doing this; they just don’t realize it. This allows for a more streamlined, industry-standard approach to the SaaS provisioning and delivery process.
For the record, Ellucian didn’t come up with this out of the blue. The methodology was built on frameworks from global organizations like CAUDIT, EDUCAUSE, and UCISA, that represent the collective wisdom from the higher ed sector. I believe this is one of the biggest reasons moving to Banner SaaS would be a benefit to any institution.
Don’t get me wrong, this would most likely incur change within the institution, and that’s always a harder sell. However, the functional consultants at SIG are well-versed in those changes and are standing by to help clients work through them.
How does the data migrate?
For modernization clients, Ellucian will limit the Banner SaaS environments to PROD and TEST, which are fully built-out environments.
During the migration experience, several mock migrations occur to fine-tune the data migration process and ensure all data is represented properly. The number of mocks are based on how clean the data is and how seamless the migration process goes.
Ideally, 4 mock migrations are scheduled, but if your data is a mess, expect a few more attempts before the data comes across just right.
Let’s break down the migration process at a high level:
The process starts by running a pre-delivered script, which will export the entire current Oracle database and upload it to a secure AWS S3 bucket.
Once uploaded, a process is kicked off to begin the import of the entire file to an awaiting Oracle/Banner database.
- That database is then upgraded to the latest Banner versions, if necessary.
- Any Banner versions that are different from the current known versions are applied.
- This database is used as the staging point for the load into the SaaS-based database of PostgreSQL or Oracle, depending on your region and purpose.
- Prior to importing customer data, a prescribed set of validation data is layered into the SaaS-based database, PostgreSQL or Oracle, via several templates:
- Global settings, which every site will get
- Foundational settings like US, 2-year/4-year
- Any localizations like UCAS, Texas, California, etc. Once the templates have been applied, the client data from the known Banner schemas is migrated via AWS Data Migration Services to a PostgreSQL database (for US-based customers). If you are a non-US based client, you will most likely be imported to an Oracle database.
Before you know it, a new Banner database is ready to go. Anyone who has done any kind of major data migration knows that the first cut of data is expected to have issues. If you’re expecting perfection—or for the migration to happen in 2 hours—it just doesn’t happen that way.
Any good Oracle DBA knows how long it takes to export their database. I’ll share more in a later article about how to shorten that time.
Each subsequent mock migration will allow fine-tuning the templates so that by go-live, the migration is just right. That’s when you should expect perfection.
So, when then?
SaaS is the current and future platform for nearly every piece of higher ed software today. If you haven’t realized it by now, everything has gone the way of SaaS and if it hasn’t, it’s on its way.
Whether you choose to move to Banner SaaS or some other ERP, at this point, your decision will land you in a SaaS-based product.
Ellucian has been producing higher ed ERP software longer than I’ve been working in higher ed (which, frankly, is a long time).
Their experience runs deep and it’s a complicated environment. One of the reasons we switched from our home-grown legacy ERP system all those years ago was that the complexity was getting too much to handle.
Between the constantly changing federal regulations and the subtle differences in terms, courses, and registration each institution deals with—not to mention the HR and payroll nuances coupled with maintaining proper finances and billing—it’s an intricately complicated system that can collapse at any minute but doesn’t.
Yes, it has defects and problems. But nothing this side of heaven is perfect, except a newborn baby. At the end of the day, Banner gets the job done and always has.
So, the decision isn’t if you’re going to move to SaaS, but when.
Making the decision to move to Banner SaaS is the biggest step in the process and should not be made hastily or in a bubble. Involve all the necessary constituents, top to bottom.
Everyone has a voice because everyone will be affected. However, once the decision is made, it’s all downhill.
Keeping that hill from getting too steep will be a challenge, but not impossible. Here are a few things to get you started.
Where would I even start?
Moving to Banner SaaS does not happen overnight. There’s so much that can be done now to prepare for the experience, and these tasks can take years to properly process. If these tasks are left until the last minute, there will be a flurry of requests to the IT staff, and no one will be happy.
Many of these tasks should already be part of regular maintenance routines, but we find they are not.
Finding out months before a SaaS go-live is not the time to clean up your database.
I have been a Banner DBA for a long time. I have been known to be a bit of a control freak with the databases I support and tend to rule with an iron fist. My motto is: A clean database is a happy database. So, if you want to start anywhere, start with database maintenance.
In my next article, I’ll explain how to keep your database neat and trim and reduce the migration time from export to go live.
Marianne Gillfillan
Senior DBA/Certified Cloud Architect at Strata Information Group
