Friday, January 28, 2022

Use Case - UNX Conversion, Web Intelligence Repointing with APOS Migrator for Web Intelligence

Tackling a massive UNV to UNX conversion and Web Intelligence repointing project

A major electronics manufacturer and software developer planned to move their SAP BusinessObjects data source from a legacy system to Snowflake cloud data warehouse. Like other organizations attempting similar migrations, they found UNV compatibility issues. Knowing that Snowflake is not supported by UNV universes, they knew they would have to convert a large number of UNV universes to UNX, and repoint literally 100s of thousands of reports to the new universes. Converting and repointing manually was simply not a feasible approach, as it would require vast amounts of person hours, and the time to execute would be completely unacceptable. They needed to find a means of automating the conversion process.

Requirements

• Accelerated migration
  Migrating to Snowflake is already a major undertaking, but manual conversion and repointing would increase project timelines exponentially.
• High-volume conversion of UNV universes to UNX universes
  A project-based approach to universe conversion was needed track and validate the conversion of a large quantity of universes.
• Scalability to repoint 100s of thousands of Web Intelligence reports
  Repointing reports manually was potentially so labor-intensive that they needed the ability to repoint large numbers of reports in bulk within a project-based environment.
• Horizontal scalability across multiple threads
  Aggressive timelines also meant they needed to run multiple conversion projects simultaneously, while maintaining complete control over processing nodes.
• High-speed, automated conversion and repointing
  Aggressive timelines for upgrading to Snowflake Data Warehouse Cloud required a conversion automation solution that was both easy to deploy and highly performant.
• Two-stage Web Intelligence report repointing process
  Web Intelligence repointing workflows needed to include the ability for stakeholders to review and approve reports before the repointing is committed.

Solution: Using APOS Migrator for Web Intelligence for High-Volume UNV to UNX Conversion and Bulk WebI Repointing

This organization deployed APOS Migrator for Web Intelligence (module of APOS Administrator).

• The organization looked at doing the work internally, but rejected this approach as not a viable option. They recognized the massive amounts of manual time, and drawing precious resources away from core development pursuits, would cause significant lost opportunity costs.

They selected APOS Migrator for Web Intelligence, because it let them:

• Achieve controlled, high-speed, high-volume processing of universes and Web Intelligence reports
• Automate conversion of UNV universes to UNX universes
• Repoint Web Intelligence reports to new UNX universes in bulk
• Change universe settings on reports in bulk
• Establish and maintain granular control over conversion and repointing processes

Feedback

“Manually converting universes and repointing Web Intelligence reports was quickly deemed an impractical option, because of the quantity of both universes and reports, and because of aggressive timelines for implementing Snowflake cloud data warehouse. The search for an automated solution led to APOS Migrator for Web Intelligence, which satisfied the requirements for high-speed, high-volume, vertically and horizontally scalable UNV to UNX conversion and Web Intelligence report repointing.”
Alan Golding, Solution Consulting Manager, APOS