Migrating Large, Mission-Critical Databases to Oracle Autonomous Database 23ai

Executive Summary

A leading plantation enterprise migrated two large, business-critical databases to Oracle Autonomous Database 23ai, enabling a fully managed Oracle platform with improved scalability, reliability, and AI-ready capabilities.

The Challenge

The organization operated core enterprise systems on two large databases that were critical to daily business operations. Any extended database unavailability would directly impact essential processes and disrupt business continuity.

The objective was to migrate these workloads to Oracle Autonomous Database 23ai on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure to benefit from a fully managed database platform and advanced automation and AI capabilities. However, the size, complexity, and business criticality of the databases made the migration highly sensitive.

Early assessments identified compatibility considerations that needed careful evaluation and remediation. Given the importance of the databases, the migration required thorough validation, multiple rehearsals, and a tightly controlled execution plan to minimize risk during the transition.

Our Solution

Maathra adopted a structured and risk-aware cloud migration approach, starting with detailed compatibility assessment using the Cloud Premigration Advisor Tool (CPAT). CPAT reports were analyzed to identify potential incompatibilities between the source databases and the target Autonomous Database environment, and corrective measures were implemented well ahead of migration.

To ensure predictability, Maathra conducted three full trial migrations, validating data integrity, performance, and application behavior after each cycle. These rehearsals allowed the migration strategy to be refined and edge cases to be addressed before the final production cutover.

In addition to migration execution, Maathra scripted automatic scaling of Oracle Autonomous Database resources, enabling the platform to scale compute capacity based on workload demands. This ensured that the migrated environment could handle peak usage efficiently while optimizing resource utilization during normal operations.

The production migration was executed during a planned maintenance window with controlled downtime and close monitoring throughout the process.

Key Results

The migration was completed successfully, with both databases transitioned to Oracle Autonomous Database 23ai as planned. The organization moved to a fully managed Oracle database platform, significantly reducing operational overhead and manual database administration effort.

Post-migration, the enterprise gained a scalable, resilient, and future-ready database foundation. Automated scaling improved performance predictability during peak workloads while supporting cost-efficient operations. The engagement demonstrated a disciplined cloud migration approach that balanced modernization goals with the realities of mission-critical system dependencies.

Product List

• Oracle DBCS
• Oracle Autonomous Database 23ai
• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure