https://community.databricks.com/t5/community-articles/the-hidden-pitfalls-of-snowflake-to-databricks-migrations/m-p/110460#M367 <P><STRONG>Everyone's rushing their Snowflake to Databricks migration, and they're setting themselves up for failure.</STRONG><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><STRONG><BR /></STRONG>After leading multiple enterprise migrations to Databricks last quarter, here's what shocked me: The technical lift isn't the hard part. It's the hidden organizational resistance.<BR /><BR />Last month, our 'perfectly planned' migration imploded when we discovered 60% of our engineers were using undocumented Snowflake stored procedures. Classic shadow IT coming back to haunt us!<BR /><BR />The landmines nobody warns you about:<STRONG><BR /><BR />The Hidden Complexity Tax -</STRONG><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><EM>- Found 100+ hardcoded Snowflake references in production jobs<BR />- 40% of our downstream data pipelines broke due to schema reference changes<BR />- Shadow IT workflows we never knew existed suddenly surfaced</EM><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN>After doubling the project timelines, here's what actually works:</SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><STRONG>"Lift and Shift Everything"</STRONG> Tried this on our first migration. Result? Two weeks of production chaos when we discovered nested views weren't resolving correctly in Databricks.</SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN>The Big Bang Approach <STRONG>"Let's do it all at once!"</STRONG> Spoiler: Don't. We had much better success with 90-day progressive migrations, starting with least critical datasets.</SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN>We now spend 50% of migration time on discovery and impact analysis. Controversial? Yes. But our last migration had zero critical incidents.</SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN>Unity Catalog's stricter governance model will expose years of technical debt in your Snowflake environment. But that's actually the best part - it forces modernization.</SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN>The approach that saved us:</SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><EM>- Automated dependency mapping (found 40% more than manual audit)<BR />- Two-week parallel runs for critical workloads<BR />- Zero-trust verification of all stored procedures<BR />- Progressive migration by data criticality</EM><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN>Currently seeing:</SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><STRONG>- 65% faster query performance<BR />- 30% better resource utilization<BR />- 90% reduction in access-related incidents</STRONG><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN>What migration nightmares have you faced moving to Databricks? Do share your stories</SPAN></P> Tue, 18 Feb 2025 08:55:08 GMT yadvendra_ksh 2025-02-18T08:55:08Z https://community.databricks.com/t5/community-articles/the-hidden-pitfalls-of-snowflake-to-databricks-migrations/m-p/110460#M367 <P><STRONG>Everyone's rushing their Snowflake to Databricks migration, and they're setting themselves up for failure.</STRONG><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><STRONG><BR /></STRONG>After leading multiple enterprise migrations to Databricks last quarter, here's what shocked me: The technical lift isn't the hard part. It's the hidden organizational resistance.<BR /><BR />Last month, our 'perfectly planned' migration imploded when we discovered 60% of our engineers were using undocumented Snowflake stored procedures. Classic shadow IT coming back to haunt us!<BR /><BR />The landmines nobody warns you about:<STRONG><BR /><BR />The Hidden Complexity Tax -</STRONG><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><EM>- Found 100+ hardcoded Snowflake references in production jobs<BR />- 40% of our downstream data pipelines broke due to schema reference changes<BR />- Shadow IT workflows we never knew existed suddenly surfaced</EM><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN>After doubling the project timelines, here's what actually works:</SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><STRONG>"Lift and Shift Everything"</STRONG> Tried this on our first migration. Result? Two weeks of production chaos when we discovered nested views weren't resolving correctly in Databricks.</SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN>The Big Bang Approach <STRONG>"Let's do it all at once!"</STRONG> Spoiler: Don't. We had much better success with 90-day progressive migrations, starting with least critical datasets.</SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN>We now spend 50% of migration time on discovery and impact analysis. Controversial? Yes. But our last migration had zero critical incidents.</SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN>Unity Catalog's stricter governance model will expose years of technical debt in your Snowflake environment. But that's actually the best part - it forces modernization.</SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN>The approach that saved us:</SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><EM>- Automated dependency mapping (found 40% more than manual audit)<BR />- Two-week parallel runs for critical workloads<BR />- Zero-trust verification of all stored procedures<BR />- Progressive migration by data criticality</EM><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN>Currently seeing:</SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><STRONG>- 65% faster query performance<BR />- 30% better resource utilization<BR />- 90% reduction in access-related incidents</STRONG><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN><BR /></SPAN><SPAN>What migration nightmares have you faced moving to Databricks? Do share your stories</SPAN></P> Tue, 18 Feb 2025 08:55:08 GMT https://community.databricks.com/t5/community-articles/the-hidden-pitfalls-of-snowflake-to-databricks-migrations/m-p/110460#M367 yadvendra_ksh 2025-02-18T08:55:08Z