Migration
Migration
The process of moving a system or data to a new environment or setup.
In Simple Terms
Migration means moving a system or data to a different environment, or managing changes to a database's structure. For example, it happens when you move all your data from an old server to the cloud, or update database tables to match new features while developing an app. This lets you migrate systems safely and keep your programs and databases working together correctly.
Behind the Name
The name is simply the everyday English word "migration" — describing the movement of something from one place to another. Computing borrowed this everyday sense to describe a wholesale move of a system's contents from an old setup to a new one.
Take a Closer Look!
Migration broadly has two meanings: moving a system or data to a new home, and managing changes to a database's structure (its blueprint).
The first meaning is the process of moving a system or data over to a different environment, keeping everything intact. Think of it like moving house — packing up all your belongings and habits and relocating them entirely to a new place. This covers things like moving your company's physical servers over to a cloud service, or converting your data into a new storage format.
The second meaning, common in programming and databases, refers to a mechanism (database migration) for safely version-controlling and gradually changing a database's structure — its tables and columns. When you're developing an app and need to "add a new field to store data for a new feature", you use dedicated tools to update the database. This keeps a history of past changes while letting every developer on the team easily reproduce the same database structure.