TLDR: A recent survey by Caylent reveals that only 6% of challenging enterprise database migrations are completed on time, with a similar percentage achieving zero downtime. The findings underscore a critical need for smarter, AI-driven strategies to overcome significant hurdles like vendor lock-in and high costs, despite a majority of organizations already leveraging AI in their migration efforts.
Irvine, California – A new report from Caylent, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Premier Tier Services Partner, has brought to light the substantial difficulties enterprises face in their database modernization initiatives. The 2025 Database Migration survey, which polled over 300 IT leaders from diverse sectors including education, finance, healthcare, and manufacturing, indicates a pressing demand for more intelligent and accelerated migration strategies, particularly those leveraging artificial intelligence.
The survey’s most striking revelation is that a mere 6% of organizations successfully complete their most challenging database migrations on schedule, with an equally low 6% reporting no downtime during the process. This highlights a significant gap between the imperative for modernization and the current capabilities of many enterprises.
The top three most formidable migration scenarios identified were moving from on-premises to cloud environments, performing database version upgrades, and executing cross-cloud migrations. The repercussions of these protracted and often disruptive processes are severe, with nearly half (46%) of respondents experiencing five or more hours of downtime during their most complex migrations. This downtime translated into tangible negative impacts, including customer experience issues (51%), lost revenue (49%), and operational slowdowns (44%).
Despite these hurdles, the motivations for migration remain strong. IT leaders cited removing vendor lock-in (34%), reducing spending on database licensing (28%), and increasing scalability (13%) as primary drivers for undertaking these projects.
Crucially, the survey underscores the growing role of AI in addressing these challenges. A significant 60% of respondents reported leveraging generative AI or data movement automation tools for their most demanding migration projects. Furthermore, AI’s effectiveness is widely recognized, with 77% of those who used AI reporting it as effective or highly effective. However, a substantial knowledge gap persists, as 53% of respondents admitted a lack of clarity on which specific AI features and tools would best serve their needs.
Lori Williams, CEO of Caylent, commented on the findings, stating, “The survey confirms what we see every day – modernization is imperative, but too often organizations are slowed by accumulated tech debt and outdated approaches that create unnecessary downtime and delayed returns.” Williams emphasized Caylent’s approach: “At Caylent, we combine generative AI with deep engineering expertise to lower the barrier of entry for even the most complex projects and accelerate the time to savings. That means faster migrations.”
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AI-powered solutions are proving to be transformative, with some migrations that would traditionally take a year now being completed in as little as four months. Specific technical capabilities of modern AI tools include automated pattern recognition, context-aware code generation, intelligent error resolution, and comprehensive test generation, all contributing to significantly reduced effort, minimized disruption, and accelerated timelines.
