When migrating to Vercel you should use an incremental migration strategy. This allows your current site and your new site to operate simultaneously, enabling you to move different sections of your site at a pace that suits you.
In this guide, we’ll explore incremental migration benefits, strategies, and implementation approaches for a zero-downtime migration to Vercel.
Why opt for incremental migration? #
Incremental migrations offer several advantages:
- Reduced risk due to smaller migration steps
- A smoother rollback path in case of unexpected issues
- Earlier technical implementation and business value validation
- Downtime-free migration without maintenance windows
Disadvantages of one-time migrations #
One-time migration involves developing the new site separately before switching traffic over. This approach has certain drawbacks:
- Late discovery of expensive product issues
- Difficulty in assessing migration success upfront
- Potential for reaching a point of no-return, even with major problem detection
- Possible business loss due to legacy system downtime during migration
When to use incremental migration? #
Despite requiring more effort to make the new and legacy sites work concurrently, incremental migration is beneficial if:
- Risk reduction and time-saving benefits outweigh the effort
- The extra effort needed for specific increments to interact with legacy data doesn’t exceed the time saved
Incremental migration strategies #
Incremental migration process
