Move live systems without losing data or control.
I plan and execute cloud, database, provider, application, and account handovers with data preservation, cutover, rollback, and post-migration verification.
15 minutes · scope and risk check · clear yes or no after the callWhat a migration engagement covers
One bounded move at a time — with the data, access, and rollback questions answered before production is touched.
- Live data and production database migrations
- GCP, Firebase, and GKE moves, and cloud-account handovers
- Terraform state, CI/CD, secrets, identity, and provider ownership transitions
- Backfills, cutovers, rollback plans, and post-migration verification
- Documentation and operational handover
Plan, rehearse, cut over, verify
The migration is treated as a production change with irreversible consequences — because that is what it is.
Map and plan
Inventory the systems, data, accounts, and integrations that move. Agree the source of truth, the cutover order, the rollback point, and what “verified” means before anything changes.
Rehearse
Run the migration against a full export or staging copy first. Fix mapping, dedup, and integrity problems where they are cheap — before production is touched.
Cut over
Execute from a written runbook: snapshot first, migrate in batches, keep the legacy system recoverable until the new one is proven.
Verify and hand over
Check record counts, referential integrity, and business invariants against the source. Document operations and hand over accounts, keys, and runbooks.
A live migration I have actually executed
Engineering work I personally planned and executed — not client case studies.
XPMaps: full platform and data migration to GKE
I replatformed XPMaps, a live routing and permitting product, from a React/Vite frontend and NestJS backend running on DigitalOcean with Azure Cosmos DB (MongoDB API), to a Next.js frontend and FastAPI backend on GKE Autopilot with Cloud SQL PostgreSQL, Google Cloud Storage, and a self-hosted Valhalla routing engine.
The data migration moved accounts, users, orders, payment records, and route geometry from MongoDB to PostgreSQL with explicit field mappings and dedup rules, rehearsed end-to-end against a full production export before cutover. Cross-system checks covered foreign-key integrity, per-account admin presence, soft-delete preservation, and file-path cleanliness, executed from written runbooks with pre-migration database snapshots and a defined rollback point.
Google Cloud Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer
Certified by Google Cloud. Verifiable on Credly.
Verify on Credly →ClearWIP production infrastructure
I operate a production SaaS on GCP end to end — deployment, monitoring, backups, and recovery — so the target environment of a migration is one I run in production myself.
Visit clearwip.com →Is this the right engagement?
A quick self-check before the call.
Good fit
- A live system, database, or cloud account that must move without losing data.
- A provider, agency, or team handover where infrastructure ownership must transfer cleanly.
- A migration where payments, customer records, or operational data make correctness non-negotiable.
- A deadline with a real consequence — contract end, provider shutdown, cost pressure, or compliance.
Not a fit
- A greenfield deployment with nothing to migrate — see the defined product build engagement instead.
- A copy-paste of a static site with no data, users, or state at risk.
- A migration where no one can grant access to the source systems.
- An open-ended “modernize everything” mandate with no bounded first move.
Common migration questions
Can you take over a GCP or Firebase project from a previous developer or agency?
Yes. Cloud-account and Firebase handovers — billing, IAM, service accounts, Terraform state, CI/CD, secrets, and DNS — are in scope. The goal is that ownership, access, and deployment all work without the previous party.
How do you keep data safe during a production database migration?
Snapshot before touching anything, rehearse against a full export first, migrate with explicit field mappings and dedup rules, and verify counts, foreign-key integrity, and business invariants against the source after cutover. The legacy system stays recoverable until verification passes.
Will there be downtime?
It depends on the system and the cutover design; I won’t promise zero downtime up front. The plan states the expected window, what is read-only during it, and the rollback point if verification fails.
What do you need to start?
Read access to the source environment, the target account or a plan to create it, and someone who can approve the cutover window and rollback rules. Credentials are exchanged through a proper secrets channel, never over email.
Do you handle the financial data in a migration?
Yes — payment records, invoices, and customer data are usually the reason the migration needs this level of care. Financial-data mapping and reconciliation are also the core of my primary integration-repair work.
Tell me what is moving, from where, and by when
Bring the current platform, the target, and the deadline. I will tell you whether the move is bounded enough to plan, rehearse, and verify — and what the next step would be.