title: 'ETL-free Workflows and Data Migrations'
sidebar_label: 'ETL-free Workflows'
sidebar_position: 2
description: 'Federate legacy and modern data systems without ETL for faster migrations, lower overhead, and zero application downtime.'
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Spice federates legacy and modern data systems without ETL, supporting data migrations and cross-system workflows with zero application downtime. Applications query a single SQL endpoint that spans both old and new systems, making migrations incremental and reversible.
Why Spice.ai?
- Single Endpoint: Applications connect to one SQL interface regardless of how many backend systems are involved. Migrating from one database to another requires no application code changes.
- No Data Movement: Federated queries read from each source directly, avoiding the cost and risk of bulk data replication during migrations.
- Acceleration: Frequently accessed data is materialized locally for low-latency queries, so performance stays consistent even while backend systems are being migrated.
- Observability: Built-in monitoring tracks query performance and data freshness across all sources, giving visibility into migration progress.
Example
An application migrates from a legacy PostgreSQL database to a cloud-native system. During the transition, Spice federates both sources so the application queries a single endpoint. Data from the legacy system is accelerated locally to maintain performance while traffic shifts to the new backend.
Example Configuration
This configuration federates order data from both the legacy PostgreSQL database and the new MySQL system, accelerating both locally in DuckDB for consistent query performance.
Benefits
- Zero Downtime: Applications keep working during migrations — no staged cutovers or maintenance windows required.
- Incremental Migration: Move tables one at a time while the application queries both systems transparently.
- Lower Risk: No bulk data replication means fewer failure modes and easier rollback.
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