Introduction
Founded in 2006, Xero is a cloud-based accounting software provider for small businesses and their advisors. As Xero grew rapidly across global markets, its data warehouse became central to analytics, product innovation and customer insight. When the company moved its infrastructure to AWS, Xero used WhereScape RED to migrate a 30 TB Microsoft SQL Server data warehouse to Amazon Redshift with less risk, less complexity and far greater automation.
“WhereScape automation means our developers spend less time writing code. Instead, they spend more time on producing business logic that is unique to Xero, delivering solutions more quickly and providing better value to the business.”
– Nathan Griffiths, Data Services Platform Lead, Xero
Pre-WhereScape Challenges
- Cloud mandate: Xero needed to move its on-premises data warehouse infrastructure to AWS as part of a company-wide cloud migration.
- Platform shift: The BI team had to move from Microsoft SQL Server to Amazon Redshift without losing trusted data warehouse logic.
- Massive scale: The environment included 30 TB of infrastructure, 59 billion records, 3,000 apps and 120 databases.
- Deadline pressure: Internal analytics and reporting systems depended on the migration being completed on time.
- Migration risk: Rebuilding complex data warehouse logic manually would have increased delivery risk, cost and complexity.
- Business continuity: Customer experience, sales, marketing and product teams all relied on working analytics and reporting.
“Data is a fundamental component of our business. Our data is used by government analysts to assess business trends, and we use it to inform innovation and provide services within our products.”
– Nathan Griffiths, Data Services Platform Lead, Xero
Why WhereScape?
Xero had already used WhereScape RED successfully to automate the design, development, deployment and operation of its Microsoft SQL Server data warehouse. When the company moved to AWS, WhereScape provided a proven automation layer that could help preserve existing logic, reduce migration complexity and accelerate the move to Amazon Redshift. A proof of concept with WhereScape partner NOW Consulting showed that the migration could be completed while keeping the logic, processes and code of the existing data warehouse intact.
“Moving to the cloud meant a huge rearchitecting of all infrastructure and systems, which involved changing from SQL Server to Amazon Redshift as the database platform,”
– Nathan Griffiths, Data Services Platform Lead, Xero
The Solution
Proof of Concept
Xero worked with WhereScape partner NOW Consulting to prove that its SQL Server data warehouse could be migrated to Amazon Redshift while preserving existing business logic, processes and code. This helped the BI team reduce uncertainty before the full migration began.
Automated Redshift Migration
Using WhereScape automation and Redshift-specific templating, Xero was able to simplify and accelerate the migration process. The team could adapt generated code, apply platform-specific Redshift features and avoid rebuilding the warehouse manually from scratch.
Reduced Migration Risk
WhereScape RED helped Xero lower the risk of moving a large and complex data warehouse to AWS. Automation reduced the amount of repetitive coding required, supported consistency across the migration and helped the team meet a company-mandated cloud deadline.
One Consistent Data Platform
Where Xero had previously worked across multiple environments, versions, tools and models, the post-migration architecture brought the data infrastructure into WhereScape RED and Amazon Redshift. This gave the team a more consistent foundation for development, deployment and operations.
“We relied on WhereScape automation to reduce the complexity and risk of the migration, while accelerating the project timeline.”
– Nathan Griffiths, Data Services Platform Lead, Xero
Results
Migration Completed on Deadline
- Xero completed the migration by the company-mandated cloud deadline.
- The project was delivered largely through the effort of a single developer.
- The BI team avoided disruption to critical analytics and reporting systems.
30 TB Moved to Redshift
- A 30 TB Microsoft SQL Server data warehouse was migrated to Amazon Redshift.
- The wider environment included more than 59 billion records.
- Approximately 3,000 applications and 120 databases were represented.
Lower Complexity and Risk
- Automation reduced manual coding and repetitive migration work.
- WhereScape templates helped Xero use specific Amazon Redshift features.
- The team preserved valuable warehouse logic while changing platforms.
Stronger Development Consistency
- Data infrastructure was consolidated within WhereScape RED and Amazon Redshift.
- The team moved away from multiple environments, versions, tools and models.
- This created a more reliable foundation for future data initiatives.
Big Data and Data Science Enabled
- Xero could scale data capabilities in the cloud.
- The migration paved the way for big data and data science use cases.
- Teams could pursue deeper insight for internal users and customers.
“Where in the past there were multiple environments, versions, tools and models, today all data infrastructure is done within WhereScape RED and on Amazon Redshift. That consistency has brought structure and reliability to the development process and to our data initiatives.”
– Nathan Griffiths, Data Services Platform Lead, Xero
Data at Scale
Xero understood the value of data from the beginning. As the company grew into a leading SaaS accounting platform, data became essential to customer service, product innovation, internal reporting and market insight. Its data warehouse supported analytics that informed decision-making across the business, while also helping government analysts assess business trends.
Before the cloud migration, Xero’s on-premises infrastructure had reached significant scale. The 30 TB environment included more than 59 billion records, 3,000 applications and 120 databases, representing customer data and applications across the business. For a rapidly growing cloud accounting company, the data warehouse was not just a reporting asset. It was a core part of how the organization understood customers, products and market behavior.
Cloud Migration
Xero’s broader move to AWS created a major opportunity but was also a significant challenge for the BI team. The business was moving its full portfolio of on-premises applications and data to the cloud, and the data warehouse had to move with it.
That meant more than a simple lift and shift. The team needed to change the underlying database platform from Microsoft SQL Server to Amazon Redshift. For a large, mature data warehouse, this required careful management of existing logic, processes, code, dependencies and reporting requirements.
The migration was also time-sensitive. If the data warehouse had not been migrated on schedule, many internal analytics and reporting systems would have stopped working. That would have affected teams across customer experience, sales, marketing and product.
Template Automation
WhereScape RED gave Xero a way to automate more of the migration work. Instead of manually rewriting large amounts of SQL Server data warehouse code for Amazon Redshift, the team used WhereScape automation and templating to preserve logic and generate code for the new platform.
This was especially important because Xero needed to take advantage of Amazon Redshift-specific features. By building and modifying templates, the team could generate custom code that aligned with the target platform while keeping the migration manageable.
“The ability to generate custom code by building and modifying templates has been very successful, allowing us to take advantage of specific Redshift features and make the leap to AWS with minimal pain.”
– Nathan Griffiths, Data Services Platform Lead, Xero
Future Capability
After the migration, Xero’s BI team could focus less on maintaining fragmented environments and more on taking advantage of the scalability and agility of cloud computing. With WhereScape RED and Amazon Redshift in place, the team had a stronger foundation for future data warehouse development, operations and analytics.
The move to AWS also opened the door to bigger data ambitions. Xero could scale its data capabilities to support big data and data science, giving internal teams and customers more ways to gain insight from large volumes of data.
“With the cloud, we can scale up our data capabilities to include big data and a data science function for analyzing huge amounts of data to provide insights internally and for our customers,”
– Nathan Griffiths, Data Services Platform Lead, Xero
