The Challenge:

Migrating Jira and Confluence instances with decades-long histories is rarely straightforward. Standard migration approaches often default to a "Lift and Shift" model, which carries the risk of moving years of legacy configuration into the Cloud. For Rightmove, a standard approach would have required a significant pre-migration clean-up phase, extending the timeline to nearly a year and requiring substantial internal resources.

The Echidna Approach:

Echidna Solutions proposed a strategic alternative: treat the migration as a Greenfield Engineering Project. Instead of spending months untangling the past, we utilised a bespoke Python ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) pipeline. This allowed us to bypass the legacy complexity entirely, extracting only high-value data and injecting it into a pristine, optimised Cloud environment.

The Result:

By prioritising retaining process and engaging people using consultative skills over standardised approaches, Echidna delivered the project in just 20 weeks (elapsed). Rightmove achieved a >50% reduction in project costs compared to standard forecasts and launched on a modern, future-proof platform with zero critical issues on Day 1.

Rightmove’s Jira instance is a testament to its long-standing engineering culture. However, this history presented unique migration challenges:

• Historical Artefacts: The system contained references to long-departed team members and legacy build data.

• Legacy Logic: Many workflows were designed for older versions of Jira Server, utilising logic that doesn't align with modern Cloud best practices.

• The "Cleanup" Hurdle: A traditional migration tool (JCMA) would struggle to filter this complexity. The standard industry advice was to perform a manual, project-by-project cleanup before migrating - a resource-intensive task that would have delayed the Cloud transition by months.

Echidna Solutions approached the migration not as an administrative task, but as a consulting and software engineering challenge.

The "Greenfield" Philosophy

Rather than porting the "Old House" to the Cloud, we built a New House fit for the future.  We designed a best-practice Cloud environment from scratch, utilising native Automation and a streamlined universal workflow to replace dozens of disparate legacy processes.

The Python ETL Engine

To avoid the manual cleanup, we wrote code to handle the complexity programmatically.

• Extract: Custom scripts pulled raw data directly from the on-premise database.

• Transform: We performed in-flight sanitisation. This involved mapping thousands of legacy usernames to modern identities, stripping out redundant fields and reformatting data to fit the new streamlined workflows.

• Load: Only clean, structured data was injected into the Cloud. The historical noise was safely archived, leaving the production environment pristine.

Empowering Teams

Standardising dozens of projects across a business usually creates friction. We solved this by offering a value exchange: by adopting a Universal Workflow, teams gained full control over Project Automation. This empowered them to build their own modern integrations (e.g., GitLab, Slack) without requiring administrator intervention.

By filtering out the legacy data, Rightmove's Cloud structure is now optimised for performance, and ready to leverage next-generation AI tools like Atlassian Rovo.

We don't just run scanners and press a button - we engage, we consult, and we engineer a path to bring value to your business.

While many consultancies rely on standardised toolsets and "Lift and Shift" methodologies, Echidna Solutions offers a bespoke engineering approach. We bring 25+ years of collective architectural experience to solve complex problems with consultancy and code, not headcount.

Rightmove didn't need a standardised migration path. They needed a strategic modernisation partner.

To find out more, and to book in a discussion, please contact us via our contact us page, or through email at jsawyer@echidnasolutions.com.