Migrating a Legacy Data Warehouse to SingleStore Helios®: A Six Thinking Hats Approach with Modern AI Tools

As highlighted in our blog, AI Everything: Themes from the 2025 World Economic Forum, the integration of AI into every aspect of business necessitates real-time data processing and analytics capabilities. Similarly, as discussed in Get Your Data AI-Ready, organizations must ensure their data infrastructure is scalable and highly performant to fully leverage AI and machine learning.

For organizations managing petabytes of data that support both Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) operations, this migration is not just a technical upgrade — it’s a strategic transformation.

In this blog, we’ll explore how to approach this migration using Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats framework, augmented with modern AI tools, and highlight why SingleStore is an ideal choice for such a migration. We’ll also discuss SingleStore Flow (formerly known as BryteFlow), a powerful tool for seamless data migration.

Why SingleStore?

SingleStore is a cloud-native, distributed SQL database that combines the best of OLTP and OLAP capabilities. It is designed to handle real-time analytics and transactional workloads simultaneously, making it a perfect fit for organizations with complex data needs. A few key capabilities that make SingleStore stand out include:

• Unified data platform. SingleStore supports both OLTP and OLAP workloads, eliminating the need for separate systems.
• Real-time analytics. With its in-memory and columnstore capabilities, SingleStore delivers near real-time insights on massive datasets.
• Scalability. SingleStore scales horizontally, allowing you to handle petabytes of data with ease.
• Cloud-native architecture. Built for the cloud, SingleStore offers seamless integration with cloud ecosystems like AWS, Azure and GCP.
• Cost efficiency. By consolidating OLTP and OLAP workloads into a single platform, SingleStore reduces infrastructure and operational costs.
• AI and machine learning integration. SingleStore supports advanced analytics and integrates with modern AI/ML tools for predictive insights.
• SingleStore Flow. A powerful data integration and migration tool that ensures seamless, real-time data replication from legacy systems to SingleStore.
• Code with SQrL. SQrL (pronounced as "squirrel") is an AI-powered co-pilot built by SingleStore that answers your questions and helps you code faster. SQrL is powered by OpenAI GPT-4.

SingleStore’s strong AI capabilities

SingleStore is not just a data warehouse; it’s a powerhouse for AI-driven data processing. Here are some of standout AI capabilities:

• Vector search capabilities. SingleStore enables vector-based search, which is crucial for AI applications like recommendation systems, natural language processing (NLP) and image recognition. This allows businesses to perform similarity searches and pattern recognition at scale.
• Full-text search for AI applications. SingleStore’s full-text search capabilities are optimized for AI-driven use cases, enabling fast and efficient querying of unstructured data including text documents, logs and customer feedback.

Now, let’s dive into the migration approach using the Six Thinking Hats framework, enhanced with modern AI tools.

1. White hat: Facts and information

The white hat focuses on objective data, facts and information. It’s about understanding what is known — and what still needs to be known.

• Objective. Gather data about the current legacy system and the migration requirements.
• Approach
  • Use AI-powered data discovery tools to catalog and analyze the existing data warehouse schema, data pipelines and dependencies.
  • Leverage AI tools to assess data quality and identify anomalies in the legacy system.
  • Document the volume of data (petabytes), types of workloads (OLAP and OLTP) and performance benchmarks.
• SingleStore advantage
  • SingleStore’s Universal Storage allows seamless handling of both rowstore (OLTP) and columnstore (OLAP) data, ensuring no compromise on performance.
  • SingleStore Flow simplifies the data migration process by providing real-time data replication, ensuring all data is accurately and efficiently transferred to the new system.

2. Red hat: Emotions and intuition

The red hat represents feelings, emotions and intuition. It’s about understanding the emotional responses and gut feelings of stakeholders.

• Objective. Understand the emotional and intuitive concerns of stakeholders.
• Approach
  • Conduct surveys or interviews with stakeholders to gauge their concerns about the migration (e.g., downtime, data loss or learning curve).
  • Use sentiment analysis tools to analyze feedback from team members and end-users.
• SingleStore advantage
  • SingleStore’s zero-downtime migration tools and automated failover ensure minimal disruption, addressing concerns about downtime and reliability.
  • SingleStore Flow provides real-time data replication, ensuring that data is always up-to-date and reducing the risk of data loss during migration.

3. Black hat: Critical thinking

The black hat is about caution and critical thinking. It’s used to identify risks, challenges and potential downsides.

• Objective. Identify risks and challenges in the migration process
• Approach
  • Use risk assessment tools to evaluate potential risks like data corruption, performance bottlenecks or cost overruns.
  • Simulate migration scenarios to identify potential pitfalls.
• SingleStore advantage
  • SingleStore’s distributed architecture ensures high availability and fault tolerance, mitigating risks of data loss or system failure.
  • SingleStore Flow offers robust data validation and error handling, ensuring data integrity throughout the migration process.

4. Yellow hat: Optimism and benefits

The yellow hat symbolizes optimism and positive thinking. It’s used to explore the benefits and value of a decision.

• Objective. Highlight the benefits of migrating to SingleStore.
• Approach
  • Use AI tools like Tableau or Power BI to create visualizations of the potential performance improvements and cost savings.
  • Showcase success stories of similar migrations using AI-generated case studies.
• SingleStore advantage
  • SingleStore’s real-time analytics and unified platform reduce operational complexity and improve decision-making speed, delivering long-lasting, measurable business benefits.
  • SingleStore Flow accelerates the migration process, enabling faster time-to-value and reducing the overall cost of migration.

5. Green hat: Creativity and new ideas

The green hat represents creativity and innovation. It’s used to generate new ideas and explore alternative solutions.

• Objective. Brainstorm innovative ways to leverage SingleStore’s capabilities.
• Approach
  • Use brainstorming tools to generate ideas for new use cases, like real-time personalization, predictive analytics or IoT data processing.
  • Explore SingleStore’s integration with AI/ML tools to enable advanced analytics.
• SingleStore advantage
  • SingleStore’s built-in support for AI/ML workflows allows businesses to unlock new insights and drive innovation.
  • SingleStore Flow enables real-time data integration, making it easier to experiment with new data sources and use cases.

6. Blue hat: Process control and organization

The blue hat is about process control and organization. It’s used to manage the thinking process and ensure that all perspectives are considered.

• Objective. Plan and manage the migration process.
• Approach
  • Use project management tools to create a detailed migration plan with timelines, milestones and responsibilities.
  • Leverage SingleStore’s migration tools (e.g., SingleStore Pipelines, SingleStore Flow) to automate and streamline the migration process.
  • Use AI tools like ChatGPT to generate documentation, FAQs and training materials for the team.
• SingleStore advantage
  • SingleStore’s cloud-native architecture and managed services simplify the migration process, ensuring a smooth transition.
  • SingleStore Flow provides a user-friendly interface and comprehensive documentation, making it easier for teams to manage the migration process.

Key takeaways

Migrating a legacy data warehouse to SingleStore is not just a technical upgrade—it’s a strategic transformation that can unlock new levels of performance, scalability and innovation. By using the Six Thinking Hats framework — augmented with modern AI tools — organizations can approach this migration in a structured and comprehensive manner.

AI tools

AI tools are transforming industries by enabling automation, real-time insights, and data-driven decision-making. These tools leverage machine learning, deep learning and natural language processing to enhance efficiency, scalability and accuracy in various applications. When dealing with database migration, AI-powered solutions can help streamline data processing, ensure quality and optimize workflows.

Here are some AI tools from the market, which may help for migration:

• AI sentiment analysis tools, like MonkeyLearn and Brandwatch
• AI-powered data discovery tools, like Alation and Collibra
• AI tools like Monte Carlo or Great Expectations to assess data quality and identify anomalies in the legacy system
• AI-powered risk assessment tools, like RiskWatch and LogicGate
• AI-powered brainstorming tools, like Miro and MindMeister

• AI-powered project management tools, like Asana and Monday.com

Note: SingleStore has neither fully tested nor endorsed any of these tools mentioned. They are listed  based on recommendations from their respective vendors. It is the responsibility of each organization to evaluate their suitability.

By embracing SingleStore, businesses can future-proof their data infrastructure and stay ahead in the age of real-time analytics and AI-driven decision-making.