Before an analyst can dig into a new dataset, the information has to be physically moved from its original host system to an environment with the necessary tools for the job, which is much easier said than done. The topic returned to the industry spotlight today after Alooma Ltd. received $11.2 million in funding courtesy of Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital to take some of the hassle out of the task.

What sets the startup’s data migration service from the numerous other alternatives out there is a graphical interface that promises to make the process considerably faster than the competition. According to Alooma, built-in automation capabilities can enable a user to connect a new source to their organization’s analytics environment in as little as a few minutes and start importing records almost immediately. The flow of information is controlled through a centralized management console that provides the ability to monitor for potential transfer issues and implement fixes as needed.

If the service encounters a more complicated challenge like a major change to the format in which the data from a particular source is organized, then it’s able to freeze the affected subsets while the remaining information continues to be ingested as usual. The feature removes the need to completely halt the migration process while an organization’s analysts come up with a solution, thereby minimizing the disruption caused to business operations.

Alooma will use the funding from today’s round to add more advanced capabilities that can help ease large-scale ETL projects. Co-founder Yoni Broyde told TechCrunch one of the biggest priorities on the startup’s checklist is to extend the third party platform support in its service beyond Amazon Inc.’s Redshift data warehouse to other types of analytics environments.

Image via Geralt