VergeIO reveals rapid virtual machine migration tech
Data center modernization offers a competitive advantage to organizations, along with maximizing hyperscale infrastructure. VergeIO's VM migration tool helps saves time and money.
- Scott Sinclair,
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Enterprise Strategy Group
We provide market insights, research and advisory, and technical validations for tech buyers.
An increased need to optimize IT costs has placed a renewed focus on hybrid cloud and on-premises infrastructure environments. According to recent research from TechTarget's Enterprise Strategy Group, 91% of organizations agreed that data center modernization is strategic and offers a competitive advantage. As organizations embark on their data center modernization journeys, 82% said hyperconverged infrastructure is core to their plans.
For more than two decades, virtualization has been an essential way to maximize IT utilization and efficiency. The use of hyperconverged infrastructure has served as a method to simplify and accelerate the deployment, management and scalability of virtualized environments.
Change in virtualization environments and HCI deployments
Recent shifts in software licensing plans have begun to change the way organizations approach both their virtualization environments and their HCI deployments. In the same study of IT environments, 76% of organizations identified hypervisor software costs as a concern, and 89% agreed that the ability to use and evaluate multiple hypervisor and orchestration options is strategic.
Application migrations can be complex and introduce risk. As a result, organizations are sometimes hesitant to integrate multiple options. The scale of VM environments in the typical enterprise -- along with the critical role those virtualized applications play in supporting the business -- often inhibits the use of multiple options. Simplifying the application environment migration process is essential to achieve flexibility. Flexibility, in turn, is essential to controlling costs.
Migration with VergeIO and VergeOS demonstration
I attended a demonstration of a VM migration process using an integrated data center operating environment from VergeIO called VergeOS. VergeIO refers to VergeOS as an "ultraconverged infrastructure." Similar to HCI, VergeOS offers the ability to converge multiple technologies into a single environment. This technology enables the consolation of server, storage and networking technology into the VergeOS operating system.
In the demonstration, the VergeIO team was able to migrate 100 VMware virtual machines over to VergeOS in less than a minute. Prior to the demonstration, the VergeIO environment was configured as a backup target for a VMware environment. The VMs, along with the corresponding data used in the demonstration, were resident on the VergeIO infrastructure. The ability to serve as a backup target should simplify the process of deploying and evaluating VergeIO technology before using it in production, which further reduces risk.
Because VergeOS' integrated migration capability leverages the VMware backup API set and supports block change tracking, users can significantly reduce the downtime associated when making the switch.
What stood out for me in the demo was the speed of the switchover of the VMs to the VergeIO environment. VergeOS was able to quickly create snapshots of those VMs, making them available to an application team to validate the success of the migration and the resulting application experience. The speed of the entire process reduces the time and risk of being associated with a migration, which is essential when trying to reduce the overall cost impact.
VergeIO is not alone in its mission to simplify migrating virtualized environments. Red Hat, for example, recently announced the availability of its Virtualization Migration Assessment to help companies assess the risk of multiple migration options.
In a time when organizations are increasingly looking to evaluate multiple, diverse hypervisor environments, the speed and resource impact of migrations will be a vital factor in how they determine the suitability of alternative hypervisor options.
Scott Sinclair is Practice Director with TechTarget's Enterprise Strategy Group, covering the storage industry.
Enterprise Strategy Group is a division of TechTarget. Its analysts have business relationships with technology vendors.
