Automated Cloud Migration Now you can quickly and safely deploy multi-tier production apps into the cloud without virtualization and/or modification for use cases that include DevTest and Disaster Recovery.
Automated Cloud Migration 2 CloudVelocity s One Hybrid Cloud TM software is the only cloud migration solution developed for physical and virtual, multi-tier production apps. No app modification is required and critical authentication services (including LDAP and Active Directory) are securely extended from the data center into the cloud, allowing existing apps to be deployed on cloud services quickly and safely. Today CloudVelocity supports Linux and Windows apps on Amazon s AWS and Microsoft s Azure IaaS. Much in the same way that Apple s iphone improved upon and combined existing technologies to redefine the smartphone, Cloud- Velocity combines and improves upon IaaS, P2P, V2V and CDP to create the first truly hybrid cloud operating environment for existing, multi-tier apps and services, without requiring server virtualization and virtualization platform lock-in. It also provides a single, unified platform of pre-production and production environments. The CloudVelocity solution meets critical requirements because it analyzes the application systems and dependencies and blueprints the systems running the application in the data center. It then provisions required storage resources in your chosen IaaS platform and synchronizes these systems directly into the cloud storage resources, and continually updates them with any changes made to the systems running the application. This Figure 1 The Hybrid Cloud includes the full application stack and data, operating system files, configuration, kernel and patches and updates, and closed-box file servers, as well. The solution ensures that all of the information necessary to launch up-to-date copies of the application in the cloud are kept ready without the expense of maintaining running cloud virtual machines for each system required by the application. With a single mouse click, CloudVelocity creates virtual machine images, provisions the required processing, networking and storage resources in the cloud IaaS platform, launches a copy of the application systems in the cloud and extends data center services to them. This enables a stra- tegic level of agility, protection and scale, something this is typically cost-prohibitive with server virtualization alone. By automating each step in the process of creating a cloud instance of apps, CloudVelocity lets IT Pros easily replicate and extend data center applications and services into IaaS clouds, enabling multi-tier applications to run as is while still being able to access services running in the data center. This is essentially the hybrid cloud operating model that delivers new levels of IT operating synergy. How It Works To create instances in the cloud, customers deploy the Cloud- Velocity (One Hybrid Cloud ) virtual appliance in their data
Automated Cloud Migration 3 center. Using credentials you supply, the OHC appliance connects to servers you select to discover application hosts and determine application dependencies. The system then creates a blueprint of the existing installation including server side requirements, network and storage needs, and operating system configurations. This will be used to provision the required cloud resources and create cloud runnable systems on demand. After creating the blueprints of the systems and the application, CloudVelocity launches a service on the local systems to synchronize and continually update their state to the cloud. For the Cloud Continuity capability, systems that may invoke third-party or specialized software to be replicated consistently such as databases are noted in the blueprinting processes. During the synchronization process, the required software will be automatically invoked to generate and synchronize these parts of the system. This process essentially creates a clone of the private cloud components that make up the app. Cloud cloning takes away the repetitive tasks of moving from one cloud environment to another, and also allows IT pros to spin up copies of complex application environments at will. This ability is unique to the CloudVelocity system and provides IT with the agility to easily move between public cloud systems and to easily start and destroy instances of the application for testing and development. By default, Cloud- Velocity software will replicate all required systems into the cloud. Using the OHC administration tool, IT architects can modify the list of replicated directories and services. If desired, highly sensitive data stores can be excluded from the cloud, from individual files or directory trees up to whole systems. When systems are excluded, OHC will create secure connections from the cloud provider back to the customer data center so that applications can run as usual. Once the administrator is satisfied with the blueprint, the cloud cloning process begins. Public cloud storage resources are provisioned to meet the needs of the application systems to be replicated, and the systems are synchronized in parallel directly to images in cloud storage. This alleviates the need for running virtual machine instances during the synchronization process (they re only created when the application needs to run in the cloud), greatly reducing potential IaaS costs to just cloud storage costs. Synchronization data is sent over an encrypted channel, as shown in figure 5, ensuring that data is kept private and secure. The synchronization copies each systems configuration, meta-information, and file systems to the cloud, and then continually updates the cloud information with any changes that happen on the local systems. This involves an initial synchronization for all required parts of the systems application stacks Figure 2 App and Service Requirements for Hybrid Cloud Operation
Automated Cloud Migration 4 and data, operating system libraries, binaries and even the operating system kernel. Any changes made on the systems, whether to executables, data, home directories, or any other part of the system, are automatically synchronized to the cloud. This includes patch installations, security updates, file system mounts, or other configuration information. CloudVelocity also automatically detects NFS servers in use, and synchronizes necessary data on them to cloud storage. CloudVelocity automatically detects and synchronizes just the changes, improving efficiency and lowering overhead. The remote images are typically kept up to date within seconds of changes to systems in the data center. At this point, one or more simultaneous copies of the application can be started in the cloud site, with a single mouse click. A lot happens behind the scenes on the cloud IaaS platform: Cloud- Velocity dynamically provisions the required processing, networking and storage resources in the cloud IaaS platform. It then customizes copies of the synchronized system images, creates virtual machine images for each system, and launches them in the cloud. Files servers are dynamically generated and populated with the synchronized data and attached to the application systems. The systems are started in the order of the dependencies detected during the host discovery process. Any data-center services that IT mandates be kept local, but which are required by the application to run are automatically connected via a secure tunnel to the data center. A key capability permits multiple clones to be created at the same time, and run in isolation from one another in secure network environments. Since cloning is completely automated, the process is completed quickly and the systems can be up and running in minutes. Figure 3 CloudVelocity Encryption and Security Services Nexus servers communicate with OHC cloud resource managers to provision services and security within the chosen cloud environment. Figure 4 OHC Protected Application Administration Stream Once protected by OHC, applications can be replicated for any purpose.
Automated Cloud Migration 5 A key element is replicating from secure environments to secure environments. CloudVelocity creates a secure environment through the services shown in figure 3, encrypting both data in motion and at rest. Once running in a hybrid cloud environment, applications can be cloned for testing and other purposes. The OHC administration tool provides a graphical view of the instances running as shown in figure 4. Figure 5 OHC Blueprint Screenshot Screenshot of a graphical representation of an app. The map differentiates between Internet facing servers and internal services and well as application layer systems and those with special needs such as database servers. Database servers will require extra steps, which CloudVelocity performs, to insure consistency during the replication process. Summing It Up By simplifying and automating the normally complex and errorprone cloud migration process, CloudVelocity gives IT pros the control and agility they need to deploy multi-tier physical and virtual applications in the cloud for use cases including cloud DevTest and DevOps as well as Disaster Recovery. By handling the minutia of creating a compatible cloud image, IT pros also are relieved of the learning curve associated with each public cloud system. That provides them with an easy integration capability between private and public cloud systems as well as traditional data centers. CloudVelocity allows IT to use cloud on demand and as needed, for strategic agility, protection and scalability at a fraction of the cost of server virtualization, and for apps that are not virtualized. Copyright 2013 CloudVelocity, All rights reserved