Competitive Analysis: Migration to Azure with PlateSpin vs. Azure Site RecoveryUpdated for PlateSpin Transformation Manager 1.1 and PlateSpin Migrate 12.2

White PaperPlateSpin

Table of Contents page

Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

At a Glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Understanding Workloads and Workload Migrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Products at a Glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

PlateSpin and Azure Site Recovery Migration Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Data Integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Cost Predictability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Scale and Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

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Executive Summary

In today’s dynamic world, the need for cost reduction and the desire to increase operational efficiency

have a constant impact on the organization of IT resources . Infrastructure optimization often leads to

the execution of projects where large numbers of servers are moved to a public cloud like Microsoft

Azure .

This white paper is written for project managers and project architects who are leading large-scale

server migration projects to Microsoft Azure, and who need to choose a migration tool or toolset to

minimize application downtime, eliminate risk, and keep costs low via automation .

PlateSpin® and Azure Site Recovery can both perform migrations to Azure for physical servers as

well as for virtual servers running on VMware or Hyper-V hypervisors . Azure Site Recovery however

lacks many time and labor saving automation capabilities, which leads to higher amounts of manual

intervention during and after migrations, and hence a higher Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) .

When used together, PlateSpin Transformation Manager and PlateSpin Migrate allow project

managers to execute data center transformation projects up to 50% more efficiently with a dramatic

reduction of risk, compared to using Azure Site Recovery .

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This white paper is written for project managers and project architects who are leading large-scale server migration projects to Microsoft Azure, and who need to choose a migration tool or toolset to minimize application downtime, eliminate risk, and keep costs low via automation .

Fig. 1

PlateSpin performs up to 50% better, allowing you to migrate more servers, in less time, with better results .

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White PaperCompetitive Analysis: Migration to Azure with PlateSpin vs. Azure Site Recovery

At a Glance

Understanding Workloads and Workload Migrations

In this white paper, we’ll use the term “workload” for the aggregation of the software stack installed on

a server: the operating system, applications and middleware, plus any data that resides on the server

volumes . The workload can run as a virtual or physical server .

In the context of data center transformation projects, rebuilding a workload from scratch on a new

platform is rarely a desired migration methodology . Rebuilding is a manual, slow and error-prone

process that requires a vast amount of expensive testing to ensure that the new workload is built in

exactly the same way as the original workload . A true workload migration, as performed by PlateSpin

Migrate or Azure Site Recovery, streams the blocks or files of the original workload into a replica on the

new (or “target”) platform . Using a migration tool like PlateSpin Migrate ensures that the new workload

is created rapidly and automatically, and that it is functionally identical to the original workload .

Products at a Glance

Azure Site Recovery is a disaster recovery solution from Microsoft which can replicate physical

workloads or virtual workloads running on VMware or Hyper-V into the Microsoft Azure cloud . As the

name suggests, its primary use case is protection and not migration of workloads .

Using a migration tool like PlateSpin Migrate ensures that the new workload is created rapidly and automatically, and that it is functionally identical to the original workload .

Azure Site Recovery PlateSpin Ability to guarantee 100% application data transfer No Yes

Project-friendly cost model No Yes

Complexity of setup and management High Low

Support for UEFI conversions No Yes

Fail-back to physical servers No Yes

Automated management of tools/drivers/target services No Yes

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PlateSpin Migrate is a powerful workload portability solution that automates the process of moving

workloads over the network between physical servers, virtual hosts and the cloud . PlateSpin Migrate

remotely decouples workloads from the underlying server hardware and streams them to and from

physical or virtual hosts and cloud platforms—all from a single point of control . It provides enterprises

and service providers with a mature, proven solution for testing, migrating and rebalancing workloads

across infrastructure boundaries, with a strong focus on data centers .

Some of the key features in PlateSpin Migrate are:

Anywhere-to-anywhere workload migration capabilities

Horizontal scalability with up to 40 concurrently active migrations per individual PlateSpin Migrate server

Zero service downtime during replication phases, and minimal service downtime during final cutover

PlateSpin Transformation Manager is designed from the ground up to properly plan, track and

execute data center migration projects, and is typically used alongside PlateSpin Migrate to allow

several people or teams of people with different roles to collaborate on the migration project plan .

PlateSpin Transformation Manager’s client-server based web architecture allows different stakeholders

to update the same data at the same time safely via a browser . It can handle multiple projects for

multiple end customers, with built-in multi-tenancy to ensure that all customer data is properly

contained and segregated . Information about project workloads can be imported via a spreadsheet or

via an API, or automatically discovered based on IP address ranges . Depending on the target migration

platform, PlateSpin Transformation Manager can automatically drive the workload migrations based

on the project plan .

PlateSpin and Azure Site Recovery Migration Methodology

A typical workload migration with Azure Site Recovery or PlateSpin Migrate requires two kinds of

replications: full and incremental . Incremental replications are also called synchronizations . The first

replication of the workload is almost always a full replication: all blocks or files of the source workload

are transferred to the target workload on the new platform . During this process, the source workload

is online and fully accessible to its business users . This means that changes are created on the source

workload that are not replicated into the target workload . For this reason, one or more incremental

A typical workload migration with Azure Site Recovery or PlateSpin Migrate requires two kinds of replications: full and incremental .

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White PaperCompetitive Analysis: Migration to Azure with PlateSpin vs. Azure Site Recovery

PlateSpin Migrate has several features in place to ensure that all data and transactions are maintained .

replications are needed . Typically, these incremental replications are significantly shorter than the

first full replication, because only the changes that were made since the previous replication are

synchronized . At some point an incremental replication will be followed by a cut-over, which means

that the source workload is decommissioned, and its services are taken over by the target workload .

Although both PlateSpin and Azure Site Recovery use the same methodology for migrations, Azure

Site Recovery does not address important risk factors that are in play during a migration project:

Data Integrity

Cost predictability

Scale and Flexibility

Increased risk leads to a higher amount of errors, manual interventions and unexpected surprises

during and after the migrations, and hence a higher Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) . In the following

paragraphs, we will highlight how Azure Site Recovery does not address these risk factors adequately .

Data Integrity

After a workload is migrated into its new environment, it has to behave 100% identically (or better) .

PlateSpin Migrate has several features in place to ensure that all data and transactions are

maintained . One example of such a feature is service control for non-VSS compliant services .

Both Azure Site Recovery and PlateSpin Migrate can use VSS snapshotting in the source workload

during replications . This enhances data integrity for VSS compliant applications . However, not all

applications are VSS compliant . For non-VSS compliant applications, PlateSpin Migrate offers the

ability to have these applications automatically flush their data each time a VSS snapshot is taken,

prior to replication . Azure Site Recovery does not offer this functionality .

An even bigger risk factor for data integrity when using Azure Site Recovery is the fact that at cutover

time a rollback to a previously created recovery point is required . A recovery point is by definition a

“point in time” snapshot of a previous state of the source workload . This means that changes made

on the source workload after the recovery point was taken will not be present in the target workload

after cutover . This is a natural consequence of Azure Site Recovery’s primary use case, which is

disaster recovery .

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PlateSpin Migrate was designed from the ground up for workload migrations, and hence has been

engineered to ensure that 100% of the application data ends up in the target workload at cutover

time . PlateSpin Migrate does this by automatically shutting down services on the source workload

prior to the final incremental replication, which is then followed by the final cutover .

Cost Predictability

When planning a cloud migration project, it’s important to choose a solution which will not unexpectedly

jeopardize the planned budget when the project is well under way . PlateSpin products have a very

simple and predictable cost model, with one required license per migrated workload . This license

comes with 24x7 support and a migration support window built-in .

An Azure Site Recovery license is free for the first 31 days of replication, after which a cost of

approximately $25 is required per protected (migrated) workload . Two elements are important here:

The 31 day time limit may introduce an element of randomness in budgeting . If the migration process of a workload takes longer than 31 days, then a cost of $25 will be incurred . Note that most commercial migration product vendors work with a 60-day window to allow their customers to finish the migration . This indicates that 31 days may be too sharp of a deadline .

Azure Site Recovery support is not free, and comes in at about $300 per month for the cheapest option for production workloads .

For best PlateSpin pricing, contact your nearest PlateSpin distributor, or contact Micro Focus® for a

quote via: www.microfocus.com

Scale and Flexibility

Various other elements make Azure Site Recovery a poor choice for enterprise-grade migration projects .

Higher Complexity of Setup and ManagementAzure Site Recovery requires a manual setup of one or more on-premise Azure Site Recovery

Configuration Servers . PlateSpin Migrate does not have an on-premise requirement, and can be

conveniently installed in the cloud from an available Azure Marketplace image .

PlateSpin products have a very simple and predictable cost model, with one required license per migrated workload . This license comes with 24x7 support and a migration support window built-in .

162-000124-001 | M | 04/17 | © 2017 Micro Focus . All rights reserved . Micro Focus, the Micro Focus logo, and PlateSpin, among others, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Micro Focus or its subsidiaries or affiliated companies in the United Kingdom, United States and other countries . All other marks are the property of their respective owners .

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In order for migrations to complete, Azure Site Recovery requires access to each workload

OS . For workloads residing on VMware or Hyper-V, additional access to the hypervisor layer

is required . PlateSpin Migrate does not require source hypervisor access in any scenario .

Furthermore, a PlateSpin Migrate agent is available to easily register source workloads to the

PlateSpin Migrate server without the need to configure intrusive access to the workload OS .

Azure Site Recovery has a different migration process for virtual workloads (VMware or

Hyper-V) than for physical workloads . PlateSpin Migrate has one migration process that’s

identical for all these workloads .

Note that depending on the replication configuration, Azure Site Recovery may require the

configuration of extra storage on the source site . PlateSpin Migrate has no such requirement .

No Support for UEFI ConversionsPlateSpin Migrate can migrate UEFI-based workloads to Microsoft Azure by converting

them to BIOS . Azure Site Recovery does not have this functionality .

No Fail-Back to Physical ServersSometimes it may be necessary to stream a migrated workload back to its original physical

server, e .g . if the performance in Azure is sub-optimal . While PlateSpin Migrate can migrate

workloads from Microsoft Azure to physical systems, Azure Site Recovery does not support

this type of migration .

No Automated Management of Tools/Drivers/Target ServicesWhen migrating a workload to a new platform like Microsoft Azure, old tools, drivers and

services related to the previous source platform must be cleaned up to make sure they

don’t interfere with the future operation of the workload . PlateSpin Migrate provides a high

level of automation to make sure that no manual intervention is needed for this cleanup .

Azure Site Recovery has no automation in place for this, and requires manual cleanup work

after every migration .

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