Anywhere-to-Anywhere Portability and Protection for All Workloads in the Data Center
Previously, server workloads have been tied to the hardware infrastructure on which they reside, impeding data center flexibility and preventing the optimal use of physical and virtual resources. PlateSpin PowerConvert is a powerful workload portability™ solution that provides the flexibility to configure and optimize the data center by streaming workloads over the network between physical servers, blade infrastructures, virtual hosts and image archives.
PowerConvert is the first and only solution that remotely decouples workloads from the underlying server hardware and streams them to and from any physical or virtual host with a simple drag and drop.
By removing the dependency between a data center’s infrastructure layer and the business applications that run on it, PowerConvert allows organizations to continually match service level requirements with available resources by rapidly reconfiguring, relocating and optimizing servers – all from a single point of control without having to be in physical contact with source or target servers.
Together, PowerConvert and PowerRecon, PlateSpin’s advanced analysis and planning software, provide a comprehensive workload lifecycle management solution that includes integrated planning and execution for critical data center initiatives such as server consolidation, provisioning, hardware or data center migration and disaster recovery.
The Workload Movement
Organizations are beginning to view server workloads as the base unit of business value in the data center. A workload refers to the data, applications and operating system that reside on a physical or virtual host. The ability to profile, move, copy, protect and replicate workloads between physical and virtual hosts is a key enabler for operational efficiency and business success. PowerConvert is a single, easy to use solution for moving, managing, optimizing and protecting all workloads in the data center. PowerConvert is a key component of PlateSpin’s solution strategy which encompasses four pillars of workload lifecycle management: workload relocation, provisioning, protection and optimization.
Beyond P2V
When migrating to virtual infrastructures, organizations have tended to focus on one-time physical-to-virtual (P2V) workload conversions. While automating P2V migrations is one critical component for the successful adoption of virtualization, it does not address the ongoing requirement for workload portability in the data center or the need to utilize workload profile data for continuous optimization. As the use of virtualization technology evolves, organizations are increasingly embracing a broader view of anywhere-to-anywhere workload portability. The flexibility to move and rebalance workloads in any direction between physical and virtual hosts – physical-to-virtual, virtual-to-physical, virtual-to-virtual, physical-to-physical, in and out of imaging formats and so on – ensures optimal data center efficiency. Anywhere-to-anywhere portability also enables organizations to better address common challenges such as end-of-lease hardware migration and periodic necessities such as devirtualization of applications to account for changing workloads, diagnose problems and comply with maintenance agreements.