In today's uncertain international economy, smart IT professionals are considering the increasing benefits of virtualization. Virtualization breaks the traditional dependencies between hardware and software, allowing customers to save money and increase efficiency, while IT departments can do more, with less. Virtualization technologies offer greater business continuity and disaster recovery capability, as well as reduced downtime and the opportunity to consolidate servers. Proven to reduce administrative, maintenance and floor space costs, virtualization also offers better capability to achieve service levels. The benefits of virtualization are abundant and well documented.

Tech-21 Systems Ltd is a business partner of Stromasys and provide local technical support, consultancy and demonstration for customers. We have extensive technical expertise on Alpha Servers, OpenVMS, Tru64 Unix and has a testing lab for demonstrating this great virtualization technology.

Stromasys Products

CHARON family of virtualization products forms the ideal solution to preserve your existing software applications without worrying about your obsolete equipment. Using modern virtualization technology, the CHARON solutions provide a high performance replica of your legacy VAX or Alpha hardware system on modern desktop or server systems.

The major benefit of the CHARON solutions is that you need have no concern over the reliability of aging hardware systems, or with the increasing maintenance costs which come with this older equipment. Your software applications will work as before, or even faster. There is no expensive migration process, no software re-engineering or conversion, no training for system managers or users required, and no painful conversion of normal business practices. Software development tools won't change either. The only visible change is the immediate replacement of the older hardware by modern equipment, and a steep reduction in floor space, energy consumption and maintenance costs.

Alpha Virtualization Overview

With the retirement of Alpha Servers by HP in 2008, the owners of such equipment are forced to find a solution to replace the computer platform that carries their valuable application software. Migration of this custom software to another computer seems the most obvious solution, however it is a labor intensive, expensive and high-risk operation.

So, how else can you protect the investment in your software?

CHARON-AXP offers a very attractive alternative to migration, because it rebuilds the hardware environment of the old Alpha computer inside a totally different computer system, hiding that new system from the original Alpha software. Therefore no application migration effort is required, just copy the software from the original Alpha to its virtual equivalent and continue to run it like before. This is valid for both OpenVMS and Tru64 installations. CHARON-AXP replacing your Alpha is a matter of days instead of months or years.

The CHARON-AXP product family is a set of Alpha computer replacement products, running as software that creates an Alpha hardware “replica” on a newer (non-Alpha) general purpose computer. This special layer provides the Alpha software the exact interface of the Alpha computer that it used to run on. Therefore no software changes are required, so there is no migration effort as such; the transition is quick, inexpensive and effective.

Copy the disk content from the hardware Alpha to the virtual version and continue using the software as it was. As far is the Alpha software is concerned, the “hardware” it runs on hasn't changed, so the software does not need to be modified either.

This method also allows you to use equipment with significantly lower cost of ownership, better supplier maintenance warranty and lower energy consumption bills. Combining multiple AlphaServers onto a single host computer delivers even better operational and financial prospects.

Stromasys offers virtualized AlphaServer and AlphaStation systems, from the earliest DEC3000 to the latest AlphaServer GS systems. CHARON-AXP maintains software integrity, operating processes and protects your original investment in the Alpha environment. CHARON-AXP supports both OpenVMS and Tru64 Alpha operating systems and all application software that runs on top of it. No application source code is needed, no conversion is required.

To cover the complete portfolio of AlphaServers, multiple CHARON-AXP products are available. This table indicates which CHARON-AXP product is best suited to replace your current Alpha:

Benefits

• Proven and robust CHARON architecture and technology for an accurate and reliable virtualization of the hardware
• Rapid implementation on industry standard hardware with increased performance
• Replaces old hardware and reduces cost of ownership
• Preserves the current application investments. Application’s sources not required.
• Permits consolidation of multiple AlphaServers on a single host server.
• No change required in current and proven business processes or operational skills
• Extend on new platforms, create room for future growth
• Product variations available to match different application needs
• Accepted as legitimate (VMS; Tru64) Alpha replacement at affordable cost

Stromasys Global Support

Stromasys has a global network of highly knowledgeable and experienced OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX software engineers, and offers world-class support for their products, keeping clients and their business or mission-critical applications and systems running smoothly around the clock.

Downloadable ALPHA Product Data Sheets

• CHARON-AXP product overview
• CHARON-AXP/GS80 for Windows Data Sheet
• CHARON-AXP/ES40 for Windows Data Sheet
• CHARON-AXP/DS20 for Windows Data Sheet

Enquiry

Tech-21 has strong technical expertise and many references in supporting customers on Alpha upgrade, migration and deploying Stormasys virtualization solutions. Please contact us at (852) 3106 5109 or sales@tech-21.com.hk and our solution consultants are very pleased to share with you our practical experience and to provide recommendations.