VAX / Alpha Migration
For many organisations, their VAX or Alpha applications are essential to the successful running of their business. Yet with each year that goes by, the errors become more frequent, parts are harder to come by, support contracts become more expensive and the space, noise, power and air-conditioning costs become harder to justify.
More and more companies are turning to virtualised VAX or Alpha environments as a way to continue reaping the benefits of their investment whilst at the same time achieving significant improvements and cost savings.
Why Go Virtualised?
There are almost as many reasons to move to a virtualised environment as there are companies who make the move. Each situation has its own intricacies and unique details, but below are a few of the reasons for choosing a virtualised system:
- Reliability: Hardware failures can mean costly downtime for organisations such as manufacturing companies. VAX and Alpha applications are often associated with business risk because the ageing hardware is becoming less and less reliabile. Moving to a virtualised system eliminates the dependence on problematic hardware and enables the system to take full advantage of the company's standard server infrastructure.
- Hardware Availability: When a chain of supermarkets needed to roll out its core VAX applications to 180 newly-acquired stores, getting hold of so many new VAX systems was out of the question. Virtualisation allowed them to get all of the new systems up and running within the required budget and timescale.
- Performance: Nearly all companies are under constant pressure to deliver more and more in less time. For businesses that rely on their VAX and Alpha applications, speed of operation is one area where the existing hardware can hold them back. A standard PC server running emulation software can out-perform the original VAX and Alpha hardware by up to 10 times or more which can have a significant impact on process and cycle times.
- Power Requirements: Whether it's energy costs or usage limits placed on particular premises, original VAX and Alpha hardware place a significant energy burden on the organisations that require them. The power consumption and air conditioning costs are far higher than those for today's standard PC server hardware.
- Relocation Cost: Even when the power and floor space issues aren't enough to make migration worthwhile, it can be a different story when it comes to moving office. Some companies have found it to be more cost-effective to set up a new virtualised VAX or Alpha environment at their new site than to relocate their existing hardware.
Virtualised VAX and Alpha environments are a proven and trusted way for companies to continue benefitting from their investment without the challenges of maintaining old hardware.
To see how virtualisation can help your organisation, why not get in touch?