How Does Stromasys Charon Compare to Oracle’s Legacy Migration Solutions?

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Oracle’s legacy to cloud migration solution comes with various approaches, Charon being one of them (and Oracle officially supports it). Charon does lift and shift emulation. You do not need to change legacy code or data. Besides lift and shift, Oracle has more options. This includes rehosting (like Charon), moving data, changing apps, or making them cloud-native.

Charon might be the way to go if you simply need to rehost legacy applications to Oracle cloud without any changes. But if you’re looking at other options like modernization, replatforming, or adopting additional Oracle services, Oracle’s wider suite of products constitutes numerous paths forward.

In this article, we will explore these two approaches in depth so that you can make informed decisions.

Overview of Each Solution

Before comparing these solutions, it’s essential to understand them thoroughly. So, let’s see the details of each solution.

Stromasys Charon

Charon is a hardware emulator that imitates aging hardware such as SPARC, HP 3000, HP 9000, VAX, and Alpha. And it creates an environment similar to the original one, but in a modern x86 environment or cloud. It supports clouds like OCI, AWS, and Azure.

The benefit? Legacy applications (based on Solaris, OpenVMS, HP-UX, MPE, Tru64) can run on modern, reliable platforms without noticing that the original hardware has been replaced. This process is called lift and shift migration or rehosting.

Unlike full-scale application migration projects that require code changes, lift and shift provides a cost-effective, quick, and frictionless alternative.

A Real Look of How Charon Works in Oracle

This is a demonstration of Sun SPARC hardware emulation on Oracle Cloud with the help of Charon-SSP. This emulation aimed to move Solaris 9 workloads to Oracle.

Initially, it was set with 1GB of memory and one CPU. But thanks to the flexibility offered by it, it scales impressively to 28 CPUs and 128GB of memory.

Watch the full video and discover the core processes, starting from SCSI configuration to accessing the Solaris GUI directly on the local machine.

Ideal use cases for businesses that want to:

• Maintain business-critical applications that cannot be easily rewritten or replaced
• Mitigate risk and reduce downtime from failing, unsupported hardware
• Complete a quick migration with limited budget or technical resources
• Preserve unique legacy business logic and processes

Oracle Legacy Migration Solutions

Oracle’s legacy migration solutions are methods and tools designed to transition legacy workloads to the modern Oracle cloud. The options range from completely changing the original applications to keeping them unchanged. Here are the key approaches:

Data Migration

Here, the data from the old system is extracted and transformed so that it will fit into the new Oracle environment. Real-time data replication is done by means of the Oracle GoldenGate tool. What does it do? It involves very little downtime, and your data is preserved as it makes the transition.

Other Tools for Driven Migration:

Lift and Shift or Rehost

Migrate legacy applications and databases as-is to the Oracle platform. This is accomplished by using Charon, a technology solution from Stromasys (an Oracle partner). This works well for rapid transitions with minimum changes to the application’s architecture.

Refactoring/Re-platform

It doesn’t involve a complete change. However, some aspects of legacy applications have been modified to leverage the benefits of Oracle Cloud.

Re-architecting

Simply put, it’s all about redesigning your applications. Such as breaking a monolithic application into microservices and being able to maximize the use of cloud native features.

Replace or Retire

Full-scale replacement of legacy systems with new Oracle solutions is necessary after the old systems have become too obsolete or costly.

Comparative Analysis

Use a side-by-side table to summarize the similarities and differences:

Decision Framework

Deciding between legacy processes and modern infrastructure can be challenging. Key questions often arise: are legacy processes sufficient, or does your business need transformation? What is the budget and timeline for a transformation? Is it important to retain the existing legacy code?

These questions can confuse decision-makers and delay the transition. Here is how to choose between Stromasys Charon and Oracle’s legacy migration solutions:

If your hardware is end-of-life, risky, and costly to maintain, but you don’t want to change your mission-critical legacy applications, Charon is most apt here. However, if you’re looking for complete application modernization, Oracle’s legacy migration solutions may be the ideal choice for you.

Are you still confused between application migration and emulation? How can you determine which one is suitable for you?

Get your legacy hardware assessment for free. You will receive a risk score reflecting your infrastructure vulnerability. With this information, you can make data-driven decisions.

Finally, for a quick, easy, and cost-effective solution, Stromasys excels in lift and shift. For further information, consult industry experts.

Talk to an Expert

About Author

Tuhin Das

Tuhin is a passionate writer with more than 7 years of experience in technical and marketing writing. With a unique ability to connect with his readers on a deeper level, he crafts content that not only captivates but also inspires action. Always on the cutting edge of industry trends, he excels at breaking down complex ideas into clear, engaging narratives that drive engagement and fuel business growth. Beyond his inherent inclination for writing, he is a sports enthusiast and a traveller, always seeking new experiences to enrich his perspective and creativity.