Running Legacy OpenVMS on the Cloud: Everything You Need to Know

Here, you will learn why the cloud can be a much better platform than the existing one. You will also get complete details of this transition, including the options, best strategy, and key considerations.

Why Should You Consider Running OpenVMS on the Cloud?

OpenVMS apps often reside on outdated VAX or Alpha computers that are beyond their life cycle. That means manufacturers no longer support these servers.

This creates real problems: Downtime increases, stability decreases, and without security patches, the risk of data breaches grows. And these challenges can interrupt your business operations.

Further, legacy systems aren’t cloud-compatible. They block organizations from adopting a “Cloud First” strategy.

Maintaining legacy data centers is also costly and labor-intensive. It’s no surprise that many businesses are closing them and moving to the cloud.

Hosting your vital OpenVMS applications on the cloud reduces the cost and complexities of your data center. In fact, you can consolidate multiple legacy servers into a simple virtual machine. Cloud offers scalability. You can adjust computing power as your business grows. Additionally, built-in back-ups and failovers keep your system running smoothly.

3 Choices Organizations Have Right Now

When it comes to extending the life of your business applications based on OpenVMS operating systems, you have three choices:

1. Status Quo: It’s keeping the original hardware as-is. Basically, it’s the act of doing nothing and continuing with legacy hardware.
2. Application migration: Here, you either modify the application or rewrite it from scratch to add certain functionalities or to meet certain business requirements.
3. Emulation (lift and shift): It removes the original hardware and creates a similar environment on modern hardware so that you can run your applications more reliably without making any changes to them.

The first option comes with the typical mindset: “I won’t change it until it actually fails”. This is when you remain in your comfort zone while the risks are increasing exponentially every day.

The second option involves changing the codebase. Some of the strategies include rewriting, replatforming, rearchitecting, and so forth. They are all time-consuming and labor-intensive. And these projects can cost you millions of dollars.

Here is the thing: most legacy applications do not require any changes. They have been running critical operations for decades. There are millions of lines of code in them. In fact, they are so deeply integrated into the business that changing them can be very risky.

This is where the third option emerges as a low-cost, low-effort alternative to typical application migration projects. Why not run your OpenVMS applications without relying on end-of-life (EOL) VAX or AlphaServers?

How Charon Makes OpenVMS Migration Simple

Stromasys Charon emulates legacy hardware (DEC VAX and Alpha) on modern x86 systems. Therefore, you can migrate your legacy applications from EOL hardware to an emulated version of the old hardware.

It’s very simple. Charon simply copies your legacy programs & data and moves them to the emulated host. As a result, you can continue your operations as you always used to do.

It is cloud-agnostic, meaning it is compatible with all major cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, Oracle, and Google. You can select any cloud provider you prefer to run your applications on.

Stromasys’s OpenVMS Migration follows these steps:

• Set up a Charon instance that mimics the old hardware that needs to be replaced.
• Use a backup to restore the legacy software onto the new emulated hardware.
• Create a virtual replica (exactly similar to the original environment) inside Charon.
• Copy or transfer the data, storage, files, and information from your original disks into virtual disk images to be used by Charon.
• Run the application as usual. Users won’t even notice any difference at all. There’s no need to re-code, re-engineer, or re-validate anything.

Proven Benefits of This Approach

Once you deploy Charon emulator for shifting your OpenVMS workloads to a cloud platgorm of your choice, you can experience a range of benefits.

Eliminate Aging Hardware Dependency & Extend Application’s Life

Old hardware like Alpha or VAX comes with numerous challenges. Be it budget, effort or keeping the business applications running, aging servers make it difficult.

Running your OpenVMS programs on cloud through Stromasys solves this problem. It addresses your pain point (legacy hardware) right away.

As it replaces your hardware with modern cloud, your dependency on aging hardware gets eliminated. Your mission-critical applications can live on, safe from hardware failure.

No More Searching for Replacement Parts

At some time, there will be no spare parts for these systems. In most cases, the systems are not supported by the manufacturer, and their supply diminishes with the decreasing viability of producing third-party parts economically. Once the parts go out of circulation, the application cannot run anymore.

Thankfully, through Stromasys Charon, the old servers are removed from the IT setup, thus there is no need to find spare parts.

Enhance Your System Security

Legacy systems often lack security patches. This makes the applications vulnerable to cyberattacks. Stromasys Charon addresses this issue at its core by removing the risky hardware.

Hence, you can enjoy the following benefits:

• You will receive regular OS and firmware updates
• Leverage advanced security tools like Security Groups and Web Application Firewalls (WAFs)

Key Considerations

When using a cloud instance, the biggest hurdle can be migrating the backup of the operating system, application, and data to the cloud prior to restoration to the new emulated hardware.

It can take a while to move large amounts of data over a WAN connection. Each cloud provider has alternative methods for migrating data that can help with the process.

One option is to use a physical device to transfer files to the cloud provider for restoration. This method is much faster than using a WAN connection.

Apart from that, other considerations include:

Finding the right cloud provider:

It is made easier by the fact that Stromasys’ Charon product is provider agnostic. Consider costs, existing relationships with cloud providers, security options, and company requirements when choosing a provider.

Configuring the emulated hardware:

This configuration influences the cost of the emulated system, as it uses resources. Selecting the CPUs, memory, storage, and other options should be done with care, to ensure that the new system is capable of handling the load imposed by the mission. Rather than just configuring the emulated system exactly like the legacy system, this is a time to right-size resources, adding or subtracting to get the best performance while containing cost.

Migrating the backup to the cloud:

For backup restoration on the new platform requires careful planning. Some of these systems have large data sets, which can take significant time to transfer over a WAN connection. Look at options and choose one that will meet project objectives and timelines.

Make sure users can connect to the application:

Ensure that the security requirements of the organization can be maintained, and that the pathways needed for connection to the cloud provider can be met. Consider the number of users and available bandwidth, as well, to ensure satisfactory performance of the application.

Before migration begins, define a test plan:

Once the new system is live, make sure that it works as planned. The test plan will be followed to ensure that functionality continues to perform as expected. Create test cases based on common and uncommon functions that users must perform, document how those cases can be tested, perform the test on the original system before migration, then conduct the tests on the new system and compare results.

Ready for a Reliable OpenVMS Environment?

Now that you know how OpenVMS cloud migration works with Stromasys Charon (and the tested benefits), it’s time to take action. Waiting does not bring any fruitful results. In fact, the costs and risks will eventually add up, taking a toll on your budget and business continuity.

Still on the fence? Seek expert help. The Stromasys team consists of engineers, legacy migration advisors, and SMEs with proven industry experience. No one in the market holds more experience than we do.

References:

1. Legacy Software Modernization in 2025: Survey of 500+ U.S. IT Pros – Saritasa
2. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-11-10-gartner-says-cloud-will-be-the-centerpiece-of-new-digital-experiences