Stromasys Cloud Solutions: Revitalizing Legacy Applications for the Modern Era

In this article, we will breakdown how Stromasys Charon creates emulated environments for SPARC, VAX, Alpha, PA-RISC, and PDP in the cloud. You will also learn about the pressing issues that Charon addresses.

Stromasys Cloud Solutions: What is it, and How Does it Work?

Many CTOs look for strategies that offer minimal disruptions. Stromasys emerges as a perfect fit here by providing solutions that connect legacy systems with modern cloud services. Stromasys is cloud-agnostic, meaning you can move your legacy workloads to any modern cloud platform like Azure, AWS, Oracle, or Google Cloud.

The Charon emulator replicates the original hardware environment and provides an equivalent working environment (on-premises or in the cloud). This is when the complete software stack (OS, applications, and data) is transitioned from the old hardware infrastructure into the cloud.

The best part? There is no need to rewrite or modify software. The original code and functionality stay the same, running in a more reliable environment.

Additionally, there is no disruption for end users. Everything works just as it did earlier, so no retraining is needed. This keeps productivity up and business operations smooth during the transition.

How Charon Runs on Virtual Machines

This next-generation emulator lets you manage multiple server hosts, each running one or more virtual machines. As you scale your environment, it provides a central hub for managing both host and child VMs. The user-friendly interface makes it easy to manage everything with just a few clicks.

Here are the steps:

• A Charon instance is created in your chosen cloud and configured to emulate your specific legacy hardware.
• A backup of your legacy operating system, application, and data is restored onto the new virtual machine.
• The application is brought online.

Businesses will experience a seamless transition to a modern platform without altering the core functionality of their applications. By doing so, they preserve business continuity and benefit from the cloud’s improved reliability & performance.

The Benefits of Stromasys Cloud Solutions

Charon Cloud Solutions tackles your crucial challenges before they escalate into operational failures.

1. Turns the Inefficient and Costly Infrastructure into a Scalable One

Mission-critical applications that hold a company’s intellectual property and decades of expertise

Business continuity may be threatened due to outdated servers that can hinder day-to-day operations.

These challenges come at a significant cost: International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that MNCs incur annual losses of approximately $62.4 million due to inefficiencies in processing.

And when downtime hits, Gartner found it costs a staggering $5,600 per minute or up to $540,000 per hour. Thanks to Stromasys Charon, companies do not have to deal with these challenges anymore. Removing the hardware quickly and cost-effectively solves infrastructure-related issues.

2. A Smooth and Risk-Free Migration

The fear of losing essential applications is, however, one of the main obstacles to modernization. Old-school migration projects can take forever and cost a fortune. With Stromasys, though, the application code is untouched.

The transition is low risk because the existing software is not lost. It’s the only migration alternative where you experience minimal friction, with no recertification required.

3. Ensure Robust Business Continuity

For any business application, disaster recovery is a significant area of concern. Cloud infrastructure offers unmatched resilience.

With Stromasys, you can have your legacy software in one or more data centers anywhere around the world. One fails, and in the event of another disaster at one location, there’s a backup. This provides (and improves) continuous operations over the WAN, and does so in a fraction of the time that would be necessary for traditional BCP.

4. Optimize Your IT Resources

It is increasingly difficult to find engineers who understand legacy hardware. More of these experts retire each year, resulting in a substantial skills shortage.

Stromasys relieves your IT team of the burden of locating hard-to-find parts or finding expertise. Further, your team can work on innovation instead of working on hardware problems.

5. Meet Security Protocols with Ease

Legacy servers also present significant security issues. Manufacturers often stop providing security updates, which leaves these servers vulnerable to cyber threats.

When you move with Stromasys, so do your apps, which benefit from the newest security mechanisms provided by contemporary cloud services. That might be Security Groups, ACLs, or WAFs, for example.

Transform Your Aging Infrastructure with Stromasys

Staying on end-of-life hardware isn’t really a tenable long-term strategy. And the costs, risks, and restrictions will only increase. With the Stromasys solution, we can offer a

realistic, powerful savior for your legacy applications to take them off old hardware and place them into a safe, secure modern cloud.

This migration enables you to continue running your mission-critical systems longer while planning for the future without sacrificing the support that will ensure the reliability and availability of those workloads over time.