L3C: Independent Cloud Migration and Management for Legacy Enterprise Workload

Business Honor

Cloud Migration and Managed Services (L3C) is a private cloud migration and management services provider servicing businesses that operate their Enterprise Systems using legacy systems including IBM AIX, IBM i, Oracle database and Unix/Linux. The company's focus is on helping businesses migrate their workloads from on-premises infrastructure to Cloud Platforms while ensuring businesses can continue to operate and execute their existing applications. L3C has a dedicated staff that has expertise in IBM Power technology and related technologies. The company provides its services to clients across multiple geographic locations, either directly or with System Integrators and Software Vendors. Typically, the company is involved in assessing an existing environment and determining what would be the best architecture for moving it to the Cloud. Once that is determined, the company will assist the organization in executing the migration in a manner that is structured.

One of the strongest attributes of the L3C business model is that it is not limited to one particular Cloud Provider. The company evaluates each potential Cloud Provider separately based on technical and operational criteria. Those Cloud Providers may include Skytap on Azure, IBM Power Virtual Server, and/or a private cloud environment integrated with a large hyperscale provider such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

Cloud Services Offered by L3C

Skytap on Azure

The Skytap on Azure service from L3C facilitates migrating and running IBM Power workloads within Microsoft Azure Cloud. Skytap will enable customers to run AIX, IBM i and Linux on solely dedicated IBM Power hardware in Azure data centres, giving customers the ability to keep their application capabilities while using Azure's native services. The service has a three-phase process. Phase i is completed through discovery and design to evaluate the client's current infrastructure and create a high-level and low-level architectural design plan. Phase ii involves the detailed design consideration of each of the components of the plan (e.g., how the components will communicate, logical partition sizing, IP addressing and integration with existing infrastructures). Phase iii includes the establishment of a landing zone in Skytap that will serve as the building block for the client's workload deployment to Skytap and for interconnecting the components.

After migrating workloads to Skytap, L3C may continue to provide managed services such as system maintenance, workload performance monitoring and operational support for workloads running in Skytap, depending on the client's requirements. Services can range from providing support during the initial transition period to providing ongoing operational support for workloads in Skytap.

IBM PowerVS

L3C focuses on deploying and managing workloads with IBM's cloud-based Power infrastructure through the IBM Power Virtual Server (PowerVS) Service. PowerVS gives access to Power Systems at an IBM data center, allowing organizations to consume IBM AIX, IBM i, or Linux environments on an as-needed basis, as compared to maintaining their own physical hardware. Work is typically started with a discovery phase where L3C analyzes current systems and designs architecture requirements including compute, storage and networks as well as how they will interface with other environments. During the discovery phase, L3C will generate a detailed set of design documents that describe how to implement the new environment. After designing the desired environment, a "Landing Zone" is established within the IBM PowerVS resource. Components of a Landing Zone will include the setup of Logical Partitions (LPARs), configuration of network connections, and requirements for backup/monitoring/high availability (HA) or disaster recovery (DR).

L3C will direct the migration efforts by verifying data transfer, system configuration, and application functionality after migrating to IBM PowerVS. Once all workloads are operational in the new environment, L3C may choose to continue to manage the environment by offering managed services such as system administration, monitoring, and operating system and database support.

L3C Managed Services

Operational support for systems running on the AIX, IBM i, and Linux operating systems in multiple public, private, and on-premise environments is provided by L3C Managed Services (Offering). Systems supported include those that reside in all three types of environments simultaneously or those that are only running in one environment. The L3C Managed Service offering preserves system performance and stability while eliminating the need for a customer's internal resources with specific knowledge of legacy platforms. Services included in the scope of the managed service offering include: database support, operating system administration, and integration of backup and recovery processes (including HADR configuration and regular testing and updates of the customer’s recovery solution) into one complete managed service.

For customers using L3C in hybrid environments that include legacy systems and public or private cloud environments, the L3C Managed Service is also designed to integrate alerts generated from customer systems, such as Skytap on Azure, along with their respective operational management frameworks, providing the customer with a comprehensive overview. Service levels are customized to the needs of the individual customer and the relative criticality of the customer's workloads and operational priorities.

AIX and IBM i Private Cloud

Organizations requiring dedicated environments for AIX and IBM i workloads may consider using L3C's private cloud service. The L3C private cloud service enables customers to connect to their IBM Power system that is hosted either through one of L3C's data centers or one of their global partner facilities. Many times, organizations are unable to migrate their existing workloads to a public cloud environment because they require a different generation of hardware than what is offered by public cloud providers; this means that organizations can operate legacy applications with minimal modifications due to the existence of L3C's private cloud service.

To implement the L3C private cloud service, there are three key components: designing the infrastructure, building the private cloud environment, and migrating the existing workloads. In addition to these three components, L3C also provides backup, monitoring, and high availability/disaster recovery solutions as part of the implementation of its private cloud service.

Jerry Crossfield | CEO