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Microsoft Virtual Machine Migration Toolkit Q&A: FyrSoft and Pella, 6/22/12, for customer review R2-336553683000Based in Houston Texas, FyrSoft is a member of the Microsoft Partner Network with a Gold competency in Systems Management and a Silver competency in Server Platform. It specializes in automating IT management and workflow using private cloud technologies from Microsoft. FyrSoft recently helped window and door manufacturer Pella migrate its entire virtualized environment off VMware to Hyper-V and build a private cloud. Microsoft recently sat down with Jeff Skelton, Managing Partner at FyrSoft, to talk about the experience.Microsoft: So tell us about your engagement with Pella. Skelton: We came in to the Pella engagement in December 2011 at the request of the local Microsoft account team. They had initiated a conversation with Pella about moving from VMware to Hyper-V, and the customer had asked for more information to help with the decision-making process. Pella is entirely a Microsoft shop except for VMware. We performed a discovery and assessment, outlining the level of effort required to convert Pella to Hyper-V, and addressed its technical questions. At least two of their administrators are dyed-in-the-wool VMware people and were not as familiar with Hyper-V. They needed to see what Hyper-V could do. We were able to address all of their concerns and create a proof of concept to demonstrate Hyper-V’s capabilities. Although no migration is painless, we were able to show them that it would be a lot simpler than they envisioned. In January 2012, Pella committed to start the engagement in late January.Microsoft: What’s the toolkit that you used?Skelton: It’s the Microsoft Virtual Machine Migration Toolkit (VMMT). It leverages existing Microsoft and Veeam products, as well as custom-built components. We were one of three or four partners initially trained on it and the first partner to use it in a production environment. The VMMT automates many of the manual steps otherwise involved in VMware-to-Hyper-V migrations. I’ve done some of these conversions in the past, though they were much smaller than the Pella effort. There was a lot of manual effort and room for human error. It took a full day, or about eight to ten hours, to convert each VM. The VMMT automates all that. The average migration time with the VMMT is about two hours per VM. Pella has 600 VMs, so it would have taken up to 6,000 hours to convert their environment to Hyper-V. With the toolkit, it will take one-fifth that time. Microsoft: That’s amazing. Where is Pella in its migration?Skelton: They finished migrating their main data center to Hyper-V in late March 2012, and we’re in the process of migrating their remote sites. They’ll have a mixed environment for some time; they have to keep a small VMware environment because of some legacy Cisco products that aren’t supported by Hyper-V. But they can manage everything from Microsoft System Center.Microsoft: What was Pella’s reaction to the migration?Skelton: They were pleasantly surprised, to say the least. One of the great features of the toolkit is the ability to make a copy of the VM before migrating it. If there was a failure during the migration, we could just revert back to the old VMware VM in a matter of minutes. This took a lot of concern off Pella’s shoulders. Microsoft: Do you feel like the Virtual Machine Migration Toolkit opens up new business opportunities for you?Skelton: Absolutely. One of obstacles for VMware shops is the complexity in moving from VMDK to VHDs. This tool makes it so much easier by automating much of the work. With the improvements in Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center 2012, we’re going to see a lot of customers interested in migrating off VMware. This toolkit gives us a canned solution for getting customers on a Microsoft private cloud. ................
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