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Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Up-Level Migration Defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Understanding WS2003 EOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Determining Risk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Migration Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Modern Migration Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Container-based Server Application Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Container-based Approaches to OS Up-Level Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Up-Level Migration Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Up Level migration - Expediting Modernization Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

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Introduction

Microsoft WS2003 reaches the end of support on July 14, 2015. If you're still running WS2003 -- and reports indicate an estimated 57% of organizations are 1-- it's likely that a number of factors, from legacy applications, security challenges or business disruption concerns, are preventing you from making the move. Microsoft is reporting the average WS2003 migration project consumes six to eight months, while Gartner research says an average migration takes between nine and 15 months. If you have WS2003 servers, it's critical to understand precisely how end of support will affect your organization, as well as which migration scenarios and timeline make the most sense. Finally, understanding which tools are available and most appropriate will ease the process of moving to newer operating systems or the cloud.

The good news is: 1) It is not too late, and 2) migrating to newer server operating systems and clouds has never been easier. Old-fashioned approaches to upgrading, such as re-installing and upgrading machines or rebuilding them, are no longer necessary. Earlier generations of migration tools that necessitated migration of the whole machine have given way to a new approach known as "Up-level" migration, which separates applications from the underlying operating system. Up-level migration allows for packaging of nearly all types of Windows Server applications for migration from older operating systems (OS) to newer versions, as well as into portable containers that can be provisioned from datacenters, independent of any cloud. As part of the emerging technology trend of application containerization, the benefits of Up-level migration are significant. Specifically, Up-level migration enables:

• Huge time savings – an estimated 1-2 weeks savings per application moved. This compares to do-it-yourself manual reinstall, reconfigured and migrated data, with the onerous tasks of identification, extraction and movement of some applications in minutes

1 https://www.appzero.com/white-papers/appzero-2013-state-readiness-ws2003-end-support-survey-results

Definition

Up-Level Migration of Windows Server applications creates portable containers separate from the underlying OS so they can be effectively provisioned from datacenters to and among any cloud, with no lock-in.

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• Source machines are left untouched and unchanged. Migrated applications look like newly installed ones on a clean OS. Server drift is eliminated.

• Easy portability to servers, data centers or any cloud. Being able to move to different types of cloud infrastructure avoids vendor lock-in for greater enterprise control over costs, enhanced security and improvements in availability.

In this whitepaper, you will learn the essentials of Up-Level migration of WS2003 applications, including:

- How WS2003 end of support on July 14, 2015, can affect your enterprise; how to determine your risks and what, when and why to move your workloads and applications off aging server operating systems;

- How to implement a migration plan, with step-by-step examples for moving some or all of your workloads/applications from server to server -- or to public, private or hybrid clouds;

- How Up Level migration using container-based migration software can be used to encapsulate even complex server applications into virtual application appliances (VAAs) to quickly deploy WS2003 applications to any machine or cloud.

Up-Level Migration Defined

Migrating to new operating systems has long been a major priority for IT organizations, especially in regulated industries where applications must run on a supported OS. No one wants to risk their jobs by running applications on an unsupported OS. Certainly, there is a lot of work to do to prepare for WS2003 end of support. Most tools on the market are not focused on migration of existing applications. Instead, they migrate whole virtual machines (VMs), rather than applications, so while large amounts of data can be transferred, there is no ability to take only what is needed to the new platform. This is a huge problem because it means there is no way to separate outdated software, event logs, dirty file systems and all the other baggage that accompanies enterprise applications over time. The practical use of containers as a packaging technique is driving effective migration today. But it is the addition of Up Level migration techniques that deliver the speed, agility and low cost enterprises need to migrate large numbers of applications to a modern OS, refreshed or consolidated data center or to the cloud.

Up Level migration, the ability to move unmodified server applications from old operating systems to new OSs on new machines, has been proven to be ten times faster, as well as more reliable and efficient than with any approach to OS migration.2 Customer successes have led

2 https://www.appzero.com/white-papers/case-studies/case-study-pabst-brewing-company-recipe-cloud-success

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leading tech vendors such as Dell, IBM and HP to use AppZero for application migration. Automating the process of moving to new operating systems is much easier when the application and its data are separated from the OS, and AppZero is unique in this approach. For companies adopting the cloud, it is essential to modernize the infrastructure under the application when migrating existing applications. With separation of applications from the OS, IT organizations moving to clouds are no longer stuck with simply moving data center-focused infrastructure, tools and processes to the cloud, but can adopt cloud based operation tools and modernize the operating system at the same time. If you're not moving to the cloud, this approach works equally well when moving any Windows server application to any hardware or managed environment target.

Understanding WS2003 EOS

Upgrading to new operating systems is historically painful, but all good things must come to an end and WS2003 is no exception. WS2003 end of support (EOS) on July 14, 2015, specifically means:

• No updates or patches except for customers who want to buy custom support -- and they must already have a premier support agreement;

• No compliance;

• No exceptions -- Microsoft has said it will not be extending this deadline.

If you think you can stay put, keep in mind that Microsoft issued 37 critical (security) updates for WS2003 in 2013 and has been emphatic that there will be no additional patches or updates after this support period ends. With WS2003 running in a large number of businesses (an estimated 22 million machines worldwide are still running applications in production3) the risk around security is extremely high. In regulated industries, an upgrade to a supported OS is not optional. So those enterprises and their suppliers/partners requiring HIPAA, PCI, SOX & Dodd-Frank compliance, for example, must begin the migration process as soon as possible. For businesses conducting transactions on the web using credit cards, PCI compliance for electronic banking demands a supported server environment. As a result, any WS2003 machine running an ecommerce application will be non-compliant post end of support -- even if those applications are running properly.

3 Microsoft World Wide Partner Conference, July 2014

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What about the cost to stay put on WS2003?

Some industry experts anticipate Microsoft’s Custom Support Agreements (CSA) will run in the range of $1,500,000 - $2,500,000/annually for more than 2,000 machines, and compound over its three year term. And, customers who want to buy custom support must already have a Premier Support Agreement or buy one. This represents another incrementally “substantial cost,” according to Gartner VP and distinguished analyst Carl Claunch in a recent article in The Register. The basic structure most organizations are now looking at in order to stay with WS2003 and purchase support costs includes:

1. One-time sign up fees;

2. Annual CSA fees, which are expected to double in year two and again in year three;

3. Enterprises that are above the 2,000 machines count can expect to pay Microsoft more than $20,000,000 for a CSA over a three-year period.

Clearly, post support contracts for WS2003 are an untenable option for many enterprises.

If the peace of mind inherent with running a safe and secure environment cannot be understated, what is the cost to move? Most of the fear and anxiety associated with IT lifecycle events involves not just the concern over applications stranded on old antiquated servers, but the potential new costs of hardware and software refresh. Evidence of completed migrations (see fig. 1 on next page) indicates it's never been more possible to do more with less hardware and to cost- effectively off load workloads into the cloud at significant savings. In fact, the latest data on Total Cost of Infrastructure (TCOI)4 shows cost reductions beyond hardware are making an increasingly compelling case for the cloud as a cheaper platform than the datacenter.

4 https://gigaom.com/2014/08/16/bezoss-law-signals-its-time-to-ditch-the-data-center/

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Figure 1: Total Cost of Infrastructure (TCOI) courtesy of IBM

The other cost factor involves time and labor to complete migration projects. As this paper will show, projects completed using Up-Level migration, whether to the cloud or new hardware on premises, provides enormous savings that cannot be ignored.

Determining Risk

With options ranging from taking no action to migrating existing applications in part or entirely, how do IT decision makers assess the associated risks? A study from Gigaom Research provides a thorough and downloadable assessment process: "Balancing Cost and Risk: Migrating from WS2003 to the Cloud." This free report enables a full accounting of all the options. While no single approach will work for everyone, the options -- from isolation of specific applications or retirement to full cloud migration -- are detailed, along with specific advice on how to present your findings to those with a stake in the decision. The report focuses primarily on the risks associated with moving from WS2003 to cloud environments, but is a useful tool regardless of hosting target. To help determine risk, some key questions to ask:

• Do you run applications that must be certified to comply with quality standards, such SSAE 16 or ISO 27001?

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• Do you have applications where failure will affect revenue? • Are legacy applications causing problems, such as increased maintenance costs, lack of

agility? • Do you have regulatory compliance requirements, such as financial services or

healthcare industry constraints? • Do you have sufficient in-house expertise in administering operating systems, aging

technology, virtualization and migration efforts, as well as security?

The final question cannot be overstated. From a security standpoint, WS2003 will likely be an increased target after EOS. Resolving incidents without vendor support will be nearly impossible. And, as aptly summarized in one industry journal, “To run a secure IT infrastructure – and increasingly to meet the legal and regulatory requirements of many jurisdictions – you will have to pour resources into monitoring and shielding any servers running Server 2003. You will also have to work on separating the data and applications from the operating system so that you can nuke the server back to 'known good' when the system falls to the inevitable.” 5

Once the risk is assessed and the move from WS2003 certain in most cases, the remaining challenges are to discover how to migrate effectively by:

• Examining the migration scenarios • Fully discovering the existing environment • Assessing workloads • Determining where those workloads or applications can be moved • Performing the migration

Migration Planning

Like any migration project, the assessment of your WS2003 environment and the planning of the overall migration provide the structure for a successful project. The four key steps to a successful migration project are to assess, plan, target and then migrate.6

5 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/23/windows_server_2003_reasons_to_upgrade_analysis/

6 Migration graphic courtesy of Microsoft, 2014

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Begin by discovering your organization's current environment. Conduct workshops to determine application disposition, infrastructure and destination environment requirements (DC, MSP, CSP). Run server application inventory and discovery tools. Plan the overall migration program based on information gathered in the discovery phase by categorizing apps into the following swim lanes for remediation:

1. Replace the app with a new one from an ISV 2. Rebuild the app, recode maybe in a PaaS environment 3. Refactor the app, similar to rebuild but at a smaller scale 4. Rehost the app, migrate the app to a new destination machine

Once apps have been categorized, establish a communication plan to move from source to destination and schedule migration ‘waves.’ Migrate applications according to wave planning with resources allocated to perform the migrations and test the applications in the new destination before cutting production users over to the new environment.

All steps may not apply to all organizations, but the overall goal is to assess your environment and plan your actions before moving forward. The Modern Migration Process

As noted, there are several ways to approach modernization or Up Level migration projects. Manual re-installation, re-configuration, data-migration and scripting were once the only way to get applications moved to a new machine. This approach is enormously labor intensive, error prone, expensive, time consuming and not scalable, since applications are unique. Utilizing tools that move machines P2V (Physical to Virtual) or V2V (Virtual to virtual) are similarly ineffective because they involve carrying the old OS to the new destination machine -- and this simply doesn't help with WS2003.

Container-based Server Application Migration

The application virtualization process known as containerization7 is not new, but applying it to extract existing, installed server side applications for Up Level migration and cloud on-boarding is a new twist that IT can now leverage. Using new techniques in application containerization is disruptive and provides automated, scalable migration using a tool to solve this previously untenable IT process.

7 For a good post on why containerization matters to innovation, read Dell for Entrepreneurs' post by James Thomason CTO of Dell Cloud Marketplace. http://eir.dell.com/docker-containerization-boon-web-software-startups/

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With containers, applications are built to have all their dependencies and configurations "contained," so that no matter where they are deployed, they run independent of machine infrastructure. The major benefit is that a lot less time and money is spent on testing, integration and deployment, leaving more time for innovation.

By packaging applications separately from the operating system, the apps are more easily moveable without re-engineering and can, in fact, move with the click of a button. The ability to be cloud-provider agnostic is important as well, since costs, service level agreements and functionality vary and can change. This addresses the concerns many CIOs have about cloud lock in. Further, you need not choose between one type of cloud, whether private, public, hybrid or managed. Critically, a containerized migration approach identifies and copies all executables, settings, and data associated with applications, enabling them to move from one Windows Server to another. This makes container-based approaches to migration ideally suited to Up Level applications to a newer OS. Unlike P2V (Physical to Virtual) or V2V (Virtual to Virtual) machine migration, however, it's critical to treat the application, rather than the whole machine, as the right level of granularity or unit of measure. Instead of migrating whole server images, you can migrate applications and their data. This approach allows for migration and modernization in the single step that becomes the basis for cloud to datacenter agility. Simply put, small and agile containers make moving between physical and virtual environments fast and easy, without lock-in.

Container-based Approaches to OS Up-Level Work

AppZero is the de facto, gold standard for container-based enterprise application migration. It is used to extract existing enterprise applications and package them into virtual application appliances, known as VAAs. VAAs are simply containers that can be provisioned and run natively on any newer Windows OS, machine or cloud.

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The AppZero toolset works in a variety of different migration scenarios by automating the identification, extraction and encapsulation of Windows Server applications. There are two ways to run AppZero, depending on goals. For example:

• The most commonly used approach for Up Level migration automates the identification, extraction and movement of an application to any cloud or machine, then dissolves the AppZero layer to allow installation on the target destination.

• Alternately, containerized apps can run encapsulated for repeated movement as in hybrid/federated cloud scenarios. This approach is commonly used for geographic provisioning, horizontal scale deployments, VDI deployments or DR/Back-up use cases.

Setting up AppZero requires no new software on the source server. The source machine is accessed via the network and AppZero is installed on the target server. The machines are "tethered" and the application is extracted into a container -- complete with all the application's files, registry, configuration and data. The application is started and automatically migrates the application artifacts from the source machine to the destination, whether cloud or new machine. When the application runs in a container, it is moderated by a light intercept layer that isolates the application from the OS. This layer redirects any modifications that are made to an application’s artifacts (files, registry) keeping them contained in the AppZero VAA (container).

When you initially migrate an application with AppZero, it is self-contained within its VAA. These containers are portable from one host to another, or can remain self-contained. This is helpful for troublesome applications that may conflict with one another. If these aren't an issue, AppZero's "dissolve" capability installs the application back to the underlying operating system, breaking the reliance on the AppZero virtualization runtime so that the application is provisioned as it would be for traditionally installed applications.

Now let's look at how some enterprises are approaching typical WS2003 Up Level migration scenarios or projects and how a container-based migration tool can help.

Up-Level Migration Scenarios

Project 1: Modernizing and moving WS2003 applications to the cloud in one step

If you're looking to modernize and migrate your portfolio of business applications from WS2003 to the cloud and have identified applications for public, private or hybrid cloud, you will find the container approach to migration ideal. Most enterprises have an application due for an upgrade or one or more internal applications requiring updating. Modernizing applications in tandem

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with your infrastructure upgrade can be a daunting prospect that many find an obstacle to cloud adoption.

AppZero can easily move old 32-bit apps to a 64-bit OS such as Windows Server 2012 without the need to first upgrade to Windows Server 2008. Further, AppZero does the work of identifying, extracting and moving these applications in minutes, without the need to redo permissions, log-ins or security. Because you are migrating only the applications and their essential components, your application will look like a new installation without all the baggage that business applications can accumulate over years of production. This is the essence of Up-Level migration. Fewer steps and less manual work equates with lower cost. In companies with few experts in place to do Windows Server migrations, Up Level migration is an essential technology.

Project 2: Traditional Manual Migration vs. Portable Container Migration Tool

Why not just perform a clean re-installation of your application on the new server? In this migration scenario, we look at how one customer, a multi-national healthcare company, benchmarked a traditional re-installation approach with that of AppZero. For this use case, an upgrade of the firm's IBM Cognos Planning Server, a 10G application, was upgraded from WS2003 to WS2012. As can be seen in Fig. 2, the migration activities were first listed using each approach. Most of the activities surrounding application configuration -- a significant portion of the overall project -- are simply not necessary with AppZero.

Fig. 2 outlines the project start to finish using each approach. The container approach with AppZero proved five times more efficient than manual re-install, reflecting a total project cost

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savings of more than $2M. With a reduction in migration time of 142 weeks and FTE resources lowered from 26.5 to 4.5, it's clear the AppZero approach allows for project completion well in advance of the deadline -- in fact, 2.5 years ahead of the traditional approach.

Project 3: Business Application Up-Level and Cloud Migration Services

Many IT groups are planning for the migration of enterprise applications to the cloud by offering migration services to business groups. Here, container-based migration technology can help ease the process significantly. Most IT pros lack application-specific knowledge, while business groups have other priorities over application upgrades and migration. With AppZero, application-specific knowledge is not required in order to conduct the migration, whether to cloud or new server. Migrating applications to supported OS environments reduces the risk that end of server support presents to the enterprise. For the business groups, internal charges for supporting applications can be reduced as a result of lowered risk. The vast majority of Windows applications running in the datacenter can be migrated with AppZero. These include applications used in regulated industries, such as life sciences or healthcare, as well as general purpose database and web application platforms and many third party applications.

Setting up a migration service as a function of IT helps operations and applications groups work together to use WS2003 EOS not as a threat or fear factor, but as an opportunity to minimize the risk of security vulnerabilities and downtime and change out old systems for more agile platforms.

Up Level Migration - Expediting Modernization Projects

WS2003 is becoming a catalyst for migration with many companies mandated by compliance requirements to migrate applications to a supported operating system. With container technology, it is possible to have a smooth, easy and cost effective transition to new servers. Whether the destination for modernization is the cloud or new hardware in the datacenter, the opportunity to modernize the OS and supporting infrastructure using the container approach benefits companies by:

• Reducing the risk of migrating applications

• Leaving behind antiquated systems

• Remediating WS2003 EOS quickly and cost effectively

• Enabling IT and business groups to work together to upgrade their server applications in a way that benefits all

There are a number of vendors engaged in moving machines to and across clouds and data centers. Some say the WS2003 services market could reach $45B over the next several years. 13

AppZero is the only company that encapsulates and moves just the application, rather than the entire machine with its operating system and other services. This is important for companies adopting cloud, as they can now modernize the infrastructure under the application when migrating existing applications. No longer is IT stuck with monolithic old operating systems tied to security, backup systems and monitoring tools focused on data center operations. By separating the application from the rest of the machine, IT is free to adopt cloud based operations tools and modernize the operating system. While alternatives use an old fashioned "migrate the whole machine" strategy, AppZero is ten times faster, as well as more reliable and efficient. AppZero's patented approach to migrating and packaging unmodified Windows server applications from old operating systems has led recently to its market position as the most-recommended solution by key technology providers for moving server applications to newer operating systems and clouds from WS2003 as it reaches end of extended support next summer.

About AppZero

AppZero is the fastest, most flexible way to move server applications to and across any cloud or datacenter, without code change or lock-in. Encapsulating Windows applications in VM/OS-free packages, AppZero’s patented software moves complex server applications with ease. AppZero allows you to modernize your infrastructure, moving from an old OS to a newer one with the click of a button - modernize and move to the cloud in one step. For more information, visit www.appzero.com and follow us on twitter @AppZero_Inc.

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