What is Datacenter Migration Server? Intro to Cirrus

If you have to migrate a legacy FC-SAN to a new system, either in the same datacenter or remotely...and you cannot afford downtime...then you can't afford to miss this short video w. Wayne Lam, CEO of Cirrus Data Solutions (www.cdsi.us.com) 3rd video of 4 part series.

Dave:                       Hey, Dave Littman, Truth in IT, back again with Wayne Lam. Wayne is CEO and founder of Cirrus Data. Hey Wayne, welcome again.

Wayne:                  Glad to be here again. Thank you David.

Dave:                       Okay. So hey, we spoke about a lot of the pain points that data center professionals struggle with when it comes to migrating block level data non-disruptively and transparently for mission critical systems. We know what the problems are. Let's talk a little bit about the solutions and how Cirrus Data can help data center managers get through these issues.

Wayne:                  Absolutely. Glad to do that. So, with all the pain points that I have spoken earlier, customers naturally are looking for better solutions. And so when I started this company with a bunch of propeller heads, we say, hey what do we do next, Mike?

                                    And so, we say, before we even talk about what we do next, let's have one thing in agreement, which is that whatever we do have to be so easy to deploy that any partner of ours can go to any live data center, plug it in, with very little instruction.

                                    So, we want to come up with a way to simplify the whole process of deploying a new appliance in a live fabric data center, right?

                                    And we did it. And it is called parent data path intercept.

                                    So, our approach, which the first part of, by the way, is data migration, but this same pattern can enable us to do a number of other products which we already have some idea. Okay, so once we get the data migration and conquer the world, you can certainly look forward to having partner #2, 3, 4, all be plug and play, no down time deployment and so on.

                                    So, for data migration, as a result of this pattern, which I will explain later, it can work with any OS, any host, any switch, and any storage, without any configuration.

                                    So that, of course, is almost too good to be true. So, the way we did it is that, as you look at the slide here, okay, with many hosts, whether it's physical hosts or VMware ESX hosts and so on, and a couple of switches, right, for your fabric, and then underneath there are the storage.

                                    So, how do you put the appliances in the middle, which is our data migration server, in this case? Well, the key] process is actually doing what's called "double spoofing."

                                    So, it's almost like an answering machine for your home in the old days. There is input and output, okay? So, if my input, plug it in the fabric, can spoof, and balance between storage controller and my output, spoof the host, now I can be in the middle and yet, no downtime and no changes to your zone or host.

                                    So, I know this is a little bit more technical than one wants in a brief like this, so go to my website, or give us a call. We'll be more than happy to give a demo, okay, of this technology, which is really, really cool.

                                    I have yet to fail to impress a fibre channel expert who knows the names and so on, say, "wow! This is simple. I could have invented that."

                                    Well, you didn't. We did.

Dave:                       Well, it makes sense. It makes sense, right? So, you're spoofing, and you are emulating, basically, the target in the output addresses and manipulating the flow, and that way, non-disruptively.

Wayne:                  Exactly. So, the original zone doesn't need to be changed. The original host because we now spoof them by name. But of course there is a lot of technical details for it to do it right, and we have done it.

                                    So, as a result, now we enjoy the benefit of a wonderful product, can go to complex fibre channel infrastructure, plug it in, and it will just work.

                                    You don't even need to understand fabric channel technologies that much. Just follow our instruction, which cable goes where, and you're done.

Dave:                       Fabulous. Okay, so listen, we want to come back, Wayne, and we want to hear about a customer. We'll let you go. Again, Wayne Lam, Cirrus Data Solutions, www.cdsi.us.com, and check out the next video with a case study. Thanks, Wayne.

Wayne:                Thank you.