Simplify and accelerate virtual machine migration with the NetApp Shift Toolkit

In today's fast-paced IT landscape, executing and implementing technology changes quickly to support your business is more important than ever. The virtualization landscape is a perfect example of this need, with many customers suddenly reassessing environments that had been steady for years.  

Many IT organizations today are seeking to adopt a multi-hypervisor strategy. Implementing such a strategy isn’t a trivial decision and executing this transition quickly and cost effectively will make the difference between success and a costly quagmire. It’s crucial to migrate virtual machines (VMs) efficiently, with minimal downtime, while maintaining business continuity and optimizing infrastructure.  

The NetApp^® Shift Toolkit stands out as a solution for VM migration. This free tool is easy to use yet offers amazing flexibility and cost savings. 

As customers assess their virtualization landscape, they can reduce the time, cost, and complexity of migrating their VMs with the NetApp Shift Toolkit. NetApp has announced the expansion of the toolkit—already a valuable tool for customers looking to move their VMs between different hypervisors—to support an even broader ecosystem of hypervisors, including Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, Proxmox, and Oracle Linux VM. This support builds on the previously announced VMware ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V capabilities. Using NetApp cloning technology to quickly convert VMs without copying data, the Shift Toolkit significantly reduces project durations without compromising performance. And the toolkit cuts conversion time from hours or days to minutes and decreases dependence on third-party tools. 

VM migration involves moving a VM from one physical host or storage location to another and is an essential element of any virtual environment. It’s a central capability that helps deliver load balancing, hardware maintenance, disaster recovery, and data center optimization. The Shift Toolkit solves all the ways in which VM migration can be complex and fraught with challenges such as downtime, data inconsistency, and compatibility issues. It also speeds up the process of converting VMs, which can take hours or days per workload and require specialized skillsets. With the Shift Toolkit, VM migration can be completed in minutes.  

Here are the ways in which the Shift Toolkit can accelerate and simplify your VM migration process, while future-proofing your business.  

• Cost savings. Say goodbye to the days of VM migrations triggering additional costs such as consulting fees, third-party tools, and periods of paying dual licenses. By automating and streamlining the migration process, the NetApp Shift Toolkit reduces the time and resources required for VM migration. This reduction translates to significant cost savings, particularly for large-scale migrations.  

• Simplified management: The Shift Toolkit sports an easy-to-use GUI that simplifies the management of VM migrations. With centralized control and automated workflows, IT teams can manage migrations with just a few clicks, reducing complexity and potential errors.  

• Enhanced business continuity. Using the Shift Toolkit can dramatically reduce project timelines. Some customers have reduced their migration times by up to 70%, enhancing business continuity and reducing the risk of operational disruptions, freeing them to focus on their business and achieve faster ROI. 

• Data consistency and integrity. Maintaining data consistency is essential during migration. With the Shift Toolkit, all data is accurately replicated and synchronized, preventing data loss and enabling applications to function correctly postmigration. 

• Automated migration workflows. Manual migration processes can be time consuming and introduce mistakes. The toolkit automates many aspects of VM migration, from initial setup to final cutover, reducing the risk of human error and accelerating the migration process. 

• Scalability and flexibility. Whether you’re migrating a single VM or an entire data center, the toolkit scales to meet your needs. Its flexible architecture allows you to tailor migration workflows to your specific requirements, which means a customized and efficient migration experience, regardless of your migration size. 

Using the NetApp Shift Toolkit is future-proofing your infrastructure. As businesses increasingly evaluate multiple hypervisors, the ability to migrate VMs quickly between different platforms becomes essential. With the toolkit, you have the flexibility to move workloads to where your business needs them. 

VM migration is a critical aspect of modern IT infrastructure management, and NetApp delivers to help simplify and enhance this process, making your VM migrations efficient, cost effective, and reliable. 

Ready to revolutionize your VM migration process? Try NetApp Shift Toolkit simulator today.