Skytap, provider of a global public service purpose-built for migrating and running traditional applications in the cloud, has announced a new collaboration with Microsoft to bring its purpose-built cloud service for legacy applications, including IBM POWER-based solutions, to Microsoft Azure. The service will provide support for heterogeneous application stacks, including native support for POWER workloads running on AIX, IBM i, and Linux. Skytap will preview its service on a new class of Microsoft Azure bare metal this year.
Through this collaboration, Skytap's service on Microsoft Azure will provide enterprises with a platform to enhance the value of traditional applications without the major expense of re-platforming. Skytap is providing a preview of the potential offered by migrating a legacy IBM i application using DB2 on Skytap and augmenting it with Azure IoT Hub. Accordins to the company, the application spans old and new architectures, demonstrating there is no need to completely rewrite rock solid IBM i applications to benefit from modern cloud capabilities.
"Migrating to the cloud by first replacing older technologies is time consuming and risky. Skytap's goal has always been to provide businesses with a path to get these systems into the cloud with little change and less risk. Working with Microsoft, we will bring Skytap's native support for a wide range of legacy applications to Microsoft Azure, including those dependent on IBM i, AIX, and Linux on Power. This will give businesses the ability to extend the life of traditional systems and increase their value by modernizing with Azure services," said Brad Schick, CEO, Skytap.
As Power-based applications are modernized, the adoption of CI/CD toolchains will accelerate software delivery, a critical component for staying competitive. Thirty-one percent of respondents in Skytap's annual usage survey indicated an agile development initiative lead them to Skytap. Skytap customers have indicated that their most commonly used developer tooling includes Visual Studio. After moving to Skytap on Azure customers will be able to integrate Azure DevOps, in addition to CI/CD toolchains for Power such as Eradani and UrbanCode.
For more information regarding the Skytap Limited Preview program once available, email contactus@skytap.com.