This article was originally written by Avanade alum Gaurav Aggarwal.

The article was co-authored by Brad Schick, CEO of Skytap.

Migrating to the cloud can be a daunting challenge for businesses around the world that rely on IBM Power applications. It’s a challenge our clients often have to face; just the thought of re-platforming or rearchitecting legacy applications for the cloud can be enough to stop a digital transformation initiative in its tracks.

We’re pleased to announce that we’re partnering with Skytap, a cloud service that enables traditional systems, including IBM i and AIX on IBM Power, to run natively in Azure. Combining the Skytap platform and Avanade’s unrivalled experience in the Azure ecosystem gives organizations a better way to migrate even the most complex legacy applications to the cloud, quickly, easily, and affordably.

Together, we believe the collaboration between our two organizations will allow businesses with traditional applications to escape aging data centers and unlock innovation.

Many organizations that rely on business-critical apps running on IBM hardware have been stymied in their efforts to embrace digital transformation by the difficulty of migrating those applications to the cloud. The Avanade Skytap partnership is a game-changer. Together we’re helping clients to maximize cloud value by simplifying both migration and modernization.

If you aren’t familiar with Skytap, let me tell you a bit about them. Skytap provides complete cloud-based application environments that are compatible with on-premises data centers, including those natively running AIX, IBM i, and Linux on Power workloads. Skytap makes it possible to quickly and cost effectively migrate existing systems to Azure without the need to re-architect or re-platform. Avanade’s unsurpassed Microsoft and Azure expertise will help organizations maximize the benefits of migrating traditional applications to the cloud, implement modern software development practices and integrate new technologies and capabilities with their legacy applications.

Through this collaboration, the route to cloud and its benefits becomes simpler:

• Enable agile development – Legacy data centers and applications don’t often lend themselves to modern software development practices and rapid iteration. Migration to the cloud allows companies to move faster and become more adaptable. With Skytap and Avanade, enterprises can bring new innovation to legacy, business-critical IBM applications.
• Reduce cost and CAPEX – Moving workloads to the cloud can significantly reduce hardware acquisition and maintenance costs. Organizations can lower or eliminate CAPEX for AS/400, AIX and legacy iSeries and pSeries, while ensuring that applications run on the most up-to-date hardware. Pay-as-you-go pricing can help to reduce overall infrastructure costs at a time when agility and elasticity has never been more important.
• Support digital transformation – Migrating applications to the cloud opens up a multitude of options for organizations to become more flexible and innovative. Once your applications are in Skytap, Avanade can help you modernize them to take advantage of advanced Azure features like AI, machine learning and advanced analytics.
• Increase speed to market – Migrating to the cloud allows enterprises to speed up development cycles and decrease time to market. Skytap and Avanade can help you take advantage of modern practices and capabilities such as DevOps, CI/CD and increased automation and cloud optimization to make your business more nimble and responsive to customer needs.
• Get more Robust Disaster Recovery - Restrictions on movement thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic make disaster recovery more complicated. Enterprises need to rethink their disaster recovery plans when employees may not be able to visit physical locations. Skytap provides cloud-based disaster recovery solutions that provide flexibility and ensure business continuity.

To learn more about this partnership and Avanade and Skytap’s solution for migrating IBM Power workloads to Azure, contact Avanade or visit Skytap.