Rarely do you meet a person who says, “I like to work on and solve tough automation challenges.” Usually, we pick the easy way. But there’s always somebody who likes to take the road less traveled. Nigel Stokes, Founder, President and CEO of AppZero, is a person whose business history illustrates his fondness to work on and solve tough automation challenges.
During his 30 years in the business, Nigel founded and led several software companies to public success. The best example is DataMirror, which he sold to IBM after successfully running the real-time data replication company for more than a decade as a public company. DataMirror has now become the core of IBM’s real-time data replication architecture.
Making Modernization Easier with AppZero
The AppZero solution is all you need to simplify Windows Server application migration. AppZero has successfully completed thousands of Windows Server 2003 migrations for hundreds of Fortune 500 companies. Companies like Glaxo, Merck, TD Bank, CIBC, MetLife, and Clorox have depended on AppZero to migrate from WS2000 and WS2003 onto modern Windows Server platforms.
AppZero provides software products and services that help customers automate the modernization and migration of legacy Windows Server applications from WS2000, WS2003, and WS2008 to modern operating systems like WS2012 and WS2016, or to a private or public Cloud platform such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS.
The solution supports any Cloud infrastructure you want to move to or from. It lets you move legacy WS2003 applications to a new OS and run them natively on Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, IBM Softlayer, or the Google Cloud. Skip the virtual machines and avoid cloud lock-in. AppZero sets its customers free to move from cloud to cloud, the way they want.
A hard stop for extended support for WS2003 is looming in July 2018. Customers want to move away from WS2003 to address compliance issues, IT audit concerns, and reduce WS2003-specific security exposures presented by malware such as WannaCry and Petya. However, app modernization is more than a WS2003 problem – it’s a rolling upgrade problem. Many leading companies are planning moves from WS2008 and even WS2012 to take advantage of Windows Containers and other disruptive innovations offered only on WS2016.
Nigel says, “I’ve witnessed how painful it is for IT departments to modernize and migrate legacy Windows platforms. Often, the original developers of old legacy applications have left the company; install scripts are missing or won’t run on new OS servers. Each install is unique and each environment presents unique issues. The complexity, effort, and cost involved in manually modernizing servers and apps present a staggering problem. What’s clear to me is that customers need help migrating the millions of applications that their business depends on – not just from WS2003, but as they move forward to modernize future Windows Server platforms. AppZero is here to help.”
What’s AppZero’s secret sauce? No other vendor can automate the up-leveling of legacy applications to a new Windows Server OS version. AppZero’s solution intelligently discovers applications and then leverages proprietary containers to dynamically separate an application and its dependencies from an OS. Once a migration is done, an AppZero container can be dissolved so that the application looks and behaves like a native install on the new Windows system.
Each Customer is Unique and Important
Each customer and each client environment is unique. Each Windows Server application is different, as is each customer policy for Windows Server management. In a landscape of uniqueness and complexity, building an automation product that solves application idiosyncrasies and management practices in an intelligent way offers a one-of-a-kind solution that saves customers tons of time and money.
Getting Smarter with Each Migration
“Success comes from hard work and learning,” asserts Nigel. The harder the AppZero team works, the better they can provide solutions to customers. It’s really important to understand the customers’ pain points and work hard to provide a solution that’s unique in its field and saves time, effort, and money in diverse environments and fields. With each migration, the AppZero team learns; its software learns too and becomes smarter.
Rapid growth presents challenges and learning how to grow fast isn’t easy. However, AppZero has always been eager for challenges. The company is working on new ways to provide even greater value to the customers, expanding beyond application migration into sophisticated application monitoring and analysis for enhanced intelligence. “Our work and yours never ends – there are always new versions of Windows Server to support, new features like Windows Containers on WS2016 that we complement. New ideas and innovations are how we create the future together,” adds Nigel.
Advice from Nigel Stokes for the Younger Generation
Listen to your prospects and customers. Work closely with them. Understand their business pain points and problems and offer real solutions. Find ways to help your customers do more work, of higher quality, for less effort and cost.
You don’t need to be the first in a market. You do need to be the best, fastest, and cheapest. And remember that if there are challenges and frustrations, it’s a sign that you’re learning.
To learn more, visit the website of AppZero at www.appzero.com
