SolarWinds VM-to-Cloud Calculator Review

SolarWinds Free VM-to-Cloud Calculator

What this calculator does is discover all of your virtual machines and then estimates the cost of migrating them to a cloud on Rackspace, or Windows Azure.  Since the SolarWinds VM-to-Cloud Calculator is free what have you to lose?  Get your download now.

Evaluation of VM-to-Cloud Freeware

• Getting Started With VM->to->Cloud
• VM-to-Cloud Calculator Video 
• Reasons for Switching to Cloud Computing
• Download Your Free Copy of VM-to-Cloud

The VM-> to-> Cloud calculator automatically takes stock of your virtual machines and provides an inventory of their CPU, memory, storage, and capture description.  From the results you get a comparison of the costs of switching to cloud servers at: Amazon EC2, Windows Azure, and Rackspace Cloud Servers.

As a bonus this free cloud migration calculator for VMware tool recalculates its estimates if you add more Virtual Machines to your network.

Getting Started With the VM->to->Cloud Tool

It’s interesting to just see what it would cost to switch to cloud computing.  Even if you are not migrating just yet this freeware utility will give you a baseline, which you could use later.

Installing the SolarWinds VM-to-Cloud software is straightforward, just provide IP address(es) of your VM servers,  and an administrator’s name and password.

The key to this gadget is read the screen showing how a VM instance would map to one of 3 cloud providers, Amazon EC2, Windows Azure or Rackspace.

Optionally, you could generate a report.  If you want more detail then upgrade to another SolarWinds product called Virtualization Monitor.

Reasons for Switching to Cloud Computing

Reduced Costs in the Long-term
Timing is the key to switching to cloud computing.  If your servers’ hardware is struggling because of recent increased capacity, then this could be the moment to try cloud computing.  However, if you have just bought a rack of new servers then this is not a good time for me to suggest that you ditch them!

Fewer IT Staff
If you are about to hire more techies, then why not switch to cloud and save those salaries.  Cloud services have numerous IT specialists who have seen every problem before, and are organized to patch the servers and spot problems before they impact the business.  In any case, they can just swap-in another virtual server at no cost to you.

Businesses with Seasonal Spikes
If you need extra capacity but only for about 30 days in a year, then the charge-by-use model used by cloud computing could be just what you need.  Expanding businesses should give cloud consideration, after all, what if they expansion is short lived? 

Finally, it’s obvious, but I have to mention it, having someone else to physically house your servers saves office space, and also fractionally reduces running costs such as electricity bills. Download Your Free Cloud Migration Calculator for VMware

Who is the VM-to-Cloud Calculator Designed For?

This free utility is designed for IT pros who are curious to estimate what it would cost to move their servers to the cloud.  The SolarWinds VM-to-Cloud calculator removes the need for back-of-envelope guesswork with just a few clicks you have an estimate of the cost to computing with Amazon EC2, Rackspace or Windows Azure.

VM-to-Cloud Calculator Video

The best way to evaluate this cloud calculator utility is to watch this YouTube clip.

Download your free copy of VM-to-Cloud Gadget

How to Install SolarWinds VM-to-Cloud Calculator

I found the hardest part of the install was remembering where I downloaded the zip file!  The rest was easy, I extracted the .msi file, clicked on the licence agreement, and let the install wizard perform the setup.

After the install completes, Calculator launches, and you are ready to begin.  Should you need find the application later look on the start menu, or if all else fails navigate to:

C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\VM2CloudCalculator\ 

Should you need to uninstall this cloud migration calculator for VMware, then go to the Control Panel, Programs, scroll down to ‘S’ for SolarWinds VM-to-Cloud.  It’s a sign of a good freeware program that it uninstalls easily and completely.

Recommendation: Click on the ‘Get Geeky’ tab.  Also visit the Thwack forum.

SEUM (Synthetic End User Monitor)

If you have a website then SEUM will enable you to analyze its performance from a customer’s point of view.  The idea is that once configured, the monitor will inform you if a web-based application is not performing within specified thresholds.

Synthetic End User Monitoring

At the front-end is a browser where you make a recording of the transactions just as a customer would.  At the back-end SQL analyzes the components of these web-based actions.  The SEUM monitor then presents you with a chain of events, any red dots highlight steps that take too long to complete.  See screenshot right.

• See more on SEUM
• Download your  VM-to-Cloud freeware
• VM-to-Cloud Thwack Forum
• See more on cloud computing.
• Cloud 9 or Windows 8?

Summary: Review of SolarWinds Free VM-to-Cloud Calculator

This free calculator finds all your virtual machines and then estimates the cost of migrating them to a cloud on Rackspace, or Windows Azure.  Since this VM-to-Cloud utility is free what have you to lose?  Get your download now.

Free and 30-day Trial Virtual Machine Software

Here are my recommendations for additional handy utilities.  Many of these downloads are free, while others are fully-functional, but time limited.  SolarWinds are happy to provide you with a free specialist tool, which is ideal for testing, and then supply a more comprehensive suite for larger organizations.  To let you into a secret, for small networks, the free tool is all you’ll ever need.

• Virtualization Manager  • SolarWinds Application Monitor  • Storage Response Time Manager

• VM Monitor  • User Device Tracker  • Free Network Bandwidth Monitor  • Free SNMP Tool

• VM-to-Cloud  • SolarWinds WMI Monitor  • LanSurveyor  • SolarWinds SIEM  • Home