TurnKey Linux brings speedy, small-scale migration to the cloud

TurnKey Linux has unveiled a system-level backup and restore system called TurnKey Linux Backup and Migration (TKLBAM) that aims to add a level of flexibility to cloud computing. Powered by the Amazon S3 storage cloud, the system brings speed, smarts, and automation to backups, restores, and migration in the cloud — at least on a limited scale.

Flexibility is one of cloud computing’s biggest selling points. Users have access to the resources they want, whenever they want, from wherever they are. That’s the theory, anyway. For that to work, the far-flung systems behind the cloud curtain need to function in tandem — with as little human interference as possible — to ensure that processes and data are in sync and always available.

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TKLBAM, its creators boast, delivers a level of flexibility and smarts to make fast, automated backups, restores, and even migrations possible. On the fly, you can move systems and data to and from the TurnKey Hub. “Fully automating the backup and restore process makes it practical for the first time to easily test backups ‘in the cloud’ and to migrate full systems (e.g., servers) anywhere in minutes,” writes Liraz Siri, co-founder of TurnKey Linux.

The system isn’t just fast, Siri asserts; it requires zero configuration, which is a difficult claim to fully believe. He says the system “just magically knows what to backup and, just as importantly, what not to backup, to create super efficient, encrypted backups of changes to files, databases, package management state, even users and groups.”

To demonstrate his claim, Siri has posted a video of TKLBAM in action. With a couple of keystrokes, he installs two instances of TKLBAM — one on his laptop, dubbed Alpha, and one on an Amazon EC2 instance, dubbed Beta — launched from the TurnKey Hub. With a few more keystrokes, he backs up the entire 86MB TurnKey website, then migrates it fully to the previously empty Amazon EC2 instance. Within moments, he has a functioning backup version of the website.

The caveat: TurnKey may be overstating the system’s ability to function as a cloud-migration solution. For starters, although the aforementioned demo may be impressive, one wonders how well the system would handle several gigabytes’ worth of data.

Further, for the time being, the system does not support other public clouds outside of Amazon’s or any private clouds. Support for private Hub instances (such as behind the firewall in a private cloud) may be a future feature, Siri speculates — and larger organizations will likely require it before embracing the solution.

Achieving enterprise-level, data-center-oriented backup and migration is a huge challenge, one that has yet to be fully achieved. VMware has taken a step toward managing multitenant private clouds with vCloud Director, which lets you create “virtual data centers,” service catalogs, and “organizations” (tenants). Said tenants can provision services from the catalog and allocate CPU, storage, and networks for tenants to use.

TKLBAM looks promising for smaller-scale deployments and may evolve into something the enterprise can embrace. The company is accepting requests for invitations to use the new system. For more information, go the TurnKey website.

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