Trilio – Powering OpenStack Data Protection and Workload Migration

Tiny Big Spark Newsletter: Trilio – Powering OpenStack Data Protection and Workload Migration

Welcome to the next edition of Tiny Big Spark, where we continue our series on the core components of our Canonical OpenStack cloud. Following our exploration of Pure Storage ActiveCluster’s performance revolution, we now turn to a critical pillar of our 40,000-core cloud: data protection and recovery. In OpenStack, where flexibility and scalability reign, ensuring the safety of cloud instances and enabling seamless workload migration are paramount. Trilio, the only native backup and recovery solution for OpenStack, stands alone in meeting these needs with unmatched simplicity and power. Let’s dive into why data recovery is vital for OpenStack, why Trilio is the go-to solution, and how it enables effortless workload migration across clouds.

The Importance of Data Recovery in OpenStack

OpenStack’s open-source architecture empowers organizations to build highly scalable, customizable cloud environments. However, with great power comes great responsibility—protecting your cloud instances from data loss, misconfigurations, or disasters is critical. Unlike traditional IT environments, OpenStack lacks a built-in backup and recovery solution, making third-party tools essential for ensuring business continuity.

Data loss in OpenStack can stem from human errors, hardware failures, cyberattacks, or even natural disasters. For industries like finance, where downtime can cost millions, or telecom, where network functions virtualization (NFV) demands constant availability, a robust recovery strategy is non-negotiable. Without it, organizations risk prolonged outages, regulatory non-compliance, and reputational damage.

Moreover, OpenStack’s multi-tenant, dynamic nature means workloads—like virtual machines (VMs), Cinder volumes, and network configurations—require comprehensive protection that captures both data and metadata. Traditional backup solutions, designed for static environments, struggle to meet OpenStack’s scalability and flexibility demands. This is where Trilio shines, offering a purpose-built, cloud-native solution that integrates seamlessly with OpenStack’s architecture.

Why Trilio? The Only Native Backup Solution for OpenStack

While solutions like Cohesity offer OpenStack data protection, they often rely on external integrations or legacy approaches that lack the native scalability and multi-tenancy of OpenStack. Trilio, by contrast, is the only backup and recovery platform designed from the ground up for OpenStack, delivering unmatched functionality for data protection and workload migration. Here’s why Trilio is the definitive choice:

• Native Integration with OpenStack
  TrilioVault, Trilio’s flagship product, operates like any other OpenStack service, leveraging native APIs to capture entire workloads—including VMs, Cinder volumes, security groups, network configurations, and metadata. Deployed via charms in Canonical’s Charmed OpenStack, Trilio integrates seamlessly with distributions like Red Hat, Mirantis, and Canonical, ensuring compatibility and ease of use.

• Agentless, Scalable Protection
  Unlike legacy solutions requiring intrusive agents, Trilio’s agentless design minimizes performance overhead and scales effortlessly with OpenStack’s limitless node capacity. It supports multi-tenant environments, allowing tenants to manage their own backups via a self-service UI, reducing IT workload and enhancing accessibility.

• One-Click Restore and Disaster Recovery
  Trilio enables rapid recovery with one-click restores, reconstructing entire workloads or individual components to their last known state. Its point-in-time snapshots ensure zero data loss, meeting stringent Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) critical for finance and telecom workloads.

• Flexible Storage Options
  Trilio is storage-agnostic, supporting NFS, S3-compatible storage, and on-premises or cloud-based repositories. This flexibility allows businesses to optimize costs while ensuring secure, scalable backups tailored to their infrastructure.

• Compliance and Security
  With encryption per application and immutable backups, Trilio addresses compliance needs for industries like finance. Its policy-based approach simplifies audits, proving data protection processes during regulatory reviews.

Trilio: Beyond Backup – Seamless Workload Migration Across OpenStack Clouds

Trilio’s capabilities extend far beyond data protection, offering powerful tools for migrating workloads between OpenStack clouds—a critical feature for operational flexibility, disaster recovery, and cost optimization. Whether moving workloads to new tenant workspaces, availability zones, or entirely different clouds, Trilio simplifies the process with cloud-native precision. Here’s how Trilio enables seamless migration:

• Intra-Cloud and Cross-Cloud Migration
  TrilioVault captures workloads in an incremental, forever open QCOW2 format, preserving data, metadata, and configurations such as network topology and security groups. Administrators can back up a workload from one tenant or availability zone and restore it to another with minimal configuration. For cross-cloud migration, Trilio allows tenants to migrate workloads to a different OpenStack cloud non-disruptively, supporting use cases like disaster recovery, test/dev, or cost-driven relocation. We managed to migrate our legacy cloud to a newer version with ease. We can showcase Trilio's cloud-to-cloud migration capability and use case.

• Selective Restore for Granular Control
  Trilio’s selective restore feature lets users choose specific VMs, volumes, or files to migrate, ensuring resource efficiency. For example, a pre-production workload can be hand-picked and moved to a production tenant, maintaining its original configuration. This granularity is ideal for load balancing or transitioning workloads between clouds.

• Transformation for Compatibility
  Migrating between clouds with different hardware or configurations can be challenging. Trilio’s transformation capabilities allow users to adjust storage classes, network settings, or other parameters during migration, resolving conflicts and ensuring compatibility. This feature is crucial for moving workloads from, say, an on-premises OpenStack cloud to a public cloud like AWS or Google Cloud.

• Automation and Integration
  Trilio integrates with cloud-native tools like Ansible, Heat templates, and OpenStack’s native APIs, enabling automated migration workflows. Its single-pane-of-glass UI simplifies management, allowing tenants to initiate migrations without deep technical expertise.

• Real-World Use Cases

  • Disaster Recovery: Migrate workloads to a secondary cloud to ensure continuity in the event of an outage.

  • Cost Optimization: Move workloads to a more cost-effective cloud or region.

  • Test/Dev Environments: Clone production workloads to test environments without impacting live systems.

  • Upgrade Support: Facilitate OpenStack upgrades by migrating workloads to a new release or distribution, minimizing downtime.

For detailed guidance on migrating VMs between OpenStack clouds, Trilio’s FAQ provides step-by-step instructions, emphasizing the use of its UI or CLI to capture and restore workloads across clouds.

Comparing Trilio to Alternatives

While Cohesity offers OpenStack data protection, it focuses on cost optimization and resiliency through external integrations, lacking Trilio’s native integration and workload migration capabilities. Cohesity’s approach is better suited for hybrid environments with mixed workloads, but it falls short in OpenStack’s multi-tenant, cloud-native context.

Trilio’s advantages include:

• OpenStack-Native Design: Built for OpenStack’s scalability and multi-tenancy, unlike Cohesity’s broader focus.

• Workload Migration: Trilio’s intra- and cross-cloud migration capabilities are unmatched.

• Simplified Management: Trilio’s self-service UI and automation reduce IT overhead compared to Cohesity’s more complex setup.

Benefits for Customers and Infrastructure Teams

For Customers:

• Uninterrupted Operations: One-click restores and disaster recovery ensure minimal downtime.

• Flexibility: Migrate workloads to optimize costs, test new environments, or recover from disasters.

• Compliance: Encryption and policy-based backups meet regulatory requirements.

For Infrastructure Teams:

• Simplified Management: Agentless design and native integration reduce complexity.

• Scalability: Trilio grows with your OpenStack cloud without performance degradation.

• Proactive Protection: Point-in-time snapshots and automation minimize risks during upgrades or migrations.

Looking Ahead: Trilio’s Role in Our OpenStack Future

As our OpenStack cloud evolves, Trilio remains a cornerstone of our data protection and mobility strategy. Its ability to safeguard mission-critical workloads while enabling seamless migration empowers our customers to innovate without fear of data loss or operational constraints. By integrating with our observability, security, and networking modules, Trilio ensures our cloud remains resilient, compliant, and future-proof.

In the next Tiny Big Spark, we’ll explore our observability module, sharing how we ensure that our workload and the cloud's state are operational and ready for business every day.

Conclusion: A Tiny Big Spark for Resilience and Mobility

Trilio is more than a backup solution—it’s a catalyst for OpenStack success. By delivering native data protection and effortless workload migration, Trilio empowers our 40,000-core cloud to meet the demands of finance, telecom, and beyond. This tiny spark of innovation ignites a massive impact, ensuring our customers’ data is secure and their workloads are mobile. Stay tuned for more insights as we continue to shape the future of our OpenStack cloud!

That’s it! Keep innovating and stay inspired! If you think your colleagues and friends would find this content valuable, we’d love it if you shared our newsletter with them!

PROMO CONTENT

Can email newsletters make money?

With the world becoming increasingly digital, this question will be on the minds of millions of people looking for new income streams in 2025.

The answer is—Absolutely!

That’s it for this episode!

Thank you for taking the time to read today’s email! Your support allows me to send out this newsletter for free every day. 

 What do you think for today’s episode? Please provide your feedback in the poll below.

Share the newsletter with your friends and colleagues if you find it valuable.

Disclaimer: The "Tiny Big Spark" newsletter is for informational and educational purposes only, not a substitute for professional advice, including financial, legal, medical, or technical. We strive for accuracy but make no guarantees about the completeness or reliability of the information provided. Any reliance on this information is at your own risk. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect any organization's official position. This newsletter may link to external sites we don't control; we do not endorse their content. We are not liable for any losses or damages from using this information.