Virtual machine and application movement over a wide area network

A network device comprising:

• at least one local network port for connection to a second network containing a second server to receive a first virtual machine to be migrated from a first server connected to a first network;
• at least one wide area network port for connection to a wide area network to receive data related to the first virtual machine for provision to the second server;
• a local termination module coupled to said at least one local network port to locally terminate a TCP session with the second server for migrating the first virtual machine and to interact with and establish a session with a remote termination module locally terminating said TCP session for the first server;
• a caching module coupled to said local termination module for caching data relating to the first virtual machine;
• a data compaction engine coupled to said caching module to restore the data relating to the first virtual machine;
• and
• a transmission module coupled to said data compaction engine and to said at least one wide area network port for receiving data relating to the first virtual machine from the wide area network and providing the received data to said data compaction engine,
• wherein said local termination module, said caching module, said data compaction engine and said transmission module cooperate to migrate the first virtual machine from the first server to the second server over the wide area network without migration timeouts at either of the first or second servers.

A network comprising:

• a first local network device;
• and
• a second remote network device,
• wherein said first local network device includes:
• at least one local network port for connection to a first network containing a first virtual machine to be migrated from a first server;
• at least one local wide area network port for connection to a wide area network to provide the first virtual machine to a second server connected to a second network;
• a first local termination module coupled to said at least one local network port to locally terminate a TCP session with the first server for migrating the first virtual machine and to interact with and establish a session with a second local termination module locally terminating said TCP session for the second server;
• a local caching module coupled to said first local termination module for caching data relating to the first virtual machine;
• a local data compaction engine coupled to said local caching module to reduce the size of data relating to the first virtual machine;
• and
• a local transmission module coupled to said local data compaction engine and to said at least one local wide area network port for providing data relating to the first virtual machine to the wide area network,
• wherein said second remote network device includes:
• at least one remote network port for connection to the second network containing the second server to receive the first virtual machine to be migrated from the first server connected to the first network;
• at least one remote wide area network port for connection to a wide area network to receive data related to the first virtual machine for provision to the second server;
• a second local termination module coupled to said at least one remote network port to locally terminate a TCP session with the second server for migrating the first virtual machine and to interact with and establish a session with the first local termination module locally terminating said TCP session for the first server;
• a remote caching module coupled to said second local termination module for caching data relating to the first virtual machine;
• a remote data compaction engine coupled to said remote caching module to restore the data relating to the first virtual machine;
• and
• a remote transmission module coupled to said remote data compaction engine and to said at least one remote wide area network port for receiving data relating to the first virtual machine from the wide area network and providing the received data to said remote data compaction engine, and
• wherein said first local termination module, said local caching module, said local data compaction engine, said local transmission module, said second local termination module, said remote caching module, said remote data compaction engine and said remote transmission module cooperate to migrate the first virtual machine from the first server to the second server over the wide area network without migration timeouts at either of the first or second servers.

A method comprising:

• receiving data related to migrating a first virtual machine from a first server connected to a first network to a second server connected to a second network;
• locally terminating, with a first local termination module, a TCP session with the first server for migrating the first virtual machine and interacting with and establishing a session with a second local termination module locally terminating said TCP session for the second server;
• caching locally the data relating to the first virtual machine;
• reducing locally the size of data relating to the first virtual machine after caching locally;
• transmitting locally the locally reduced data relating to the first virtual machine to a wide area network;
• locally terminating, with a second local termination module, a TCP session with the second server for migrating the first virtual machine and interacting with and establishing a session with the first local termination module locally terminating said TCP session for the first server;
• caching remotely data relating to the first virtual machine;
• restoring remotely the data relating to the first virtual machine;
• receiving remotely data relating to the first virtual machine from the wide area network and providing the received data for restoration locally;
• and
• providing the received data relating to the first virtual machine to the second server,
• wherein locally terminating with the first and second local termination modules, caching locally, reducing locally, transmitting to the wide area network, caching remotely, restoring remotely and receiving from the wide area network cooperate to migrate the first virtual machine from the first server to the second server over the wide area network without migration timeouts at either of the first or second servers.