Described is a technology by which a circuit, such as one incorporated into a USB-like cable, couples a client computing device to a server computing device. The circuit outputs identification information to each computing device to indicate that the circuit corresponds to a type of hardware device, (e.g., a CD-ROM player) and an attribute (e.g., a migration cable). The circuit then allows the communication of data between the first computing device and the second computing device. For example, the server recognizes the migration cable attribute and can emulate the CD-ROM device recognized by the client, whereby the server may provide data including software code to the client computing device by emulating the CD-ROM device. Via the software code, the client computing device is bootstrapped to recognize that it is connected to the server instead of the hardware device. Data may then be migrated from the client to the server.