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Top 6 Web Hosts Who are Riding the Cloud

Art — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 10:09:54 +0000

We’ve focused a lot in this column about how popular cloud hosting is becoming. We haven’t yet talked much about where you might want to go if you are interested in a good cloud host. It’s about time we attended to this oversight. Below are some of the best cloud-based hosts that we were able to find.

A bit of explanation regarding our methodology is in order. Back in the good old days when we wanted to make a web host comparison it wasn’t that hard. Look at disk space, bandwidth, price, speed and customer service, and you were more or less golden.

Cloud computing, though, has made everything complicated. Trying to measure how effective a host is at using these new ideas is far more complex than just plugging amounts into a formula. So, in our list below, we’re letting instinct be our guide. The numbers are still important, no doubt. Just as important, though, are intangibles like how secure and developed their network feels, how much confidence we have in their expertise, how thought out their offerings seem to be, and so forth. This is still a young technology, so reading between the lines is key.

Taking it all into account, this is where our noses lead us:

TerreMark

The one problem that you could have in registering a cloud hosting account with TerreMark is that you might need to whip out your calculator. Their vCloud Express services are charged on a basis of services used per hour. This is actually becoming more common in the hosting industry. As they pull from a communal set of resources, the needs of cloud users can fluctuate wildly. Still, you shouldn’t feel dumb if you can’t determine off the top of your head whether you need a single VPU with 1.5GB of memory at $0.108 per hour or a double VPU at $0.126 per hour.

Let’s get past the algebra problem, though, to see that this means that they are extremely customizable. If that doesn’t prove it, the fact that their accounts offer an unbelievable 450 different operating system variants should. We just get a really good feeling looking at these guys. Their services look powerful and feel just inexpensive enough to be real.

Rackspace

When we talked above about how we are taking the host’s reputation into account, this is an example of what we meant. Rackspace is a long-established, well-respected web host. They automatically get a little benefit of the doubt when introducing new services.

In this case it seems well earned. Rackspace uses multiple cloud technologies to offer hosting, file storage and load balancing. Keeping to the article topic and focusing on the first item, they also bill most services hourly, but at least are kind enough to include a pricing app on their web site. Among their features are the ability to maintain your cloud easily using iToys of all kinds, a bootable rescue mode and pay-per-use utility pricing.

Joyent

Advertising their services as “100% uptime reliability, Any App, Any OS, Any Time” can make one rightly suspicious that they might just be stretching it a bit. They have the studies to back them up, though. Just about everyone is taking on Amazon’s EC2 cloud technology. Joyent does so with a slam dunk, posting detailed surveys showing that their services are 2 to 14 times faster than EC2 depending on the operating system and service being measured. It should be noted that among their operating systems supported is SmartOS, a rare distribution of the almost-as-rare Solaris kernel.

Joyent offers a few software packages that indicate that they are playing to the expert webmaster. If you are one, then you might be interested in their support of Percona, an optimized MySQL variant, and Zeus SmartMachine, an application delivery controller that performs a number of efficiency fixes on software without any need for custom coding.

StratoGen

For a lot of the above hosts we’ve focused on pricing. It may seem strange, then, that for this recommendation we are going with a host that will quote you a price for their services upon application. Whereas in many industries that might be the sign of a sham, we don’t feel that at all from StratoGen.

This company explains in great detail the technical benefits of their use of VMware vSphere 4.1 cloud hosting technology. They offer four levels of hosting from fully unmanaged to fully managed. Just about everything that a host can make redundant they have, with multiple data centers, off site replication targets and RAID-based data storage. They go all in with their uptime guarantee as well: 100% or your money back.

GoGrid

There’s no service we found that had so many cloud hosting services to offer and yet made them so easy to understand. Even their hybrid hosting accounts, where they combine features of traditional hosting with cloud add-ons of the user’s specification, were easy to comb through, with example configurations listed. They also offer preset packages if you don’t feel like doing math, though they have a huge array of add-ons for all accounts types.

We normally arch an eyebrow if the host’s presentation of their services is too flashy, but in all areas in which we went through their offerings, GoGrid put real thought into how to create customizable solutions on just about all levels, right up to 16-core CPU clouds. Given that they have the guts to post a comparison chart against both Amazon and Rackspace’s offerings, it’s hard to not to suggest that they’re worth a look.

ReliaCloud

If even that seems a bit much, though, and you just want to start with something that’s as simple to choose as possible, it doesn’t get much more so than ReliaCloud. It’ll take about 10 seconds to fill out their form in which you specify your operating system, bandwidth needed and a few other items, and are given a monthly rate. After ordering, your cloud server is online in under a minute. Their services don’t seem to suffer from this simplicity, with free load balancing, hardware-based firewall and an easy-to-use web portal.

Their support section includes video tutorials for those who need real hand holding. Again, don’t feel bad if you do. With the cloud, quite a lot of us are discovering that we have more education ahead.

HP Awarded NASA Cloud Hosting Contract

Art — Fri, 20 May 2011 00:40:26 +0000

HP recently announced that its enterprise services unit was awarded $2.5 billion in a newly drafted contract with NASA. The deal is for a fixed price and will require HP to provide user desktop services that will improve the efficiency at NASA while allowing employees to easily communicate ideas across a secure computing environment. The contract is set for four years with two, three year optional extension periods.

Upgrading NASA’s Entire Infrastructure

This project will be a consolidated end-user program in which HP will upgrade NASA’s entire infrastructure through the deliverance of a suite of computing services and devices to over 60,000 end-users. The process will require HP to provide, maintain and manage a variety of computing options, an advanced level of customer support and connect all NASA facilities in the United States to improve productivity and implement cost savings.

Focusing on Security

The cellular seat and computing services will be designed with a focus on security and collaboration to allow all NASA employees to share information in a safe and reliable environment.

Evolving NASA’s Information Technology

According the to the Senior Vice President and General Manager of HP Enterprise Services, this contract will assist with the evolution of NASA’s information technology platform and centralize and infrastructure allowing for agency-wide availability and a significant improvement in security and manageability. HP will utilize its industry knowledge to support this transition as easily and seamlessly as possible.

Incorporating Smaller Businesses

HP will be working in conjunction with numerous smaller businesses to ensure NASA’s small business participation guidelines are met and enforced. This contract will be developed and managed by the NASA Shared Services Center in Stennis, Mississippi and will become functional across all NASA facilities in the United States.

The Development of OpenStack

This is not the first information technology project given to an outside company. This past July 2010, NASA partnered with Rackspace, a popular web hosting provider, to develop OpenStack, an open-source cloud platform created to guide an emergence of technology standardization and interoperability within the cloud. The platform integrates technology used in powering the NASA Nebula Cloud Platform.

Since HP is a leading developer of innovative computing technology, they will greatly assist some of the top scientists, engineers and experts in the world. With a high performing, centralized, visible computing space, information will be transferred quicker and more efficiently thus allow for the quicker development of ideas.

Rackspace Cloud Powers WWDC 2009

Art — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:01:54 +0000

Last week, Rackspace’s cloud hosting solution helped to deliver live blog coverage of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2009. Hosted at blog site live.gdgt.com, the robust platform easily handled 4.7 million page views in under two hours.

Ryan Block, live.gdgt.com co-founder, was able to present a real-world demonstration on the power and value of cloud computing through his blog using Rackspace’s Cloud Sites solution. With the help of his photographer, he was able to simultaneously capture and upload images in real-time to the Cloud Files service, which is automatically integrated into the site. This activity all took place while serving an estimated 656 page views per second to worldwide viewers with minimal cost and hassle.

Mr. Block said the Rackspace Cloud enabled his team to quickly iterate and scale their live coverage without needing to make major investments in hardware or operations. He says that the Rackspace support staff went above and beyond to help prepare for the event, providing essential input and attentiveness to maintain availability despite the unbelievably heavy traffic load.

The Cloud Sites solutions sells for $100 per month while Cloud Files is available on a pay-as-you-go basis with service starting at $0.15 per GB of data. With Cloud Files, customers have the option of serving content files leveraging the Limelight Networks CDN (content delivery network) in real-time without any extra efforts and only paying for what they need. Rackspace customers also get the benefit of 24/7 Fanatical Support for any questions of concerns they may have about their hosting account at no additional cost.

The approximate cost difference between the DIY hosting approach opposed to deploying Cloud Sites or Cloud Files for this type of event portrays the cost benefits of cloud computing. Physical space, hardware, software and management costs for a state of the art data center capable of handling such a traffic load would cost tens of thousands of dollars. When utilizing Rackspace’s cloud solutions, it is likely to only cost a couple hundred dollars.

The Rackspace Cloud delivers on-demand website, application and storage hosting backed by some of the best support in the industry. Through a suite of cloud solutions in Cloud Sites, Cloud Files and Cloud Servers, the Rackspace Cloud gives knowledgeable IT managers and developers the ability to reduce the high-cost investments and hassles associated with dedicated hardware, all while allowing them to easily scale their hosting resources.

About Rackspace

A leader in the industry of hosting services, Rackspace Hosting is changing the way businesses around the world approach their IT operations. The company provides a number of solutions including computing-as-a-service, incorporating the latest innovations into a highly flexible offering that makes computing more reliable and affordable. Rackspace specializes in solutions that enable businesses and IT teams to be more efficient. Distinguished by its award-winning Fanatical Support, the company continues on its mission be one of the best service providers in the world. The Rackspace portfolio includes a number of hosted IT services such as Managed Hosting, Cloud hosting, email and application hosting.

Do Small Businesses Realize the Benefits of Cloud Hosting?

Art — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:24:20 +0000

A recent survey conducted by internal resources at Rackspace show that medium sized businesses are reaping more of the benefits of cloud hosting while most small businesses are missing out. According to the survey, 57% of medium sizes businesses in the U.S. claim to be aware of cloud hosting with 53% echoing the same sentiments in the U.K. The survey hints that smaller companies are either confused about the advantages of cloud hosting or not familiar with the technology in general. Although more organizations have come to realize the benefits, it looks as if this critical business segment is still in the dark.

Lew Moorman, Chief Strategy Officer at Rackspace Hosting, notes that he is surprised more small businesses are not taking advantage of the cloud services currently available. Moorman says that while relatively new, cloud is a proven technology with the ability to suit the needs of businesses of all sizes. Even more surprising is that nearly 60% of the survey respondents in the both the U.S. and U.K. reported having no plans to utilize cloud hosting in the future.

Executives at Rackspace believe most small businesses are shying away from the technology because they don’t completely understand the benefits it offers over traditional hosting solutions. While all that might be true, another reason small organizations may be eluding the cloud is because they feel it is a cost prohibitive solution. After all, new technologies often are. If small businesses knew there was a way to enjoy scalability and cost efficiency, they would probably be more intrigued by the concept of cloud hosting. Ironically enough, Rackspace has the answer with its hybrid hosting solution.

The Rackspace Cloud

Rackspace’s hybrid hosting solution is compromised is three core elements:

Cloud Sites – As the company’s flagship cloud solution, Cloud Sites offer a scalable platform designed for supporting huge traffic spikes on a pay as you go basis. The environment is cross-platform, compatible with both Linux and Windows systems.

Cloud Files - This is Rackspace’s web-based storage service that provides developers with instant access to an enterprise-class infrastructure that improves scalability. Through its partnership with Limelight Networks, Rackspace gives developers the ability to distribute content to millions of users across the world all while reducing upfront investment and IT-related costs. This service comes with an industry leading SLA and competitive pricing model with storage starting from $0.15 per GB and bandwidth from $0.22 per GB.

Cloud Servers – The latest in Rackspace’s cloud hosting solution, Cloud Servers is set to provide server capacity to businesses of all sizes at their request. This solution will leverage powerful technology developed by Slicehost, a company Rackspace recently acquired. Known for its Xen virtualization software, Slicehost will stay on for the project and develop new innovative features in conjunction with the creative initiatives of Rackspace.

Rackspace is a global leader in web hosting solutions. Aside from its cloud technology, the provider also specializes in managed dedicated servers and email hosting. The company is well known for its award-winning Fanatical Support and recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the best 100 companies to work for in the U.S.

Web Hosting Geeks' Blog » Rackspace

Top 6 Web Hosts Who are Riding the Cloud

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