Our client Outernet has come up with a real-time messaging grid through a “true” push API solution called Beacon.   The service, now in beta, is targeted to launch within a month’s time or so.

Mike Keen, founder of Outernet, recently put forward some ideas we found interesting about The Cloud and the SaaS market in a post titled ”The Cloud: Marketing vs. Developer Vision.”  He submits that The Cloud is all about scalability and control in real time, with pay-as-you-go pricing and unwavering SLA’s underpinning everything.  To this we say Amen…in particular because this is what we’re delivering on managed physical servers with our Dedicated Cloud solution.

Mike lets everyone know in the post that they’re “huge fans” of our Dedicated Cloud…thanks!, and we really like you guys too.  We do however have to take issue with one angle brought up in Mike’s post.  He promotes the value of developers delivering new services and applications as the future – while somewhat downplaying the value of the infrastructure on which the developers develop and deliver.

As we’d put forward at the beginning of the year in a release, companies are looking at the Software-as-a-Service model more seriously than ever as a way to maximize capital efficiencies and streamline IT resources. In turn, SaaS providers will require infrastructure platforms like our Dedicated Cloud. According to Tier1 Research senior analyst Antonio Piraino in his “Fall 2008 Managed Hosting & Cloud Computing II” report, Infrastructure-as-a-Service providers “should be seen as fostering the SaaS ecosystem, bringing more SaaS plays to market quicker. As these SaaS providers mature there is value to moving infrastructure over to a managed hoster: higher levels of support, consulting, control over deployment, security and network.”

So here’s our take: SaaS is indeed where it’s at, but SaaS development will happen best – or only – through partnerships with cloud infrastructure providers who demonstrate an ability to deliver reliable physical computing resources and the automation necessary to deliver just-in-time flexibility. IOW, the future of software development is SaaS, and the future of SaaS depends on Infrastructure-as-a-Service.  We’re in it together.

So as my first official blogging act as a StrataScaler, I thought I’d take a crack at answering a question I get asked a lot these days: What is cloud computing? I suppose that the reason I get asked this so often is because the term “cloud” has taken on a life of it’s own. It seems like a lot of vendors are re-badging their offerings by sticking the term “cloud” in front or after their original product names, hoping to catch a ride on the next big wave of rapid technology adoption. It’s a shame really, because there are a lot of innovative companies out there that are making significant progress toward delivering on the value proposition inherent to cloud computing. So in an effort to help clear the air, I’d like to offer a simple definition of cloud computing. Here goes:

• The ability to provision and decommission computing resources in real-time
• Coupled with a pay-per-use pricing model that ensures that the customer only pays for what they use when they use it

That’s it. I realize that this definition may be over-simplistic for some of our readers, and so to those looking for a more robust taxonomy I would refer you to Tier1’s recent research study “Cloud Infrastructure Services II: Here Come the Heavyweights.” In this study Antonio Piraino provides an excellent and  detailed description of cloud computing that I believe will satisfy those of you looking for a more thorough grounding in the nuances of the cloud computing landscape. For most of you, including the casual observer look for a quick and easy litmus test, my brief definition above will do just fine. Let’s take a closer look at each of these components of our simple definition.

Provisioning Computing Resources in Real-Time

Let’s break down this first part of our cloud computing definition, and let me begin by defining the term “computing resources”. It’s one of those terms that gets thrown around a lot, but may not be so clear to some readers. So for the purposes of our discussion, computing resources consists of the following:

• Processing power (also referred to as CPU capacity)
• Memory
• Storage

These computing resources do not necessarily need to be presented to the user in any direct way. Think of a SaaS offering. The software solution is leased by the customer and processing power, memory and storage are items that are never discussed or presented. The assumption from the customer’s perpective is that the software will be there whenever the customer needs it, and the SaaS provider handles all the dirty details of computing resource allocation behind the scenes.

Provisioning in Real-Time

Provisioning in real-time is the ability to request more computing resources when you need it, and then relinquishing those resources when you no longer need them. For some clouds this requires the developer to make a formal request for more computing resources through a command console, command line or programmatically through an API. In other clouds the requests are made for you behind the scenes based on your level of interaction with the platform. Regardless of the cloud or method, resources are dynamically allocated to you in the instant that you need them, and then just as quickly relinquished when you are through with them.

Pay as You Go Pricing Model

An inherent characteristic of the cloud is the notion of pricing fairness. After years of over-paying for computing resources in order to handle peek capacity scenarios, only to see those investments languish mostly unused in ever-crowded data centers, CIOs and IT organizations around the world were attracted to the cloud because of a simple yet powerful value proposition: pay as you go and only for what you use. Scalability and the pay-as-you-go pricing model are inexorably intertwined. The ability to scale in the face of overwhelming demand can be a life-saver, that is until you get the bill and realize that that short burst of computing demand carried a heavy and ongoing price tag. And a pay-as-you-go pricing model is meaningless without the ability to adjust your usage (i.e. scale up or scale down) in the face of variable computing demand.

I hope that you found this short description of cloud computing helpful. In my next posting we’ll explore the different types and classes of clouds available in the market today, and explore methods for choosing the cloud that is best for you. In the meantime, if you have any questions or feedback please feel free to comment on this posting and I’ll be happy to respond.

Regards,

Dave Geada
Vice President of Marketing
StrataScale
www.stratascale.com

Visitors to our booth are really appreciating two things: 1) our Dedicated Cloud offering and 2) our real-time provisioning and on-demand control of entire physical server environments.

Here’s what our booth at Interop NY looked like…

Our IronScale managed server hosting service now features auto failover for VMware ESX.

Why is failover important? Well, can you afford any IT downtime? You probably cannot and experiencing any would likely be very painful for your business.

Rather than taking your chances by doing nothing on one end of the spectrum or overspending on duplicating and clustering servers, OS licenses, and engineering resources on the other, our auto failover services mean that you can very economically ensure uptime and enjoy peace of mind.

Why is this news? The StrataScale difference with IronScale auto failover, is that we’re failing over your entire environment from one physical server automatically to another physical server – for high security in addition to high availability.

StrataScale is the only hosting company offering automated physical server failover. The new VMware ESX failover feature joins the standard IronScale auto failover for Linux and Windows servers so that any or all OS bases are covered with us. What clients get is unparalleled, affordable, secure, automated availability, so they won’t have to worry about server downtime.

It works like this: say you have a failure in the middle of the night and no one is around. No worries, IronScale failover automatically swaps servers, and just like that, your IT is safe and sound and your business isn’t compromised. IronScale requires no human physical intervention to bring your environment back up from hardware failure – no hassles pulling out a server, plugging in a new server, and provisioning the new server.

Let us know if you’re interested in learning more about auto failover. Let’s discuss your IT needs and how a StrataScale managed hosting solution can help you.

Thank you CNN for trying to explain the cloud, but you tried to be too cute and ultimately didn’t simplify things enough or get to what’s important.

Check out a CNN piece that uses a photo of a dog as the central element in an attempt to explain the cloud. The missing step, and it’s a key one in teaching lay people about all things IT, networks, internet, etc., is that the photo isn’t a photo rather it’s data. The upshot is that CNN should let us know that the data is then sent to, stored in, and accessed from the cloud.

Today, everything is all about data…photos, emails, Facebook, medical records, shopping, banking, research, music, texting, etc., etc. What folks need to realize is that all data needs to be stored, secured, backed up, accessed, and transmitted – and all of this requires more and more and better and better computing capability and capacity.

Anyhow, now to the main point – the big component that’s missing from the cartoony CNN presentation: answering the core question, Why should I care? The opportunity is missed to enlighten folks about the cost savings and better environmental play available via employing data centers and “the cloud.”

Cloud services allow clients to avoid capital expenses (IOW avoid spending money to buy “stuff”), deliver economies of scale in human resources for engineering and support, and bring resource efficiencies and latest technologies to bear (why buy and maintain an o.k.-for-now car, when you can pay-as-you-ride a bullet train to get to where you want to go?).  So, leveraging the cloud in a service provides secure reliable data center is wise financially, technologically, and environmentally.

We’re psyched to be at Interop New York, November 18-19.  If you’re at the show, please stop by to visit with us at Booth #916.  We’ll be demo’ing our (awesome) IronScale fully managed server hosting solution.

On her CloudPundit blog, Gartner analyst Lydia Leong, called out Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money” for wrongly saying Intel’s new Nehalem DP processors and the presumed resulting ability to shrink data center footprints will make the need for d.c.’s to go away.

CloudPundit joins Data Center Knowledge in letting everyone know that “Cramer has no idea what he’s talking about.”  Ms. Leong says that increased processing power has always led to more and more demand for data centers – and this will continue to be the case.  Further, she shares that it’s not just about d.c. real estate and high density power, it’s also critically about data center vendors delivering high availability bandwidth and the interconnection of networks.

Our response: as a provider of outsourced IT hosting services from our premier data center, it’s nice to be appreciated.

We announced today that StrataScale’s been selected as the sole server hosting provider for the Hydrogen@Home and DrugDiscovery@Home global research initiatives.  Hydrogen@Home is working to develop economical clean energy solutions, while DrugDiscovery@Home is devoted to uncovering new uses for molecule regulators that can assist in curing cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

“Hydrogen@Home is developing novel catalytic pathways that will make clean energy technology affordable so we are constantly embarking upon scientific discoveries that require unparalleled computing power,” said Jack Shultz, project leader, Hydrogen@Home.  “IronScale provides us with the highest level of managed hosting service available.  It has been invaluable to have a remote portal connection, quick and reliable snapshots of the live system, and no downtime, which is unheard of when dealing with the enormous storage requirements associated with multiple simulations.  We no longer have to worry about how we will manage our IT demands and can instead focus on research.”

“DrugDiscovery@Home is devoted to early drug discovery of new compounds to develop therapies for cancer, aging, and stem cell biology, and this important work requires the collaboration of leading researchers and professors from universities around the world” said Dr. Andrew Voronkov, project leader, DrugDiscovery@Home. “Because our infrastructure must be accessed from multiple global locations, our IT needs become increasingly complex.  IronScale offers the perfect solution through its Web portal, which enables our team to work together in a secure environment in real-time.”

“The IronScale service is ideally suited to support the needs of the scientific community by providing the flexibility, scalability, and stability required by massive global research collaborations without compromising the safety and security of extremely sensitive data,” said Yatish Mishra, president and chief technology officer, StrataScale.  “We are honored that Hydrogen@Home and DrugDiscovery@Home have selected the IronScale service to support their important work.”

Press Release

Release 1.5.1 of IronScale just went live.

The key news out of 1.5.1:
- Clients can cap their bandwidth to control usage and therefore control costs
- New and improved look for the user interface
- Continuous improvement around high availability capabilities across the application

Jim Kennedy, Sr. Manager of Facilities at our RagingWire data center, will be presenting at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group’s Data Center Energy Efficiency Summit on Oct 15th.