Archive for April, 2010
When it comes to cloud computing, flexibility is priceless. The right cloud provider will accommodate and grow with its users, so that a client never pays for more than they need at any time.
ReliaCloud prioritizes not only flexibility, but also transparency. A cloud server calculator on ReliaCloud’s web site allows anyone to price out a potential service package. On the cost estimator, clients can select a package, a service time frame, the number of cloud servers, a software template, the GB of outgoing bandwidth, and the number of IP addresses used. In return, you are given an hourly, daily or monthly cost estimate.
A cloud server has a specific amount of computing (CPU and memory) and storage resources that can support an operating system and applications. ReliaCloud customers build their own Cloud Servers by customizing a package that best fits their needs based on the amount of computing and storage resources they need. When their business grows, clients can upgrade their computing and storage resources to match.
Visit the cloud pricing calculator or contact us today to learn more.
Your cloud servers, applications, and data are physically located on computer nodes within data center facilities. The reliability of these data centers is crucial to your cloud computing experience.
One of the best ways to ensure reliability is to select a cloud provider that has obtained SAS 70 Type II certification. The American Institute for Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)’s Statement on Auditing Standards (SAS) number 70 applies to service organizations such as cloud providers. This widely recognized auditing standard indicates that a service provider has undergone an in-depth audit of their control activities. Specifically, SAS 70–certified providers must demonstrate that they have adequate controls and safeguards in place when they host or process data belonging to their customers.
SAS 70 Type II represents an even higher level of certification, which requires an audit over an extended period of time to ensure policies and procedures are followed and adhered to.
To learn more about the importance of SAS70 Type II certification, contact ReliaCloud today.
New study links cloud computing to huge cost savings
A new study conducted by The Brookings Institution, a heavyweight think tank based in Washington, D.C., suggests that increased reliance on cloud computing could result in substantial cost savings for federal institutions. Though the study relied on existing research and case studies involving government agencies in particular, the implications are far-reaching.
The study’s findings were published this month in a report by Brookings Vice President and Director of Governance Studies Darrell M. West. West found that the government agencies in his study “generally saw between 25 and 50 percent savings in moving to the cloud.” West highlights a number of potential reasons for the cost savings, including cloud servers’ customizable service levels as well as the fact that use of remote file servers de-emphasizes users’ geographical location.
Based on his findings, West advises the government to “redirect greater resources to cloud computing in order to reap the efficiencies represented by that approach.”
The entire report is available for download through The Brooking Institution’s web site (PDF).
To learn how cloud computing can increase the efficiency of your organization, contact us today.
Cloud Lab ‘10 (formerly known as Cloud Slam) is having their annual global virtual cloud computing event from April 19-23, 2010. You will be able to network with peers, get up-to-speed on cloud computing, and view hands-on virtual labs.
This is the second year that this virtual conference has taken place. 2000 registrants from 80 different countries are anticipated to listen in throughout the course of five days. With over 65 different keynotes, labs, and sessions, you’re sure to find quite a few topics that spark your interest.
ReliaCloud has lined up a few of our experts to spread their knowledge of cloud computing during the event as well. Jason Baker, CTO for ReliaCloud, will speak on regional clouds on April 19th at 5:00pm CST. Al Afflitto (Channel Manager) and Johnny Hatch (Product Manager) will be hosting a session regarding our new Partner Program on April 21st at 3:00pm CST.
It’s not too late to register! With the purchase of one ticket, you will gain access to tune in and out throughout the course of the five days.
P.S. We have two free tickets available for the event. If you’re interested, I’ll make them available to the first two people that express their interest by commenting on this post.
We are proud to announce the launch of the ReliaCloud Affiliate Partner Program! We are the first cloud provider to partner with Commission Junction.
What is affiliate marketing? It is the practice in which affiliates, also known as publishers, place merchants’ advertisements on their websites, blogs, email campaigns, or search listings in exchange for commission on sales or leads.
With our Affiliate Program, you have the opportunity to:
- Choose from multiple text and banner ads
- Earn a one-time referral fee of $25 per signup
- Interact with a dedicated affiliate manager
- View a daily datafeed
For more information, visit our affiliate program press release.
With all the information available about different server options, how do you decide which type is best for your company? You may have heard about both cloud servers and virtual private servers (VPS). Cloud servers and VPS both provide a virtualized application environment for customers, but that’s essentially where the similarities end. Four important factors distinguish cloud servers from VPS:
First, in a VPS environment, many different customers share the same computing resources and operating system kernel. In the cloud platform used by ReliaCloud, each cloud server customer has their own unique operating system.
Second, it is very common to significantly oversubscribe computing resources in a VPS environment. In our cloud server environment when we say your cloud server has 2GB of RAM, we mean that your server actually has 2GB of physical RAM.
Third, cloud servers are billed based on hourly utilization. Most VPS services bill based on monthly utilization.
Last but certainly not least important, our cloud servers include features such as firewall security, high availability, and load balancing that are rarely found within a VPS solution. For example, if the physical computing node on which your VPS is hosted fails, it may take hours to restore your VPS on another computing node. In comparison, your cloud servers would fail over in minutes.
To learn more about cloud servers, visit our Cloud Knowledge Base.
Interested in Internet Marketing, including social media and search engine optimization? If so, you won’t want to miss the GetListed Local University event on May 13th in Edina, Minnesota. Two identical half-day seminars will be held with the aim to teach Minnesota businesses the best practices on:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Local Search (Google LBC and Maps, Bing Local)
- Social Media (Blogs, Facebook, Twitter)
- Web Analytics
ReliaCloud, a national cloud computing provider, is proud to sponsor this can’t-miss event. With experts from Google and Bing there to help you bring qualified web traffic to your business, how could you afford NOT to go? Head on over and register today – but hurry, there are only 200 seats available per session!
Thank you to all who attended Wednesday’s webinar “Security and Reliability in the Cloud”. Jason Baker, CTO for ReliaCloud, and George Reese, CTO for enStratus, spoke about security concerns within the cloud computing environment.
As a special thank-you to those who have interest in the webinar, we are giving out a promotional code worth $100 on a new ReliaCloud account. Simply type SECURITY23 into the promotional code box upon registration to receive credit on your account. The credit must be entered by May 7, 2010 to be valid.
You can view PDFs of the slides by clicking the icons below.
Transferring applications and data from your current systems to a cloud server is a relatively simple three-step process, but it can be completed in a wide combination of ways.
The first step is to identify a data transfer protocol that you will use to copy your data. You could use FTP, SFTP, NFS, CIFS, WebDAV, or a variety of other storage or transfer protocols.
The second step is to configure your cloud servers to respond to these protocols. For example, you may need to setup an FTP server, NFS mount, network share, or Samba server.
The third step is to setup port forwarding on your cloud network to allow incoming traffic from the Internet to your cloud servers. Now you should be able to copy data from your existing systems to your new cloud servers.
To understand which combination works best for your company, contact us today, or check out the ReliaCloud Knowledge Base. It’s always a great resource for using your cloud server or cloud storage, search specific keywords, or browse by topic for answers to your cloud computing questions.
