One of the many benefits of cloud computing is the inherent flexibility. Cloud servers can be adapted to meet the needs of a wide variety of businesses and a wide range of computing and storage needs. If you’re already on the cloud and you find that you need to expand your computing capability and storage resources, you have multiple options.

First, you can scale your cloud server environment horizontally. This means that you add computing capacity by provisioning additional cloud servers. Each cloud server allows you to run more applications, consume more bandwidth, and utilize more storage resources. You can set up load balancing to evenly distribute traffic among your growing population of cloud servers.

Second, you can scale your cloud server environment vertically by upgrading existing cloud server models. For example, you may have provisioned a cloud server using a small server model that you have since outgrown. You can use the ReliaCloud portal to upgrade the cloud server model to a larger model that contains more CPU, memory, and storage.

Finally, you can scale your cloud server environment by leveraging outside services such as our cloud storage.

I’ll be out in Austin, Texas in a couple weeks to exhibit at the sixth annual HostingCon, the premier conference and trade show for the hosted services industry.  If you follow the hosting industry, cloud computing or sell services to online companies – you’ll find value in attending. The networking opportunities alone make it worth the trip to Texas!

The show will run from July 19-21 in Austin, Texas. It includes tracks on Sales/Marketing, Technology Operations, Cloud Computing, and Business Development, with nearly 60 presentations in total.

As to be expected, a large focus of the show this year will be placed on cloud computing.  Don’t believe me?  Check out the schedule and you’ll see what I mean.  I’m looking forward to talking to customers, vendors and consultants to get input to shape the next round of cloud products at ReliaCloud.   If you make it to the show, stop by booth #419 and say “Hi”.

You can learn more about HostingCon by following their blog.

Register now and use the code ReliaCloud2010 to get a significant discount.

Accessibility is a fundamental component of cloud computing, and remote access enables you to take full advantage of your cloud server. You can remotely access cloud servers in multiple ways:

One option is to use a virtual console located in the cloud portal website. The virtual console is like having a keyboard, monitor, and mouse connected to the cloud server. You can use the virtual console to make configuration changes on the server regardless of the server network settings. You should be aware that this virtual console is not designed for high performance, and you may experience more lag using this option than you would when managing servers via traditional management protocols.

Another option for remotely accessing your cloud server is to use SSH (Linux/Unix) and remote desktop (Windows) protocols. Before initiating this type of remote access, you need to configure network settings on the servers and cloud network accordingly. SSH and remote desktop protocols offer better performance when managing cloud servers remotely.

To learn more about managing your cloud server, contact us or tap into the wealth of knowledge at ReliaCloud’s Knowledge Base.

Understanding load balancing algorithms

Load balancing algorithms help ensure efficient processing, and they are a fundamental component of cloud computing. At ReliaCloud, we provide several load balancing algorithms that each use a different technique to balance traffic across the cloud servers.

Clients can select the appropriate algorithm to fit their needs. For example, the “roundrobin” algorithm is the smoothest and fairest algorithm when the cloud server’s processing time remains equally distributed. Round robin is also the most commonly used load balancing algorithm.

When very long sessions are expected – such as LDAP, SQL or TSE, “leastconn” may be the most suitable algorithm. Leastconn ensures that the server with the lowest number of current connections receives the connection.

When the “source” algorithm is used, the source IP address is hashed and divided by the total weight of the running servers to designate which server will receive the request. This ensures that the same client IP address will always reach the same server as long as no server goes up or down.

To learn more about load balancing algorithms, visit ReliaCloud’s Knowledge Base or contact us today.

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.

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.

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.

After many months of eating and sleeping cloud computing, I’m pleased to announce that we’re ready!  Ready for what? Prime time?  No, not quite.  We’ve been working hard to refine our solution, work out the bugs, and add a little spit and polish to our user interface.  While I’m extremely pleased with what we’ve got, we need to take it to the next level of testing.  This is where YOU come in!

I’m happy to announce the launch of our public beta program.  Starting today, we welcome anyone to head over to the order page, sign up for an account, and start putting us through the paces.  The sign up process only takes a few minutes and provisioning your first cloud server is even shorter.

Questions:

Q:  Does it cost anything to join the beta program?
A:  No.  Customers will have the opportunity to try out the service absolutely free.

Q:  Will I be able to deploy real applications that are publicly accessible or is this some kind of internal test?
A:  This will all be live and publicly accessible.  While we encourage everyone to test out their websites and web applications and provide us with feedback regarding your experience, please do remember that this is a beta period and customers running their production environment do so at their own risk.

Q:  Will there be any limitations in the cloud during beta?
A:  There will not be any limitation on functionality, but there will be limitations on scale as there will be limited compute resources during the initial launch of the beta period.  Each customer will have access to provision up to 5 cloud servers.

Q:  How long do you anticipate the beta period will last?
A:  We are targeting a 1 month beta period and may extend or shorten it a week or two depending on the feedback we receive.

Q:  What will happen to my cloud servers and my data when the beta period ends?
A:  About 1 week prior to the end of the beta period we will be asking all customers to log into the ReliaCloud web portal and accept the new terms and conditions for launch.  Those customers that accept the new terms and conditions will smoothly transition out of beta and into full production with no further action needed and billing will then begin.  Those who do not accept the new terms and conditions will have their cloud servers and account removed from our system.

Q:  How do I send you feedback or report bugs?
A:  Please send any comments or feedback you have regarding your beta experience to betafeedback@reliacloud.com.

Q:  Why do you ask for a credit card to sign up for the beta if this is a free beta?
A:  In order to keep out those with nefarious intentions (can you say spammers?) we’re asking for a valid credit card to be provided.  Having this check and balance in place helps us to provide the best user experience for you.  Should you decide to stay on as client (which we hope you do) after the beta period has ended, standard charges will be billed to that credit card which you signed up with.

Thanks so much for your interest.  We look forward to hearing from you!