GoGrid Overview

GoGrid is an IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) company based in San Francisco, it is a division of Servepath, a leading dedicated server provider in the USA.

It currently offers servers running the following operating systems:

• Windows 2003
• Windows 2008
• CentOS 4
• CentOS 5
• Redhat Enterprise Linux 4
• Redhat Enterprise Linux 5

Servers with the following specifications are currently available:

1. 1/2 GB memory, 30 GB storage, 1 processor
2. 1 GB memory, 60 GB storage, 1 processor
3. 2 GB memory, 120 GB storage, 1 processor

The following server options are listed on their website as being available shortly:

1. 4 GB memory, 240 GB storage, 2 processors
2. 8 GB memory, 480 GB storage, 4 processors

GoGrid's server images are also available with extra software pre installed including:

• IIS
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express
• ASP.net
• PHP
• Apache
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Workgroup
• MySQL
• PostgreSQL
• Ruby on Rails
• Mongrel
• Capistrano

Load balancing (using F5 BigIP) is included within the base price for each server.

GoGrid has a REST based API, details of which can be found at http://wiki.gogrid.com/wiki/index.php/Api.

Their pricing starts at $0.19/hour per GB of memory for pay as you go but decreases as low as $0.08/hour per GB for pre paid plans.

All servers created are on a VLAN dedicated to the specific customer and once your account is setup a dedicated block of IP addresses is assigned directly to you.

Amazon EC2 Overview

EC2 is an IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) company based in Washington and Seattle, it is a product of Amazon.

It currently offers servers running the following operating systems:

• Windows 2003
  
• Ubuntu
  
• Debian
  
• Gentoo
  
• Fedora
  
• OpenSolaris
• openSuse
• Red Hat Enterprise
• Oracle Enterprise
  

Servers with the following specifications are currently available:

1. 1.7 GB memory, 160 GB storage, 1 processor
   
2. 7.5 GB memory, 850 GB storage, 4 processors equivalent
   
3. 15 GB memory, 1690 GB storage, 8 processors equivalent
   
4. 1.7 GB memory, 350 GB storage, 5 processors equivalent
   
5. 7 GB memory, 1690 GB storage, 20 processors equivalent
   

EC2's server images are installed with a base operating system, the are other images available that have been created by EC2 users that have a wide variety of software installed.

EC2 has a detailed API, further information is available at http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=1765&categoryID=87

Pricing starts at $0.10/Hour for a 1.7 GB server with 1 processor.

Unlike many other providers, by default when an EC2 server is shutdown all changes are lost so a backup strategy is required to effectively use this service.

Each server is only assigned 1 IP address.

Slicehost Overview

Slicehost is an IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) company based in Saint Louis, it has recently been purchased by Rackspace, one of the worlds biggest hosting companies.

It currently offers servers running the following operating systems:

• CentOS 5
• Ubuntu 8.04
  
• Ubuntu 7.10
• Debian 4
• Gentoo 2008.0
• Fedora 9
• Arch 2007.08
  

Servers with the following specifications are currently available:

1. 1/4 GB memory, 10 GB storage, 100 GB data transfer
2. 1/2 GB memory, 20 GB storage, 200 GB data transfer
3. 1 GB memory, 40 GB storage, 400 GB data transfer
4. 2 GB memory, 80 GB storage, 800 GB data transfer
5. 4 GB memory, 160 GB storage, 1600 GB data transfer
6. 8 GB memory, 320 GB storage, 2000 GB data transfer
7. 15.5 GB memory, 620 GB storage, 2000 GB data transfer

Slicehost's server images are installed with a base operating system

Slicehost has a API with Ruby and Python examples, details of which can be found at http://articles.slicehost.com/2008/5/13/slicemanager-api-documentation.

Their pricing starts at $20/Month for a 1/4 GB memory server.

IP Addresses are assigned on a as needed basis, extra public IP addresses are $2/month.

What is Cloud Computing?

The term "Cloud Computing" has been used in many different ways in recent months to describe the direction that many companies have begun to take with their Internet related technologies.

Simply put Cloud Computing is Internet based use of computing resources. It is a wide concept that can refer to a number of different uses including:

• SaaS (Software as a service) Using web based software instead of PC based e.g. Salesforce.com/ZOHO/Google Apps
  
• IaaS (Infrastructure as a service) Using on demand (often virtualized) computer hardware instead of physical servers e.g. Amazon EC2/FlexiScale/GoGrid
• PaaS (Platform as a service) Built on top of IaaS, this is specificaly configured services designed to be scalable for certain technologies such as Ruby on Rails or Python, e.g. Mosso/Google App Engine

There are a number of benefits to using Cloud Computing, it can help to cut costs (how much would you save if you only had to pay for your hardware when you needed to use it?), increase efficiency and increase reliability of your systems.

Contact us at info@cloudconsultancy.com for further information on how we can help you to make the most of Cloud Computing.

Welcome to the Cloud Consultancy Blog

Cloud Consultancy is a UK IT services company specialising in Cloud Computing.

We were founded in 2008 by James Lucas, previously the Lead Developer on a well industry leading Cloud Computing platform.

We have indepth experience with a number of cloud computing providers including Amazon EC2/S3, FlexiScale and GoGrid

We can advise our clients on a wide range of solutions to aid them in increasing efficiency and lowering the costs of their IT needs.

Examples include:

• Outsourcing development environments to lower costs and increase flexibility
• Designing highly scalable solutions that can grow from 1 server to 1000.
• Training on various cloud platforms
• Custom software development
• Performance tuning
• Code review and optimisation
• System redundancy

More details can be found at www.cloudconsultancy.com