Category Archives: Cloud Hosting
Alexant Provides Cloud Computing Assessments to Virginia Businesses Throughout November – Satellite PR News (press release)
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Alexant Seeking to Help Businesses Improve Mobility, Flexibility and Productivity by Adopting Cloud Computing Technology
Alexandria, VA February 7, 2017
Alexanta managed IT services provider specializing in helping companies leverage the latest technology to boost productivity and fuel innovation and growth, today announced it will be offering a complimentary cloud computing assessment to small and medium-sized businesses in Virginia. The focus of these free assessments is to identify how cloud-based solutions can help organizations achieve their goals while improving mobility, collaboration, productivity, communication and flexibility. Additionally, Alexant will show companies how adopting cloud-based services can save them money on software licenses, server maintenance, system outages and more.
According to Jim Wyatt, President at Alexant, Many businesses are conflicted about cloud services, mainly because theres a misunderstanding of what the cloud is. In general, they know the benefits, but are wary of adopting cloud services because of misinformation about things like security, billing models, reliability or ownership of their data. These assessments will help local businesses understand cloud computing and show them how it can help them be more agile and competitive.
Cloud computing is a blanket term used to describe Internet-based services that provide shared processing resources and data to computers and other devices on-demand. The advantages of adopting cloud include minimal upfront infrastructure costs, quick and easy deployment, improved manageability, less maintenance and the ability to rapidly adjust resources based on evolving needs.
Cloud services typically fall under one of three general categories:
Software as a Service (SaaS). Applications are accessible from various devices through either a Web browser or a program interface. Examples include cloud-based office or design software, email, virtual desktop and CRM services.
Platform as a Service (PaaS). Enables client-produced data or applications to be deployed to a virtual infrastructure. Examples include cloud-based database hosting, Web serving, developer tools and execution runtime.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Enables deployment of processing, storage, network connectivity and other computing resources to a cloud-based platform. Examples include virtual servers and machines, cloud storage, load balancers and off-premise network infrastructure.
The free cloud computing assessment by Alexant is available through the end of February 2017. For a small to medium-sized business or non-profit to qualify, they must be located within the Alexandria area and looking to adopt cloud services in the next 18 months. Qualifying organizations can sign up for their no-cost assessment online or call 517-366-7083.
About Alexant
Alexant is a managed IT services provider (MSP) that offers premium IT support, consulting and business solutions to small and medium-sized businesses throughout the Alexandria, Virginia, and surrounding areas. Some of the companys most popular business offerings include customized IT solutions and managed cloud services, including Office 365 management, application hosting, virtual hosting and server colocation. The company primarily serves the insurance, medical and financial services industries. For more information about Alexant and its IT solutions, visit the company online or call 571-366-7083. Also, to get the latest industry news and trends, check out the company blog.
MEDIA CONTACT
Jim Wyatt
President
571-366-7083
Press Release Service by Newswire.com
Original Source: Alexant Provides Cloud Computing Assessments to Virginia Businesses Throughout November
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Alexant Provides Cloud Computing Assessments to Virginia Businesses Throughout November - Satellite PR News (press release)
Rackspace layoffs begin as it restructures as a private company – San Antonio Business Journal
San Antonio Business Journal | Rackspace layoffs begin as it restructures as a private company San Antonio Business Journal San Antonio-based cloud hosting company Rackspace Hosting Inc. is eliminating some job positions as it begins cutting the workforce to fit into its new mold as a private company, the business confirmed. Some of those job eliminations would be senior ... Rackspace CEO confirms layoffs in blog post Rackspace Holdings Inc. Outside San Antonio Rumored To Be Cutting Up To 300 Jobs |
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Rackspace layoffs begin as it restructures as a private company - San Antonio Business Journal
Inabox to acquire cloud hosting firm Hostworks for $7 million – Cloud … – CRN Australia
Inabox has announced it will acquire managed cloud hosting firm Hostworks from parent company BAI Communications for $7 million.
The deal is still subject to a number of conditions, including formal consent from some of Hostworks' customers. The transaction is comprised of a $5 million upfront payment, and a further $2 million payment deffered to the next financial year. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of the week.
Founded in 1999, Sydney-based Hostworks' product offering includes managed hosting and operations in public and hybrid clouds, digital consulting, application development and platform-as-a-service for on-demand media.
The company also operates a 24/7 network operations centre in Adelaide, which Inabox said would give it a leg up in the South Australian market.
In the last financial year, Hostworks reported $22 million in revenue, 90 percent of which was recurring revenue. It employs 92 staff and operates two data centres, one in Adelaide with 140 racks and 40 racks in Equinix' Sydney data centre.
The addition of Hostworks staff brings the total headcount to about 300 in the first year. Hostworks is expected to deliver $3.5 million in earnings in its full year under Inabox ownership.
Inabox said that the deal would also give both companies opportunities to cross-sell products and services across both customer bases. Hostworks will continue to operate as a standalone company while Inabox boosts its existingcloud offering in the enterprise market, propelling Inabox to becoming the "leading managed IT, cloud, and communications company to SMEs and corporates in Australia," the company said.
Hostworks also boasts a range of blue-chip clients including Holden, Channel Seven, Jetstar, Rydges Hotels and Foxtel.
Inabox chief executive Damian Kay said the deal would give his company the ability to manage enterprise-scale transfers of information to the cloud.
"More and more of the companies we work with are moving towards the cloud to reduce capital expenditure on infrastructure and take advantage of the convenience of cloud services, such as increased scalability and reduced maintenance costs," he said.
"We dont just want to cater for this trend, we want to be the best at it. Thats why we bought Hostworks."
Inabox has been subject to major M&A activity over the past three years. In 2014, the company acquired Anittel for up to $10 million which allowed Inabox to move into IT and cloud services.
Inabox made another acquisition in 2015 by buying the assets and customer base of AAPT wholesaler CloudXchange.
Last year, Inabox sold off the Hosted Collaboration Solutions business to Telstra for $4.5 million, which it acquired from the Anittel transaction. The business unit existed to provided Cisco hosted collaboration services to the Tasmanian government.
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Inabox to acquire cloud hosting firm Hostworks for $7 million - Cloud ... - CRN Australia
Cloud wrangling in the digital age: How to get the right skill set … – Cloud Tech
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The forecast for the digital era is cloudy all over. According to a recent IDC FutureScape on cloud market predictions, 50% of IT spending and 60% of IT infrastructure spending will be cloud based by 2018. Between 60% and 70% of all software, services and technology spending will be on the cloud by 2020.
IDC also forecast that 65% of organisations IT assets will be offsite, in co-located, hosting and cloud data centers by 2018. One-third of IT staff will be working at third-party service providers.
All of this leads to an industrywide shortage of cloud skills. Global Knowledge in 2015 found that one out of five decision-makers was having difficulty finding talent with the skills for cloud initiatives, while cloud computing jobs were one of the highest paying, with a mean salary of $102,000.
In its 2016 IT industry outlook, CompTIA noted the IDC prediction that the cloud would create 7 million jobs between 2013 and 2015. The trade group noted that many of these jobs most likely already existed but were reengineered with a greater cloud focus.
In short, there is a real opportunity for career advancement and success for network and data centre professionals with the right training and certifications. For those weighing a career in IT, cloud skills are in high demand and worth pursuing.
There are public clouds, private clouds, and hybrid clouds; and there is also no agreement on which type of cloud is best. That depends entirely on each organisation along with the type of data it generates and uses.
Organisations using the public cloud rely on the resources of third-party service providers for cloud storage or online accounting software. The biggest argument in its favour is cost. Organisations can rent public cloud services for monthly or annual fees and its up to the provider to keep them running, accessible and updated.
This is known as software as a service (SaaS). Some providers are going further to offer platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). PaaS enables an application to run one different infrastructures. IaaS makes an entire infrastructure available as a rentable service.
The public cloud has issues, however. One of them is security and another is accessibility. Data on the public cloud may not be as secure as it should be, especially if it is sensitive financial or health information that is regulated. Also, if the internet is down, then the data and the application may not be available when the organisation needs them.
For these reasons, many organisations are setting up and maintaining their own private clouds. Organisations use private clouds to make their data more secure and to arrange them the way they prefer. They are not interested in selling SaaS but want the benefits of the cloud. The downside is the expense, which can be very big, and the need to hire scarce IT professionals with cloud expertise.
The hybrid cloud blends both approaches. Organisations keep sensitive data more secure on an internally managed private cloud. They then use the public cloud when needed, like in peak demand periods, when individual applications can be sent to the public cloud. Hybrids are also helpful during rough weather, scheduled maintenance or rolling brownouts or blackouts. IDC predicts that 80% of enterprise IT organisations will commit to the hybrid cloud by 2017.
No matter what type of cloud organisations ultimately choose, they will need IT professionals with certain cloud skills. Some of the fundamental skills are cloud migration and cloud security.
Cloud skills training and certification courses should combine learning conceptual knowledge with developing hands-on skills. Among the topics covered should be:
Although many companies have already moved to the cloud, many more are not there yet. They need IT professionals who have a solid grounding in the varying models for clouds. They also need to know how to map the organisations current IT infrastructure, including its applications and workloads on existing servers, and how to send all of what they have mapped to a cloud equivalent. The larger the organisation, the more complicated this becomes.
Cloud security is another major skill for IT professionals. Almost every day brings news of yet more data breaches. How to keep data secure, how to build and maintain secure platforms, and securing cloud infrastructure are all high-demand skills.
Additional top cloud skills cover SaaS, PaaS and IaaS. Organizations need IT professionals with knowhow to develop and work with cloud applications. The same applies to cloud platforms and infrastructures. This means they should be fluent cloud programming languages like Python, Perl and Ruby along with traditional languages like .NET, Java and PHP. Linux skills are also in high demand.
So is cloud database expertise. The hyper-connected Internet of Things generates quintillions of bytes of data daily. Organisations want most to uncover insights and new markets from this tsunami of data, and they need IT professionals with cloud database querying skills. SQL along with open source languages like MySQL, Hadoop or Mongo DB are worth learning.
With cloud skills and the certifications, IT professionals can demonstrate that they can help an IT department drive cloud deployments in a consistent and centralised manner. They become more valuable to any organisations because they know how to help to bring about desired business outcomes, such as greater business agility and lower IT architecture spending.
Read more: The top five in-demand cloud skills for 2016 and beyond
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Cloud wrangling in the digital age: How to get the right skill set ... - Cloud Tech
Cloud Computing in PNG – EMTV Online
If you havent heard about Cloud Computing yet, you certainly will in 2017.
Papua New Guinea is charging full speed into the 21st century, in an attempt to keep up with our more developed counterparts and cloud computing is fast becoming a popular vehicle in driving this development.
In the era of Google Drive and Dropbox, gone are the days when companies would use hard drives, religiously, for storage purposes.
Cloud computing has replaced the archaic, storage tools of yesteryears with the easy to use and accessible anywhere, cloud.
In the simplest term, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the internet. Even more simply put, the cloud is just a metaphor for the internet.
Companies like Digicel Business have fine-tuned the internet based tool for the Papua New Guinean market.
Digicel Business has established Cloud Computing, which delivers hosted services over the internet.
The cloud service has three distinct characteristics which differentiate it from traditional hosting.
It is sold on demand, typically by the minute or the hour. It is flexible a user can have as much or as little of a service as they need at any given time. And the service is fully managed by Digicel the consumer needs nothing more than a personal computer and access to the Internet.
Cloud Hosting Basics What It Is and How It Works
Cloud hosting is the latest form of hosting that has become extremely popular over the past few years. The main concept of cloud hosting is "Divide and Rule" the resources required for maintaining your website are spread across more than one web server, and are rendered as per need basis.
This greatly reduces chances of any downtimes in case of a server malfunction.
Another noteworthy aspect is that cloud hosting allows you to manage peak loads easily, without facing any bandwidth issues, since another server can provide the additional resources in such a case.
Hence, your website doesn't rely on just one server, and rather a cluster of servers that work together, termed as "the cloud".
Something similar happens in case of an overload condition too. However, usage of low quality server hardware can significantly hamper the performance, and such implementations aren't worthy of being tagged with the cloud moniker this is typically the case with cheap hosting providers.
However, the pricing varies depending upon your actual usage in case of heavy usage; cost factor associated with cloud architecture may be slightly higher, though so is its resilience too.
When you come to VPS and traditional shared hosting, the cost factor is extremely low is this case quite obviously, but again so is the reliability too. In case of VPS, a single server is divided into multiple chunks, and each portion is managed by a particular user, so the capital investment is reasonably low.
VPS is the ideal choice for those who aren't actually looking out for the reliability aspect of cloud hosting.
Many businesses have made a worthy investment by moving to cloud, while others haven't yet invested in the infrastructure required to make a transition to cloud.
But, one can definitely expect to see more and more businesses making a shift to cloud as new low-cost cloud implementations continue to be developed, and I wouldn't call it exaggeration to say One day everybody would be in the clouds!"
Cloud Hosting Servers | Managed with 24/7 Support
General
We offer a range of Linux distributions as well as Microsoft Windows Server.
Which OS should I choose?
If you require a Linux server and don't intend on reselling hosting, then we recommend selecting CentOS due to its renowned stability and long-term support. CentOS is also compatible with both Plesk and cPanel/WHM.
If you require a Linux server and intend to resell hosting then we recommend CloudLinux as it has a number of features such as account isolation that makes it ideal for use in a shared hosting environment.
For Windows VMs, we offer Windows Server 2012 R2 64-bit.
All Linux distributions are 64-bit; 32-bit distributions are available upon request however please note 32-bit operating systems are limited to a maximum of 4GB RAM and as a result are not recommended.
If the distribution or operating system version you require is not listed please contact our support team. In the vast majority of cases we can provide the OS or version you require.
CentOS
CentOS is a Linux operating system that is based on the commercially available Red Hat Enterprise Linux, because of its close relationship with RedHat it has become known for its very high level of security, stability and long term support.
If you are unsure which Linux distribution to choose we would advise selecting CentOS.
Supported control panels include:
Debian
Debian is a Linux Operating system that it know for it maturity and stability making it an excellent choice for applications such as web, mail and database servers.
Supported control panels:
Please note we do not provide technical support for control panels we do not offer directly. If you prefer Webmin or DirectAdmin, you will need to order your cloud server without a control panel and install it manually.
Ubuntu
Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) is the server edition of Ubuntu Linux by Canonical.
Designed for enterprise deployments; Ubuntu LTS Linux is an excellent choice for mission critical applications.
Supported control panels:
Please note we do not provide technical support for control panels we do not offer directly. If you prefer Webmin or DirectAdmin, you will need to order your cloud server without a control panel and install it manually.
CloudLinux
CloudLinux is designed specifically for web hosts and is the recommended choice for clients that intend to use their cloud server to resell web hosting.
CloudLinux provides a number of web hosting specific features including account isolation, per account resource limiting and throttling and server hardening perfect for shared hosting environments.
Supported control panels include:
Key Cloud Linux Features
CageFS
CageFS uniquely encapsulates each customer, preventing users from seeing each other and viewing sensitive information. It prevents a large number of attacks, including most of the privilege escalation and information disclosure attacks.
LVE Manager
LVE manager gives you full control over CPU, IO, memory, number of processes, and concurrent connections per user. Limit abusers, provide good customers with what they need, and upsell at any time.
Hardened PHP
In old PHP versions, including widely used 5.2, 5.3, and 5.4, vulnerabilities, even if discovered, are not patched by the PHP.net community. HardenedPHP fixes those vulnerabilities and secures old and unsupported versions.
MySQL Governor
MySQL is one of the main causes of issues on a shared server. MySQL Governor monitors MySQL usage, and throttles abusers, preventing them from overloading the server and improving overall stability and performance.
Securelinks
SecureLinks is a kernel-level technology that prevents known symbolic link attacks, which further enhances the security level of the servers.
OptimumCache
OptimumCache you can double IO throughput on a typical shared-hosting system by eliminating IO operations related to reading duplicate files, thus optimizing file caching. This is perfect for sites running software like WordPress or Joomla.
Mod_lsapi
Mod_lsapi is the fastest and most reliable way to serve PHP pages. It has a low memory footprint and understands PHP directives from .htaccess files.
Windows Server
Windows Server 2012 R2 standard is the latest version of Windows server and is the perfect choice for applications developed for ASP.net and MS SQL.
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Cloud Hosting Servers | Managed with 24/7 Support
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Cloud Hosting India | Public Cloud Hosting India | Cloud …
According to a 2015 report by Gartner, the market for global public cloud services is expected to reach USD 204 billion in the year 2016. It estimated the size of the industry in 2015 at USD 175 billion and predicted growth of more than 16% for the coming year. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) was forecasted to register the highest growth in 2016, followed by Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud management and Security services and Platform as a Service (PaaS) respectively. IaaS cloud hosting services were expected to register a growth of 38.4% in 2016 followed by cloud management and security services at 24.7%, PaaS at 21.1% and SaaS at 20.3%.
Interestingly in 2015, the geography that registered highest growth in cloud services was not in the western hemisphere. Sales grew highest in Japan at 47.1% year over year, followed by Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) at 35.3%, Western Europe at 22.1%, Canada at 22.0% and the United States at 20.1%.
The above statistics clearly reveal that an increasing number of organizations will move from an on-premise IT infrastructure model to cloud hosting in the coming years. Since the advent of the cloud, technology evangelists had predicted a decline of on-premise IT infrastructure model and rapid adoption of the cloud by businesses. While sceptics were doubtful, the growth registered by the industry in the past few years clearly demonstrate that organizations will continue to adopt cloud hosting as a key element in their business strategy to reduce operational costs. The industry is poised for rapid growth in the coming years. For cloud hosting service providers, the wait is finally over. The market has matured and they can look forward to impressive growth in the coming years.
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Cloud Hosting India | Public Cloud Hosting India | Cloud ...
Cloud hosting – Webmaster Forum
Cloud hosting services provide hosting for websites on virtual servers which pull their computing resource from extensive underlying networks of physical web servers. It follows the utility model of computing in that it is available as a service rather than a product and is therefore comparable with traditional utilities such as electricity and gas. Broadly speaking the client can tap into their service as much as they need, depending on the demands of their website, and they will only pay for what they use.
It exists as an alternative to hosting websites on single servers (either dedicated or shared servers) and can be considered as an extension of the concept of clustered hosting where websites are hosted on multiple servers. With cloud hosting however, the network of servers that are used is vast and often pulled from different data centres in different locations.
Practical examples of cloud hosting can fall under both the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) classifications. Under IaaS offerings the client is simply provided with the virtualised hardware resource on which they can install their own choice of software environment before building their web application. On a PaaS service, however, the client is also provided with this software environment, for example, as a solution stack (operating system, database support, web server software, and programming support), on which they can go straight to installing and developing their web application. Businesses with complex IT infrastructures and experienced IT professionals may wish to opt for the more customisable IaaS model but others may prefer the ease of a PaaS option.
A development of the concept of cloud hosting for enterprise customers is the Virtual Data Centre (VDC). This employs a virtualised network of servers in the cloud which can be used to host all of a businesss IT operations including its websites.
The more obvious examples of cloud hosting involve the use of public cloud models - that is hosting on virtual servers which pull resource from the same pool as other publicly available virtual servers and use the same public networks to transmit the data; data which is physically stored on the underlying shared servers which form the cloud resource. These public clouds will include some security measures to ensure that data is kept private and would suffice for most website installations. However, where security and privacy is more of a concern, businesses can turn towards cloud hosting in private clouds as an alternative - that is clouds which use ring-fenced resources (servers, networks etc), whether located on site or with the cloud provider.
A typical cloud hosting offering can deliver the following features and benefits:
Reliability; rather than being hosted on one single instance of a physical server the website is hosted on a virtual partition which draws its resources, such as disk space, from an extensive network of underlying physical servers. If one server goes offline, it dilutes the level of resource available to the cloud a little but will have no effect on the availability of the website whose virtual server will continue to pull resource from the remaining network of servers. Some cloud platforms could even survive an entire data centre going offline as the pooled cloud resource is drawn from multiple data centres in different locations to spread the risk. Physical Security; the underlying physical servers are still housed within data centers and so benefit from the security measures that those facilities implement to prevent people accessing or disrupting them on-site Scalability and Flexibility; resource is available in real time on demand and not limited to the physical constraints/capacity of one server. If a clients site demands extra resource from its hosting platform due to a spike in visitor traffic or the implementation of new functionality, the resource is accessed seamlessly. Even when using a private cloud model the service can often be allowed to burst to access resources from the public cloud for non-sensitive processing if there are surges in activity on the site. Utility style costing; the client only pays for what they actually use. The resource is available for spikes in demand but there is no wasted capacity remaining unused when demand is lower. Responsive load balancing; load balancing is software based and therefore can be instantly scalable to respond to changing demands
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Cloud hosting - Webmaster Forum