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Cloud Computing Adoption Survey Results Released

THN Editor — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:53:59 EST

(The Hosting News) – Mimecast® today announced the results of its Cloud Computing Adoption Survey, which examined the perception and adoption of cloud computing solutions among 565 respondents responsible for managing their organization’s IT operations and budget across the U.S. and Canada in the Fall of 2009.

Data from the recently completed online survey highlights the complex, often contrasting, thought process of IT decision makers regarding cloud computing. While security and integration issues are clearly users’ biggest fears about cloud computing, these concerns have not dissuaded companies from implementing cloud-based applications within their corporate infrastructure. The well-known fears with cloud computing appear to be at odds with reality, as the survey findings suggest strong satisfaction with cloud computing once it is installed. 70 percent of IT decision makers already using cloud computing are planning to move additional solutions to the cloud—most within the next 12 months—indicating that those respondents have come to quickly recognize the inherent ease of implementation, robust security features and cost-savings of cloud computing.

Survey Results

Those That Have Used Cloud-Based Services are Coming Back for More

• 70 percent of companies already using cloud computing solutions are planning on moving additional applications to the cloud—and a majority of them are looking to do so in the next 12 months. This shows that respondents that have used cloud-based solutions have seen their business and operational value and want to expand that success to other application areas.

Companies’ Cloud Fears are Waning…

• 62 percent of all respondents have considered or are considering cloud computing.
• When asked what would change their minds about cloud computing, respondents ranked more mature solutions and better integration with existing systems as their top two needs (33 percent for maturity, 32 percent for integration).

… but Security Concerns and Existing Investments Remain Biggest Roadblocks to Further Adoption

• Companies remain hesitant because of perceived security issues. The findings show that security concerns were the leading reason given by respondents in all categories for not moving forward with cloud-based applications. 46 percent of respondents that had considered cloud-based applications chose security as the main reason for not moving forward. This was also true across a majority of industries, including financial services (76 percent), energy (75 percent), government (67 percent), retail (61 percent) and technology (40 percent).
• The investments made in current IT infrastructure and worries about integration also prevented companies from taking the next step toward cloud computing. 32 percent of respondents that had considered cloud-based applications named existing infrastructure investments as the reason for not moving to the cloud; while 26 percent said that legacy/integration worries had stopped them from going any further. Between the time and effort spent building their current infrastructure and fears around integrating existing systems into the cloud, respondents and their companies have been afraid to abandon what they know for what they don’t.
• Cost also continued to be a concern for those considering cloud computing, especially among government (67 percent), healthcare (52 percent) and legal (40 percent) respondents. This may have more to do with this year’s decreased IT budgets than the expense of cloud services.
• However, of those that have already implemented the cloud, 81 percent of legal, 77 percent of retail, 75 percent of government, 74 percent of technology, 72 percent of healthcare and 68 percent of financial services respondents were planning on moving additional applications to it in the future—showing that these fears can be overcome.

Certain Industries are Moving Faster than Others

• The top three industries adopting cloud computing solutions are technology (with 53 percent), financial services (40 percent) and legal (37 percent). This statistic shows that respondents within heavily-regulated markets such as legal and financial services do not share the belief that cloud-based services make it harder to prove compliance with industry regulations.
• Government has the smallest adoption, with only 19 percent using cloud-based solutions.

Email and CRM Applications Add the Most Value

• Among the respondents already using cloud computing solutions, email (23 percent) and CRM (18 percent) proved to be the most valuable.
• 33 percent of this group have moved email management to the cloud, 26 percent deployed cloud-based CRM systems, 26 percent moved email archiving and 22 percent have moved storage functions.

Cost is Still the Primary Motivation for Moving to the Cloud, but Agility is Gaining

• Cost savings (54 percent) are still the primary motivation behind the adoption of cloud-based services. However, there is evidence that the other business benefits of cloud computing are gaining ground. One of the major benefits of the cloud is its ability to make an enterprise better prepared to react and respond to unexpected changes—or to easily add-on new services as needed. The findings show that 49 percent of respondents support this idea, indicating agility/scalability as a main reason for moving services to the cloud. In addition, respondents also rated efficiency (39 percent) and streamlined administration (36 percent) as key reasons. As the adoption of cloud-based services grows, so does the understanding of its value.

“This research shows that once enterprises experience cloud-based applications, their fears about integration, reliability and costs are immediately alleviated,” said Mimecast Chief Executive Officer, Peter Bauer. “The survey’s results point to a bright future ahead for cloud computing as more and more companies look to the cloud to create an efficient and agile organization.”

Cloud Computing Adoption Survey Results Released is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.

The Planet Releases Announcement of $7 Million Network Investment

THN Editor — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:17:18 EST

(The Hosting News) – The Planet today formally announced it’s plans to spend more than $7 million to enhance the network infrastructure in Houston and Dallas, its core operating cities. The company plans capital investments in network capacity upgrades, expanded infrastructure for its Private and Virtual Rack solutions, new routers and switches, and robust test platforms to evaluate custom solutions. To increase network resilience and capacity, the company plans to double the number of 10 Gig-E links connecting its data centers with its Internet Service Providers. Also planned are capacity and functionality upgrades to meet the unprecedented traffic utilization demands of its colocation and managed hosting customers.

The Planet operates seven data centers – two in Houston and five in Dallas – with 179,000 square feet of raised floor, and additional capacity in London for virtual rack customers. Approximately 44 percent of the company’s business originates from outside of North America, and it operates network points of presence on the East and West Coasts to enhance network performance and reduce latency.
“Our network and data centers are core to the value we provide customers, and over the past three years, we’ve made significant investments to improve speed, reduce latency and ultimately provide the best customer experience,” said The Planet’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Douglas J. Erwin. “Even with these investments, our growth has outpaced requirements as customers place more demands on our network. Ultimately we’ll deliver improvements in orders of magnitude that offer increased capacity, and even more resilience and fault tolerance.”

The upgrades will be completed in phases, beginning in March, with completion expected by year-end 2010.

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Microsoft ‘Windows Azure’ Workshop to Appear at Cloud Computing Congress 2010

THN Editor — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 23:11:02 EST

(The Hosting News) - Microsoft Corporation officially announced today that they will be hosting a workshop presentation on their cloud platform offering ‘Windows Azure’ at the Cloud Computing Congress (www.cloudcomputingcongress.com). This event will be taking place on the 16th March at Olympia, London.

Eric Nelson, Microsoft’s Developer Evangelist will be giving an introduction to one of the leading cloud platforms that is at the cutting edge of the Cloud Computing Age. Attendees will learn what Windows Azure is capable of doing and why, how and when you should adopt the Azure platform that went into production on the 4th January 2010.

The free to attend workshop session is a must attend for resellers, developers, the IT community and independent software vendors (ISV) who can explore the potential to increase revenues and decrease its costs.

The session will demonstrate Windows Azure PaaS offering that enables applications built in .NET, Java, Ruby, PhP, SQL Server, MySQL and more to be run on Microsoft Data Centers.

“For the past decade we have relied on Microsoft for underpinning technologies in our foundational SaaS, infrastructure services and innovations in the Media & Entertainment and Enterprise markets’’, said Darcy Lorincz, CEO of Origin Digital. “Integration with the Windows Azure platform is another market leading, evolutionary step for our company and we expect that Origin Digital and our customers will benefit from performance and cost benefits for years to come.’’

“The Cloud Computing Congress is an event designed for building partnerships across the board, and providing a good networking environment for those to communicate and take the cloud debate forward.” commented Ian Johnson, Managing Director, Six Degrees Events. “I’m especially interested in heading the latest in the demand for mobile devices and mobile cloud computing, and the challenges this presents.”

The Cloud Computing Congress will run simultaneously with other conferences including; Enterprise Social Media www.enterprisesocialmedia.net, Social Media World Forum www.socialmedia-forum.com, Mobile Social Media – www.mobilesocial-networking.com.

The session will demonstrate Windows Azure PaaS offering that enables applications built in .NET, Java, Ruby, PhP, SQL Server, MySQL and more to be run on Microsoft Data Centers.

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New IBM Data Center Designed to Support Cloud Computing

THN Editor — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:47:19 EST

(The Hosting News) – IBM ( IBM) today announced the opening of a new data center designed to support new compute models like cloud computing, in order to help clients from around the world operate smarter businesses, organizations and cities.

The new data center reduces technology infrastructure costs and complexity for clients while improving quality and speeding the deployment of services – using only half the energy required of a similar facility its size. The data center will ultimately total 100,000 square feet at IBM’s Research Triangle Park (RTP) campus and is part of a $362 million investment by the corporation to build the new data center in North Carolina. IBM owns or operates more than 450 data centers worldwide.

Data centers are the backbone of information technology (IT) infrastructure delivery for businesses and other organizations, with powerful servers and storage systems running business-critical technology including software applications, email and web sites. IBM has engineered the data center to help its clients use new Internet technologies and services to meet the business challenges of an environment marked by an exponential rise in computational power, a proliferation of connected devices and an imperative to manage energy costs.

The data center uses advanced software virtualization technologies that enable access to information and services from any device with extremely high levels of availability and quality of experience. The facility aggressively conserves energy resources; saving cost and speeding services deployment through a smart management approach that links equipment, building systems and data center operations.

“I thank IBM for its continued commitment to North Carolina. This facility promises to be one of IBM’s greenest data centers in the world, proving once again that green is gold for North Carolina,” Gov. Bev Perdue said. “Growing North Carolina’s green economy plays a critical role in my mission to create jobs and to ensure our state’s economy is poised to be globally competitive in the long term.”

The data center is showcasing a cloud computing solution in partnership with North Carolina Central University (NCCU) and NC State University that enables Hillside New Tech High School students in Durham, NC to access educational materials and software applications for the classroom over the Internet from the high school’s computer lab, as well as from any networked device. This means that the learning environment can be extended to nearly any place at any time without the restrictions many schools face such as limited support, hardware resources and lack of access. The Hillside outreach project with NCCU, using cloud computing as a vehicle in support of education, is one of several such K-12 projects that IBM supports. The new data center also currently hosts IBM’s global web site, ibm.com, and the IT operations of strategic outsourcing clients such as the United States Golf Association (USGA).

“Data centers have always been a critical part of IBM’s global technology services – and they will be even more important as the processes, infrastructure, and systems that define business today become increasingly connected and intelligent,” said Pat Kerin, general manager, IBM North America. “This new facility not only sets new standards for energy efficiency, but provides the flexible capacity that allows IBM to deliver services that enable clients to reduce costs, improve productivity, and gain competitive advantage in their markets.”

Alex Withers, managing director of Digital Media for the United States Golf Association, said, “The migration of our USOPEN.com operations to IBM’s new data center in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina reduced our energy consumption by 38 percent and floor space requirements by 54 percent. We count on IBM to deliver a cost effective, reliable and scalable hosting environment that supports the presentation of our world-class championships to players and fans.”

Key attributes of the new data center include:

* Smarter data center management: Thousands of sensors, connecting IT equipment, data center and building automation systems, provide data that can be analyzed to plan future capacity planning, conserve energy and maintain operations in the event of a power outage.
* Energy efficiency: The data center uses half the energy cost to operate compared to data centers of similar size by taking advantage of free cooling – using the outside air to cool the data center. Intelligent systems use sensors to continuously read temperature and relative humidity throughout the data center and dynamically adjust cooling in response to changes in demand.
* Cloud computing capability: Support for cloud computing workloads allow clients to use only the resources necessary to support their IT operations at any given moment – eliminating the need for up to 70 percent of the hardware resource that might have been previously needed to perform the same task. The data center also hosts recently announced “Smart Business” cloud computing offerings – each of these solutions can significantly reduce a client’s total cost of ownership by up to 40 percent.
* Built for expansion: Due to an innovative modular design method, IBM will be able to add significant future capacity in nearly half the time it would take traditional data centers to expand. This design/build method – called IBM Enterprise Modular Data Center (IBM EMDC) – also enables IBM to rapidly scale capacity to meet demand by adding future space, power, and cooling to the data center with no disruption to existing operations. This means up to 40 percent of capital costs and up to 50 percent of operational costs may be deferred until client demand necessitates expansion. The new data center can also quickly and seamlessly expand its power and cooling capacity.
* New building standards: IBM started building the data center in August 2008 and it began to support client operations within 15 months compared to the industry benchmark of 18-24 months.

In constructing the new data center, IBM renovated an existing building on its Research Triangle Park campus by reusing 95 percent of the original building’s shell, recycling 90 percent of the materials from the original building and ensuring that 20 percent of newly purchased material came from recycled products The result lowered costs and reduced the carbon footprint associated with building by nearly 50 percent allowing IBM to apply for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification. LEED is a third-party certification program and the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.

Factors key to IBM’s selection of RTP as the site for the new facility include North Carolina’s robust network infrastructure, its leadership approach to energy efficiency, information technology security and geographic elements such as the low risk for natural disasters.

New IBM Data Center Designed to Support Cloud Computing is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.

Opus Interactive joins hands with Rubicon Marketing

opusinteractive — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:18:50 EST

(The Hosting News) - Opus Interactive, a leading business and agency SAS 70 certified hosting provider, and the only independently owned virtual solutions provider in the Portland, has partnered with Rubicon Marketing Group.

Rubicon Marketing Group, based in Portland, specializes in demand generation, lead management, marketing intelligence, and data management. “We chose Opus as our IT partner primarily because of their personable and prompt customer support,” said Ben Oh, Director of Operations at Rubicon. “With a fully managed service that is SAS 70 compliant and fully secure, we have full confidence that our servers will simply be ‘taken care of’ as we continue to grow our business.”

Rubicon joins numerous other agencies that rely on Opus Interactive to provide virtual or dedicated server management and hosting support for their internal and client needs.

“Partnering with Rubicon further illustrates the successful track record and reputation we are creating among agencies,” said Jeremy Sherwood, VP Sales and Operations at Opus Interactive. “We were created within an agency, and while now an independent organization we still maintain an intimate understanding of the unique demands that agencies are under. This helps both in creating solutions and providing customer service.”

Portland, Oregon based Opus Interactive is a full-service Managed Services Provider (MSP). Founded in 1994, the company provides managed hosting, dedicated virtual and standard servers, collocation and hi-capacity Internet services. With its unique high density data center model, advanced technology adoption, clean power utilization and energy efficient hosting solutions, Opus Interactive works with organizations of all sizes helping them reduce IT infrastructure costs and consolidate their server footprint. They team with industry leading partners such as VMware, HP, LeftHand Networks, and Microsoft. Opus Interactive is SAS70 Certified and an accredited member of the International Managed Services Provider Alliance. For more information about Opus Interactive, visit http://www.opusinteractive.com.

Opus Interactive joins hands with Rubicon Marketing is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.

Expansion of CoreSite’s Boston Data Center Announced

THN Editor — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:46:43 EST

(The Hosting News) – CoreSite, announced today the expansion of its Boston data center located at 70 Innerbelt Road in Somerville, Massachusetts. The requirements for the project include an additional 12,000 square feet of data center space and power to be delivered in the second quarter of 2010.

The additional wholesale data center and cage-to-cabinet colocation space will be capable of cooling high performance computing environments and will feature access to CoreSite’s Any2 Northeast Internet exchange. Any2 Northeast is a distributed exchange point that facilitates interconnection between CoreSite’s Boston, New York, Northern Virginia and Washington, DC data centers.

CoreSite will also further enhance the Boston data center’s security with additional mantraps and biometric scanners, and gated, access-controlled parking with perimeter fencing. CoreSite received a SAS 70 Type II certification at the data center in March 2009.

“The additional wholesale data center and colocation space will meet the growing demands of our existing customer base and prospective New England enterprises,” commented David Dunn, CoreSite’s senior vice president of marketing and business development. “We anticipate having the entire expansion phase completed and ready for occupancy by the end of May 2010.”

Expansion of CoreSite’s Boston Data Center Announced is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.

Savvis Performs Expansion of Chicago Data Center

THN Editor — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:47:09 EST

(The Hosting News) — In response to growing customer demand in electronic trading and for access to financial markets and internet infrastructure services, Savvis, Inc. (NASDAQ:SVVS), today announced that it is expanding one of its two premier Chicago data centers.

To serve new and existing clients, Savvis will add approximately 10,000 square feet of raised floor space to its Cermak Road facility in downtown Chicago. The data center will subsequently feature 200 watts per square foot of power.

The expansion serves growing demand from financial customers interested in hosting their trading applications in close proximity to major derivatives markets via Savvis. Customers can also connect to the facility with world-class Ethernet network services, using Savvis’ Exchange Express service.

Savvis’ expanded Chicago facility will encompass approximately 30,000 square feet of raised floor and enable access to key execution venues, such as the CME Group, among others. It will also serve as one of the global delivery points for the Thomson Reuters Hosting Solution, which is initially being offered in six Savvis data centers (announced October 5, 2009).

The expanded facility offers a full portfolio of technology-agnostic managed hosting and network services, including colocation, virtualized utility services and managed security services, in addition to proximity hosting. Customers will also be able to take advantage of Savvis’ Application Transport Network (ATN), which enables optimized network performance, scalability and delivery.

“Chicago is an important financial center, and we are pleased to meet existing demand and expand our proximity hosting and IT infrastructure services on East Cermak,” said Varghese Thomas, global head of financial services for Savvis. “The financial services industry is increasingly moving toward converged solutions featuring high-availability application hosting and world-class network access for the leading global trading venues and liquidity pools across all asset classes.”

The expanded Chicago data center adds to Savvis’ existing portfolio of managed IT infrastructure services for the financial industry. Savvis offers secure, high-availability, direct connectivity to hundreds of exchange feeds and other execution venues around the world, such as NASDAQ®, BATS Global Markets and the London Stock Exchange. For more information on Savvis financial services visit www.savvis.net/financial.

Savvis currently operates 28 data centers globally, with more than 1.4 million square feet of high-quality, raised floor space, which is designed to support enterprise IT operations. In addition, Savvis is positioned as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Web Hosting and Cloud Infrastructure (on Demand), 2009 www.savvis.net/magicquadrantleader.

Savvis Performs Expansion of Chicago Data Center is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.

The Green Grid Debuts New Tools for Data Centre Efficiency

THN Editor — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:37:58 EST

(The Hosting News) – The Green Grid today introduced new tools and announced new industry alliances at its Third Annual Green Grid Technical Forum and Members’ Meeting. Attendees of the Forum will learn first-hand how these new tools and alliances are designed to address the global needs of data centre operators and foster greater collaboration among key stakeholders in industry and government. With the theme, “Get Connected: Drive Change with Global Strategies for Efficient IT,” the Forum also features a keynote address by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

“At this year’s Technical Forum, the membership of The Green Grid is demonstrating its commitment to improving data centre energy efficiency through the hands-on development of tools, standards and global alliances that make it easier for end-users to drive practical improvements,” said Christian Belady, Microsoft representative and Treasurer of The Green Grid. “Leveraging Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s inspiring efforts, we welcome new voices to join the hundreds of volunteers in our unique organisation who are working to develop new programs to assist data centre managers and end-users advance energy-efficiency.”

The Green Grid, which creates a unique opportunity for worldwide industry collaboration, is actively working on dozens of both strategic and tactical projects to improve data centre energy efficiency. As a result of these efforts, the organisation today announced new, free, online tools that extend the benefits of the widely-used free cooling tools introduced in 2009:

• Power Efficiency Estimator

The new Power Efficiency Estimator is designed to help data centre operators compare different scenarios of power topologies and technologies inside of their facility. It takes factors such as workload, availability, and space constraints into consideration and generates a report that is designed to improve decision-making in a facility. The Power Efficiency Estimator will be available by the end of the first quarter of 2010.

• PUE Calculator

The new PUE Calculator allows data centre operators to easily input their facility’s specific data at regular intervals to determine their PUE. Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE), a metric created by The Green Grid, determines the amount of energy used by the facility and the IT gear inside of it. The PUE Calculator will be available by the end of the first quarter of 2010.

• New White Paper: Impact of Virtualisation on Data Centre Physical Infrastructure

This new paper provides guidance on how data centre professionals can maximise power and cooling equipment electricity savings in a data centre environment that is using virtualisation to achieve its consolidation strategies. The paper is available to members and non-members in the “Library & Tools” section of The Green Grid’s Web site.

• New Online Course from The Green Grid Academy

The Green Grid Academy has launched its latest self-directed online course, “Data Centre 101: Constrained Capacity,” to help data centre managers and operators get familiar with industry lexicon and solutions to everyday data centre challenges.

In addition to these tools, The Green Grid also announced significant progress with its previously-announced Data Centre Design Guide. With an outline and draft chapters now posted for member comment, The Green Grid encourages all members to participate in this groundbreaking opportunity to define a new data centre architecture, specifically to define the capabilities to allow native optimisation and policy management for maximum energy efficiency.

New Publication from ASHRAE and The Green Grid
The Green Grid and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) have co-authored a book titled “Real Time Energy Consumption Measurements in Data Centres” that focuses on energy consumption measurements for the determination of energy efficiency, along with exposure of key IT/Facilities interfaces in the data centre. The book is free to member companies of The Green Grid and is available for purchase or download through the ASHRAE bookstore for $54.00.

Alliance with Data Centre Pulse
In addition to introducing new tools for the industry, The Green Grid has signed an alliance agreement with Data Centre Pulse, a global end user community of data centre owners and operators focused on influencing the industry through the eyes of the customer. The agreement is designed to ensure consistency in addressing the energy-specific needs of the IT community.

“The Green Grid’s annual Technical Forum has become a unique information exchange for data centre managers and technology providers,” said Dean Nelson, Chairman and Founder, Data Centre Pulse. “The data centre operators representing the Data Centre Pulse Community are encouraged by the progress The Green Grid has made, and we’re looking forward to working together to expand the reach of metrics such as PUE and DCiE.”

A full list of organisations that The Green Grid has formed alliances with, including government entities across the globe, can be found at: www.thegreengrid.org/alliances.aspx

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NFIB and Web.com(Nasdaq:WWWW), to Improve Online Visibility of Small Businesses

THN Editor — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:30:00 EST

(The Hosting News)- The National Federation of Independent Business, has entered into an exclusive partnership with Web.com. The alliance gives NFIB members access to Web.com’s Web design and online marketing products that help small businesses succeed online.

“We are dedicated to helping small businesses own, operate and grow their businesses, and that means using the Internet as one of their tools,” said Mark Garzone, NFIB’s Senior Vice President, Marketing. “Web.com has both the experience and the expertise to provide the best and most comprehensive solutions available to our members, as the many Fortune 500 companies that choose to partner with Web.com can attest. Also, by choosing Web.com, our members will gain the added benefit of working with only one company, instead of many, to have their online marketing needs addressed.”

Web.com will provide NFIB members with a complete online marketing solution that incorporates professional design, marketing and search engine promotion capabilities—including enhanced listings in Google™ Maps, top Internet yellow pages and local search engine directories—a mobile website and a performance scorecard that provides site traffic updates in real time. Members will also have access to ongoing support from Web.com’s team of design and online marketing experts.

“With more people using the Internet, a website is often the first impression customers will have of a business, especially when they are not an established brand,” said David Brown, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Web.com. “When you’re competing for mindshare in the marketplace, just having a website isn’t enough. Small businesses need websites that are properly designed, optimized, marketed and maintained. Our core competency is to provide that assistance to small businesses effectively, efficiently and affordably. We appreciate the opportunity to work with NFIB, the voice of America’s small businesses, and look forward to helping NFIB members succeed.”

NFIB and Web.com(Nasdaq:WWWW), to Improve Online Visibility of Small Businesses is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.

New Cloud Services Certification Program by Parallels

THN Editor — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:40:38 EST

(The Hosting News) – Worldwide cloud enablement leader, Parallels, today launched its new Cloud Services Certification Program to help its Partners become more profitable.

This new Partner Certification Program will be available to all Parallels partners and individuals and will provide dedicated training for its panel, virtualization and automation products.

“We are proud to be one of the first Cloud enablement companies to offer a Certification program and believe this is critical to increasing our Partners credibility and knowledge of our products. We believe that with this training and certification program, we will help partners reduce their operation and support costs,” said Jack Zubarev, President of Worldwide Service Providers at Parallels.

Attendees to the Parallels Summit 2010 can receive a discount of up to 30% on the costs of training depending on the level of Partnership.

“I found the training to be very thorough. It provided in depth knowledge that was useful for veteran Plesk users. If you want to know the ins and outs of Parallels Plesk, this course will certainly deliver,” said Joe Pavoncordero, Training Manager at Media Temple.

Parallels Certification training will provide many benefits including:

• Tier 2 Support that delivers faster response times from professional engineers;
• More Highly-Skilled Employees trained as self-sufficient Parallels product experts;
• Expert Recognition through the placement of the Parallels Certified logo, website badges and icons ensuring companies are validated as leaders in hosting and cloud services.

Registration is limited to 15 students per class and will be held at the Fontainbleu Hotel, Miami Beach on February 25 2010 so sign-up today and take advantage of this special offer

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Host.net Teams Up with StillSecure to Protect Cloud Computing Clients

THN Editor — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:37:14 EST

(The Hosting News) – A new 24×7×365 managed security services was announced by Host.net for its cloud computing customers through a partnership with network security provider StillSecure. Utilizing StillSecure’s ProtectPoint™ managed security service as a virtual appliance, Host.net can now provide 24×7×365 security monitoring and management of the virtual infrastructure, immediate response to security threats, and compliance reporting for enterprises using its cloud computing service for line-of-business applications and complex hosting.

Virtual security services including firewall, VPN, intrusion detection/prevention (IDS/IPS), vulnerability scanning, web security, and email security can be purchased from Host.net on a subscription basis as either a standalone solution or service bundle. Services can be configured for monitoring both gateway and internal connections, providing comprehensive protection against internal and external threats. All security services are backed by a 24×7×365 SAS-70 Type II audited Security Operations Center (SOC) that is staffed by certified security analysts.

The new virtual-based security services offer the same vigilant protection, monitoring and management as the hardware appliance-based service with the added benefits of standard high-availability redundancy, near-immediate failover in the event of a virtual equipment failure, and the ability to rapidly upgrade and add system resources (CPU, RAM and disk) when a specific client’s traffic and workload demand more horsepower from the firewall.

“Host.net is one step ahead of most data centers because they truly understand the importance of embedding security within the virtual environment,” said Steve Harris, VP of Managed Services at StillSecure. “Host.net customers save time and money by leveraging the pre-built, pre-configured and ready-to-run VMware version of our ProtectPoint managed security services.”

“We had the rare opportunity to team with StillSecure during the strategy and design phase of their new platform. The result is a product that protects the customer’s mission with CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability),” said Roger Barranco, Host.net’s Chief Technology Officer and VP of Operations. “Host.net uniquely interweaves security throughout the platform rather than simply layering security on top of their infrastructure as other providers do. It’s a critical addition to our service portfolio that will help keep our clients’ virtual infrastructure safe from both inside and outside attacks.”

Host.net’s new StillSecure-based managed security service extends the competitive advantages of Host.net’s cloud computing platform, which focuses on performance, high availability and data protection. Benefits of Host.net’s cloud computing services include 300-500% performance increases over standard hosted SAN solutions, recovery of virtual machines within one minute of a host failure, full data backup to one on-site and one off-site storage subsystem within Host.net’s own national virtual private data center (vPDC) network for near-immediate disaster recovery, and optional replication to additional Host.net sites for added security and redundancy.

As a single source for virtual enterprise server, SAN storage, backup/restore, disaster recovery, colocation, Internet access, multinational transport, MPLS, Metro Ethernet, managed security and IP voice, Host.net leverages their capabilities to ensure the integrity and availability of their clients’ data.

Host.net Teams Up with StillSecure to Protect Cloud Computing Clients is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.

Managed Hosting Agreement Signed by Online Tech and Campfire Interactive

THN Editor — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:33:21 EST

(The Hosting News) – Michigan data center operator Online Tech and Ann Arbor-based product lifecycle management (PLM) software firm Campfire Interactive formally announced a partnership to deliver Campfire’s PLM solution on managed servers in Online Tech’s SAS-70 certified data centers.

Pradeep Seneviratne, President of Campfire Interactive, said “we are clearly seeing the growing trend towards Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) running on managed servers. Many of our customers are deploying our advanced Product Lifecycle Management tools but don’t want to manage the servers and infrastructure. We selected Online Tech as our managed hosting partner to deliver our Software through a SaaS model for our clients. This allows us to operate as a tightly integrated team, and helps us focus on the business solution, and know that the underlying infrastructure will be reliable and cost-effective.”

“Our relationship began by hosting Campfire’s solution for a Fortune 50 company on our managed servers” said Mike Klein, President of Online Tech. “The customer needed to deploy Campfire’s PLM solution quickly and they preferred a hosted solution with a simple monthly fee over the challenge of getting a new application approved and supported through their corporate IT department. The customer was deploying Campfire’s solution for a mission critical business process – worldwide strategic planning and sales forecasting. This meant that the deployment had to meet all of the global enterprise-scale security and reliability concerns of a Fortune 50 company. We met all the customer requirements and helped them accelerate their time to market and minimize their long term support costs by delivering the software on managed servers.”

Online Tech’s SAS-70 certification smoothed the way to getting corporate approval for a managed hosting solution in Online Tech’s data centers. SAS-70 is a nationally recognized audit standard for evaluating the process and security control procedures across the data center that is required by Sarbanes-Oxley. The SAS-70 designation demonstrates that the data center has the proper controls and procedures around physical and network security, environmental controls, system availability and performance and those controls have been followed consistently over time.

Following the successful first deployment, other Campfire customers have already taken advantage of this partnership to utilize Online Tech’s services. Based on these multiple customer success, Campfire and Online Tech have decided to formalize their partnership and offer the solution to Campfire’s entire customer base.

As part of the agreement, Campfire’s customers can host their mission critical PLM software on Online Tech’s managed servers located in their world-class Michigan data centers for a fraction of the cost of maintaining a full-fledged data center. This helps Campfire Interactive rapidly deliver its offerings across a broad range of vertical markets including Automotive, Chemical, Electronics and Semiconductors, and across a wide range of geographies. In addition, Campfire can now offer the convenience of hosting custom solutions for those clients who have unique needs.

Managed Hosting Agreement Signed by Online Tech and Campfire Interactive is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.

Asigra Cloud Backup Named One of “100 Coolest Cloud Computing Products” by Everything Channel’s CRN

derekkol — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 02:27:01 EST

(The Hosting News) - Cloud Backup Leader Acknowledged for Top Technology And Channel-Focused Business Model

Asigra Inc., a leading cloud backup and recovery software provider since 1986, today received recognition as one of the 100 Coolest Cloud Computing Products for 2010 by CRN, a leading IT publication. CRN’s list was based on nominations from Solution Providers rating technology, channel influence, effectiveness and visibility along with business and sales impact. The final selections were made by a panel of Everything Channel Editors. This recognition sets the pace for Asigra in 2010 as the company’s Cloud Backup™ software becomes the standard for MSPs and VARs seeking to add backup services, switch from underperforming online backup or move from reselling backup services to building a secure, efficient and profitable cloud backup vault.

“Asigra is again honored by CRN with this recognition as having one of the 100 Coolest Cloud Computing Vendors for 2010,” said Eran Farajun, Executive Vice President for Asigra. “The real winners, however, are our partners who have aligned with a software partner who does not compete against them and instead provides a platform and pro-rata partner program to compete effectively in the market.”

As a way of demonstrating its commitment to all partners—regardless of company size—Asigra’s pro-rata incentive program allows all Asigra partners to receive the same margins, incentives and benefits, based on growth, contributions and success, that are relative to the size of the partner’s organization. Unlike traditional partner programs which are typically skewed to benefit only a vendor’s largest partners, Asigra’s partner program is designed to level the playing field by making benefits based on partners’ pro-rata contributions regardless of size. This allows partners of any size to achieve top benefits based on pro-rata contributions related to revenue growth; prospective sales opportunities; technical expertise, and Asigra “brand ambassadorship” to promote awareness in the partner’s own community.

Cloud backup was recently highlighted by International Data Corporation (IDC) as one of the top 5 cloud computing applications in demand by end users1. As a result of the simplicity, reliability, pricing flexibility and deployment options, organizations are transitioning from traditional backup to this advanced approach. Cloud computing applications standardize processes to reduce training for greater efficiency and offer the latest functionality without additional capital expense, making cloud applications the way of the future. Asigra continues to excel in this area because of its focus on business-class cloud backup and 100% channel delivery model that has helped more than 500 VARs and MSPs successfully and profitably deliver backup and recovery that is aligned with cloud computing.

The channel opportunity in cloud backup continues to climb alongside industry-wide data growth, greater acceptance of Software-as-a-Service and a growing number of services delivered ‘from the cloud.’ Businesses are familiarizing themselves with the benefits and shopping around for services that best fit their organizations.

Winners of the 100 Coolest Cloud Computing Products were announced online at Channelweb.com and will be featured in the January 25th issue of CRN.

Tweet this: Asigra named CRN 100 Top Cloud Computing Vendor for Industry-Leading Technology and Channel-Focused Business Model.

Follow Asigra on Twitter at: twitter.com/asigra

Resources
• Becoming an Asigra Partner – Introducing the Hybrid Partner Program
• The Case for Managed Backup Services
• Thinking of Managed Backup Services? The Case for MSP and VAR Alignment
• Why Cloud Backup/Recovery WILL be Your Data Protection
• Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) Field Audit Report: Asigra
• Product Advisor: Interactive Tool for Configuring Asigra in Your Environment

About CRN
CRN provides solution providers and technology integrators with the crucial information and analysis they need to drive their company’s sales. As an advocate for and voice of the IT channel, solution providers turn to CRN first for immediate information. Celebrating its 25th year, CRN is the most trusted source for channel professionals. CRN can be found on the web at channelweb.com.

About Asigra
Leading organizations reduce costs by applying cloud computing to backup and recovery with efficient, cost-effective and transformational solutions from Asigra. Customers consistently redirect savings derived from Asigra’s approach to projects of higher strategic and personal value, many of which have been on-hold for a year or more. The positive business outcomes made possible from a low-touch, agentless architecture deliver enormous value with little up-front investment. The company and its products have been widely acclaimed by leading partners such as CDW, HP and SunGard as well as renowned Global 2000 enterprises. Asigra is headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with offices globally. For more information, visit RecoverYourCool.com.

END

Asigra, the Asigra logo and Cloud Backup are trademarks of Asigra Inc. All other brand and
product names are, or may be, trademarks of their respective owners.

Asigra Cloud Backup Named One of “100 Coolest Cloud Computing Products” by Everything Channel’s CRN is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.

PacificHost drops bandwidth limits and revamps hosting plan lineup

pacifichost — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:40:54 EST

(The Hosting News) - PacificHost, a leading provider of Linux Based, Shared and Reseller Hosting solutions announced earlier today that several major changes have been made to its entire hosting lineup. Changes include a drop in bandwidth limits, various plan name and price changes. This move comes in an effort to stay competitive and expand its hosting audience.

In addition to the dropped bandwidth limits, the company also added 2 additional plans to its offering. The “Basic” plan was added to its shared hosting plans which lowers the base price for PacificHost services to $2.95/month. In addition, the “Economy” plan was added to PacificHost’s Reseller plans, lowering the starting price to $13.95/month. All existing PacificHost clients will see that their plans have automatically been upgraded to the new plan specifications.

“We’ve been able to create an exclusive partnership with our datacenter, Gigenet. This partnership has given us an ample amount of bandwidth which we are now passing along to our customers. Our quality of service that our clients have come to know will remain the same as we beef up our servers and continue to have a strict limit of number of accounts per server.” said Thomas Perry, the President and CEO of PacificHost.

This announcement comes in conjunction with this months earlier announcement of the availability of Magento with all PacificHost hosting plans. Magento is an open-source ecommerce script that allows individuals and organizations to build their own ecommerce website.

For more information about PacificHost’s Services, please visit PacificHost at the following link:

http://www.pacifichost.com/

About PacificHost
Originally formed in 1999, PacificHost provides high quality shared and reseller hosting solutions to clients worldwide. Hosting includes, 24/7 Technical Support, 99.9% guaranteed uptime and a 30 Day money back guarantee.

PacificHost drops bandwidth limits and revamps hosting plan lineup is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.

Parallels Launches new Cloud Services Certification Program

rohutch — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:58:18 EST

(The Hosting News) - Renton, WA – Worldwide cloud enablement leader, Parallels, today launched its new Cloud Services Certification Program to help its Partners become more profitable.

The Partner Certification Program is available to all Parallels partners and individuals and will provide dedicated training for its panel, virtualization and automation products.

Attendees to the Parallels Summit 2010 can receive a discount of up to 30% on the costs of training depending on the level of Partnership.

Parallels Certification training will provide many benefits including:

Registration is limited to 15 students per class and will be held at the Fontainbleu Hotel, Miami Beach on February 25 2010 so sign-up today and take advantage of this special offer.

About Parallels — Optimized Computing
Parallels is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and cloud services providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with more than 700 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.parallels.com.

Parallels Launches new Cloud Services Certification Program is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.

PacificHost drops bandwidth limits and revamps hosting plan lineup

pacifichost — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:40:54 EST

For more information about PacificHost’s Services, please visit PacificHost at the following link:

http://www.pacifichost.com/

PacificHost drops bandwidth limits and revamps hosting plan lineup is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.

Parallels Launches new Cloud Services Certification Program

rohutch — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:58:18 EST

(The Hosting News) - Renton, WA – Worldwide cloud enablement leader, Parallels, today launched its new Cloud Services Certification Program to help its Partners become more profitable.

The Partner Certification Program is available to all Parallels partners and individuals and will provide dedicated training for its panel, virtualization and automation products.

Attendees to the Parallels Summit 2010 can receive a discount of up to 30% on the costs of training depending on the level of Partnership.

Parallels Certification training will provide many benefits including:

Registration is limited to 15 students per class and will be held at the Fontainbleu Hotel, Miami Beach on February 25 2010 so sign-up today and take advantage of this special offer.

Parallels Launches new Cloud Services Certification Program is a post from: Hosting News and Reseller Web Hosting information.