VMWare vCloud Director Upgrade – version 1.5

EarthlinkCloud is always working hard to provide the latest tools to make managing your cloud servers as easy and full-featured as possible. EarthLink Cloud has upgraded to VMWare’s vCloud version 1.5. Some of the key new features are outlined below:

Expanded Firewall Functionality
You will now be able to have 5-tuple firewall rules, allowing for the specification of Source IP Address, Source Port, Destination IP Address, Destination Port, and Protocol (TCP/UDP)

The ability to create and manage Site-to-Site VPNs from the vCloud Director interface
While the ability already exists to have site-to-site VPNs with your vCloud organization, the creation and management had to be done underneath the vCloud Director level by an Earthlink Cloud employee. With the upgrade to vCloud Director 1.5, all the settings for a site-to-site VPN are now exposed to the vCloud interface.

Static Routes
Static routes can now be configured for organization networks.

Cloud Bandwidth Costs & the True Cost of Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting services too often come with hidden costs.

To be fair to those (other) cloud companies, the costs are not actually hidden maliciously, but their services are priced in such a way that the true costs of cloud hosting are easy to overlook or difficult to fully comprehend.

One of most overlooked or misunderstood aspects of cloud hosting costs is bandwidth pricing.

Bandwidth, also called data transfer, is not usually one of the featured specs touted in cloud hosting promotions and it may not look like it’s a lot of money, but bandwidth pricing can make your cloud costs skyrocket.

Of course, not if you’re getting your cloud hosting from EarthLink Cloud.

All EarthLink Cloud hosting plans come with bandwidth included in the low monthly cost.

Cloud Hosting Bandwidth Charges Compared

Let’s take a look at the true cost of cloud server bandwidth at EarthLink and other top competitors.

The entry-level cloud hosting plan offered by EarthLink Cloud is only $60 a month, and it comes with 1,500GB of bandwidth in and 1,500GB of bandwidth out. So, if you use 1.5TB of bandwidth both ways with EarthLink Cloud, your cost is still just $60.

On the Cloud Server Pricing page at Rackspace, you’ll see a cloud server plan with 1,024MB RAM (the one most comparable to ours) priced at just $43.80 a month. Sounds like a good deal, right?

Maybe not.

Enter 1,500GB of outgoing bandwidth on the Rackspace cost calculator and you’ll see their plan shoot up to an astounding $313.80/mo. (Hey, where’d my $43 plan go?!)

And Rackspace is hardly alone. Go to the cloud computing price comparison engine Cloudorado and you’ll see 13 cloud hosting companies listed.

Prices look pretty good … before you start adjusting the sliders to add the features you need.

Then, as you add the specs that are included in cloud hosting plans from EarthLink Cloud, you see all those “hidden” costs revealed one by one. Finish by adding bandwidth costs for transfers in and out and all but one of the plans is over $100, more than half are over $200, and three are over $400 a month.

Compared to EarthLink Cloud, you’d be paying anywhere from 50% more to over 700% more.

That’s the true cost of cloud bandwidth. And, yes, sometimes the truth hurts.

Just not here at EarthLink Cloud.

See our easy-to-budget-for, flat-rate cloud hosting prices.

Is Cloud Computing for Business or Personal Use?

Though cloud computing is still relatively new, it’s already been advertised in so many ways that it can be difficult to know if it should be used as a tool for business or personal use.  The answer is simple: it can (and should) be used for both!

The Wall Street Journal recently polled a small group of their online readers to see if they were using cloud computing, and, if they did, whether they used it for business or personal purposes.

Practically half of the people responded saying they used the cloud for both, with the next largest group saying they don’t use either.  Perhaps it’s because they aren’t aware of the benefits…

Cloud computing is, in simple terms, using the internet to access everything you need (with applications, operating systems, and data housed on an outside server) instead of using your computer’s storage (with applications, operating systems, and the like installed/housed on your computer directly).

In your personal life, the cloud can be used to store photos, music, movies, documents (and practically anything else you can think of), meaning you can access them from anywhere that has an internet connection.  Imagine being able to browse your music collection from any device without having top physically “synch” a device (like your iPod).  Check out upcoming services like iCloud or the already-available cloud storage service DropBox (which is FREE!) to learn more.

For business, the benefits of using cloud are many and varied (being cloud hosted is a green way to run your business, it’s often a cheaper way to operate, you don’t have to house your own servers), but the largest benefit is flexibility.  A business with cloud hosted operations can adapt to changes faster than a “traditionally hosted” one.  Scaling computing/hosting resources to fit fluctuations in demand, instant growth to support the development of new ideas, and quick data transfers (to a different portion of the cloud if a server acts up, instead of buying new servers) are all possible, headache-free, with cloud computing.

Check out EarthLink Cloud (either online or at 1-800-957-4872) if you’re interested in finding out more about benefiting from moving your business to the cloud.

Cloud Computing: Basic Terms to Know

“Cloud Computing” can seem like a complicated and hard-to-understand concept, especially when providers tack their own branding onto already unfamiliar terms.

This list includes the basic cloud terms that can help you move past confusion and start exploring the exciting things cloud computing has to offer.

The Cloud

A metaphor for a global network; commonly used to represent the network of servers comprising the Internet.

Cloud Computing

Using services housed in “the cloud” instead of in your own computer or servers.

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Cloud Provider (or Cloud Service Provider)

A company providing cloud-based hosting, platform, infrastructure, or application services, such as EarthLink Cloud.

Cloud Storage

A service that allows customers to save data by transferring it over the Internet or another network to an offsite storage system.

Cloud Sourcing

Replacing traditional, physical IT services with cloud services.

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Private Cloud

Services offered over the Internet (or over an internal network) only to select users.

Public Cloud

Services offered over the Internet to anyone who wants to purchase them.

Internal cloud

The type of private cloud in which services are provided for an organization by its own IT department.

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PaaS (Platform as a Service)

A computing platform (such as an operating system) delivered, as a service, over the Internet by a provider.

Saas (Software as a Service)

An application delivered, as a service, over the Internet by a provider.  Saas applications don’t have to be installed on and don’t run on the customer’s computer(s).

Note: SaaS providers are also called Application Service Providers (ASP)

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

A virtual computing infrastructure delivered, as a service, over the Internet by a provider. This infrastructure, which can include virtual servers, networking systems, hosted applications, and cloud platforms, does not require any physical equipment purchasing.

EarthLink Cloud offers IaaS Cloud Hosting services, which allow users to build and deploy custom virtual server in only minutes.

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Cloud Operating System

A computer operating system that does not run on the user’s computer; is accessed by the user over the internet. The operating system is actually running in the operating system’s provider’s data center.  A type of PaaS.

Hosted Application

An Internet-based application running on a remote server. A type of Saas.

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Elastic Computing (or Elastic Cloud Computing)

The ability to quickly assign differing amounts of processing, memory, and storage resources to satisfy varying demand…without having to physically engineer such changes.

Cloud (or Content) Delivery Network (CDN)

A system of computers, located in different places on the network, that contain copies of data, allowing clients to access the copy closest to them.

What is Cloud Computing?

What cloud computing is, and isn’t, is the subject of much discussion these days – and not just at the water cooler here at EarthLink Cloud. Because one thing cloud computing is…is hot.

Hot as it is, cloud computing is still not very well defined, at least not in the minds of most people. Ask a roomful of people “What is cloud computing?” and you’re very likely going to get a roomful of answers.

Whatever they mean by it, people definitely are searching for cloud computing. The term “cloud computing” has been skyrocketing in search volume in the past several years, according to Google Insight for Search, with the term going from zero on Google’s search volume scale in July 2007 to 100 in June 2011.

Cloud Computing is also enjoying the buzz as two of the hottest tech giants trying to out-cloud each other, with Apple promoting its iCloud service and Amazon promoting its Cloud Drive.

But while buzz-worthy, these cloud-based services represent only one area of cloud computing and are likely to be misleading to someone trying to answer the what is cloud computing question.

So…What is Cloud Computing?

Luckily, there’s an official definition of cloud computing, from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST):

“Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.”

Need a translation? Well, CNBC’s Cloud Computing 101 says that means:

“Accessing the Internet anywhere, anytime and being able to use any or all of the data and applications that you want.”

That, however, may be an overly general summary and not instructive enough in defining just what cloud computing is and isn’t.

What is Cloud Computing: 3 Service Models

Examples are often helpful when trying to fully understand and flesh out a definition, so here are 3 kinds of cloud computing with examples of each from the NIST definition of cloud computing:

1. Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) – Software as a service simply means that instead of the traditional model where software programs (e.g., email programs, word processing, spreadsheets, photo editing, CRM, etc.) have to be installed on an individual’s computer to use, the software is instead web-based and hosted remotely on a dedicated server. Users typically access the software as service through a web browser. This is probably the segment of cloud computing that most are familiar with since it includes popular consumer products such as web mail services like Gmail and Yahoo Mail, Google Docs, Picassa, Salesforce.com and online blogging service WordPress.com. Users of a traditional email program like Outlook can choose to uninstall it. Users of a cloud-based email progam like Gmail can sign in or not sign in but there’s nothing to uninstall. In the software as a service model, users can sometimes make minor configuration changes to their experience of the software service, but they cannot manage or control the cloud infrastructure or overall software capabilities. Services are controlled and managed remotely—in the cloud.
2. Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS) – Platform as a service may be the least familiar cloud computing model. This is primarily an application hosting platform, allowing users to build and deploy apps onto the cloud infrastructure using programming languages and tools supported by the provider. Users do not manage or control the cloud infrastructure but can control deployed applications and possibly application hosting configurations. It lets app developers build or expand applications without the cost and complexity of buying the underlying hardware and software, managing the platform, and provisioning hosting capabilities. Examples of PaaS include Force.com from Salesforce, Microsoft Azure, Google AppEngine, Zoho Creator, and CloudFoundry.
3. Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)- IaaS delivers fundamental computing infrastructure, such as data storage, processing, content delivery, basic networking, and other capabilities to end users as a service. It lets users provision, deploy, and run software, including operating systems and individual applications, through virtualized environments (virtual servers) without the need to purchase hardware such as servers, datacenter space, network equipment, and other in-house resources. EarthLink Cloud’s Cloud Hosting services are a good example of IaaS, letting users build and deploy custom virtual servers to our cloud platform in minutes.

What is Cloud Computing: Essential Characteristics

Whether the cloud computing services provided are infrastructure, platform, or software, they all share these 5 essential characteristics delineated by NIST. In these characteristics you’ll also start to see some of the many benefits of cloud computing.

1. On-demand self-service: this means that users can provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, on their own, whenever they need it.
2. Broad network access: cloud computing is available over a network and accessed through a variety of standard computing devices such as desktop computers, laptops, and smartphones.
3. Resources pooling: this means that cloud providers of storage space, processing, virtual servers, etc., pool their cloud-based resources to dynamically serve multiple consumers/customers based on demand. This allows providers to provide resources more efficiently and therefore cost-effectively and pass on cost savings to cloud hosting customers.
4. Rapid elasticity: one of the big benefits of cloud computing is how quickly it can scale out to meet rapidly growing demand or demand spikes and how quickly it can scale back down so cloud computing customers aren’t paying for unused capacity.
5. Measured service: Cloud computing systems automatically control and optimize resource use by monitoring, controlling, and reporting on the service being offered, providing transparency for the cloud computing consumer as well as the provider.

What is Cloud Computing … And Why Should I Use It?

Here are 11 of the most often cited benefits of cloud computing:

• Cost Savings – Cloud computing reduces IT expenses overall through reduced hardware, software, and networking management cost reductions. Bottom line: you need less stuff, the stuff you need costs less, and you need fewer resources to manage it.
• Cost Control – Cloud computing helps businesses control costs because they don’t need to make usage predictions, don’t need to overbuild to handle usage spikes, can reduce upfront capital investments, and can budget cloud computing services as Opex costs (ongoing operational expenses) instead of Capex (big-ticket items you invest upfront money in to own).
• Instant Scaling / Elasticity – Cloud computing allows businesses to instantly scale up IT resources to meet new demands and quickly scale them back down as demand lessens. No need to go out and buy new hardware every time a new need comes up.
• Business Speed & Agility – Closely related to the scaling benefit: IT can react quicker to business needs to help streamline projects and decrease time to market.
• Business Focus & Growth – Relying on a cloud service provider such as EarthLink Cloud for IT services lets businesses focus more time, energy, and talent growing current revenue streams and developing new ones to grow their business.
• Automatic Updates – IT can focus on other issue and don’t have to worry about (or pay for) ongoing updates to hardware and software.
• Remote & Mobile Access – Cloud computing services are by definition remote, which frees your organization from physical limitations of your business location. Most are also available from mobile devices such as smartphones, which makes your organization more flexible and nimble.
• Innovation – How many times are good ideas killed because an organization doesn’t have the IT resources or can’t scale them fast enough to try something new? All the time. Cloud computing encourages and enables innovation by making it simple to try new things, scale up and down during a test, and remove the cost barrier of investing in new servers and other hardware to handle a new product or project.
• Expertise – Cloud computing & hosting providers like EarthLink Cloud are proven experts in deploying and managing cloud IT services. Some large enterprises have that kind of expertise in house, but not many. For startups and small to medium-sized businesses, cloud computing is a big step up in quality even while lowering costs.
• Makes Small Companies Larger – With a cloud hosting provider handling their IT needs, small companies can level the playing field with the big boys and compete more effectively. You get the same top-quality cloud computing resources as the Fortune 500 firms, but you pay only for what you need.
• Greener Computing – Cloud computing is widely regarded as being a greener option for IT due to efficiencies of scale, diversity, and flexibility. The smaller the organization, the greater the positive impact will be. According to a Microsoft study, small organization can reduce their carbon footprint by up to 90% by moving to a shared cloud environment. For a large company, the study found a 32% emission savings for cloud computing. Here are 4 reasons why cloud computing is a green solution.

What Kind of Companies Can Use Cloud Computing?

Though some of the benefits will vary with the size and structure of the organization, cloud computing can help virtually any size organization cut or manage costs, increase business focus, be more innovative and responsive, and contribute to a greener environment.  EarthLink Cloud has experience working with all types of organizations, from small startups to large enterprises, in a wide variety of fields.

If you think your business may be interested in the benefits of cloud computing, visit the EarthLinkCloud.com site to review our Cloud Server Hosting, VMware vCloud Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, and other related services. Or you can give us a call at 1-800-957-4872. A cloud computing specialist can discuss which solutions may be best suited to your business.

What’s Next for Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is big now and all signs point to it getting bigger fast. Just how big?

A June, 2011 IDC study reported that “Cloud computing will continue to reshape the IT landscape over the next five years as spending on public IT cloud services expands at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.6%.

According to research firm Gartner Inc., worldwide cloud services revenue was forecast to reach $68.3 billion in 2010, a 16.6 percent increase from 2009 revenue of $58.6 billion. And by 2014, worldwide cloud services revenue expected to reach $148.8 billion.

Good luck in the cloud!

EarthLink Cloud Featured on Eyes on the Future

EarthLink Cloud Featured on Eyes on the Future.  IT experts on this week’s show talk about Cloud Computing and how it can help your company.  Session Guests include Mike Salviski of Earthlink Cloud, Jonathan Coupal of ITX, and Mike Kasprzyk of Orient Express.

Visit: http://www.rochesterbiz.com/podcast/

Or for the Apple/iPod Users: http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/eyes-on-the-future/id348148953

EarthLink Acquires LogicalSolutions.net

EarthLink Acquires LogicalSolutions.net – Positions EarthLink to Offer Cloud Computing Services

May 16, 2011 – EarthLink, Inc., a leading IP infrastructure and services company, has acquired LogicalSolutions.net, an Enterprise Class Data Center solutions provider, specializing in custom server virtualization solutions, self-service cloud solutions, enterprise web and application hosting, and disaster recovery/data backup services.

The LogicalSolutions.net business will be combined with EarthLink’s existing data center services to form a new Data Center Services business unit, which will be run Jim Salviski, CEO of LogicalSolutions.net

“The LogicalSolutions.net team brings 15 years of experience managing, maintaining and operating Data Center facilities. Combined with our existing data center expertise, this acquisition will enable EarthLink to grow our cloud services business,” said Rolla P. Huff, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EarthLink.

Salviski, the founder of LogicalSolutions.net, commented, “Cloud computing is not just the future, it’s the here and now. Businesses nationwide are starting to take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing. Not only does it save on the high cost of owning and maintaining servers, it increases reliability, security and directly benefits employees in their day-to-day work.”

EarthLink will maintain LogicalSolutions.net data center in Rochester, NY. Built in 2008, this facility will continue to service LogicalSolutions.net and future EarthLink customers.

About EarthLink
EarthLink, Inc. (NASDAQ: ELNK) is a leading provider of Internet Protocol (IP) infrastructure and services to medium-sized and large businesses, enterprise organizations and over 1.5 million consumers across the United States. The company has been providing Internet access and communications services for decades and has earned an award-winning reputation for both outstanding customer service and product innovation. For consumers, EarthLink is a leading Internet Service Provider connecting people to the power and possibilities of the Internet. EarthLink Business™ provides voice, data, mobile and equipment services over a 28,000 mile fiber network and MPLS-based services nationwide. For more information, visit EarthLink’s website www.earthlink.net.

LogicalSolutions.net’s May eNewsletter

EarthLink Continues to Grow! 

EarthLink adds two new resources to their Rochester Data Center team! Chris Getman joins the Rochester Data Center Team as their new Senior Network Engineer. Chris has over 15 years of networking experience, and comes to EarthLink from CURRENT Group, LLC. At CURRENT Chris worked on the design, development, and deployment of the world’s largest Broadband over Powerline (BPL) communication systems and networks.

Joshua Meisch also joins the team as their new Sales Engineer. Joshua comes from Datrose Inc where he performed sales, customer support, and staffing augmentation services. Joshua implemented Datrose’s first Recruitment Process Outsourcing services and helped place Engineers and IT professionals in well suited and desired careers.

Welcome aboard Chris and Joshua!  
  
Our Cloud Platform continues growth! 

This month we have added additional Enterprise SAN’s to our Cloud Hosting platform. With multiple SANs using RAID10 storage, you can rest assured knowing that your data is safe in our Rochester, NY based Data Center.
 
We have added several new self deploy server templates to the Cloud Platform, including:
 - Windows Server 2008 R2
 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux
 
With these great new additions to our already extensive library of templates, you now have over 30 different operating system options from which to choose!
 
Our self service Cloud platform allows organizations, partners, and end-users greater flexibility, automation, and control in the cloud. Contact us for a demo today! Existing customers are eligible for a free trial account.  Get Started Today!  
 
FEATURED BLOG POST – “Benefits of using VMWare vCloud”
by Mike Salviski

EarthLink is an early adopter of VMWare’s new vCloud control panel, giving customers full access to their hosted VMWare Environment. vCloud is based on secure VMware cloud infrastructure technology. This enterprise platform provides multilevel, auditable security with SAS 70 Type II compliance.
 
Full Control of your VMWare applications and resource space…Click here to read more.

Joshua Meisch joins LogicalSolutions.net!

EarthLink welcomes Joshua Meisch to the Pittsford Victor Rd location as their new Sales Engineer. Joshua comes from Datrose Inc where he performed sales, customer support, and staffing augmentation services. Joshua implemented Datrose’s first Recruitment Process Outsourcing services and helped place Engineers and IT professionals in well suited and desired careers. Previously Joshua worked for the MY Network TV affiliate in Gates NY where he ran Master Control, produced advertisements and sales support for businesses in the Rochester market. Welcome aboard Joshua!

Chris Getman joins the LogicalSolutions.net Team!

EarthLink adds Chris Getman to their Rochester Data Center Team as their new Senior Network Engineer. Chris has over 15 years of networking experience, and comes to LogicalSolutions from CURRENT Group, LLC. At CURRENT Chris worked on the design, development, and deployment of the world’s largest Broadband Over Powerline (BPL) communication systems and networks. While at CURRENT Group Chris also worked on the development of hardened, mission critical, multi-layer switching and routing platforms for various power industry Smart Grid initiatives. Prior to CURRENT Chris worked as a Sr. Network Engineer with Global Crossing, Frontier Communications, and VivaNet/Optinet.