The agenda of the webinar was as follows:

• Overview of GoGrid and F5 Networks
• Load balancing with GoGrid and F5 BIG IP
  • Benefits of load balancing overview
  • Use cases
  • Best practices
• Question and Answer Session

As mentioned previously, if you aren’t using a load balanced solution in your Cloud infrastructure, you may be putting your site or services at risk. Here are some reasons why you should seriously consider using GoGrid’s FREE F5 load balancing service within the GoGrid cloud:

• You can prevent application downtime – when you have more than one server in a load balanced environment, you can rest assured that if one of those servers happens to become unavailable, traffic to your site is automatically redirected to the other available server(s).
• Scaling infrastructure – without a load balancer in place, it can be difficult to scale up (or down) your infrastructure.
• 1-2-3 Process – deploying a load balancer on GoGrid is just a matter of filling out a form and once you configure it, your new load balancer is available in minutes.
• Moving beyond the “Free” offering – we have solutions that go beyond the standard load balancing offering within GoGrid. If your routing needs are more complex, we are here to help!

If you were unable to attend this webinar, the complete recording is available below as well as on our Vimeo channel:

Load Balancing in the GoGrid Cloud – Utilizing F5 BIG IP to Manage Traffic Spikes and Uptime – Webinar (August 2010) from GoGrid on Vimeo.

The presentation that was used in the webinar is also available on our Slideshare channel:

If you are looking for a Load Balancing solution in the cloud, definitely consider GoGrid’s free F5 load balancing service. If your needs go beyond what is offered for free, you can contact a GoGrid Sales Representative or if you are a current GoGrid customer, you can talk with your Dedicated Service Team and work on some more advanced solutions.

If there are any other topics you would like covered in a future webinar from GoGrid, please let me know.

Now we are taking it one step further because we realize in order for Cloud Computing to be adopted across the business IT landscape, there needs to be more standards put in place as well as a commonality across the board when it comes to Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The Deltacloud initiative is grabbing this issue by the horns by working to combine interoperability with an open sourced API. And, they are the only major cloud framework that isn’t leveraging a single company’s proprietary code, API or intellectual property.

Deltacloud, an Apache Software Foundation incubator project that provides an open set of application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable computing interoperability across private and public clouds, recently announced support for GoGrid and we are pleased to participate in this important initiative. There are quite a few advantages of this effort, specifically:

• The API can be offered by a cloud provider or individual user running their own server
• Multiple client libraries can be written in a variety of computer languages (many are already available)
• The core API logic resides on the API server, allowing consistent behavior across all client libraries
• New cloud providers can be added to the API without needing to change the clients

The driver for GoGrid is currently under development but will support the following actions:

• Create new instances
• Stop running instances
• Reboot running instances
• Destroy instances
• List all/get details about hardware profiles
• List all/get details about realms
• List all/get details about images
• List all/get details about instances

Deltacloud is hosted at Apache incubator which allows it to benefit from the Apache governance model. This means that discussion, changes and updates are based on individual contributions.

For more information on the Deltacloud initiative, please visit the project hosted on the Apache incubator site.

To make it easy for new GoGrid users, we are offering a $150 GoGrid service credit for you to get started with Microsoft WebMatrix and GoGrid. To get going, simply sign-up here.

About WebMatrix (and a bit of GoGrid)

Microsoft does a clear job outlining the features of WebMatrix, specifically:

• Small, but complete package – simply download and install WebMatrix for free on your desktop. From there, you can immediately start to use the built-in webserver, database and programming framework to jump-start your web-development. And, you can quickly get started on the hosting side of things as well by deploying a GoGrid server that is ready to automatically connect to WebMatrix.
• Grows with you – you start simple and then grow as your application and development grows, much like that of Cloud Computing. As your coding expands, you can easily integrate Visual Studio into your work environment. Similarly, you can update the built-in database from SQL Server Compact to a full-blown Microsoft SQL Server.
• Start > Open Source – if you aren’t ready to start from scratch, WebMatrix includes a variety of popular and free open source applications like WordPress, Joomla!, Umbraco and DotNetNuke. Just choose your software package from the library and WebMatrix will download and install the software. And you can tweak each environment using the built-in code editor.
• Database made simple – don’t let data-driven websites scare you either. If your web application needs to serve data like a online catalog or CMS, WebMatrix has you covered by providing a small, embedded database (SQL Server Compact). But the really nice thing is, once you are done doing all of the development on your Desktop, you can publish your database quickly and easily to your GoGrid production environment.
• Elegant interface, simple experience – WebMatrix has editors galore! It includes a rich code editor and database editor, but also has easy management consoles for SEO, web server management and FTP publishing as well. Couple this management with the ease of use of the GoGrid portal and you can’t go wrong.
• Simple to code – at GoGrid, we have always believed in adhering to industry standards when it comes to hosting and managing infrastructure. WebMatrix follows a similar suit by sticking to HTML, CSS & JavaScript standards. Your code is easy to read and by using the software suite, you can do some learning in the process as you create your next web application.
• More than “Hello, World” – WebMatrix has a variety of built-in code helpers that make development even easier by simply tagging your HTML.
• Desktop or server, it’s all the same – moving from a desktop development environment to a full-fledged production environment is practically effortless since the Desktop version is built with the same frameworks, web server and database engine as production servers.
• Tightly knit, fully integrated – WebMatrix also acts as the “traffic cop” because of its integration with IIS Developer Express and other Web server components that run your site. You can monitor things in real-time and if an issue pops up, it helps you to track down and resolve that issue.
• Optimized for search – you no longer need to pay a 3rd party to ensure that your website or application is SEO optimized. Built in guides assist you in optimizing your site to the fullest.
• Site publication – once you are ready to move your web site or application to a robust production environment, WebMatrix can help in that selection process. But you may not even need that since GoGrid has partnered with Microsoft to provide a full production-ready environment within the GoGrid cloud. And, we are giving new GoGrid users a $150 service credit to make that on-ramp even faster!

Now that you know a bit about what Microsoft WebMatrix (and GoGrid) can do for you, let’s learn a bit more about it.

Getting Started with WebMatrix & GoGrid

There are two components to setting up the WebMatrix and GoGrid environments: Desktop and Server. The Desktop environment is the one where you do all of your coding and development, all within the WebMatrix development suite. The Server environment on GoGrid is where you will host the product of your labors.

Starting with the Desktop side, you will need to download the WebMatrix installer which is located at: http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/.

Installing the Desktop version of WebMatrix

Initiating the installer. Do note that depending on your choices, the installation process could be a bit longer:

The Installer confirms your selections:

Be sure to set up a secure password for SQL Server Express (you will be prompted to change it if it isn’t very secure):

Go grab a cup of coffee while the components are downloaded and installed:

Once the installation is complete, you will receive a confirmation screen:

Installing an Application (e.g., WordPress) via WebMatrix Locally

Once your installation of WebMatrix is complete, you can either start coding on your own, or install a pre-configured Open Source application. In this case, I chose to install WordPress. There are other items that you can install as well, including:

• DotNetNuke Community Edition
• nopCommerce
• Gallery
• WordPress
• Umbraco CMS
• mojoPortal
• ResourceBlender.NET
• Kentico CMS for ASP.NET
• BlogEngine.NET
• Acquia Drupal
• ScrewTurn Wiki 3.0
• Gallery Server Pro
• nService
• Moodle
• Sitefinity Community Edition
• DasBlog
• SugarCRM
• Subtext
• SilverStripe CMS
• Joomla!
• Mayando
• AtomSite
• My Web Pages Starter Kit
• phpBB
• KoobooCMS

You choose which Web Server you want to use. I chose Microsoft WebMatrix.

The Installer confirms your installation choices:

Since WordPress uses MySQL, you need to configure a secure password for it:

Time for another cup of coffee while the installer runs:

Once you have completed the installation, you can begin configuring your WordPress (or other application) install on your local machine. Just launch WebMatrix from your Start menu:

I clicked on My Sites:

The WebMatrix management console has everything you need right at your fingertips:

You can edit files using the built-in code editor that is complete with context-color-coding:

Similarly, you can manage your database (in this case, MySQL) through the database console:

Creating a GoGrid Server Ready for WebMatrix Publishing

The beauty of the WebMatrix install is being able to develop locally on your Desktop and then publish your final site to a production server on GoGrid. Before you can do the publishing, you need to set up a GoGrid server running WebMatrix. Be sure to take advantage of our $150 GoGrid Service Credit by signing up here.

Once you log into the GoGrid Portal, click the Add button and then select Cloud Server. Within the Image Selection widget, choose the “WebMatrixServer2″ image:

After that, configure your server and click Save:

Within a few minutes, you will have your production environment ready to go. At that point, you need to use a Remote Desktop Connection to remotely manage your server. Remember that the Administrator password is within the Support > Passwords section of the GoGrid portal.

Getting Your GoGrid /WebMatrix Server Environment Ready

Once you connect to your server running on GoGrid using a Remote Desktop Connection (RDC), you will see two files on the desktop, a Getting Started document and a link to Microsoft WebMatrix.

To quickly summarize, here are the high-level steps you need to complete on the GoGrid Server:

1. Run the Certificate Preparation script
2. Change the Default Application Pool
3. (Recommended) Change your MySQL or SQL Server password from the default one listed in this blog post

1) Certificate Preparation Script

Before you configure your publishing environment, you need to run a Certificate Preparation script on the server. It is located at: C:/certprep/CertPrep.exe. Simply double-click the application and it will run quickly. You will see a DOS prompt pop up briefly and then automatically close.

2) Change Default Application Pool

In order for the publishing to work properly, you do need to change the Default Application Pool from version 2 to version 4. To do this, go into your IIS manager on the server, select Application Pools, select “DefaultAppPool” (which will probably say “v2.0″) and make the change (to “v4.0″) as shown below:

Original Setting:

Updated Setting (Note: it might show a different version – just choose the v.4.0.xxxxx one):

3) Change Default Database Password

While this is not a required step, it is a recommended one. You might want to change the default password on your MySQL or SQL Server database from the default one that the server starts with. Just use the appropriate method for the database that you are using.

Editing & Publishing from Local Environment to GoGrid

Now, we will dive into the publishing to your GoGrid server. For a test, I made some edits to my WordPress theme locally. I wanted to see how it could be pushed over to WebMatrix running on the GoGrid Server instance. Here is the minor code change:

And how it appears in the local version of my WordPress blog:

The Getting Started guide which resides on the GoGrid WebMatrix Image will tell you how to configure your local development environment for publishing, specifically:

1. Click Start and Microsoft WebMatrix Beta.
2. Click Site from Gallery or create your own website
3. Click Publish
4. Enter the following information in the Publish Settings dialog:

Protocol: Web Deploy
Server: http://IP address e.g. “http://111.222.33.44″
Username: Administrator
Password: password of local Administrator account (you can get this from the GoGrid portal)
Site Name: Default Web Site
Destination URL: http://IP address

If your application needs a database connection, use the following formats in the Publish Settings:

SQL: Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS; Initial Catalog=gogrid_db;User Id=sa;Password= $trongPassw0rd;
MySQL: Server=localhost;Database=gogrid_db;Uid=root;Pwd=$trongPassw0rd;

Note: If you changed the default password on your server, be sure to change it in the appropriate string above.

Within WebMatrix locally, click on the Configure button under Publish:

You will see the Publishing Settings:

Fill in the Publishing Settings as per the list in the Getting Started guide (as mentioned above):

Once you enter in all of the information, be sure to push the “Validate Connection” button. Assuming you have no validation issues, you can proceed with the publishing of your code/site. Clicking “Publish” will show you a confirmation screen of the files that will be published. If you want to include your database, be sure to check off that box:

Click “Continue” to publish your site/code (and database). WebMatrix will start publishing your content. You will see a status bar at the bottom showing the progress:

Clicking on “More Details” can show you what is happening:

Once you publish the site (using the Publish button) and send over the database, you may also need to change which Default Document loads first. By default, it is Default.htm. In order to have the WordPress default document show up, you should move Index.php to the top of the list within your IIS manager. Once you do that, the WordPress blog (in this case) will load, complete with the changes you had made locally:

Now, any changes that you do locally on WebMatrix can be published to your GoGrid Server.

Summing It Up

Obviously, you don’t need to use one of the pre-packaged webapps that are available. You can just as easily create your own custom code and publish it the same way as I have outlined above. Regardless, using the GoGrid/WebMatrix combo does fulfill a variety of end-to-end development, testing and publishing scenarios. And with the $150 GoGrid service credit, you can test out this environment to see if it meets your needs.

Let me know how it goes or if you have any questions!

Many current GoGrid users are not taking advantage of our free F5 load balancing so if you are one of those customers, we encourage you to attend this webinar. Things to think about:

• You can prevent application downtime – when you have more than one server in a load balanced environment, you can rest assured that if one of those servers happens to become unavailable, traffic to your site is automatically redirected to the other available server(s).
• Scaling infrastructure – without a load balancer in place, it can be difficult to scale up (or down) your infrastructure.
• 1-2-3 Process – deploying a load balancer is just a matter of filling out a form and once you configure it, your new load balancer is available in minutes.
• Moving beyond the “Free” offering – if your routing needs are more complex, we are here to help with other solutions.

Webinar Details

Title: “Load Balancing in the GoGrid Cloud – Utilizing F5 BIG IP to Manage Traffic Spikes and Uptime”
Date: Wednesday, 8/25/10
Time: 10:00 AM – 10:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time
Registration: http://go.gogrid.com/webinars/20100825

Topics to be covered in this webinar include:

• Enterprise grade hardware load balancers
• Multi-data center resource provisioning
• Configuration options at different levels: load balancing types and persistence
• And more!

Presenters:

• F5 Networks: Doug Lohf, Senior Systems Engineer
• GoGrid: David Michael, Sales Engineer
• GoGrid: Rob Larson, Product Manager

As a thank you for attending, all attendees will be eligible for a $50 GoGrid Service Credit.

Be sure that you attend this important webinar as it can help you do more with your F5 load balancing solution that you already have available within your GoGrid cloud.

With a GoGrid server running Silverline, customers can control the amount of resources each workload can consume meaning that you can process your workloads on a smaller number of servers but still ensuring that SLAs with your customers are met. More information about Librato Silverline can be found within the GoGrid Exchange.

There are currently 10 GoGrid Partner Server Images (PGSIs) available with Librato’s Silverline installed:

• CentOS 5.2 (32-bit)
• CentOS 5.2 (64-bit)
• CentOS 5.3 (32-bit)
• CentOS 5.3 (64-bit)
• RHEL 5.4 (32-bit)
• RHEL 5.4 (64-bit)
• Windows Server 2003 (32-bit)
• Windows Server 2003 (64-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 (32-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 (64-bit)

The following Press Release was delivered today about this new offering:

Maximizing Server Utilization with Librato’s Silverline in the GoGrid Cloud

Instantly Deploy Servers with GoGrid Partner Images Preconfigured for Spare Cycle Harvesting, Application Monitoring and Event Triggers

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Librato^®, Inc., a leading provider of software solutions that maximize the utilization of cloud and data center resources, today announced the availability of Silverline service on GoGrid’s cloud hosting infrastructure. Silverline is preconfigured for the GoGrid cloud in the form of a Partner GoGrid Server Image (PGSI) in the GoGrid Exchange and delivers spare capacity harvesting, monitoring of application resource consumption, and event handling on GoGrid servers.

Silverline encapsulates applications in virtual “containers” that precisely monitor resource consumption, up to 100 times per second. Use cases for Silverline include:

• spare cycle harvesting – where a background application uses only resources not consumed by primary applications,
• application monitoring and capacity planning – which provides detailed statistics on resource usage and demand, and
• event triggers – where thresholds are set with corresponding user-defined actions configured to occur when an application crosses a threshold.

Silverline supports Linux and Windows running on virtual or physical servers. Silverline is always available for free on Windows Desktop systems and is available for a 30-day free trial on Linux and Windows servers.

GoGrid makes it easy to build and manage cloud servers with an award-winning, web-based GUI or programmatically through an API,” said Fred van den Bosch, CEO of Librato. “Silverline is available for a free 30-day trial and provides a powerful mechanism to monitor resource usage for complex workloads that can span multiple GoGrid servers or hybrid clouds.”

Librato Silverline, when coupled with the GoGrid Cloud, allows customers to get even more out of their existing “cloudcenter” by giving them precise control over the amount of resources that each application workload on their GoGrid server consumes. This enables customers’ workloads to be dispersed among different GoGrid servers in the most efficient manner possible, which means they will now easily be able to maximize utilization, productivity, and moreover, the value they obtain from all of the servers they have running in their “cloudcenter”.

Silverline gives GoGrid users the ability to control their infrastructure utilization on GoGrid down to a level never before seen,” said GoGrid CEO, John Keagy. “While Cloud Computing gives you better control over your infrastructure, by adding the Silverline service to the mix, GoGrid users can fully benefit from increased server resource management.”

About GoGrid

GoGrid is a Global Leader in Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure hosting. GoGrid enables sysadmins, developers, and IT professionals to create, deploy, and control free f5 load balanced cloud infrastructures and complex hosted virtual server networks with full root access/administrative server control. GoGrid physical and virtual server instances maintain industry standard specifications with no requirement to learn proprietary standards. Deploying GoGrid infrastructure takes minutes via a web control panel or GoGrid’s API. GoGrid gives users the control of a familiar datacenter environment with the flexibility and immediate scalability of the cloud. For more information, please visit: http://www.GoGrid.com.

About Librato, Inc.

Librato, Inc., is a leading provider of software for maximizing the utilization of resources in clouds and data centers. Librato’s products are based on a unique, application-centric virtualization layer that is transparently interposed between application and Operating System. This allows its products to be easily deployed in existing cloud and data center environments and generate a rapid return on investment. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. For more information visit http://www.librato.com or follow Librato on Twitter at http://twitter.com/librato.

Librato, the Librato logo, and Librato Silverline are trademarks or registered trademarks of Librato, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Please be sure to explore other Partner Solutions within the GoGrid Exchange which include offerings for Software & Applications, Development & Testing, Disaster Recovery & Backup, Cloud Management, and Security, Monitoring & Reporting.

Date: Thursday August 12, 2010
Time: 10:00 am (Pacific Daylight time)
Duration: 1 hour
Registration: http://bit.ly/bNkfd1

Topics to be covered are:

• Intro to cloud web service and management tools
• Best practices in deploying databases in the cloud
• Available data storage options
• Technical challenges when protecting remote databases
• Securing databases in the cloud

Sentrigo currently has its Hedgehog Database Compliance and Security Suite images available on GoGrid as CentOS 5.3 and Windows Server 2008 server images:

The following Press Release was delivered today discussing the upcoming Webinar.

Sentrigo and GoGrid to Host Webinar on Building Stable, Scalable, Secure Databases in the Cloud

Industry Experts Share Best Practices for Organizations Looking to Safely Deploy Databases in Cloud Computing Environment

Santa Clara, CA (PRWEB) August 10, 2010

Sentrigo, Inc. innovator in database securitysoftware, today announced that it will host a live Webinar on Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 10am PT with GoGrid, a pioneer in customizable, on-demand cloud infrastructures. The event, entitled “Learn to Build a Stable, Scalable, and Secure Databases in the Cloud,” will feature representatives from GoGrid and Sentrigo sharing their expertise on database deployments and real-time security in this latest frontier of information technology.

The interactive session will feature Paul Lancaster, GoGrid’s head of business and channel development, Andy Feit, VP of marketing at Sentrigo, and Rob David, a consulting engineer for Sentrigo with experience implementing database security for several cloud architectures – and will address topics including:

• An introduction to cloud infrastructure and management tools
• Best practices in deploying applications and databases in the cloud
• Technical challenges when protecting remote databases
• Securing databases in a cloud computing environment

“As ever-increasing numbers of organizations are looking to implement cloud computing, they are often discouraged by the perceived lack of security,” said Feit. “Our key objective for this Webinar is to provide enterprises with actionable information to allow them to most effectively move applications to the cloud, while maintaining the high level of security necessary to meet compliance requirements and prevent a damaging data breach.”

For event details and registration, please visit: http://bit.ly/bNkfd1

Tweet this: Sentrigo and GoGrid to Host Webinar on Building Stable, Scalable, Secure Databases in the Cloud

Follow Sentrigo on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/sentrigo

About Sentrigo

Sentrigo is a recognized innovator in database security solutions, offering a full suite of products for vulnerability assessment, virtual patching and database monitoring/auditing. The company’s flagship product, Hedgehog Enterprise, provides Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) and real-time Intrusion Prevention, protecting sensitive data from external threats and misuse by privileged insiders. Hedgehog can be quickly and easily deployed at small and midsize organizations, and scales to handle the largest enterprises, providing full visibility into all database activity and allowing enterprises to enforce security policy and comply with regulatory requirements, such as PCI DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, and HIPAA. The company has won wide acclaim for its technology leadership from publications such as Network World and SC Magazine, and recently received the Cloud Computing World Series Award as the ‘Best Security Solution’ , the 2010 Global Product Excellence Award for Database Security from Info Security Products Guide and was a recipient of the 2010 Red Herring 100 North America Award. For additional information and to download Hedgehog, visit www.sentrigo.com.

Sentrigo, Sentrigo Hedgehog, Hedgehog IDentifier, Hedgehog vPatch and the Sentrigo logo are trademarks of Sentrigo, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.

We hope that you can attend this informative webinar.

Even though it is the summer here, we are hard at work growing the GoGrid product and feature offering as we strive to live up to our new Unique Value Proposition: “Complex Infrastructure Made Easy™”.

Below is the full content of the August 2010 Customer Update newsletter that went out to all GoGrid customers:

Hello,

It’s August and we’ve hit our stride. The release of GoGrid version 3.0 was a major milestone and we’ve continued at a steady pace for feature parity in our new US-East-1 data center. In this edition of the newsletter, you’ll discover how our new features and system enhancements can make an immediate impact on your GoGrid Cloud.

Specific topics include:

• New Features and System Enhancements
• Unique Value Proposition
• Partner News
• CDN News
• Events and Other News

New Features and System Enhancements

---

F5 Load Balancer Support US-East-1

In June, we opened our new US-East-1 data center in Ashburn, VA, which allows for immediate provisioning of virtual servers with GoGrid base images. We’re happy to announce that free F5 load balancing is now available for immediate deployment in the US-East-1 data center as well.

You can use the GoGrid portal or the API to provision virtual servers and F5 load balancers in real time  and in either of our locations: US-West-1 or US-East-1.

16 GB RAM Virtual Servers

In April we began the process of upgrading our node hardware with the latest Intel Nehalem chipset architecture allowing for 25-50% more CPU for virtual servers. We also gave Cloud Servers greater CPU allocations and now have included the ability to provision 16 GB RAM virtual servers in both GoGrid data centers.

As new node capacity continues to be built, we expect to soon have enough new Nehalem nodes to handle 100% of new virtual server adds.  Currently, most virtual servers will be added to new nodes, but depending on demand, some virtual servers may be deployed on non-Nehalem nodes and therefore will receive the older CPU allotments.

Below are some FAQs for this new feature:

Q: Are the new 16 GB virtual servers compatible with my existing MyGSIs and PGSIs?
A: Yes, all of your existing MyGSIs and PGSIs are compatible with the 16GB RAM virtual servers, and that option will automatically be made available with existing compatible MyGSIs and PGSIs. Note that only server images with a 64-bit OS will have the option to add a 16GB RAM server.

Q: Are there any restrictions with the types of operating systems I can use?
A: Yes, there are some restrictions with Windows operating systems due to Microsoft licensing constraints. Please see the chart below for specifics:

New Virtual Servers
RAM                Cores               Disk Storage
16 GB              16 (Linux)          960
8 (Windows)
Existing Virtual Servers
RAM              Cores               Disk Storage
16 GB            8                       960
If you have questions, please contact your dedicated GoGrid account team or GoGrid technical support.

Six New Images for GoGrid Dedicated Servers

We now support 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Ubuntu, CentOS, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for our GoGrid Dedicated Servers. All of the existing images continue to be supported and are still available.
See below for new image details:

• Ubuntu 10.04 (32-bit) Dedicated Server
• Ubuntu 10.04 (64-bit) Dedicated Server
• CentOS 5.5 (32-bit) Dedicated Server
• CentOS 5.5 (64-bit) Dedicated Server
• RHEL 5.5 (32-bit) Dedicated Server
• RHEL 5.5 (64-bit) Dedicated Server

Make an Impact on Your GoGrid Cloud

At GoGrid you have a dedicated service team with cross-functional expertise that is available to help you every step of the way. Our team of experts can translate your business and technical requirements into the best solution for you.

Interested in or have questions about:

• Getting started with Cloud Storage
• Deploying Cloud Servers and F5 load balancers in the US-East-1 data center
• Hardware and software firewall solutions
• Leveraging F5 load balancing
• Provisioning a Partner GSI (PGSI)
• Building a Hybrid solution

Contact us directly to discuss getting started with a GoGrid solution. We will be happy to coordinate a technical and strategy call, as well as a consultative GoToMeeting on how to use our system.

Unique Value Proposition

---

Help Improve GoGrid and You Could Win an iPad

As part of our continued effort to provide a positive experience for our customers we are asking for your feedback. Below is a link to our quarterly customer survey. Simply fill out the survey and you’ll be entered to win an iPad. The survey is super quick (only a minute or two of your time) and will help us assess our ability to serve our customers and identify areas where we need to improve. This is your chance to provide input on the features that will help you. Here’s the link so that you can participate: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D7ZDKTY

Partner News

We continue to add exciting new partners to the GoGrid Exchange. In the past month we’ve added several new Partner GoGrid Server Images (PGSIs) to the GoGrid catalog. You can deploy an image directly from the GoGrid Portal.

NEW to the GoGrid Exchange:

• Trend Micro Deep Security – Trend Micro Deep Security 7 provides advanced protection for servers in the dynamic data center, whether physical, virtual, or in the cloud. Deep Security combines intrusion detection and prevention, firewall, integrity monitoring, and log inspection capabilities in a single, centrally-managed software agent.

• Automated Security Assessment Program (ASAP) – Cranium Solutions’ flagship product, ASAP™ (Automated Security Assessment Program), is the first fully automated end-to-end network security testing solution that runs as a loud-based service.  Businesses can perform simple and automated Vulnerability Assessments and Penetration Tests of any systems they have deployed on the GoGrid Cloud.

• enStratus – enStratus is a cloud infrastructure management platform for enterprise-class applications in private and public clouds including GoGrid. enStratus delivers governance for the cloud through a patent-pending security architecture and a range of management capabilities including financial controls, role-based security, auto-scaling, and auto-recovery.

UPDATES to the GoGrid Exchange:

• BitNami WordPress 3.0 – WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time. The project was started in 2003. Since then it has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.

• BitNami SugarCRM 5.5.2-0 – SugarCRM is a flexible customer relationship management solution for companies of all sizes. SugarCRM can be easily customized and integrated with other software to allow companies to build and maintain a more flexible system. The core functionality includes sales force automation, marketing campaigns, support cases, project management, and calendaring.

• GigaSpaces XAP – GigaSpaces Technologies is a leading provider of a new generation of application platforms for Java and .Net environments that offer an alternative to traditional application-servers. The company’s eXtreme Application Platform (XAP) is a high-end application server designed to meet the most demanding business requirements in a cost-effective manner. It is the only product that provides a complete middleware solution on a single, scalable platform.

Webinar: Sentrigo and GoGrid

Title: Learn to Build a Stable, Scalable, and Secure Databases in the Cloud
Date and time: Thursday, August 12, 2010 10:00 am – 11:00am PDT
In this webinar, GoGrid and Sentrigo, a leader and innovator in database security, share our expertise on database deployments and real-time security in this latest frontier of information technology. Click here to register, or paste http://go.gogrid.com/e/3442/7YXX2/RXDE/7101902 into your browser.

CDN News

---

18 Global PoPs

GoGrid is pleased to announce that our Parisian CDN PoP (Point of Presence) is now fully functional, bringing the total number of global GoGrid CDN PoPs to 18. Also new to the GoGrid CDN are upgrades to our Flash Live Streaming Platform and new HTTP Rules Engine.

There are no fees to have a CDN account provisioned. Learn more or have yours created today.

Flash Live Streaming Platform

If you’re looking to stream live Flash video, then our new offering Live StreamCast offers superior scalability and performance over our previous Live Streaming service.
Enhancements include:

• Automatic redundancy and failover
• A new live publishing point in Australia
• Simpler URL structure
• Improved scalability

We’ll continue to offer and support our existing Flash platforms: Flash On-Demand and Flash via HTTP progressive download.

HTTP Rules Engine

The HTTP Rules Engine gives you highly granular control over how, when, and if your content is served. The possibilities are endless, but the end result is much more control over the security, cost, and burden of your content delivery.
The HTTP Rules Engine allows you to:

• Easily block content leeching and hotlinking
• Slash bandwidth costs by specifying precise “origin pull” update intervals for each URL or object
• Reduce load on your origin servers by offloading your existing rules to our processing engine

The cost is $299.99/month and $299.99 for setup.
For more information, consult your Service Team Account Manager.

Events and Other News

---

Net Promoter Survey

If you’ve filled out our Net Promoter Survey, Thank You! We recently sent you a short survey asking you if you would recommend GoGrid to a friend or colleague. Your feedback is very important to us and will be reviewed closely by our executive team. If you haven’t had a chance to fill out the survey, there’s still time.

GoGrid 3.0 Webinar

On June 28, we hosted a webinar featuring the release of GoGrid version 3.0 and our new East Coast data center. If you were unable to attend or would like to review the recording, visit our blog.

As always, you can find more information about GoGrid by visiting the following links:

• GoGrid Product Site – www.gogrid.com
• GoGrid Blog – blog.gogrid.com
• GoGrid Wiki – wiki.gogrid.com
• GoGrid Forums – forums.gogrid.com

If you have any questions please feel free to contact your service team directly.

Thank you,

[Service Team Account Executive]

Your Service Team

Don’t forget to follow GoGrid on Twitter (@GoGrid) as well as become a fan (or like us) on Facebook. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment on this post or contact your Service Team.

The following Press Release was distributed last Wednesday:

Open Source Community Embraces the GoGrid Cloud

GoGrid announces the launch of its Open Source Software (OSS) Partner Program. GoGrid is the industry leader in partnering with open source companies to enable their software in the cloud. Through the GoGrid platform, open source companies can deliver their offerings as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).

San Francisco, CA (Vocus) August 4, 2010

GoGrid, a leading Cloud Infrastructure and Hybrid Hosting Provider, today announced the launch of its Open Source Software (OSS) Partner Program. In recent months, adoption of GoGrid as a core and fundamental technology platform for enabling leading open source solutions to the cloud has accelerated. By packaging on-demand versions of software and leveraging the GoGrid Exchange, a unique cloud solutions marketplace, open source partners and businesses alike are realizing increased deployments and usage of popular open source software offerings.

GoGrid’s ease of use, robust feature set, and excellent customer service make it an ideal cloud platform for deploying web applications – open source or otherwise,” said Erica Brescia, CEO of BitNami. “We are proud to offer ready-to-deploy GoGrid Server Images of BitNami-packaged open source applications, such as Alfresco, Drupal, WordPress, and more, through the GoGrid Exchange. GoGrid’s seamless provisioning tools make it even easier for BitNami users to get open source applications up and running in the cloud.”

GoGrid is the industry leader in partnering with open source companies to enable their software in the cloud. By leveraging the GoGrid Exchange program, partners are able to share or sell a customized server image. Each image is available to the GoGrid community as a Partner GoGrid Server Image (PGSI), which includes the partner’s branding and technical information. GoGrid users can search by solution type (e.g. internet security, backup, monitoring, web apps, compliance, and application scaling,) and instantly provision—with the click of a mouse—eliminating a lengthy installation process.

Through the GoGrid platform, open source companies can deliver their offerings as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and realize unparalleled benefits, including:

• Detailed user data
• High visibility by a leading cloud provider
• Co-Marketing support
• Access to GoGrid’s large and growing customer base
• Low risk – no sign-up fees or long-term commitment
• Access to customer information and usage metrics by platform even for open source distributions

GoGrid is also working closely with Olliance Group, the leading open source business consulting firm, to work with partners to develop and refine their approaches for delivering open source solutions to the cloud.

All too frequently, SMBs and enterprises deploy expensive commercial software, not realizing that significant cost savings and flexibility can be realized through the use of industry-hardened open source solutions.” said Greg Olson, Senior Partner at the Olliance Group. “Packaged open source solutions coupled with near-instant deployment from the GoGrid Exchange will allow many more companies to realize the benefits of open source software.”

Notable open source GoGrid Partners include:

• BitNami – provider of multiple popular open source application stacks
• SourceFire/Snort – open source intrusion detection
• OpenVPN – offering open source security software technologies

Many of our customers want to embrace open source technology,” said GoGrid CEO and Co-Founder, John Keagy. “GoGrid provides both the open source software community and our customers with a fully integrated one-stop shop to build a complete cloud. GoGrid customers can provision complex IT infrastructure, scale their infrastructure with custom cloud server images (MyGSI), F5 load balancing, cloud storage, and launch open source software solutions all in one location and with the click of a mouse.”

For more information about the GoGrid Open Source Software Partner Program visit,
http://go.gogrid.com/oss_partner

To learn more about the GoGrid Exchange and uncover the power of cloud enabled solutions, visit
http://exchange.gogrid.com

About GoGrid

GoGrid is a Global Leader in Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure hosting. GoGrid enables sysadmins, developers, and IT professionals to create, deploy, and control free f5 load balanced cloud infrastructures and complex hosted virtual server networks with full root access/administrative server control. GoGrid physical and virtual server instances maintain industry standard specifications with no requirement to learn proprietary standards. Deploying GoGrid infrastructure takes minutes via a web control panel or GoGrid’s API. GoGrid gives users the control of a familiar data center environment with the flexibility and immediate scalability of the cloud. For more information, please visit: GoGrid Cloud Infrastructure.

The Press Release is available online on PRWeb as well as on the GoGrid site. To see more of our Partner solutions (Open Source and Commercial), I encourage you to visit the GoGrid Partner Exchange.

We have 3 exciting features, specifically:

• East Coast Load Balancers
• New GoGrid Dedicated Server Images
• 16 GB RAM on GoGrid Cloud Servers

East Coast Load Balancers

As we work towards obtaining full feature parity within a few months in our East Coast Datacenter launch, one of the first items that we enabled was that of Load Balancing. Just like in the West Coast Datacenter, Load Balancing on the East Coast remains FREE. With the rollout of Load Balancers in the East Coast, all GoGrid users now have the ability to deploy 6 total Load Balancers for free, 3 in each Datacenter.

Remember though, you can only balance traffic within 1 particular datacenter. That is to say, you currently cannot use one load balancer to manage traffic across 2 datacenters. You must set up a load balancer within each datacenter to route traffic therein.

New GoGrid Dedicated Server Images

At GoGrid, we were the first to pioneer the term “Hybrid Hosting” which means that you can mix and match the best of breed infrastructure solutions within your GoGrid Cloud. You can choose to instantiate GoGrid Cloud Servers for elastic scalability as well as deploy GoGrid Dedicated Servers should you want PCI compliance or require a dedicated solution. You can use the Load Balancers to route traffic between Cloud and Dedicated servers as well as attach Cloud Storage to either Server type.

With this release, we added SIX new images to the GoGrid Dedicated Server list, bringing the total available Dedicated Server Images to 26. The new Dedicated Server Images are:

• Ubuntu 10.04 (32-bit)
• Ubuntu 10.04 (64-bit)
• CentOS 5.5 (32-bit)
• CentOS 5.5 (64-bit)
• RHEL 5.5 (32-bit)
• RHEL 5.5 (64-bit)

With this update, the list of available GoGrid Dedicated Servers now includes:

• Linux
  • Fedora Core Linux 11 & 12 (32 & 64-bit)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8, 5.4 & 5.5 (32 & 64-bit)
  • CentOS Linux 4.8, 5.4 & 5.5 (32 & 64-bit)
  • Ubuntu Linux 8.04, 9.04 & 10.04 (32 & 64-bit)
  • Debian Linux 4.0 & 5.0 (32 & 64-bit)
• Windows
  • Windows Server 2008 Standard (4 & 8 Core License)
  • Windows Server 2008 Standard with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard (4 & 8 Core License)
  • Windows Server 2008 Standard with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard (4 & 8 Core License)
  • Windows Server 2003 Enterprise (32 & 64-bit and 4 & 8 Core License)
  • Windows Server 2003 Enterprise (64-bit and 4 & 8 Core License) with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 & 2008 Standard (64-bit and 4 & 8 Core License)

The process for ordering a dedicated server has not changed. Simply click the ADD button within the GoGrid portal, and select Dedicated Server:

Then choose the Configuration you would like:

And then select the Operating System image you want on that GoGrid Dedicated Server (note: I have highlighted the new CentOS 5.5 options in the list):

Once you save your GoGrid Dedicated Server configuration, it will be available for you within 2 business days.

16 GBs of RAM on GoGrid Cloud Servers

For those GoGrid users requiring more RAM, Cores and persistent hard drive space, we have now enabled the ability to provision GoGrid Cloud Servers with 16 GB RAM allocations.

GoGrid Cloud Servers deployed with the 16 GBs of RAM configuration also have 960 GBs of persistent storage and either 8 or 16 cores depending on the Operating System (Windows and Linux respectively). 16 GB configurations are backwards compatible with MyGSIs and Partner GSIs. However, this configuration is only available for 64-bit Operating Systems.

There were also a series of bug fixes included with this release.

What other items would you like to see included in future releases of GoGrid? Leave a comment and let me know!

About Objectivity & InfiniteGraph

Objectivity, Inc., the leader in distributed, scalable data management technology, formed the InfiniteGraph business unit in 2010. The team was tasked with creating a product to meet a global need to obtain real-time answers from deep analysis of very large volumes of complex data.

The InfiniteGraph team has developed a solution that gives organizations significant technical cost savings and time-to-market advantages, in developing advanced and large-scale social networking, business intelligence, scientific research and national security systems across highly distributed environments. InfiniteGraph is unique among other products in the marketplace, providing a high-performance, distributed graph database with virtually unlimited scalability.

The InfiniteGraph graph database leverages enterprise-proven technology that supports the highest graph computing requirements, helping partners and customers to find and utilize the valuable connections and multi-dimensional relationships that exist within their data.

InfiniteGraph on the GoGrid Exchange

InfiniteGraph is the Distributed Graph Database for the Cloud. It supports the advanced requirements of web-scale systems and beyond, due to its unique distributed architecture and virtually unlimited scalability. InfiniteGraph’s massively parallel processing capabilities also help applications achieve near linear performance gains with every compute node. These features make InfiniteGraph the ideal solution for handling big data and graph requirements in highly connected but distributed platforms, enterprise and government infrastructures. For more information, please visit: http://www.infinitegraph.com/product/

Currently InfiniteGraph is available within GoGrid as 4 images, specifically:

• RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.4 (32-bit)
• RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.4 (64-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 (32-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 (64-bit)

Also, Objectivity announced a new program called “The InfiniteGraph Startup Program” which is free for qualified startups (see here for more details). Apart from the standard GoGrid hosting costs, qualified startups can use InfiniteGraph for FREE.

Objectivity & InfiniteGraph Press Release

The following Press Release was sent out today by Objectivity and is available online as well:

InfiniteGraph and GoGrid to Enable Large-Scale Graph Data Processing and Discovery, Free for Qualified Startups

The program will allow developers to build complex data analytics systems on virtually unlimited infrastructure, at no extra cost.

Sunnyvale, CA (Vocus) July 26, 2010

InfiniteGraph, a new, distributed graph database product that enables large-scale graph processing, data analytics and discovery, is being made available through GoGrid, a leading Cloud Infrastructure Hosting provider. The InfiniteGraph business unit of Objectivity, Inc. is working with GoGrid to offer the technology for free to developers and solution providers seeking to leverage cloud infrastructures. InfiniteGraph is the only solution of its kind to be made available on GoGrid or any cloud computing platform.

The InfiniteGraph Startup Program, free for qualified startups, will allow developers to build highly scalable and distributed systems and services around social networking, business intelligence, scientific research and more, at no cost beyond GoGrid’s standard platform usage rates. The InfiniteGraph distributed graph database product is currently in beta, and version 1.0 will be generally available at the end of July; the InfiniteGraph Startup Program on GoGrid will be launched shortly thereafter. Developers already have access to the beta software, and can get more information by visiting www.InfiniteGraph.com/GoGrid.

About GoGrid

GoGrid is a Global Leader in Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure hosting. GoGrid enables sysadmins, developers, and IT professionals to create, deploy, and control free f5 load balanced cloud infrastructures and complex hosted virtual server networks with full root access/administrative server control. GoGrid physical and virtual server instances maintain industry standard specifications with no requirement to learn proprietary standards. Deploying GoGrid infrastructure takes minutes via a web control panel or GoGrid’s API. GoGrid gives users the control of a familiar datacenter environment with the flexibility and immediate scalability of the cloud. For more information, please visit: http://www.GoGrid.com.

About InfiniteGraph

InfiniteGraph’s uniquely distributed graph database solution enables commercial, enterprise, government and other organizations to discover complex relationships in their vast and highly distributed data, with significant time-to-market advantages and technical cost savings.

About Objectivity, Inc.

Objectivity, Inc. is the leader in distributed, scalable data management technology. The company’s patented distributed data engine and persistent object store is the enabling technology within many markets, powering some of the most complex applications and mission critical systems used in commercial, enterprise, government and research organizations today. Objectivity, Inc. is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, USA. Please contact them online or call (408) 992-7100 for more information.

Objectivity, Objectivity, Inc., Objectivity/DB and InfiniteGraph are trademarks of Objectivity, Inc.. All other company, organization, product or alliance names mentioned herein remain the property of their respective owners.

###

Please be sure to visit the GoGrid Exchange for other solutions that include: Software & Applications, Development & Testing, Disaster Recovery & Backup, Cloud Management, and Security Monitoring & Reporting.