Monthly Archive for May, 2008

Enterprise Cloud Computing with Layered Tech

Published on May 29, 2008 in LT's The GRID Layer, Utility Computing, Utility Hosting and Virtual Private Datacenter. Closed Tags: , , , , .
Posted by Tom Eagle

Interview with Todd Abrams, COO, Layered Technologies

Todd Abrams, COO, Layered Technologies1. Tell me your vision of “Enterprise Cloud Computing?”

Historically, the only option available to businesses with large mission-critical applications was to distribute them across a number of dedicated servers intermixed with firewalls, switches and load balancers.  These enterprise grade solutions have a high degree of complexity, require a staff of system administrators and engineers to provision, and are extremely expensive to deploy with 100% redundancy.

Layered Technologies cloud computing offering, The Grid Layer, solves all of these problems by providing users with a powerful graphical configuration interface which lets them create entire virtual infrastructures within the Grid comprised of a wide range of devices including firewalls, load balancers and servers.  Switching, routing and monitoring are all built into the Grid as well as complete physical redundancy and RAID 1 network duplication of data across physical nodes.

We believe that cloud computing services are the next generation of infrastructure and that as more businesses learn about these offerings the huge cost reductions, inherent redundancy and extreme scalability will compel CIOs and CTOs to migrate their sprawling applications to service providers like Layered Technologies.

2. Why do you choose AppLogic OS and 3Tera?

The choice to use 3Tera’s AppLogic operating system was a simple one.  When Layered Technologies began to work with 3Tera over two years ago there were no natural competitors.  Even today the 3Tera OS is unique and still developing.  AppLogic allows service providers like Layered Technologies to deploy and support standard enterprise grade hardware and to aggregate resources to mimic much larger and more expensive supercomputing systems.

3. What kind of industries use your services?

Layered Technologies currently has a number of Web 2.0 clients like Nexplore and Woopra who utilize The Grid Layer for redundancy and scalability.  These companies rely exclusively on their online presence so their infrastructure requires 100% uptime.  We also have a wide range of enterprise customers ranging from global telecom companies, to healthcare providers, to educational institutions using The Grid Layer.

As far as Cloud or Grid computing is concerned, virtually any enterprise can take advantage of the capabilities of the Grid.  We offer services that range from individual Grid-based Virtual Private Servers to large multi-node Virtual Private Data Centers which allow clients to build and deploy their own complete hosted architectures on demand.

4. Do you have any plans to launch your services to the Japanese Market?

The Japanese market is very important to Layered Technologies.  Not only do we currently have a number of Japanese clients, we view Japan as a strategically important market with huge growth potential.  

Layered Technologies recently signed an agreement with Bit-Isle in Tokyo and as begun to deploy infrastructure in Tokyo.  We intend to make our full range of services available including The Grid Layer to any clients who require Japanese localization.

Find out more:  Layered Technologies, The Grid Layer, VPS, VPDC, Cloud Computing

5 Tips: Marketing in the Hosting World

Published on May 28, 2008 in Hosting Industry. 1 Comment Tags: , , , .
Posted by Tom Eagle

John Pozadzides, CMO, Layered TechInterview with John Pozadzides, CMO of Layered Tech (by The WHIR http://www.thewhir.com/)

1) Speaking in broad strokes, how would a host’s marketing budget be best divided up between different venues like adwords, banner advertising or other, more out-there efforts?

Different size budgets can require a very different mix of marketing spend.  An average hosting provider should probably target 25% of the budget at online advertising efforts, 25% on having a presence at targeted industry events, 25% on online branding (Web site and content), and the remainder on collateral and other supporting materials.

2) Are there modes of marketing that you see becoming more effective or less effective for this business right now?

Too much emphasis is placed on Google AdWords, with far too little ROI.  In the new world order, hosting companies need to perform segmentation analysis to understand who their average customer is, then look for advertising vehicles that specifically target that segment.

3) How much overlap do things like public relations and media relations overlap with what’s considered “marketing” in your work?

PR and media relations are easily as important as traditional marketing tactics in a Google world.  AdWords and banner advertisements are temporary, but good press is like fine wine to a search engine – it just gets better with time.

4) What’s a mistake that a lot of marketers in this business tend to make?

I see marketing professionals across a wide range of industries rely far too heavily on transient messaging vehicles, those that disappear the moment they are used; and not enough time on long term messaging and brand development.  Companies need to innovate, communicate their value proposition effectively, and get the word out through a variety of channels.

5) Is there any emerging technology or medium that you see being most relevant to the hosting business with respect to marketing?

I hate to bow to collective wisdom, but social media is the 900 pound gorilla.  Viral messaging and media campaigns can generate long term name recognition, Web links and traffic.  Those of us that learn to conquer this animal quickest will reap the greatest rewards.

 Recommended links:

Layered TECH Hosts Eloqua Dallas User Group

Published on May 19, 2008 in LT News and Layered Technologies. Closed Tags: , , , .
Posted by Tom Eagle

Layered Technologies recently hosted the inaugural Dallas Eloqua User Group meeting co-sponsored by Eloqua, Astadia and Layered Tech.  This forum was created by Eloqua users for Eloqua users and provides a great opportunity to network with marketing peers, share best practices, and learn some interesting ways colleagues are using Eloqua.  Additional meetings will be scheduled on a quarterly basis, with topics being suggested by group members.  For more information on upcoming events contact karens@layeredtechnologies.com >>

Eloqua Dallas User Group at Layered Technologies

 

 

Tech eUpdate: Cloud (GRID) Computing

Published on May 13, 2008 in LT's The GRID Layer, Layered Technologies, Utility Computing, Utility Hosting and Virtual Private Datacenter. Closed Tags: , , .
Posted by Tom Eagle

John Pozadzides, CMO, Layered Technologies, Grid HostingInterview with John Pozadzides, VP of Product Development, Layered Technologies

1. As an introduction, could you elaborate on Layered Tech’s Cloud Computing Solution?

Layered Technologies is a global leader in the area of cloud computing.  We currently have well over 1,000 nodes (physical machines) in our Grid Layer computing platform, making us larger than almost all of our competitors combined.

   

The best way to explain the Cloud computing concept is to compare and contrast it with existing technology, so if you’ll indulge me I’m going to back up a bit and start with traditional architecture.

 

Historically, the only option available to businesses with large mission-critical applications was to distribute them across a number of dedicated servers intermixed with firewalls, switches and load balancers.  These enterprise-grade solutions have a high degree of complexity, require a staff of system administrators and engineers to provision, and are extremely expensive to deploy with 100% redundancy.

 

Layered Technologies cloud computing offering, The Grid Layer, solves all of these problems by providing users with a powerful graphical configuration interface which lets them create entire virtual infrastructures within the Grid, comprised of a wide range of devices including firewalls, load balancers and servers.  Switching, routing and monitoring are all built into the Grid as well as complete physical redundancy and RAID 1 network duplication of data across physical nodes.

 

We believe that cloud computing services are the next generation of infrastructure and that as more businesses learn about these offerings the huge cost reductions, inherent redundancy and extreme scalability will compel CIOs and CTOs to migrate their sprawling applications to service providers like Layered Technologies.

 

2. What are the salient features of your solution?

 

The Grid layer offers a number of important features simply not found in competing service offerings.  All of the following are native features of The Grid:

  • A simple Visio-like graphical configuration interface which allows anyone to configure one server, or an entire virtual data center, in minutes.
  • Complete redundancy within the system with built in monitoring and self-healing capabilities.  The Grid will restart any application running on a physical node that fails by moving it to a separate node within minutes.
  • The proven ability to scale a single client grid to well over 100 physical nodes means that even extremely large clients can obtain incredible resource density if required.  For example, a 100 node grid with quad core, dual processor nodes, each containing 1TB hard drives and 32GB of RAM would equate to 800 processor cores, 3.2TB of RAM and 100TB of storage space.

3. What differentiates your solution from that of others in this field?

 

Some of the most significant differences between Layered Tech’s Grid solution and others available in the market include:

  • Unlike providers such as Amazon and most recently Google who are offering spare computing cycles on their inventory of existing hardware, Layered Technologies is a dedicated hosting provider.  Our singular focus in this area allows us to be more responsive, flexible, and customer service oriented.
  • One of the hallmarks of The Grid Layer is the ability to run almost any application natively without the need for custom API integration or other proprietary modifications.  Amazon and Google’s cloud computing and storage offerings require strict adherence to very specific API guidelines which can require complete re-writes of applications – only to then be locked in to using their proprietary service.
  • Provisioning on true enterprise grade HP hardware means that Layered Tech’s Grid clients have access to the fastest CPUs, RAM and networking components available.  This contrasts sharply with Amazon’s offering, which they have stated runs on Celeron 1.7ghz equivalent white box machines.
  • Layered Tech’s two years of Grid leadership combined with our demonstrated ability to provision the world’s largest Grid infrastructures means we are well ahead of all competitors in terms of developing support structures, provisioning systems, and intellectual property within the organization for servicing these special clients.  Experience counts.

4. What do you consider as drivers propelling the growth of Cloud Computing?

 

Cloud computing is a new disruptive technology.  When compared to Dedicated hosting utility computing platforms are “better”, “faster” and “cheaper”.  This is not merely an improvement of existing systems in which you can only pick any two (better + faster is NOT cheaper), but an evolutionary step, which is absolutely compelling to anyone that consumes computing resources.

 

5. What according to you are the major challenges or restraints that impede further development of Cloud Computing? How are you trying to address them?

 

Problems currently impeding the growth of utility / cloud / grid computing (whatever you choose to call it) include:

 

  • As an emerging technology, it takes time for service providers to get over the learning curve. 
  • Service providers have been geared up for dedicated hosting for the last decade.  Their infrastructure, sales channels, support systems, etc. are all built to focus on legacy systems.  Disruptive technologies hurt.
  • Amazon’s offering has not done anyone favors to Cloud computing because many people who initially looked into their limited offering quickly realized existing systems would not utilize it without retooling.

6. What are the current and potential applications of Cloud Computing? Could you provide a Roadmap on when the applications would be realized?

 

The nice thing about LT’s Grid is that almost any existing application will run on it.   We currently have a wide range of clients who have migrated their applications to the Grid and are enjoying the benefits of increased redundancy, improved scalability and ease of management.  Clients are currently running applications such as:

  • A major search engine
  • A development environment for one of the largest Telecoms in the world
  • A Web site monitoring service
  • Standardized enterprise SAS services.

7. Do you collaborate or wish to collaborate with other companies / universities / research institutions / companies for your work?

 

We currently work closely with 3tera, the company behind AppLogic software that helps to power our infrastructure, as well as hundreds of clients who utilize our Grid hosting services.  With that, we would be happy to enter into discussions with researchers interested in cloud computing initiatives, but we are unaware of any who are working in this field.

 

8. What additional information is available?

 

The best thing we could share would be a demonstration of the Grid’s Web based interface in action, and I’d be happy to arrange for that demonstration if there is any interest in seeing it.  Please email me at johnp@layeredtechnologies.com >>

Layered Technologies Raises the Bar With New Hosting Packages

Published on May 12, 2008 in Hosting Industry, LT News, Layered Technologies and PR Bites. Closed Tags: , , , .
Posted by Tom Eagle

New HP Servers include Quad–Core AMD Opteron™ and Intel® Xeon® processors, and accommodate up to 12 hard drives per chassis 

Layered Tech\'s HP Proliant Product OfferingPlano, TX (May 12, 2008)- Layered Technologies, a leading worldwide provider of “on demand” IT infrastructure, announces today immediate availability of a new range of servers to meet the needs of the enterprise market.  The packages include brand new HP servers configured with ultra-fast Quad-Core AMD Opteron™ or Intel® Xeon® CPU’s, along with the ability to hold up to 12 hot swappable hard drives.  These new packages represent a huge increase in the ‘price-for-performance’ value equation for clients seeking highly expandable, leading edge computing platforms.

             

New server packages include the latest HP chassis, newly released AMD Barcelona and Intel Harpertown / Clovertown processors, a minimum of 4GB of RAM, and 500 GB or larger hard drives.  Each chassis can currently accommodate up to 12TB of storage and 32GB of RAM.

“Layered Technologies has a history of leading the market in next–generation technology and we’ll continue to seek ways to maximize performance, optimize virtualization, increase levels of utilization and enable greater energy efficiency,” said Todd Abrams, President & COO of Layered Technologies. “These new name-brand server offerings are unrivaled and give our customers greater choices and unbeatable value.”

With clients in more than 120 countries, Layered Technologies’ custom technology solutions allow both large and small customers to rapidly deploy on-demand hosting and utility computing services, providing all the controls of collocation without the start up costs, capital investments, long term contracts and associated challenges. By partnering with Layered Technologies, companies are able to achieve ROI quickly via reduced capital investment, total cost of ownership (TCO), labor reduction, training and floor space. Layered Technologies can have a company up and running in days versus months.  For more info on Layered TECH, please visit www.layeredtechnologies.com

 

 

More: Managed Services * LT PACT 2008 Hosting Conference *  DynaVol Storage (Compare to Amazon S3) * TRUE Grid Computing