Archive for the 'Grid Computing' Category

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Layered Tech to Speak at HostingCon 2008

Published on July 17, 2008 in Dedicated Server Hosting, Hosting Industry, Layered Technologies, LT News, PR Bites, Utility Computing and Utility Hosting. Closed Tags: , , , , .
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Company executives speaking in multiple sessions

PLANO, TX – July 15, 2008 – Layered Tech, Inc., a leading worldwide provider of on-demand IT infrastructure, announced today that they will participate at HostingCon 2008, the premier conference and tradeshow for the hosted services industry. Layered Tech will be a Gold Sponsor for the event, as well as have executives, John Pozadzides and Aaron Phillips, participating in two different speaking sessions. HostingCon 2008 will take place July 28-30 at the Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. All HostingCon attendees are invited to Layered Tech’s booth (booth #301).

“We are very pleased to be participating at Hosting Con,” said John Pozadzides, Vice President and CMO, Layered Tech. “It’s a great event that brings together the best and brightest from the industry to learn about the latest news, ideas and technologies affecting the industry, and ultimately their businesses.”

During the conference, Layered Tech will have two speaking engagements. Aaron Phillips, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, will be participating in a marketing panel discussion, where he will be joined by moderator Brett Tabke, CEO, WebmasterWorld.com; and fellow panelists Amy Armitage, Director of Business Development, Lunarpages Web Hosting; Ben Fisher, Vice President, TechPad Agency, LLC.; Hartland Ross, President, eBridge Marketing Solutions Inc.; and Derek Vaughan, VP Marketing, HostMySite.com. The panel will take place Monday, July 28 from 9:00-11:00 a.m., and will be fielding audience questions regarding online and offline marketing, branding, SEO and SEM, and social media marketing.

John Pozadzides will have his own speaking presentation titled, “Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining.” The presentation will take place Wednesday, July 30 from 8:30-9:15 a.m., and will examine how cloud computing, grid computing, and virtualization are changing the hosting industry. Topics also include challenges and solutions to market adoption of cloud computing.

“One of the goals of this event is to provide a forum to explore the key trends and issues that are shaping the hosted services industry today and into the future,” said George Roberts IV, President and CEO, Interjuncture Corp., producers of the HostingCon conference and tradeshow series. “Having industry leaders, such as Layered Tech, participating is well aligned with that goal and the overall theme of this executive conference.”

Layered Tech recently acquired FastServers.Net, a leading Chicago-based managed hosting company. The acquisition combined the expertise of FastServers.Net in managed dedicated hosting with Layered Tech’s leading virtualization and on-demand IT infrastructure offerings. 2008 marks the fourth year of attendance for Fastservers.Net at HostingCon.

HostingCon is the definitive conference and tradeshow for the hosted services industry. Hosted services professionals around the world gather to learn more about the industry, network with their peers and vendors, and help grow their business. HostingCon is produced by Interjuncture Corp., a Crystal Lake, Illinois-based producer of technology-related tradeshows, conferences and events.

For additional information on HostingCon 2008, please visit http://www.hostingcon.com/.

For additional information on Layered Tech, please visit http://www.layeredtech.com.

Virtualization and MS Hyper-V : Interview with Todd Abrams, COO of Layered Tech

Published on July 9, 2008 in Dedicated Server Hosting, Hosting Industry, Layered Technologies, LT News, PR Bites, Utility Hosting and Virtual Private Datacenter. Closed Tags: , , , .
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Recently, Layered Technologies announced that the company became the first hosting provider to launch dedicated servers running Microsoft Windows 2008 and Hyper-V. In this exclusive interview, we talk to Mr. Todd Abrams, COO & President of the company, about the challenges and promises of virtualization technology.  Read actual article >>

HostReview: Layered Technologies’ Hyper-V dedicated server offerings are most likely meant for professionals. Nevertheless, how would you explain the benefits of LT’s Windows Server 2008 based virtualization solutions to a less tech-savvy audience?

Todd Abrams: I’ve seen a lot of people overcomplicate the concepts behind virtualization. This seems to make those of us who are less technical shy away from experimenting with the technology. But the reality is that virtualization actually simplifies installation and management of operating systems and applications.

One example of how virtualization could make life easier comes in the form of pre-packaged applications. Let’s say a business wanted to use the popular SugarCRM application. Instead of having to install an operating system, install the application, optimize both, and secure them, one could simply download a virtual machine created by a SugarCRM expert and run it instantly.

Indeed, once a server has been virtualized, it has a number of capabilities that were simply not present previously:

•Snapshots and backups
•Instantaneous provisioning of Virtual Machines
•Easy migration and upgrade paths
•Simplified management of multiple machines

Why did you choose Hyper-V? Did you initially consider similar open source technologies?

Microsoft and Layered Tech have a long-standing relationship. In addition to supporting many Microsoft operating systems and applications we are strong believers in the future of data center virtualization. From this perspective supporting Hyper-V is a necessity.

In addition to working with Microsoft, Layered Tech also has experience with supporting other major virtualization offerings from 3Tera, VMware, Xen, and Parallels.

What did being the first hosting company to implement Hyper-V involve? How long were the planning and implementation phases, and did you work with Microsoft experts on this?

Hyper-V was implemented in essentially the same manner as any new product roll out. However, Layered Tech’s extensive experience in supporting virtualized environments, including our Grid computing platform, enabled us to move much more quickly than other hosting providers.

We worked very closely with the Microsoft team in all aspects of the roll out including training, implementation and product development.

What kinds of clients are you targeting with the new Hyper-V offerings?

We believe Hyper-V will be particularly attractive for Enterprise level clients with a large investment in equipment powered by Microsoft operating systems. Hyper-V fills a gap for clients who previously found competing products either too expensive on a per VM basis, or too unsupported for serious investment.

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About: Todd Abrams, COO & President

Todd Abrams, Layered TechnologiesTodd leads the Layered Technologies team and oversees daily operations. Prior to founding Layered Technologies, he served as CEO and founder of FX-Directors Solutions, a leading technology services company in the funeral services industry. At FX Directors Solutions, Todd worked to build a solid technology and financial foundation that was acquired to form Aldor Solutions in late 2003. Previously, Todd served as Vice President of North American Operations for EDGE Technologies, a large wholesale computer component and white box system distributor. While at EDGE, Todd built the North American Operations and grew sales from $2 million to over $110 million within 2 years, while also establishing 8 U.S satellite locations. Earlier in his career, he worked for EDGE Internet Services Australia (EISA), an ISP that was publicly traded on the Australian Exchange. EISA aggressively grew in the US market by acquiring other ISP’s across North America.

NeXplore Transitions Newly Acquired ClickCaster to Grid Server from Layered Tech

Published on June 6, 2008 in Layered Technologies, LT News, LT's The GRID Layer, PR Bites, Utility Computing and Virtual Private Datacenter. Closed Tags: , , , , , .
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Yahoo! Finance
NeXplore Leverages the Grid Layer from Layered Tech for Fast Integration, Speedy Launch and Instant Scalability

FRISCO, TX–Jun 5, 2008 — NeXplore Corp. today announced the successful transitioning of the recently acquired ClickCaster.com website to the NeXplore Grid Server. Powered by The Grid Layer hosting solution from Layered Technologies, in combination with 3Tera Inc.’s virtualization software AppLogic, the NeXplore Grid Server is the company’s Virtual Private Data Center for efficiently and cost-effectively operating and managing NeXplore’s growing portfolio of Web 2.0 products and destinations.
    
The rapid transitioning to the NeXplore Grid Server of ClickCaster.com enables NeXplore to quickly monetize and scale this popular website that provides tools for fast-and-easy audio and video podcast creation, publishing and management. Upon acquisition by NeXplore, ClickCaster.com had approximately 245,000 unique users, a number NeXplore plans to significantly grow by the end of 2008.

NeXplore currently utilizes the NeXplore Grid Server to host and manage NeXplore Search, the company’s recently launched Web 2.0 search engine optimized for a superior end-user experience, rich-media display and social network integration. NeXplore is working to integrate ClickCaster.com podcasting capability into NeXplore Search.

“The quickness, low cost and relative ease with which we were able to transition ClickCaster.com to the NeXplore Grid Server validates our decision to utilize this cutting edge hosting and application management system,” said Dion Hinchcliffe, chief technology officer for NeXplore Corporation. “The pace of innovation today is blistering. Web companies hobbled by the cost and complexity associated with traditional infrastructure — datacenter co-location, private racks and managed hosting services, etc. — are destined for extinction. The road to success in today’s dynamic Web 2.0 world — the path that NeXplore is forging — is paved with glitch-free performance, speed-to-market and instant, on-demand scalability.”  Read more at Yahoo Finance >>

For more information about NeXplore, visit www.nexplorecorporation.com >>

For more information about Layered Technologies, visit www.layeredtech.com >>

For more information about the Grid Layer, visit www.thegridlayer.com >>

               

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: , , , , .
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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

Tech eUpdate: Cloud (GRID) Computing

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