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Up and to the Right: Layered Tech advances in Gartner Magic Quadrant

Published on May 15, 2013 in Cloud Computing, Compliant Hosting, Dedicated Server Hosting, FISMA Compliance, HIPAA Compliance, Hosting Industry, Industry Expert, Layered Technologies and PCI Compliance. 0 Comments
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Gartner Research logoGartner recently published the 2013 edition of the Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting which included Layered Tech. Since our first inclusion in 2010, Layered Tech has significantly increased our ranking and position with respect to completeness of vision and ability to execute. We have consistently moved up and to the right.

To be considered for the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting, providers must deliver on-demand, enterprise-class managed hosting services, have a presence in multiple North American metropolitan areas, and be among the top 15 North American providers by market share. Gartner’s quadrant-based categories rate providers by “vision” – the ability to anticipate and meet customer needs – and by service-delivery excellence, based on customers’ experiences.

I have worked closely with Gartner over the past few years to help them gain deeper insight to our business, our clients, the workloads we serve and our significant differentiators. I have introduced Gartner to many of our staff and clients, to help them understand our unique abilities. As a result, the latest Gartner ratings show rapid ascension for Layered Tech along both the vision scale and the service-execution scale.

Simplifying Complexity and Reducing Risk

As one of the more focused and intimate managed hosting service providers in the Magic Quadrant, Layered Tech is recognized for its ability to manage complex hosting needs with stringent security and compliance requirements, as demonstrated with our strong SLA and compliance guarantee. Managing complex web applications and helping to achieve and maintain security or compliance objectives is a key focus of the Layered Tech business. Our ability to help clients reduce the risk to security threats and to completely achieve compliance with respect to the IT controls is a significant differentiator.

Gartner also recognized our strength and commitment to automate service delivery and change within the ITIL-based change-management framework. This is core to our ability to deliver a high quality of service to our clients.  The Layered Tech automated workflow introduces check points to mitigate change risks, automates operations and improves communications.

Compliance Expertise Recognized

Last year’s Gartner report noted that Layered Tech is one of the only providers capable of delivering comprehensive PCI and HIPAA-compliant hosting services for the electronic payment and healthcare markets. This year’s report cites Layered Tech’s expansion into the federal government FISMA compliance market as a new company strength. I would add that we also perform extremely well with SaaS/ISVs, eCommerce and Media.

We think Gartner has done a great job of highlighting some critical strengths and key target markets for Layered Tech. We will continue to drive upward momentum as we work to find new ways to serve customers and anticipate their cloud hosting and compliance needs.

Kevin Van Mondfrans, VP of Product ManagementAbout the Author: As Vice President of Product Management at Layered Tech, Kevin Van Mondfrans (@VANMONDFRANS | +Kevin Van Mondfrans) is responsible for driving the Layered Tech portfolio of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and managed service offerings. With more than 20 years of experience product development and marketing, Kevin has been delivering innovative computing, storage, cloud and service offering with companies such as HP, Dell, and Savvis.

Tips to Guard Against Hacks and Attacks

Published on April 29, 2013 in Events, Industry Events, Industry Expert, Layered Technologies, Security, Security News and Uncategorized. 0 Comments
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I attended the 2013 InnoTech San Antonio Technology Innovation Conference & Expo on April 17th.  InnoTech is the region’s largest business-to-business technology event.

This conference has grown to the point of needing to move to the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center.

Along with the tracks offered in Mobility, Women in Tech, Infrastructure, Big Data with Analytics and IT Leadership, I participated in the Cyber Security Symposium.  I moderated a panel of experts on Security – It’s All About Perspective.  The panel had representation from corporate leaders, consultants and higher education.  The panel members were Mark Krisak, Director of Information Security, HEB; Chip Meadows, Sr. Security Analyst, UTSA; Joe Oranday, Vice President, Enterprise Information Security, Frost; Steve Werby, President and Senior Information Security Consultant, Befriend.

We had a lively discussion with the audience of around 100 people.  Even though we discussed technology and some of the newer techniques to deal with hacks and attacks, the takeaway from the gathered experience on the panel was to focus on the basics.  When the panelists were asked what the one best thing was that an organization can do to protect itself, the answers were:

  • Keep your patches current
  • Focus on user security awareness training
  • Deliver metrics on your program to track progress and get support
  • Work with your users

These solutions are not new and do not require deep technical knowledge.  I think we can all learn a lot from these experts.

I will be presenting a session on Hacktivism at the 2013 ETA Annual Meeting & Expo on April 30th through May 2nd in New Orleans, LA.  I hope to see you there.

Jeff Reich, Layered Tech Chief Risk OfficerAbout the Author: As Chief Risk Officer at Layered Tech, Jeff Reich (@LayeredTechCRO, +Jeff Reich) drives the company’s security and compliance services and guides risk mitigation efforts for clients. With more than 30 years of experience, Reich is a well-known risk management and security expert in the industry. He holds CRISC, CISSP and CHS-III certifications and is an ISSA Distinguished Fellow.

Is Colocation Right for Your Business?

Published on July 22, 2009 in Colocation, Hosting Industry, Industry Expert, Infrastructure and Layered Technologies. Closed
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By Sam Bowley

A colocation facility is a type of communal datacenter.  Many businesses keep their own server and network infrastructure there, pooling their resources for better telecommunications with decreased costs.

How do you know if colocation is right for your business?  Consider these factors:

Network Availability – One of the primary benefits of colocation is uptime.  Uptime is ensured due to a series of redundant failsafes most businesses cannot afford to implement themselves.  For example, quality colocation facilities will have redundant utility power, air conditioning, generators, routers, and staff.  Should something catastrophic happen, these redundant systems would engage and the end consumers’ server and equipment would continue to function as if nothing happened.

Power – Most offices get their power from a local power company.  If they house many servers internally they might have a “backup” generator suitable for up to four hours.  A colocation datacenter will have access to multiple power sources or multiple grids.  Good colocation facilities will also have Prime Source generators and facility-wide uninterruptible power systems (UPS).  For an office to set up a power system comparable to a colocation facility would require the investment of several million dollars.

Cooling – Network equipment is not designed for exposure to long stretches of heat.  Colocation facilities have redundant cooling systems in place capable of keeping servers and equipment cool enough to run optimally.  Typical business offices are not built with air conditioning units strong enough to keep up with large server rooms.  Nor do they typically have redundant systems in place in case of failure or maintenance.

On-Site Help – Many of the best colocation facilities have staff on hand 24 x 7.  Much of this staff is highly qualified server and network developers.  They know how to help replacing failing hardware, upgrade servers, or work that most businesses can’t or don’t want to do.  Some colocation providers offer more managed services beyond just hardware replacement such as software patches and troubleshooting.  Many business will have an IT staff, but not usually 24 hours a day nor trained in all the different functions a colocation provider will have.

Network Speed – When a business begins to build their own internal infrastructure, generally they will get a bandwidth capacity they believe fills their need (their pipe).  For small businesses it might be a T3 (45 Megabits per second) or an OC3 for medium to large businesses (155 Mbps).  Usually there wouldn’t be redundancy for these pipes either.  Quality colocation facilities will have multiple pipes of substantially larger bandwidth capacity, say OC192 (10,000 Mbps).  For customers in a colocation facility like this, it means their websites and applications can operate at much higher speeds.  To put in an OC3 connection is tremendously expensive already, let alone have multiple larger pipes.

The Bottom Line
From a cost / benefit standpoint, colocation makes sense for many businesses.  The key is to look at your current infrastructure and consider what your needs will be in 6 months, 12 months, and 24 months.  Investing in colocation now provides you the flexibility to grow into those needs without huge capital requirements.

Layered Tech Participating in Federal Summit

Published on May 5, 2009 in Events, Industry Events, Industry Expert, LT News and PR Bites. Closed
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Vivek Kundra, Federal CIO

Vivek Kundra, Federal CIO

The office of Vivek Kundra, President Obama’s new federal CIO, has requested Layered Tech to participate in a summit on cloud computing.  Along with a handful of other high-tech firms, Layered Tech will be in a roundtable discussion on the federal government’s potential adoption of cloud computing technologies.  The meeting is slated for May 6.

Windows OS in a Virtual Computing Environment

Published on November 11, 2008 in Hosting Industry, Industry Expert, LT Exec Interviews, Virtualization and Virtualization Hosting. Closed Tags: , , , .
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(11/10/2008) An Interview with HostReview and John Pozadzides, VP & CMO of Layered Tech

John Pozadzides, CMO, Layered Tech

John Pozadzides, CMO, LT

Recently Layered Tech announced it is the first hosting company to give enterprise customers the option of transferring their Microsoft Windows operating system (Windows OS) environment to an AppLogic-based cloud computing solution. Layered Tech will use 3Tera’s AppLogic 2.4 to enable customers to run their Windows OS platform in a virtual computing environment, which the company said will allow customers to have the same high-availability as their dedicated physical servers but with far more scalability, all for a fraction of the cost. Read Press Release >>

HostReview contacted the company to get more information about this development. In this executive interview, we talk to Mr. John Pozadzides, VP & CMO of Layered Tech >>

 

Does Layered Tech’s new offering — transfer to Windows OS environments to an AppLogic-based cloud computing platform, support the entire range of Microsoft server software?

 

Currently, the AppLogic platform will support 32 bit versions of Windows 2003 and 2008.  64 bit support is planned for future releases.

 

How do virtualization solutions from Layered Tech help enterprises cut costs?

 

Simplicity is one of keys to cost savings for our customers.  Running enterprise applications on The Grid Layer is actually far simpler than using traditional hardware because you do not need to deploy, configure or maintain actual physical or software resources.

 

When you run an application in the cloud on The Grid Layer, all of the infrastructure resources needed are assembled and configured automatically on demand.  When additional performance is required, it takes just minutes to increase the resources available to your application, resulting in optimum control and flexibility.  Accelerating application availability drives cost efficiencies.

 

In a more fundamental way, The Grid Layer eliminates the upfront server costs associated with traditional clustered server environments.  This server consolidation is a powerful driver of cost reduction for our customers, as well as the more traditional capital expense elimination achieved through our hosted virtualization environment.   

 

Are there other benefits in term of security and scalability?

 

On both the security and scalability fronts, our cloud computing offering, The Grid Layer, solves many of the early challenges faced by virtualization providers.  We have a powerful graphical configuration interface which enables users to 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.

 

Therefore, our approach provides 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.

 

What are AppLogic’s strong points over other cloud computing solutions?

 

3tera’s breakthrough AppLogic technology packages the entire multi-tier application or service into a logical entity and manages it as a single system.  AppLogic is the first grid operating system that is designed for web applications and is optimized for transactional and I/O-intensive workloads.  It uses advanced virtualization technologies to ensure complete compatibility with existing operating systems, middleware and applications.  Additionally, off-the-shelf OS and applications are fully compatible within The Grid Layer (based on AppLogic).

 

Can you share with our readers some details about the hardware side of Layered Tech’s grid, such as number of datacenters and their geographic distribution?

 

Certainly.  We maintain a global presence with our data centers and network, serving thousands of clients internationally.  We currently have 8 purpose-built facilities located in the U.S., Amsterdam, Tokyo, and other locations.  These top-tier data centers are the cornerstones of our worldwide hosting capabilities and offer unparalleled security, network availability, capacity, processing power, and operations management.

 

What is the Early Adopter Program?

 

For our customers who are interested in migrating to a Windows environment on our Grid, we are offering special pricing and close support to incent and facilitate migration.  We intend to offer this program through Q1 2009. Contact us for details >>

 

Do you plan further developments in the areas of virtualization and cloud computing?

 

Listening to our customers means that we are constantly innovating new virtualization features and expanded cloud computing functionality.  We are committed to staying on the forefront of virtualization innovation, and make ongoing investments in research and development.  This is an exciting time in the hosted cloud computing industry, and we anticipate many more advances in how we provide enterprise-grade virtualization solutions.