It’s exciting times at GoGrid this week as we announce another milestone in our company’s history—the opening of our European Headquarters. GoGrid AMS BV is located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and will provide our customers with fully integrated, on-demand, global cloud infrastructure services through any of GoGrid’s data centers, including our new Amsterdam location as well as San Francisco, CA, and Ashburn, VA.

Why now? Why Amsterdam?

The appetite for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is rapidly growing worldwide. With Gartner predicting that the IaaS market will soon account for a quarter of the overall hosting department, the opportunity seemed ripe to take the next step in our continued global expansion. Amsterdam was the perfect choice when looking to set up our HQ thanks to its central geographic location, which makes it attractive to businesses operating or looking to operate within the EU, as well as its rich infrastructure, its reputation as a high-tech center, and its talented workforce.

Interested in learning more?

If you’re attending Cloud Expo Europetomorrow and/or Thursday, be sure to pop by the GoGrid booth (1013) where you can chat with me and other key members of the team: Craig DeMartini, head of sales, VP of Operations Bobby Brown, and Senior Product Manager Rupert Tagnipes. We can tell you more about the opening and the benefits that this expansion brings.

At the show there’ll also be the opportunity to hear about Condé Nast Digital Germany’s success hosting its magazine content on GoGrid’s infrastructure (25 January at 14.20 – Cloud and Virtualization Infrastructure and Platforms Theatre) and why Martini Media chose GoGrid’s cloud technology for its multi-data-center solution (25 January at 16.35 – Cloud and Virtualization Infrastructure and Platforms Theatre).

It’s set to be a great show, so we hope to see you there!

If you can’t make it down to Cloud Expo Europe, please contact GoGrid’s new European HQ at emea-sales@gogrid.com for more information. To learn how cloud computing can help your business and to access our Cloud Computing 101 Toolkit, go to http://go.gogrid.com/amsterdam_launch/.

A few days ago, I published some 2012 Cloud Computing predictions from Warren Heffelfinger (CEO – GoGrid), James Urquhart (Cloud Writer for GigaOm & VP of Product Strategies at enStratus) and Larry Warnock (CEO of Gazzang). The beginning of any year is critical to not only reflect back on what transpired, but also to gaze into the future to see what is to come. With Cloud Computing, to quote an over-used phrase, “the sky’s the limit” and while there are some similarity within these and the previous predictions, there are also some distinct opinions as to where we are all headed in the cloud.

In this article, I have compiled more insightful predictions from another stellar list of cloud experts, namely:

• John Keagy (Chairman & Founder – GoGrid)
• Carson Sweet (CEO – CloudPassage)
• Antonio Piraino (CTO – ScienceLogic)

Below are their predictions so read on to see how they stack up!

John Keagy (Chairman & Founder – GoGrid)

1. There will be less use of the word “cloud” generically and more of IaaS, PaaS and SaaS or “cloud infrastructure, cloud platforms, and cloud software.” Folks are starting to understand the difference between Salesforce.com and GoGrid / Amazon. In fact, folks that really know IT are starting to cringe at folks that talk about cloud computing without understanding that Salesforce and GoGrid are quite different. We can expect some more specific dialog even from the mainstream media.
2. More vendors will be called out for “cloud washing.” Duh. No longer can you confuse outsourcing with on-demand.
3. The market will become more educated to the differences in VMware vs. XEN clouds. XEN offerings will emerge as more differentiated and cost-effective and equally secure.
4. On-prem / off-prem cloud bursting will be debunked as a primary use case. Although we may actually see cloud bursting in the wild 2012, the network costs and latency will not make it compelling. Lots of pundits will theorize boldly about how great it is from their blogger pulpits but the folks living in reality won’t see success.
5. Amazon will shine brighter than ever as the beacon of the future of computing. Thank goodness for Amazon. They are defining a new future and giving it credibility. Trouble is, other than GoGrid, no other service provider takes responsibility for building the technology of the future. And cloud = service. Hmmm.

Carson Sweet (CEO – CloudPassage/GoGrid Partner)

1. Delivery of SaaS via virtual appliance (a.k.a. privately hosted cloud instances) will take hold.
   As mid-market and large enterprises consider the pros and cons of IaaS, PaaS and SaaS, a large contingent with be dis-satisfied with the level of transparency and control provided by SaaS providers. At the same time, they will seek the ease of ownership, instant access and low effort offered by SaaS. Concerns about multi-tenancy will also continue to hold back a large contingent of potential cloud users, especially for more sensitive applications. Software delivery using hosted virtual appliances will strike an attractive balance for these potential users, offering on-demand access and scale while delivering superior control and reducing concerns about multi-tenancy. The demand for virtual appliance software delivery will drive IaaS providers to migrate towards (but not into) a PaaS model. Conversely, SaaS and PaaS providers will offer more flexibility and control over how their service offerings are deployed.
2. IaaS services will continue to coalesce around combinations of managed hardware, pure cloud infrastructure, and in-line access to software and services.
   As cloud deployments continue to grow, large cloud enterprises will hit scalability issues. IaaS providers will suffer migrations from the cloud back to collocated hardware, and IaaS providers will respond to protect the large enterprise business. Established infrastructure providers will leverage their legacies of large-scale, heterogeneous infrastructure management to offer access to combinations of multi-tenant cloud, dedicated private cloud, and traditional collocated hardware environments. Through acquisition or heavy investment in R&D, providers will leverage highly automated virtual infrastructure provisioning and delivery. The most successful will deliver a very wide variety of cloud infrastructure and virtual appliance services in a high-margin, self-service format. This will enable them to retain large-scale cloud enterprises while continuing to capture the large population of self-service, mid-market/business unit customers in a self-service approach. As the total field of cloud-hosted SaaS and consumer startups grows dramatically, IaaS providers’ ability to capture and service smaller customers at scale and grow some portion into hybrid hardware/software cloud environments will be a differentiation and competitive advantage.
3. IaaS providers will seek to differentiate and diversify to become “one-stop-shops”, and some will reach the critical mass needed to capture the emerging large-enterprise cloud services market.
   IaaS providers will seek to differentiate through partnership ecosystems that allow customers integrated access to supporting services (e.g. security, domain naming services, directory services) and application deployments (e.g. WordPress, Hadoop, Apache). The best providers will offer integrated orchestration of infrastructure, supporting services and applications (e.g. RightScale, Chef, Puppet). Providers will quickly move to increase market penetration and retention through the addition of integration, customization, training and management services. Some providers will establish stronger positions in vertical markets by packaging infrastructure, services and software to meet the needs of specific industries (e.g. regulatory requirements, specialized computing use cases, workload variability). Those providers that build the critical mass needed to obtain and retain cloud infrastructure services with large enterprises will become dominant market players; others will follow with focus on the mid-markets, and will rely more heavily on cloud broker / aggregation channels.

Antonio Piraino (CTO – ScienceLogic/GoGrid Customer)

1. Cloud management rules – Logistics usually trump management when it comes to new technologies, and the cloud is no different. Now that cloud providers have brought their platforms to market, having visibility into and control of those cloud resources will be paramount in 2012: A centralized view into performance across physical, virtual and cloud-based resources is a requirement for delivering optimal business services.
2. Security gets serious – Security breaches are nothing new but in 2012, cloud’s relative immaturity and high profile will likely motivate a serious attack. The silver lining will be that cloud computing service providers and their customers will come away stronger. Security and disaster recovery plans will be taken more seriously.
3. Acquisitions will be horizontal – Acquisitions in 2012 will be based more on the technologies needed to round out portfolios rather than simply buying smaller firms to boost market share. Look for telcos, social media firms, large system integrators and managed service providers to partner or buy out the cloud onramp providers, orchestration technologies, security technologies and IT monitoring/management firms.
4. Cloud defies the laws of demand – Cloud will act as a “Giffen Good” in 2012, meaning that people will consume more of it even as the price rises. Lower budgets make cloud’s ability to break down costs into smaller increments a more attractive prospect. As cloud service prices increase, it will take a larger portion of the already cut budget, which will mean there is less budget remaining, further driving the cost-cutting measures of cloud computing adoption. Cloud service providers tempted to decrease prices should take note.
5. Cloud wars commence – The most renowned consumer cloud environments such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Salesforce.com will start cloud wars based on price and economies of scale. And, since these companies are bringing enterprise grade services to federal and local government institutions as well as corporations of all sizes, the wars will pull in the managed hosting and data center collocation providers too. The majority will only be successful when they identify niche markets where they can deliver new services. Cloud wars will create coalitions leading to more holistic and innovative cloud solutions and differentiated service catalogs rather than traditional price wars.

Be sure to read Part 1 of this series on 2012 Cloud Computing Predictions.

What are your predictions for Cloud Computing in 2012? Any thoughts on the ones from our cloud experts above? Leave a comment and let us know.

As is customary with the passing of an old year and the exciting entrance into a new one, people try to make their best predictions as to what the future holds within their area of expertise. For GoGrid, this is obviously around Cloud Computing. This year, instead of making my own prediction list (as I have done in the past), I thought it would be important to get some other expert voices from the GoGrid and cloud community to do this task.

The important thing to always remember here, especially when dealing with the cloud, is that it changes quickly. It’s similar to buying the latest technology, the moment you buy it (or make the prediction, in this case), it’s instantly outdated. But still, the process is fun if not, educational.

Below is a compilation of 2012 cloud computing predictions from a variety of subject matter experts and thought-leaders in the field of cloud infrastructure, security and services. The contributors are:

• Warren Heffelfinger (CEO – GoGrid)
• James Urquhart (Cloud Writer – GigaOm/VP of Product Strategies – enStratus/GoGrid Partner)
• Larry Warnock (CEO – Gazzang/GoGrid Partner)
• John Keagy (Chairman & Founder – GoGrid)
• Carson Sweet (CEO – CloudPassage/GoGrid Partner)
• Antonio Piraino (CTO – ScienceLogic/GoGrid Customer)

Because of the wealth of knowledge coming from this group, I have actually broken this article out into a series of 2 posts. Without further ado, onto the first set of predictions!

Warren Heffelfinger (CEO – GoGrid)

1. At Amazon, the tail becomes the dog and the dog loses the tail. In 2012, I expect to see greater visibility on the success Amazon is seeing with AWS, to the point where they will report actual results in preparation for a spinoff in late 2012 / early 2013. Let’s face it . . . selling books online is not much different from selling TVs or flowers online, but selling raw compute and storage is radically different and deserves its own publicly-traded vehicle.
2. Telco’s continue to acquire cloud service providers . . . and competitors cheer! Having made a career out of competing with Ma Bell, this is a no brainer. Anyone with an entrepreneurial bone in their body will absolutely implode within one week of operations at a major global telco. Their primary skill set is stifling innovation. Unfortunately in 2012, we will start to see some formerly great companies fade into the sunset after being acquired and dismantled.
3. Big-Brand hardware in Big-Time trouble. Remember the last Internet boom? There were 25 year old kids making $1m selling commodity servers, routers, and PCs. Silicon Valley was littered with these sales reps. Last Fall, I was speaking with a friend in the industry who is located in The SV. Guess what . . . those sales jobs no longer exist. Why? Because getting a server shipped to you in 2 days with a “<insert big brand name here>” label no longer cuts it when you can spin up the same thing in 3 minutes with any number of cloud infrastructure providers. If you are still buying gear from “<insert big brand names here> et al you are probably also dancing the Macarena.
4. “Cloud” loses its sex appeal. Remember when “The Web” was a cool term? Ok, I’m dating myself but you get the point. We expect cloud services (SaaS, PaaS and IaaS) to grow exponentially for the next 5-7 years, but let’s face it, the term “Cloud” is getting old. By the end of 2012, the rest of the IT world will find the term passé (just as industry insiders do right now). Cloud will just be “the obvious way we consume software and hardware”.
5. Big Data gets BIGGER. From our vantage point, Big Data is gaining a lot of momentum. Adoption trends within our own customer base are clearly accelerating, creating a unique circumstance where reality actually outpaces hype. We love this area because the combination of Big Data running on GoGrid’s complex infrastructure is a powerful solution for our customers.

James Urquhart (GigaOm Contributing Author/VP of Product Strategy – enStratus/GoGrid Partner)

1. The complexity of operating application systems in the cloud will become increasingly apparent. The cloud is changing something fundamental about application architectures; they are becoming increasingly small-grained and componentized, in part due to the distributed nature of cloud computing, but mostly because of the business opportunities and work savings such an approach affords. However, as organizations deploy more and more such applications, the volume and interconnected nature of these applications will make the problem of managing them in large numbers increasingly apparent.
2. New hardware architectures will be tried. Many will fail. We are already seeing this trend, but as the needs of new IT services systems (for the most part, cloud services) are discovered, new server, storage and networking products will appear to address them. Unfortunately, most will fail to recognize the scale, consistency and dynamics of so-called “resource pooling”, and will fail to find significant market share. On the other hand, the few that survive will be a big, big deal.
3. Big data and consumer-scale web applications will continue to dominate the cloud–but change is in the air. While there will be increasing signs of enterprises addressing new classes of applications in the cloud, most of them will be applications that are already successful running in cloud services, namely big data and web applications. However, a small number of new approaches–centered on PaaS and “PaaS on SaaS” (e.g. Force.com) development technologies–will make “departmental applications” cost effective in the cloud. In fact, sometime in 2013, the new agility found in the cloud might actually lead to an explosion of “departmental apps”, which create a new operational headache for the IT department.
4. The legal needs of cloud computing are increasingly debated. SOPA, DCMA, EU privacy policy, and so on are only warning shots across our bows with respect to the challenges cloud computing will have on our legal system. There is good news and bad news here. The good news is that most developed countries will see increasing structure placed around how cloud can and can’t be used. The bad news is that many special interests (including those with political power, in some cases) will find ways to bend this law to their own benefit. This is expected, as the real challenge to the legal status of cloud computing won’t be expected for a couple of years or more.
5. Agile companies will increasingly move to the cloud, staid companies will not. This may seem obvious, but there is more at work here than just conservative company cultures. One of the primary benefits of cloud computing is that it makes trying new software a much smaller risk than it was in more traditional client-server models. If a new application fails to find value, you just shut it down and stop incurring expense for the thing. There is no capital outlay to account for after the fact. Companies that have new software to try will flock to the cloud. Those that don’t change their software often will avoid it—for now.

Larry Warnock (CEO – Gazzang/GoGrid Partner)

1. Storage Capacity concerns will increase driving greater demand for compression technologies. Recent natural disasters in Asia have created a shortage of disk drive production that is now causing a ripple effect in cloud storage costs. Compression technologies will come to the rescue for many organizations.
2. OpenSource will continue to gain momentum and OpenStack will receive increased support and become a compelling option for organizations of all sizes. We’ll see high profile use cases turn to open source databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and particularly NoSQL (MongoDB, Cassandra, Hadoop and others) due to their reduced cost, increased flexibility and extreme scalability. And being Linux based, they will continue to pull market share from UNIX and Windows Server based products, especially as enterprises move apps to the cloud or SaaS delivery model.
3. Encryption will no longer be optional, it will become a must have. This applies to all data including email addresses and student records, not just credit card information or HIPAA. The cloud will be a significant driver for encryption, especially for multi-tenant applications in the cloud, and within SaaS and PaaS.
4. Telcos will lead the way in moving enterprises to the cloud. They understand how to deliver “carrier-grade” services and are ready to take the next step.
5. Mobile device security will reach a new peak. While the cost of devices is decreasing, the cost of losing one is increasing. With every new app that is created, it opens new doors for hackers to break through – and they will.
6. Security breaches are going to happen at a faster pace than we saw in 2011 and that’s saying a lot when you consider RSA, Lockheed Martin, Epsilon, the Fox broadcast network, PBS and Citibank to name just a few – it’s only going to get worse. Enterprises need to assess their security controls and prepare accordingly before it is too late.

You can now view Part 2 of the 2012 Cloud Computing Predictions where John Keagy (Founder & Chairman of GoGrid), Carson Sweet (CEO of Cloud Passage) and Antonio Piraino (CTO of ScienceLogic) weigh in with their predictions.

What are your predictions for Cloud Computing in 2012? Any thoughts on the ones from our cloud experts above? Leave a comment and let us know.

Here at GoGrid, we believe in giving back to our local community. That’s why for the last 5 years, we’ve been hosting GoGrid’s Season of Giving, partnering with local organizations, such as the San Francisco Food Bank and Family Giving Tree, to host an annual food and toy drive.

Every year, we ask our employees to donate one bin full of food. To make this drive more successful and fun, we hosted a competition (thanks to our VP of Marketing for the great idea!) – the winning team got bragging rights and an ice cream social hosted by San Francisco’s own, Frozen Kuhsterd. GoGrid and its employees donated over 685 lbs of food!

Because the teams worked so hard, we felt that it was only appropriate for everyone to be rewarded with ice cream. Thanks to Frozen Kuhsterd for bringing in the Cereal Milk and Blue Bottle Coffee flavors to reward our employees for a job well done!

The toy drive for the Family Giving Tree wasn’t any different.

As you can see, we were able to fill up a bin full of toys, clothes, and other requests from local low-income and homeless children. It’s a satisfying feeling when you know you’re helping out those in need!

We look forward to expanding our efforts in giving back to our community in 2012. Stay tuned for further developments in this area!

As is my annual custom, at the beginning of each year or as we are entering into a new year, I try to make some educated guesses as to the direction that Cloud Computing will take us. In December, 2010, I published “Peering Out at the Horizon – 7 Cloud Computing Predictions for 2011” and now is the time that I reflect back to see how well these predictions actually did. Just as a reminder, the predictions that I made were my own personal opinion and may not reflect others at GoGrid.

Here is a quick recap of the 2011 Cloud Computing predictions I made and I have also mentioned how I think the prediction faired at the end of 2011:

1. IT Procurement Includes Cloud Requisitioning – Part of me was really hoping that this would come to fruition a bit more than it did. Essentially, I believe that the Enterprise and Business Units therein would begin loosening up a bit in terms of the procurement of IT resources. It still seems that there is a division of this process. Traditional IT managers are looking to extend their hold on the physical and data center environments that they “own” and manage. However, as Gartner analyst, Lydia Leong posits, there are also those who are considered “circumventors” who bypass the traditional IT procurement process and go to the public cloud to get project-based infrastructure. The circumventers use whatever tools possible to get their jobs done. They love the characteristics and qualities of the cloud. Conversely, those IT traditionalists view the cloud as risky. They want to ensure that infrastructure is compliant, safe, secure and carefully managed. They are worried about “cloud sprawl” and not having control over infrastructure in the cloud. While previously, these groups had heated political battles about whose method was the proper one, in 2012, they will realize that both methods have advantages and by working together, they can minimize the risks. The use of Cloud Bridging (joining on-prem to public cloud), Cloud Bursting (expanding to the public cloud when resources require it), and Hybrid Hosting (combining physical and virtual appliances within the same environment) will provide both sides of these dueling mindsets with ways to get along.
   Prediction results: There is definitely some headway being made to bridge the gap between these two forces within organizations. The lines are blurring as different ways to procure both cloud and physical infrastructure are emerging.
2. Private Clouds and Public Cloud Act to Catalyze Each Other – There is still the ongoing debate as to which comes first, a public cloud or a private cloud. It really depends who you talk to within an organization. There are those circumventers who simply “expense” the use of a public cloud and there are those traditionalists, as I mentioned, who will make all attempts to re-use existing infrastructure and make it “cloudy.” However, there are more and more companies that look to a hybridization of infrastructure, where they are creating Virtual Private Clouds to ensure better data security or compliance while leveraging existing physical infrastructures. Private clouds can definitely whet the appetites of organizations who are looking at the cloud for more efficient utilization of IT resources. And I still believe that once private clouds prove their use, there are more possibilities for public cloud adoption.
   Prediction results: We are seeing a continued growth of cloud computing in general, and within that, a mixture of the types of clouds being used, pure public or private, cloud bursting, cloud bridging, hybrid clouds and hybrid hosting in general.
3. “Cloud Washing” Backlash Begins – Cloud washing occurs when an infrastructure vendor takes its traditional, legacy or older service offering and they simply slap the term “cloud” on it. Companies seem to be doing a better job at disguising their non-cloud (or even “false cloud”) offerings into something that resembles a cloud offering. It’s still “buyer beware” with these types of services, in my opinion. Ensure that the cloud provider you choose passes the cloud-litmus test. You shouldn’t have to have a big capital expenditure, services should be dynamic and scalable, you should be billed based on usage and the service should be consumed via internet services.
   Prediction results: For the most part, there wasn’t as much of a backlash as I would have predicted. Either cloud buyers are simply unaware of cloud-washing or it simply doesn’t matter to them and they are still getting what they believe to be cloud services. I just hope they don’t get buyers remorse once they dive a bit deeper into their selected vendor.
4. Cracks Show with Internal Clouds as Hosted Private Clouds Emerge – The idea here is that corporations who rushed out to buy hardware and virtualization licenses in order to implement their own private cloud are now reeling from sticker shock and a high TCO. Private clouds are important to organizations, especially if data security and privacy are core requirements. However as the tab for running and maintaining a private cloud continues to climb, enterprises and larger organizations are now looking for financial and human capital efficiencies in their infrastructure management and growth. GoGrid introduced the Hosted Private Cloud service earlier this year and we are seeing great traction. In fact, Orange Business Services has been using GoGrid’s Hosted Private Cloud since early on this year. You can see their case study here.
   Prediction results: As I mention, Hosted Private Cloud interest and sales are seeing strong numbers at GoGrid and there are other cloud vendors who are now starting to offer similar services. Expect this movement to grow in 2012.
5. Community & Sharing Of and Within the Cloud – With a proliferation of cloud services in the marketplace, it is only natural that aggregation and inter-networking of disparate clouds begin to form. With outages always a possibility, it’s important for organizations to build for failure and this is where multi-cloud utilization is important for disaster recover plans. Companies like Racemi are leveraging migration plays that can help corporations distribute their infrastructure across multiple public clouds.
   Predictions results: For the most part, the growth of peripheral cloud integration and migration services, including professional services companies, showed pretty solid growth this year with cloud consumers realizing that there are options and a plethora of services from which to choose.
6. Breaking Down International Cloud Borders – Many analysts have said that the US is leading the cloud computing charge with Europe & Asia closely following. There are a few cloud vendors within Europe, but not to the extent of the United States. Being able to use a single cloud vendor for world-wide distribution and utilization of cloud services is critical to many companies. While due to the Patriot Act, European companies need to host their EU-centric services in Europe, many also use US-based cloud provider for their US-audiences.
   Prediction results: The European expansion started this year and won’t be slowing down any time soon as US cloud providers are realizing the importance of having a physical presence overseas. But this could all change…
7. Cloud Standards Battle Heats Up – Cloud computing is rapidly becoming an established IT movement and no longer viewed as being simply hype or an alternative to traditional IT. It is not only replacing legacy IT environments, but also companies are building for the cloud from the get-go. While some public clouds are consumed in a proprietary manner (which causes quite a built of vendor lock-in if you build specifically for them), others are more open, allowing for easier migrations and deployments. A more flexible or adaptable (standards-based) cloud provider requires less specialization of the IT or Development teams working with that particular cloud provider. In fact, some Certification programs, generalized for Cloud Computing, are emerging as well. This indirectly pushes the marketplace toward standardization of offerings and services.
   Prediction results: While the standardization process is still a bit cloudy, progress is definitely being made. Via certifications, developers and IT professionals can now tout their cloud experience and knowledge which allows companies and individuals to document their proficiency in not only what cloud is, but also how to use it and the best ways to use it.

Whew, there you have it – my analysis and synopsis of some predictions I made early in 2011 on the directions of Cloud Computing this year. Again, these are merely my predictions and analysis and may not reflect others within GoGrid.

What do you think? What’s coming in 2012 for the cloud? Yeah, to use the overplayed phrase, I think “the sky’s the limit” when it comes to cloud computing!

At GoGrid, we are often asked to provide solutions for a variety of use cases. More often than not, businesses are not looking for “standard” cloud implementations. And what really is “standard?” When you think about it, every business has unique needs in order to satisfy their cloud challenges. We help companies craft these solutions daily and we call it Creating a Cloud Fingerprint. But, as is the nature of cloud computing, many users desire to figure it out themselves, simply because solutions can be architected fairly easily, and if it isn’t quite right, they can be modified.

In our regular discussions with companies looking for information on how they can benefit from cloud Infrastructure as a Service, we often come across the same set of hurdles, namely:

• Most established companies have an existing infrastructure investment, and may not be willing or able to sacrifice these investments,
• Some infrastructure components may not be generally available through IaaS vendors, such as Enterprise security or storage infrastructure,
• Some applications or data will be deemed “too sensitive” for the cloud due to internal objections or compliance constraints,
• Maintaining and growing an on-premise solution or even data center is not only difficult, but extremely expensive,
• Doing a full migration to the cloud comes with a very high conversion and operational cost,
• Business simply are unsure as to how to best leverage cloud computing.

With these challenges in mind, we have a solution that allows business not only to utilize their existing infrastructure, but also leverage GoGrid’s public cloud to create a Virtual Private Cloud on GoGrid.

But, addressing the points above is critical in the solution. Therefore, we wanted to be sure:

• Customers could retain their existing infrastructure,
• GoGrid’s platform is used as an EXTENSION of that infrastructure,
• GoGrid’s customers have a wide range of network security options/policies available,
• Customers are able to fully leverage the advantages of cloud infrastructure, and the elimination of capital expenditures and their associated resource costs,
• A customer can fully utilize their existing infrastructure investment.

The GoGrid Solution

The solution is actually quite straight forward. And it aids customers in potentially moving on-premise infrastructure to the cloud in the future at a gradual pace. As we all know, a picture is worth 1000 words:

Each GoGrid account includes dedicated Layer-2 Public and Private VLANs —  this means that GoGrid completely and securely segregates each customer’s data in motion from every other GoGrid customer’s. It also means that all virtual and physical servers can speak directly to each other over high-throughput, low-latency gigabit networks.

Capitalizing on this built-in security and performance, GoGrid can add a full-featured network firewall, completely controlling network traffic per customers’ specifications.

In the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) configuration, all traffic is denied to and from the Internet, but all traffic is allowed over the secure, encrypted point-to-point link between the customer’s cloud infrastructure at GoGrid, and their on-premise or hosted infrastructure. Of course, this policy set can be modified to add more or less restrictive policies, for example to allow database or remote management traffic only over the VPN, but allow secure web services (HTTPS) over the Internet or an IP range.

What is depicted above is the linking of two distinct infrastructures, one within GoGrid and one as a customer’s on-premise environment. The linkage is done simply by using a VPN/Firewall solution, which creates and encrypted tunnel between the two locations: GoGrid cloud and customer’s location. This is a dramatically over-simplified representation, so let’s take a look at one possible solution in a bit more detail.

The solution above requires the following items:

Within GoGrid

• A GoGrid Account
• A Managed Hardware Firewall
• Cisco ASA-Series Firewall (Single Tenant)
• Fortinet Firewall (Multi-Tenant)

Within Customer’s On-Premise Infrastructure

• A VPN termination appliance at the customer’s location, such as a Cisco, Juniper or Netscreen device

In order to set up this configuration or other versions of GoGrid’s Virtual Private Cloud solution, we recommend that you have a discussion with a Cloud Specialist or Solutions Architect, as it is important to not only properly configure the environment, but also, you will need to order some managed firewall solutions.

Pricing starts around $200/month for a Virtual Private Cloud implemented with the Fortinet Firewall, and $350/month for a managed Cisco ASA 5510 dedicated to a single customer account. These charges are in addition to associated GoGrid infrastructure and bandwidth costs.

Who Might Benefit from a Virtual Private Cloud?

The nice thing about cloud computing is that it can be a solution for just about any use case. Having flexibility to construct solutions using a variety of cloud services allows customers to truly craft their Cloud Fingerprint. In the case of Virtual Private Clouds, we see them as being beneficial for Internal Applications where security of data is paramount. Core private data is maintained within a customer’s location, however, if transmitted to the cloud, it is done via a securely, encrypted tunnel. Some environments that may require this include:

• Microsoft Exchange
• Microsoft SharePoint
• Billing & Financial Systems

Similarly, Virtual Private Clouds can be used for Intranet solutions as well as SaaS applications. Lastly, having a pre-constructed Virtual Private Cloud allows you the flexibility to Cloud Burst should your internal environment suddenly need to leverage more capacity or compute power from GoGrid’s public cloud.

And, as your company’s business and infrastructure grows, you may want to consider a migration to GoGrid’s Hosted Private Cloud which offers the benefits, capabilities and flexibilities of GoGrid’s public cloud, but within a single-tenant environment, one that is dedicated to your company solely.

Regardless, the important point here is to carefully plan for your future infrastructure growth. Don’t do it alone either. Ask your peers as well as your cloud partner to provide you with best practice solutions to make you successful and timely in your efforts.