GoGrid Blog

A few days ago, I had an interesting conversation with a very excited GoGrid user. So much so, that he was working on getting all of his production websites migrated over to GoGrid, but only after he fully installed cPanel. Using cPanel, he said, would enable him to seamlessly migrate all of his clients’ sites. He kept running into little tweaks that he needed to do here and there, but kept working on it, happy that he could so easily build up and rip down server instances with GoGrid. Eventually, he got it to work. His ultimate suggestion? Get an Operating System image with cPanel installed, or at a minimum, have a bare-bones install of CentOS so that cPanel could be installed easily.

As we continue to build out the GoGrid Operating System images (shortly to roll out some new ones), I thought that it would make sense to ask what Open Source software you might want to see in upcoming template releases.

My list of Open Source apps that I would want on Windows and/or Linux is growing and includes:

• WordPress
• Joomla!
• Bugzilla
• Trac
• Moodle
• Subversion (maybe with Trac)
• SugarCRM
• MediaWiki
• Webmin
• cPanel
• Alfresco
• Twiki
• Community Server

What about actual Operating Systems like Ubuntu or Debian?

How about combinations of the OS and Open Source app?

I realize that these are simple Open Source applications but do you really want to spend hours installing and configuring your server for these to work? The whole goal of GoGrid is “control in the cloud” and make server deployments quick and easy. With these templates, we hope to make the process even easier, turnkey and ready-to-go out of the box! Post a comment with your wish list and we will see what we can do.

GoGrid is starting to get some traction around the world. Many users are seeing how “controlling the cloud” is becoming the clear way to go when choosing a cloud hosting solution. Obviously, Amazon EC2 is pushing hard to be the leader and GoGrid is biting at their heels. In many cases, GoGrid actually offers a better service than many of the other cloud computing companies out there with offerings like:

• Free F5 load balancing
• Persistent servers
• Linux AND Windows server images with full root or administrator access
• Static IPs
• Meter pricing
• Facebook QuickStart Servers
• Free Support

But don’t just take my word for it. Here are what others have to say:

Bub.blicio.us

I guess you can think of GoGrid as Web 2.0 meets cloud computing with traditional hosting thrown in for a complete solution. If you’re a Facebook developer, give it a shot, it just might save you time and money while helping you start building your user-base, today.

Read the full article.

Lyquidity Dev Blog

The GoGrid service allows us to create any number of servers for a trial period so clients are able to see, first-hand, our software services at work. We did look at Amazon’s EC2 but our software is Windows based. GoGrid allows us to run servers based on Windows or Linux.

Read the full article.

Host Disciple

GoGrid is definitely a product worth keeping in mind if you need an on-demand utility computing platform. It offers server key advantages over EC2…

Read the full article.

These are just a few that we are aware of. If you have written a review or plan on doing so, please contact us and let us know.

Tomorrow is SF New Tech and GoGrid will be there handing out “free servers!” The theme of tomorrow night’s event is “Wine, Women and a Whole Lot More!” Companies doing the 5 Minute Demos are: Nirvino, Zivity, Razz, MyMeemz/Skollar and Ribbit.

The event is at Mighty (119 Utah Street @ 15th) from 6:30pm to 11:00 pm PT. Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door. The schedule of events is as follows:

6:30 pm - Doors open
6:30 -7:30 pm - Schmooze
7:30 - 9:00 pm - Demos
9:00 - 11:00 pm Schmooze

GoGrid will have a table at this event so be sure to come by and ask us questions about GoGrid. You will walk away pleasantly surprised!

With the Facebook QuickStart Servers available now on GoGrid, we have received questions as to how the GoGrid service compares with others in the cloud computing and Facebook space. While this is not the “end-all” comparison, it does provide a point of reference between GoGrid, Amazon EC2 and Joyent.

Chart updated on 5/8/08.

*Pricing based on GoGrid Business Grid and Transfer 200 GB plans

With GoGrid there are other choices as well for RAM and Storage allotments (1GB RAM servers have 60 GB disks and 2 GB RAM servers have 125GB disks). Key differentiators are the FREE support and Load Balancing offered by GoGrid as well as support for both Windows and Linux servers (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and CentOS 4.4.) More OS images are added on a regular basis so check back regularly.

Being your humble servant, I have a special discount available to all of my readers. Contact me directly for a discount on your first GoGrid account! (Limited time only!). So what are you waiting for? Get a new GoGrid account now!

Attendees of the inaugural meeting of StartUp SF, a new meetup for technologists, developers, entrepreneurs and startups in the San Francisco Bay Area, were given a great GoGrid gift, $100 off their first GoGrid account. But the value went further than just that including a valuable CD-ROM from Orrick containing helpful document templates useful in launching your own startup. Attendees also learned some important tips on how move their company “from concept to company” as delivered in a presentation by Jonathan Cobb, CTO and Founder of Kiptronic.

StartUp SF is an event that is co-hosted by Orrick and ServePath designed to help “kick-start your startup” by providing a venue, topics and experts, as well as food and drink to facilitate the process.

More details on yesterday’s event can be found here and here. We were even lucky enough to get Pete Cashmore (of Mashable) to pose with Paul Lancaster (of ServePath) in one of our stylish GoGrid hats.

More photos can be found on our Flickr photostream and the StartUp SF Facebook group. Don’t forget that GoGrid now really helps you get your Facebook app up and running FAST with the Facebook QuickStart Server Images for Windows and Linux!