John Keagy, CEO and founder of GoGrid, will be presenting at Cloud World Expo 2011 in London, England. Cloud Expo Europe is a cloud event that is dedicated to the “past, present and future of cloud computing, virtualization and open source.”

The conference is being held on February 2-3, 2011 in the Barbican Exhibition Hall 1 in London, England. The 2-day event has 3 different speaking tracks: Business, Solution and Security & Storage track.

John will be presenting on Wednesday, February 3rd. Details on his presentation are as follows:

Date: February 3rd, 2011
Time: 12:00pm – 12:30pm GMT
Location: Barbican Exhibition Hall 1
Presentation Title: “What it Takes to build a Leading Public Cloud”
Topic Details:

Being a cutting-edge cloud provider has enabled GoGrid to learn the nuances of being a profitable public cloud provider while also passing on cost-savings to its customers. However, there are many cloud vendors who are struggling to survive while providing innovative solutions to their customers. What makes one company more successful than others? And how does this translate to cost-savings to the cloud consumer? Are vendors passing on efficiencies to their end-users so that they can capitalize on the benefits of moving entire infrastructures to the cloud? How are cloud providers innovating internally to invest in their cloud growth and adoption strategies?

Here at GoGrid, we recently released our new Hosted Private Cloud service. Hosted Private Cloud is the first cloud solution that is housed in a datacenter (hosted) with each client having their own dedicated nodes containing their private cloud (private). This single-tenant implementation addresses many of the security concerns had by cloud skeptics and maintains the ease and flexibility of public cloud solutions.

Hosted Private Cloud is not only technically different from other Private cloud implementations, but the costs are also significantly different (and substantially less!). Let’s break down the cost comparisons between GoGrid’s offering and other solutions.

Other private cloud solutions include several more costs and require in-house hardware with a significant amount of capital expenditure. Hosted Private Cloud, on the other hand, has no capital expenditure and solely charges operating costs. And the solution is completely managed and operated by GoGrid (pure OPEX).

In a case study between GoGrid’s Hosted Private Cloud and VMware’s collocated private cloud, it was found that VMware’s solution cost 2.25x more than Hosted Private Cloud and had CAPEX of 42% while GoGrid had a CAPEX of 0.

We are very proud of technology behind Hosted Private Cloud and the considerable savings it brings our users.

Wish to learn more about Hosted Private Cloud? Contact us or download: TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) Advantage of GoGrid’s Hosted Private Cloud

As part of its global expansion roadmap, GoGrid today announced that NTT America will be providing increased capacity and bandwidth to GoGrid customer to meet increased customer demand. NTT is among several GoGrid bandwidth providers including: Above Net and Level 3. The NTT relationship will help bolster capacity for various overseas markets including Asia and Australia.

The full Press Release is below:

NTT America Enables GoGrid to Meet Customer Growth Demands via NTT Communications Tier-1 Global IP Network

NTT Com network facilitates growth for GoGrid’s Cloud Computing product suite

NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO – January 25, 2011 – NTT America, a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) and a Tier-1 global IP network services provider, and GoGrid, a leading cloud infrastructure provider, today announced that NTT America has enabled GoGrid to continually meet customer demands for increased bandwidth and capacity via NTT Communications Tier-1 Global IP Network.

As GoGrid’s international customer base grew, the company turned to NTT Com’s Tier-1 IP backbone service to support increased bandwidth demands across the board. As a Tier-1 provider, NTT Com provides private peering and seamless service from a single global ASN (ASN2914) over NTT Communications Global IP Network, directly connecting telecoms, ISPs, content providers, CDNs and enterprises at the highest performance levels available.

“Over the last year, GoGrid’s international customer base has grown substantially and NTT America has enabled our global cloud platform to increase broadband capabilities and in turn provide new growth opportunities,” said Bobby Brown, vice president of operations and support for GoGrid. “Overall, NTT Communications Global IP Network, with one of the best international footprints in the industry, was by far the best choice for us to grow with. The network provides faster routes to international markets – specifically Asia – as well as excellent customer service and unrivaled uptime.”

GoGrid’s complete cloud infrastructure service solution enables its customers to easily deploy robust, customized cloud infrastructures, leveraging the multifaceted features and services that make up the GoGrid cloud. Users worldwide can create and manage complex cloud and hybrid environments utilizing a variety of appliances including cloud servers, on-demand dedicated servers, F5 hardware-based load balancers and cloud storage.

As demand grows for content and services available via the Internet, NTT America supports its customers by shaping IP transit bandwidth delivered over both Internet protocol version 4 (IPv4) and the next generation Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6). The company provides flexible and fast dedicated access to the global Internet, the most aggressive Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in the industry and more than 1 Tbps of peering capacity globally.

“NTT Com operates one of the largest transpacific networks available on the market today, and our capacity is always growing. In fact, we surpassed 400 Gbps in Q4 2010 – an industry high,” said Shuichi Ikeda, vice president, sales and business development for NTT America’s Global IP Network business unit. “Because of this, our customers are able to provide better services and a true competitive advantage to their customers. We look forward to working with GoGrid into the future to continue to help them meet customer demand.”

NTT America directly connects customers – including telecommunications companies, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), content providers, Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and enterprises – to major markets around the world via NTT Com’s Tier-1 IP Backbone Network and Point of Presence (PoP) locations in the United States, Europe and Asia Pacific.

For more information on the NTT Com Global IP Network, visit http://www.us.ntt.net/about/ipmap.cfm.

About NTT America
NTT America is North America’s natural gateway to the Asia-Pacific region, with strong capabilities in the U.S. market. NTT America is the U.S. subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation, the global data and IP services arm of a Fortune Global 500 telecom leader: Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corporation (NTT). NTT America provides world-class Enterprise Hosting, managed network, and IP networking services for enterprise customers and service providers worldwide. For additional information on NTT America, visit us on the Web at www.us.ntt.com.

U.S. product information regarding the NTT Communications Global IP Network and its award winning IPv6 transit services may be found at http://www.us.ntt.net/, by calling 877-8NTT-NET (868-8638), or by emailing sales@us.ntt.net.  Join us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/NTTAmerica, follow NTT America on Twitter at @NTT_America or LinkedIn at http://www.linkedin.com/companies/ntt-america for up-to-date news and announcements.

About NTT Communications Corporation
NTT Communications provides a broad range of global networks, management solutions and IT services to customers worldwide.  The company is renowned for reliable, high-quality security, hosting, voice, data and IP services, as well as expertise in managed networks and leadership in IPv6 transit technology.  NTT Communications’ extensive infrastructure includes Arcstar Global IP-VPN and Global e-VLAN, as well as a Tier 1 IP backbone reaching more than 150 countries in partnership with major Internet service providers, and secure data centers in Asia, North America and Europe.  NTT Communications is the wholly-owned subsidiary of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, one of the world’s largest telecoms with listings on the Tokyo, London and New York stock exchanges.  Please visit www.ntt.com/index-e.html.

About GoGrid
Thousands of leading IT experts choose and rely on GoGrid’s Cloud infrastructure services. GoGrid’s award winning technology enables sysadmins, developers, and IT professionals to create, deploy, and control cloud environments and complex virtual and physical server networks with full administrative control. GoGrid’s industry standard specifications and robust service offerings are powering thousands of businesses globally to achieve previously unrealized efficiencies. Deploying a GoGrid infrastructure solution using a Standard or Partner Server Image, free hardware F5 load balancing, Cloud Storage, private VLANs and much more takes minutes via a web interface, API, or iPhone application. GoGrid provides users the control and advanced capabilities of a data center environment with the flexibility and immediate scalability of the cloud.  For more information, please visit: http://www.GoGrid.com.

For other recent Press Releases, please visit our Press Releases section of the GoGrid site. Also, we have had a lot of Media Coverage recently which is all captured under the Press Coverage section of the site.

As mentioned within The Wall Street Journal yesterday, GoGrid has a new Cloud service offering, namely a Hosted Private Cloud for enterprises and corporations. GoGrid’s Hosted Private Cloud provides a private, secure and dedicated infrastructure environment with all of the benefits of cloud computing, leveraging the powerful technology and management layers of our public cloud, GoGrid.com. What sets it apart from other “Private Clouds” in the marketplace is that it is run and managed by GoGrid, effectively converting CapEx to OpEx and eliminating costly expenses typically associated with in-house data center build-outs and management. GoGrid Hosted Private Clouds are dedicated to single corporations and with all of the characteristics of cloud computing: self-service, on-demand, managed via a portal or API, and scalable.

The GoGrid Hosted Private Cloud is:

• Secure – delivering state-of-the-art security and protection within a non-shared environment
• Private – a cloud environment dedicated to a single company with unmatched computing performance of our public cloud
• Lower Cost – with no Capital Expenditure, the GoGrid Hosted Private Cloud is a pay-as-you-go Operating Expense

Read more about the GoGrid Hosted Private Cloud on our website.

The following Press Release is now available on the GoGrid site:

GoGrid First to Deliver Hosted Private Cloud Infrastructure Leveraging Proven Public Cloud Technology

Leading Cloud Provider offers the ability to create and manage private cloud infrastructure via a dedicated platform

San Francisco, Calif., – January 19, 2011 – GoGrid, a leading cloud infrastructure company, today announced the introduction of an enterprise-grade hosted private cloud solution — a revolutionary advancement in cloud computing built for enterprises, service providers, financial institutions and businesses in other key verticals. The GoGrid Hosted Private Cloud offers the award-winning capabilities of GoGrid’s public cloud in a completely dedicated and secure environment – all with no hardware procurement or resource sharing.

Contrary to other “private cloud” offerings available in the marketplace, GoGrid’s Hosted Private Cloud service delivers on the true value of cloud computing by converting capital expenditures to operating expenses, ensuring that infrastructure components can be deployed in a self-service, pay-as-you-go model, and ultimately providing scalable programmatic Infrastructure-as-a-Service. Most importantly, GoGrid’s solution is a hosted and managed environment running on dedicated hardware for each enterprise which means there are no costly and time-consuming data center environments to set up and maintain.

“The GoGrid Hosted Private Cloud has excellent security, reliability and is easy to deploy,” said Lee Cardona, director, CSI for Orange Business Services. “We are happy to use their infrastructure, with their top level of technical support and industry-leading SLAs, as an embedded component of our customized service management solution we are offering our multinational customers.”

Built with proven technology and best-in-class features, the GoGrid Hosted Private Cloud provides many benefits including:

• Dedicated Solution – GoGrid’s highly-secure solution is dedicated to each customer and includes hardware, software, and networking. There is no sharing of compute, storage or local (Layer 2) networking resources which means that all levels of data, server integrity and security are fully ensured.
• True Cloud Computing Characteristics – GoGrid’s Hosted Private Cloud adheres to the critical characteristics of cloud computing including no capital expenditure, complete self-service and control, a pay-as-you-go model, and vertical and horizontal scalability of on-demand infrastructure, all as a maintenance-free offering.
• No Expensive Hardware or Software Costs – No additional purchases and upgrades are required as enhancements are automatically included with the service offering.
• Near Real-Time Implementation – Unlike other private cloud or software virtualization offerings, the GoGrid Private Cloud can be delivered quickly. There is no lengthy waiting period for hardware to be requisitioned, configured and deployed because the GoGrid solution is specifically built for quick and easy adoption.
• High Performance Cloud Technology – GoGrid’s Cloud technology has been benchmarked by numerous 3rd parties as a top performer in a variety of measurement tests including I/O, CPU and other pertinent metrics. GoGrid provides this same high-performance infrastructure within the GoGrid Hosted Private Cloud.
• “Cloud Bursting” Capabilities – allows for the seamless integration to the GoGrid Public Cloud for additional on-demand capacity.

According to Ted Chamberlin, Research Vice President at Gartner, “Enterprise adoption of cloud computing is accelerating but many find that hurdles exist in pure public or private cloud models. Hybrid cloud models including hosted private cloud offerings will stimulate adoption by bridging the gap between current and future cloud-based IT infrastructure requirements. Enterprises require tighter security controls, rigorous auditability, and predictable management of cloud computing services and hosted private clouds provide the means to do so.”

The new GoGrid Hosted Private Cloud includes flexible management tools that enable customers to have complete control of their infrastructure.  With enterprise IT and finance departments in mind, the sub-account and chargeback capabilities provide usage transparency and controls preventing “server sprawl,” allowing customers to hold individual employees and business units  accountable for infrastructure consumption within their organization. Enterprise businesses can easily understand and manage costs associated with their private cloud implementation and more easily forecast and plan future resource allocation and usage.

“I am proud that our Hosted Private Cloud is yet another GoGrid pioneering market introduction that helps enterprise IT organizations execute their cloud computing plans,” said John Keagy, chief executive officer and co-founder at GoGrid. “GoGrid’s Hosted Private Cloud is the first infrastructure solution that delivers the complete set of benefits and features expected from a public cloud computing environment – on private, dedicated hardware. Our customers realize that service offerings that only deploy dedicated hardware powered by virtualization software don’t deliver on the true benefits of cloud computing and are cost prohibitive.”

More information about GoGrid’s Private Cloud offering is available on the GoGrid Web site at http://privatecloud.gogrid.com.

About GoGrid
Thousands of leading IT experts choose and rely on GoGrid’s Cloud infrastructure services. GoGrid enables sysadmins, developers, and IT professionals to create, deploy, and control cloud environments and complex virtual and physical server networks with full administrative control. GoGrid’s industry standard specifications and robust service offerings are powering thousands of businesses globally to achieve previously unrealized efficiencies. Deploying a GoGrid infrastructure solution using a Standard or Partner Server Image, free hardware F5 load balancing, Cloud Storage, private VLANs and much more takes minutes via a web interface, API, or iPhone application. GoGrid provides users the control and advanced capabilities of a data center environment with the flexibility and immediate scalability of the cloud. www.GoGrid.com

If you are interested in receiving more information on GoGrid’s Hosted Private Cloud, please contact one of our Cloud Specialists.

This past weekend, cloud benchmarking site CloudHarmony released a case study of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for public cloud services titled “Do SLAs Really Matter? A 1 Year Case Study of 38 Cloud Services” and GoGrid was notably featured at the top of SLAs provided in the marketplace.

The CloudHarmony Study

The study includes Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) vendors who provide services like cloud servers, cloud storage and CDNs as well as Platform as a Service (PaaS) vendors as well. For their study, they used Panopta (a monitoring, outage confirmation and availability service) as well as a manual process to confirm and document any outages that were greater than 5 minutes. The full result of CloudHarmony’s comprehensive documentation and audit of SLAs is included in their post.

From the survey, CloudHarmony writes:

“GoGrid: provides a 100x credit policy combined with 100% SLA for any hardware and network outages and no minimum thresholds (e.g. 1 hour outage = 100 hour credit). This is by far the most generous of the 38 IaaS vendors we evaluated. GoGrid’s service is also one of the most reliable IaaS services we currently monitor (100% US West and 99.999% US East)”

CloudHarmony discovered three general themes as a result of their study, specifically (from their site):

• Pro-rated Credit (Pro-rated): Credit is based on a simple pro-ration on the amount of downtime that exceeded the SLA guarantee. Credit is issued based on that calculated exceedance and a credit multiple ranging from 1X (Linode) to 100X (GoGrid) (e.g. with GoGrid a 1 hour outage gets a 100 hour service credit). Credit is capped at 100% of service fees (i.e. you can’t get more in credit than you paid for the service). Generally SLA credits are just that, service credit and not redeemable for a refund
• Threshold Credit (Threshold): Threshold-based SLAs may provide a high guaranteed availability, but credits are not valid until the outage exceeds a given threshold time (i.e. the vendor has a certain amount of time to fix the problem before you are entitled to a service credit). For example, SoftLayer provides a network 100% SLA, but only issues SLA credit for continuous network outages exceeding 30 minutes
• Percentage Credit (Percentage): This SLA credit policy discounts your next invoice X% based on the amount of downtime and the stated SLA. For example, EC2 provides a 10% monthly invoice credit when annual uptime falls below 99.5%

About GoGrid’s SLA

When we launched our Public Cloud service, we wanted our customers to be assured that they would have the most robust SLA in the cloud computing industry, not just limited to hosting. We stand by our SLA and work with our customers closely to ensure that they both understand it and can utilize it as appropriate.

We are proud that an independent and trusted benchmarking firm also recognizes not only the importance of having a vendor with a solid SLA but also a provider with “one of the most reliable IaaS services we currently monitor (100% US Web and 99.999% US East [uptime])”.

Do SLAs matter? We believe that they do! When you look to choose a cloud provider, be sure that their SLA and Uptime reflect what your business and your customers demand and don’t settle for anything less!