It’s always difficult to be self-congratulatory, but when two distinct organizations post articles putting GoGrid in the limelight, I feel that they have to be mentioned. The two sites, CRN and OnDemand, both posted articles that we, as a company, are proud of. If you are a current customer of GoGrid, you should be proud as well, as it is a recognition of your selection process in making GoGrid your cloud partner.

The first to appear was on CRN, a website providing news, analysis and perspectives for VARs and technology integrators. In his article, author Andrew Hickey, lists out “The 20 Coolest Cloud Infrastructure Vendors” of which GoGrid is one of the 20.

As Hickey describes:

If you want to be in the cloud business, these are some of the cloud infrastructure companies that will help you get there. These are the providers that will host your customers’ business applications and provision them on-demand as Software-as-a-Service. They will store customers’ data in the cloud and secure it there as well. Whether customers want to use a private cloud, a public cloud or a hybrid mixture of both, these companies can help make it happen. And they can even help your customers exchange their expensive legacy hardware for a simple monthly payment plan.

(The others mentioned are, alphabetically: Amazon Web Services, AT&T, Bluelock, Cisco, Dell, Eucalyptus Systems, Gale Technologies, GoGrid, HP, Nebula, NephoScale, OpenStack, Opscode, OpSource, Rackspace, Savvis, SoftLayer, SunGard Availability Services, Terremark, and Verizon. Congrats to the other companies in the list!)

The second article of recognition comes from AlwaysOn (“Networking the Global Silicon Valley”) OnDemand. OnDemand is an event “where top Internet companies disrupt the enterprise and square off with the incumbent players pioneering cloud computing and SaaS.” This month, they posted their “2012 OnDemand 100 Top Private Companies“.

The editors describe this list as such:

This year’s 100 top, private on-demand and SaaS companies-plus 20 to watch-are creating a complex world of interconnected business intelligence, merging valuable legacy data and systems with new, vital streams of information. AlwaysOn is proud introduce the third annual OnDemand 100-the top emerging Internet companies disrupting the established enterprise, reinventing legacy data streams, and pioneering cloud computing and SaaS.

This year’s OnDemand 100 companies are true leaders, developing game-changing approaches and technologies that are pushing outside the bounds of existing markets and away from entrenched institutions. Companies were selected based on a set of five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz.

(Companies in the “Cloud-Infrastructure” space include: Actifio, AlienVault, Box.net, Centrify, CloudShare, Coraid, Delphix, Dropbox, Evolve IP, GoGrid, IntelePeer, LiveOps, Mu Dynamics, Opscode, Plantir Technologies, RainStor, RingCentral, Skytap, Sonian, Spiceworks, Syncplicity, Veracode and WhiteHat Security. Great job to all those companies!)

Again, thanks for being a GoGrid customer and making us even stronger and better as a company. We look forward to providing you with industry-leading technologies and services! For those who are not yet GoGrid customers, please be sure to contact us to find out why we are a recognized leader in the cloud industry.

From February 13-16, 2012, in Santa Clara, CA, GoGrid sponsored Cloud Connect 2012, an expo devoted to educating professional seeking to learn more about the benefits of Cloud Computing. We have been a long time sponsor of this show and each year it seems to get better, not only from the caliber of content being presented, but also in terms of the level of expertise on cloud computing that attendees profess.

As I attend many of these conferences as a sponsor, exhibitor and interested party, I have seen a great evolution not only of knowledge and education but also in the cloud services being presented by various companies at the show. A few years ago, it was all about “what is cloud” and how do we define it. The past years have allowed us to really fine-tune the definition and really move beyond this to rolling up the sleeves and implementing cloud solutions. I’m definitely encouraged by the progress of companies with their cloud innovations and the individuals looking to capitalize on this influx of knowledge.

Talking with customers and prospects looking for or implementing cloud infrastructure solutions gives and insight into what is working in the cloud and what people are really looking for. For example, a few years ago, we introduced the concept of Hybrid Hosting – the ability to mix and match virtual and physical servers within the same architecture, all managed through a single pane of glass, so to speak. In fact, many of our recent Case Studies show that hybrid environments are really the reason why these companies turned to GoGrid for their cloud solution.

GoGrid Customer Presentation – Microgroove

At the show, one GoGrid customer, Microgroove, presented their decision-making process and implementation strategies on moving their music platform to our cloud. It was an interesting journey for them as they did have to do some tests on other clouds only provided completely virtualized environment that simply did not meet their requirements. In the coming days, we will post a video of their presentation but if you are interested in reading about their case study, you can download it here.

We have compiled a list of new GoGrid customer success stories that you may find interesting. These stories can be downloaded here.

The full PowerPoint presentation can be viewed below:

A Hybrid Hosting Primer

David Michael, a Solutions Architect here at GoGrid, also gave a presentation on the benefits and use cases of our hybrid hosting model in the Demo Theater of the Cloud Connect show. To a captive and interested audience, David walked through things to consider and the advantages that companies can benefit from by using a hybrid hosting scenario.

The full presentation is shown below.

Listening to You

While presenting success stories and best practices is always helpful, it’s also important to listen to and answer questions about GoGrid and the services that we provide. That is where I personally find it important to be an active exhibitor, staffing our booth. A while back, we developed this concept of the “Cloud Fingerprint” – essentially that your business and infrastructure needs are unique and the cloud partner your choose should be adaptable and flexible enough to meet those needs. We believe that it is important for not just the sales and marketing teams to be at these shows, but also representatives from all departments at GoGrid. On-site, we had executives from Engineering, Support and even Human Resources as well (yes, we are hiring) gathering their own perspectives of the show and what people are looking for in a cloud provider.

“Cloudy with a Chance of Cocktails”

Lastly, GoGrid also sponsored a party at Cloud Connect 2012. With everyone’s mind swirling with cloudy thoughts, it was important to relax, be social and have a gathering place to literally blow off some steam. Below are a few pictures from the Party (also be sure to view the Cloud Connect Flickr set that has more pictures from the party – towards the end of the set).

If you did attend Cloud Connect 2012, we hope that you found it educational and rewarding and allowed you to build up your set of cloud resources and tools. If you didn’t, we hope that you can attend next year.

GoGrid CEO, John Keagy, recently spent some time overseas visiting the new GoGrid European Headquarters and data center in Amsterdam. I caught up with John upon his return in order to find out his thoughts and visions of a global GoGrid cloud, how Equinix has enabled GoGrid’s expansion and why it is important to the GoGrid customer.

Michael Sheehan: Why is opening a new overseas data center important?
John Keagy: It’s part of our global expansion plan. Europe is a logical next step.

MS: Why Amsterdam and not somewhere else?
JK: My favorite reason on why we selected Amsterdam as the first part of our overseas expansion is AMS-IX. AMS-IX is an Internet exchange that has resulted in Amsterdam being the place for Internet transit. Bandwidth is affordable and comparable to Silicon Valley. It means that customers are in the spot where most Internet traffic originates and terminates. If you are going to locate a web server in one location in Europe, Amsterdam is the most connected city. It’s the best place to locate your Internet infrastructure. It’s got the most connections and because it has the most connections, it is the most affordable – the highest performance at the lowest cost.

MS: Why was having a European presence critical?
JK: We have a strong European customer base that has been demanding a localized presence and when we examined that marketplace, we determined that it was critical to enable those European customers to have a cloud infrastructure deployable in their backyard.

MS: What are your impressions of the data center facility having visited it?
JK: The data center facility is incredible. It’s a combination of GoGrid doing a nice job with its installation – the racking and stacking, cabling and design of the installation. But it is also Equinix’s implementation of its cold aisle technology. It’s like walking into a refrigerator. It’s sealed. It doesn’t have a cage door, it has a glass door. They pump cold air into the interior of the cage and it’s vented through the equipment. Where there is no equipment, the slots are filled with baffles so that the cold air is forced through the equipment. It’s sort of like a refrigerator within a cage. It’s not just us doing a good job, it’s Equinix pursing a better utility efficiency score through sophisticated cold aisle containment technology.

MS: What’s your longer term strategy for global operations?
JK: Europe was just a first step in our global expansion plan. The next step will be Asia, although we have always enjoyed a large percentage of our customers coming from South America, so our next step after that will be South America.

MS: Personally, how is this exciting for you – 10 years in the making, we now have an overseas footprint?
JK: GoGrid has always had a customer base that served an international audience. Over 90% of our customers historically were outside of the state of California – considering the value we bring to Silicon Valley-based companies, that is quite remarkable. And we are on the order of 40% international. For me personally, it’s a milestone that I have been looking forward to for a long time and I’m excited that we finally have automation technology that is really facilitating what we are doing.

MS: Why is the Equinix partnership important?
JK: I’m very excited about the partnership with Equinix. They have an ecosystem for cloud services that is more compelling than their ecosystem for telecom services. The difference here is that businesses (consumers of cloud services) are learning that by connecting to Equinix, they can procure cloud infrastructure and other services securely and reliable in a high performance fashion that avoids the public Internet.

MS: How does that work with GoGrid’s Hosted Private Cloud?
JK: It’s about avoiding the two largest fears regarding the adoption of Cloud Computing: the public Internet and sharing. Customers are worried about consuming cloud services over the public Internet. There are over 3 million buildings connected to Equinix facilities in one way or another – this allows them to remove the public Internet from how they consume cloud services. GoGrid Hosted Private Cloud is a non-shared environment – it’s dedicated and private – which eliminates the 2nd big fear which is sharing – it provides security and performance benefits.

MS: For GoGrid customer, having a global footprint like this is important because…
JK: GoGrid is the only company that has a single pane of glass that lets you manage infrastructure across the globe in a truly on-demand fashion – through one pane of glass and one API.

Do you have any questions for John? If so, please leave a comment!

GoGrid is one of the Platinum Sponsors of this week’s Cloud Connect 2012 conference and Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The event promises to be a memorable one for cloud newcomers as well as those of us trying to keep up with the blazing pace of cloud innovation.

This year, we’re particularly excited to be focusing on GoGrid’s hybrid infrastructure solution, which we think combines the best of both the physical and virtual worlds. We believe that your company is unique, and your infrastructure should be, too. Stop by our booth 709 to find out what your unique “cloud fingerprint” looks like. Chances are it’s a flavor of our hybrid solution.

Presentations

Maybe you’re wondering whether to keep your dedicated servers or move to the cloud. What if you could have it all? Join one of our solutions architects as he walks through real-life examples of how hybrid hosting can improve your business’s infrastructure: Tuesday, Feb. 14, 3:35 – 3:55pm in the Cloud Solutions Theater on the Expo Floor. Here’s the presentation description: “Different businesses have different infrastructure needs. And the choices of clouds, colocation, or dedicated services can be daunting if not confusing. So why choose just one when GoGrid’s hybrid architecture (a union of the best of virtual and physical) provides options for both flexibility and growth? Physical hardware provides guaranteed, dedicated, high performance coupled with an assurance of strict data control and security, while cloud architecture scales when your business demands it. Learn the secrets of hybrid hosting and how it can improve your business’s infrastructure in this 20-minute walk-through.”

Then on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 1:15 – 2:15pm (Grand Ballroom H), learn how Microgroove is creating a high-performance, cost-effective cloud environment for the music industry with GoGrid. The title says it all: “Performance Matters, Especially in the Music Industry – Global Hybrid Infrastructure Makes Artists Sing.” Here’s an overview: Learn first hand how Microgroove leveraged physical and virtual infrastructure components in creating a high-performance, cost-effective cloud environment for the music industry. One that easily supported their need for cloud scalability coupled with the permanence and single-tenancy of dedicated servers — a hybrid solution not found in commodity clouds. Microgroove’s technology platform running on GoGrid is powering hundreds of popular artists’ sites from Snoop Dogg to Yani as well as an eCommerce site of 1.5 million+ SKUs.

We’ll also be holding several short presentations at the GoGrid booth. Topics include:

• Cloud 101 in less than 10 minutes
• Hybrid Hosting in less than 10 minutes
• Hosted Private Cloud in less than 10 minutes

Be sure to drop by for these quick primers on cloud computing.

GoGrid-Sponsored Reception

And don’t forget to drop by “Cloudy with a Chance of Cocktails,” the GoGrid party on Wednesday from 6 – 8pm in the Hyatt Mezzanine. Register now and beat the rush! This party is open to all Cloud Connect attendees but, space is limited, so act now.

Everybody Loves Free Stuff!

Lastly, Cloud Connect attendees can participate in the GoGrid Cloud Scavenger Hunt, where one lucky person will win an iPad 2. Stop by the GoGrid booth (709) for details. We’ll also be giving away various GoGrid goodies, including a Mystic Pyramid to help predict your future –- a perfect complement to our Cloud Pyramid!

Register for the Expo

To make sure you don’t miss out, we’d like you to be our guest at the Expo; just complete the online registration form and mark your calendar. Hope to see you there!

Last week GoGrid officially launched our new European headquarters as well as opened our Amsterdam data center. We are already in the process of granting early access to select VIP GoGrid customers as well as opening up access to new GoGrid customers. If you are interested in using our new European data center, you can find out more information on the early access program in this blog post.

Podcast Interview with GoGrid

As part of the launch event, we were also sponsors of Cloud Expo 2012 which took place in London. During the show, GoGrid CMO Jeff Samuels and Senior Product Manager Rupert Tagnipes participated in a podcast interview with the MHF Tech Network.

The following topics were covered in the podcast (“MHF Specials Episode 5: Cloud Expo Europe 2012 Part 1″):

• Partnerships and services that GoGrid provides
• Out-of-the-box solutions and services from GoGrid
• What differentiates GoGrid from other vendors in the marketplace
• Thoughts on the future of cloud computing in 5-10 years
• Ideas on what the “next great thing” will be in the cloud hosting marketplace
• What the future will bring for GoGrid

The podcast can be played directly below and is also available on iTunes.
Note that the GoGrid interview begins around timestamp 3:45 and ends around 11:25.

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We would like to thank the MHF Tech Network team for spending the time to let us discuss cloud computing, the current and future state of GoGrid and how we view the marketplace. If you have any questions about any of the commentary in the podcast, please feel free to leave a comment on this article.