We at GoGrid are excited to introduce you to the latest version of GoGrid! (Perhaps you already saw the “Sneak Peak” article I posted earlier.) After several months of planning, developing, implementing, testing, deploying and wiping the sweat off of our collective brows, we present to you, GoGrid 3.0.
This post will not be about the nitty-gritty details of the release as there will be several other posts that touch on all of the activities going on at GoGrid. To provide some guidance though, here’s what I’m going to briefly cover:
New GoGrid Product Site
Webinar for New GoGrid Customers
High-level Overview of GoGrid 3.0 Features
Copy of Press Release on GoGrid 3.0
There are many ways to get more information about this release and what it can do for you as someone shopping for Cloud Infrastructure or already using the GoGrid Cloud. One of the best ways is to talk to a GoGrid Sales Representative as they have great ways to choose the right GoGrid infrastructure solution for you. You can call them at: 1.877.946.4743 (US & Canada) or 1.415.869.7444 (Worldwide). Or we typically have 24×5 Live Sales Chat & Contact forms available here.
An interesting article was posted to the Outsourcing Journal that is relevant to anyone considering using the Cloud as a viable infrastructure strategy. There are plenty of important topics & points in this article, especially as many companies begin moving full infrastructure to the Cloud. Using cloud infrastructure hosting provided by GoGrid and the CloudIQ platform by GoGrid partner, Appistry, companies can move their applications into the cloud for free[1].
The Appistry CloudIQ platform consists of 3 offerings:
CloudIQ Manager helps enterprises manage their applications within a cloud environment.
CloudIQ Engine helps companies cloud-enable their applications, providing scalability and reliability.
CloudIQ Storage allows organizations to harness inexpensive commodity storage
The Appistry CloudIQ platform is currently available on GoGrid as two Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers which have been recently updated as well:
standard GoGrid hosting costs still apply – For the next 90 days, GoGrid is offering a US$100 credit to Outsourcing Journal readers who reference this promotional code: GGAPPO [↩]
This past Wednesday night, GoGrid was the host of another StartUp SF (along with co-host Microsoft BizSpark of which we are a Hosting Partner). The guest speaker was David Weekly, founder of PBWorks, a client of GoGrid & ServePath. StartUp SF is a regular meetup in San Francisco designed to help young businesses become more successful. Each meetup has a format designed to stimulate, engage and network in a social learning environment. Each event has a guest speaker who talks about expert subject matter and how it relates to helping startups. Also, successful companies showcase their products and services in an interactive manner with product demos occurring throughout the event.
If you are currently a GoGrid customer, I want to talk to you! As you know, the Cloud is all the hype with lots of vendors, analysts and industry experts expounding the virtues and benefits. (I’m one of those who keeps the grease in the marketing buzz machine rolling.) But I’m also an advocate, not only of Cloud Computing, but especially of those using GoGrid successfully.
So, here is what I’m looking for…
Windows Developers – people using the “Windows-side” of GoGrid. That is to say, ASP.NET, Windows Server 2008 or 2003, Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008, IIS
Linux Developers – those implementing either Red Hat Enterprise Linux and/or CentOS
OpenSource Users – if anyone is developing rich applications using PHP, mySQL, PostgreSQL, Apache
Mixed Environments – of particular interest to me is those using combinations of the items above
Failover Scenarios – are you using GoGrid as a failover site? For redundancy?
Cloud Connect – have you created a hybrid hosting solution that you are particularly proud of, using a combination of Cloud and Dedicate hosting?
Twitter Development – since Twitter is all the rage, are you creating the next killer app to manage the Twittersphere?
Statistical Analysis – are you spinning up a series of high end GoGrid servers for a few hours to do number or other data crunching?
Web 2.0/3.0 Products – how are you AJAX-ing your applications using GoGrid for hosting? What great new mashup application have you created?
API Activity – are you using the GoGrid API in any particularly exciting way? How ARE you using the API?
Cloud Storage – how have you mixed in GoGrid’s Cloud Storage into your infrastructure? As a backup solution? To server data?
Digital Media Manipulation – are you using GoGrid to process large sets of digital media?
Database intensive products – have you implemented an architecture that utilizes a high-end DB either in the GoGrid Cloud or cloud-connected to a dedicated server?
So, what do you get out of it? I can definitely promise a few things:
Free PR and Marketing – tell us all about the product or service that you are proud of and we will write about it, include in our newsletters and pass around various social networking sites
Web links – we will include your site in links on our sites and blogs
Potential presence at trade shows – if you are chosen as a showcase customer, we welcome you at our upcoming tradeshows
Potential participation in our Referral programs – please contact me for details
GoGrid user Mitch Denny created an outstanding use of the GoGrid API using Windows PowerShell. For the uninitiated, Windows PowerShell is a command line shell and scripting language designed to help IT professionals achieve greater control and productivity through the use of of an admin-focused scripting language, complete with 130 standard command line tools, consistent syntax and utilities (paraphrased from the PowerShell product page). PowerShell runs on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 and Server 2008 and is a great way for sysadmins to control existing IT infrastructure through scripting.
The GoGrid API has been available for some time now and I have been waiting for a stellar use of it to showcase. (I’m still waiting for a very resourceful developer to use it either to create an iPhone web application or stand-alone application…hint, hint.) Mitch, who is an avid .NET developer from Australia and Senior Consultant at Readify, created a PowerShell Snap-in for GoGrid which uses the GoGrid API. His project, documented here, is open-source, hosted at CodePlex, and seems like will continue to evolve. Currently a Beta2 release, the “PowerShell Snap-in for GoGrid” was designed to “demonstrate how useful it can be for infrastructure-level SaaS providers to expose an API for their customers to use.” Mitch has some good visions on how and why API’s should be available, including:
Configure applications for performance testing.
Run load agents for performance testing.
Test disaster recovery scenarios.
Provision hardware for project work (i.e. development teams).
Support instructor led training with virtualised labs.
Host demonstration environments for presentations.
Controlling scale of your underling SaaS infrastructure.
Mitch’s code seems to work quite well. Following his instructions, I actually used it to provision a new load balancer within my GoGrid instance. It simply worked and took just a few minutes to set up. It’s actually fun executing the commands within PowerShell and watching devices magically appear within the GoGrid GUI.
What you need to get started:
A GoGrid account – sign up now!. You will need access to the GoGrid portal in order to create an API Key.
Windows PowerShell – download it from the Microsoft website here. Be sure to select the proper version for your OS. Have it fully installed before you start.
The PowerShell Snap-In for GoGrid – this is the CodePlex project page, current version is “GoGrid 1.0 (BETA2)”. As of this writing, some of the Wiki pages describing some of the actions have not been fully built out but I expect that to change over time. The Snap-In is available for download in the upper right of the project page.
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