Recently, Microsoft announced WebMatrix, a free Web development suite of software and tools that bring together a Web Server, a database and programming frameworks all within a single, integrated solution. WebMatrix allows you to code, test and deploy ASP.NET and PHP applications, all within the same environment. What does this have to do with GoGrid you might ask? Well it’s pretty simple actually, once you have developed your application locally on your PC’s desktop, you will need an easy way to copy it over and show to the world. GoGrid has worked with Microsoft to create a seamless publishing and hosting experience practically effortless.

To make it easy for new GoGrid users, we are offering a $150 GoGrid service credit for you to get started with Microsoft WebMatrix and GoGrid. To get going, simply sign-up here.

About WebMatrix (and a bit of GoGrid)

Microsoft does a clear job outlining the features of WebMatrix, specifically:

• Small, but complete package – simply download and install WebMatrix for free on your desktop. From there, you can immediately start to use the built-in webserver, database and programming framework to jump-start your web-development. And, you can quickly get started on the hosting side of things as well by deploying a GoGrid server that is ready to automatically connect to WebMatrix.
• Grows with you – you start simple and then grow as your application and development grows, much like that of Cloud Computing. As your coding expands, you can easily integrate Visual Studio into your work environment. Similarly, you can update the built-in database from SQL Server Compact to a full-blown Microsoft SQL Server.
• Start > Open Source – if you aren’t ready to start from scratch, WebMatrix includes a variety of popular and free open source applications like WordPress, Joomla!, Umbraco and DotNetNuke. Just choose your software package from the library and WebMatrix will download and install the software. And you can tweak each environment using the built-in code editor.
• Database made simple – don’t let data-driven websites scare you either. If your web application needs to serve data like a online catalog or CMS, WebMatrix has you covered by providing a small, embedded database (SQL Server Compact). But the really nice thing is, once you are done doing all of the development on your Desktop, you can publish your database quickly and easily to your GoGrid production environment.
• Elegant interface, simple experience – WebMatrix has editors galore! It includes a rich code editor and database editor, but also has easy management consoles for SEO, web server management and FTP publishing as well. Couple this management with the ease of use of the GoGrid portal and you can’t go wrong.
• Simple to code – at GoGrid, we have always believed in adhering to industry standards when it comes to hosting and managing infrastructure. WebMatrix follows a similar suit by sticking to HTML, CSS & JavaScript standards. Your code is easy to read and by using the software suite, you can do some learning in the process as you create your next web application.
• More than “Hello, World” – WebMatrix has a variety of built-in code helpers that make development even easier by simply tagging your HTML.
• Desktop or server, it’s all the same – moving from a desktop development environment to a full-fledged production environment is practically effortless since the Desktop version is built with the same frameworks, web server and database engine as production servers.
• Tightly knit, fully integrated – WebMatrix also acts as the “traffic cop” because of its integration with IIS Developer Express and other Web server components that run your site. You can monitor things in real-time and if an issue pops up, it helps you to track down and resolve that issue.
• Optimized for search – you no longer need to pay a 3rd party to ensure that your website or application is SEO optimized. Built in guides assist you in optimizing your site to the fullest.
• Site publication – once you are ready to move your web site or application to a robust production environment, WebMatrix can help in that selection process. But you may not even need that since GoGrid has partnered with Microsoft to provide a full production-ready environment within the GoGrid cloud. And, we are giving new GoGrid users a $150 service credit to make that on-ramp even faster!

Now that you know a bit about what Microsoft WebMatrix (and GoGrid) can do for you, let’s learn a bit more about it.

Getting Started with WebMatrix & GoGrid

There are two components to setting up the WebMatrix and GoGrid environments: Desktop and Server. The Desktop environment is the one where you do all of your coding and development, all within the WebMatrix development suite. The Server environment on GoGrid is where you will host the product of your labors.

Starting with the Desktop side, you will need to download the WebMatrix installer which is located at: http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/.

Installing the Desktop version of WebMatrix

Initiating the installer. Do note that depending on your choices, the installation process could be a bit longer:

The Installer confirms your selections:

Be sure to set up a secure password for SQL Server Express (you will be prompted to change it if it isn’t very secure):

Go grab a cup of coffee while the components are downloaded and installed:

Once the installation is complete, you will receive a confirmation screen:

Installing an Application (e.g., WordPress) via WebMatrix Locally

Once your installation of WebMatrix is complete, you can either start coding on your own, or install a pre-configured Open Source application. In this case, I chose to install WordPress. There are other items that you can install as well, including:

• DotNetNuke Community Edition
• nopCommerce
• Gallery
• WordPress
• Umbraco CMS
• mojoPortal
• ResourceBlender.NET
• Kentico CMS for ASP.NET
• BlogEngine.NET
• Acquia Drupal
• ScrewTurn Wiki 3.0
• Gallery Server Pro
• nService
• Moodle
• Sitefinity Community Edition
• DasBlog
• SugarCRM
• Subtext
• SilverStripe CMS
• Joomla!
• Mayando
• AtomSite
• My Web Pages Starter Kit
• phpBB
• KoobooCMS

You choose which Web Server you want to use. I chose Microsoft WebMatrix.

The Installer confirms your installation choices:

Since WordPress uses MySQL, you need to configure a secure password for it:

Time for another cup of coffee while the installer runs:

Once you have completed the installation, you can begin configuring your WordPress (or other application) install on your local machine. Just launch WebMatrix from your Start menu:

I clicked on My Sites:

The WebMatrix management console has everything you need right at your fingertips:

You can edit files using the built-in code editor that is complete with context-color-coding:

Similarly, you can manage your database (in this case, MySQL) through the database console:

Creating a GoGrid Server Ready for WebMatrix Publishing

The beauty of the WebMatrix install is being able to develop locally on your Desktop and then publish your final site to a production server on GoGrid. Before you can do the publishing, you need to set up a GoGrid server running WebMatrix. Be sure to take advantage of our $150 GoGrid Service Credit by signing up here.

Once you log into the GoGrid Portal, click the Add button and then select Cloud Server. Within the Image Selection widget, choose the “WebMatrixServer2″ image:

After that, configure your server and click Save:

Within a few minutes, you will have your production environment ready to go. At that point, you need to use a Remote Desktop Connection to remotely manage your server. Remember that the Administrator password is within the Support > Passwords section of the GoGrid portal.

Getting Your GoGrid /WebMatrix Server Environment Ready

Once you connect to your server running on GoGrid using a Remote Desktop Connection (RDC), you will see two files on the desktop, a Getting Started document and a link to Microsoft WebMatrix.

To quickly summarize, here are the high-level steps you need to complete on the GoGrid Server:

1. Run the Certificate Preparation script
2. Change the Default Application Pool
3. (Recommended) Change your MySQL or SQL Server password from the default one listed in this blog post

1) Certificate Preparation Script

Before you configure your publishing environment, you need to run a Certificate Preparation script on the server. It is located at: C:/certprep/CertPrep.exe. Simply double-click the application and it will run quickly. You will see a DOS prompt pop up briefly and then automatically close.

2) Change Default Application Pool

In order for the publishing to work properly, you do need to change the Default Application Pool from version 2 to version 4. To do this, go into your IIS manager on the server, select Application Pools, select “DefaultAppPool” (which will probably say “v2.0″) and make the change (to “v4.0″) as shown below:

Original Setting:

Updated Setting (Note: it might show a different version – just choose the v.4.0.xxxxx one):

3) Change Default Database Password

While this is not a required step, it is a recommended one. You might want to change the default password on your MySQL or SQL Server database from the default one that the server starts with. Just use the appropriate method for the database that you are using.

Editing & Publishing from Local Environment to GoGrid

Now, we will dive into the publishing to your GoGrid server. For a test, I made some edits to my WordPress theme locally. I wanted to see how it could be pushed over to WebMatrix running on the GoGrid Server instance. Here is the minor code change:

And how it appears in the local version of my WordPress blog:

The Getting Started guide which resides on the GoGrid WebMatrix Image will tell you how to configure your local development environment for publishing, specifically:

1. Click Start and Microsoft WebMatrix Beta.
2. Click Site from Gallery or create your own website
3. Click Publish
4. Enter the following information in the Publish Settings dialog:

Protocol: Web Deploy
Server: http://IP address e.g. “http://111.222.33.44″
Username: Administrator
Password: password of local Administrator account (you can get this from the GoGrid portal)
Site Name: Default Web Site
Destination URL: http://IP address

If your application needs a database connection, use the following formats in the Publish Settings:

SQL: Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS; Initial Catalog=gogrid_db;User Id=sa;Password= $trongPassw0rd;
MySQL: Server=localhost;Database=gogrid_db;Uid=root;Pwd=$trongPassw0rd;

Note: If you changed the default password on your server, be sure to change it in the appropriate string above.

Within WebMatrix locally, click on the Configure button under Publish:

You will see the Publishing Settings:

Fill in the Publishing Settings as per the list in the Getting Started guide (as mentioned above):

Once you enter in all of the information, be sure to push the “Validate Connection” button. Assuming you have no validation issues, you can proceed with the publishing of your code/site. Clicking “Publish” will show you a confirmation screen of the files that will be published. If you want to include your database, be sure to check off that box:

Click “Continue” to publish your site/code (and database). WebMatrix will start publishing your content. You will see a status bar at the bottom showing the progress:

Clicking on “More Details” can show you what is happening:

Once you publish the site (using the Publish button) and send over the database, you may also need to change which Default Document loads first. By default, it is Default.htm. In order to have the WordPress default document show up, you should move Index.php to the top of the list within your IIS manager. Once you do that, the WordPress blog (in this case) will load, complete with the changes you had made locally:

Now, any changes that you do locally on WebMatrix can be published to your GoGrid Server.

Summing It Up

Obviously, you don’t need to use one of the pre-packaged webapps that are available. You can just as easily create your own custom code and publish it the same way as I have outlined above. Regardless, using the GoGrid/WebMatrix combo does fulfill a variety of end-to-end development, testing and publishing scenarios. And with the $150 GoGrid service credit, you can test out this environment to see if it meets your needs.

Let me know how it goes or if you have any questions!

This month, we tried something a bit different with our Customer Newsletter for August 2010 in that we sent the newsletter from our Service Teams. In case you didn’t already know this, every GoGrid customer is assigned a service team to help our customers manage and grow their GoGrid account and answer any questions customers may have. The teams consist of an Account Manager, a Support Specialist, a Billing Specialist, a Data Center Technician and a Network Specialist.

Even though it is the summer here, we are hard at work growing the GoGrid product and feature offering as we strive to live up to our new Unique Value Proposition: “Complex Infrastructure Made Easy™”.

Below is the full content of the August 2010 Customer Update newsletter that went out to all GoGrid customers:

Hello,

It’s August and we’ve hit our stride. The release of GoGrid version 3.0 was a major milestone and we’ve continued at a steady pace for feature parity in our new US-East-1 data center. In this edition of the newsletter, you’ll discover how our new features and system enhancements can make an immediate impact on your GoGrid Cloud.

Specific topics include:

• New Features and System Enhancements
• Unique Value Proposition
• Partner News
• CDN News
• Events and Other News

New Features and System Enhancements

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F5 Load Balancer Support US-East-1

In June, we opened our new US-East-1 data center in Ashburn, VA, which allows for immediate provisioning of virtual servers with GoGrid base images. We’re happy to announce that free F5 load balancing is now available for immediate deployment in the US-East-1 data center as well.

You can use the GoGrid portal or the API to provision virtual servers and F5 load balancers in real time  and in either of our locations: US-West-1 or US-East-1.

16 GB RAM Virtual Servers

In April we began the process of upgrading our node hardware with the latest Intel Nehalem chipset architecture allowing for 25-50% more CPU for virtual servers. We also gave Cloud Servers greater CPU allocations and now have included the ability to provision 16 GB RAM virtual servers in both GoGrid data centers.

As new node capacity continues to be built, we expect to soon have enough new Nehalem nodes to handle 100% of new virtual server adds.  Currently, most virtual servers will be added to new nodes, but depending on demand, some virtual servers may be deployed on non-Nehalem nodes and therefore will receive the older CPU allotments.

Below are some FAQs for this new feature:

Q: Are the new 16 GB virtual servers compatible with my existing MyGSIs and PGSIs?
A: Yes, all of your existing MyGSIs and PGSIs are compatible with the 16GB RAM virtual servers, and that option will automatically be made available with existing compatible MyGSIs and PGSIs. Note that only server images with a 64-bit OS will have the option to add a 16GB RAM server.

Q: Are there any restrictions with the types of operating systems I can use?
A: Yes, there are some restrictions with Windows operating systems due to Microsoft licensing constraints. Please see the chart below for specifics:

New Virtual Servers
RAM                Cores               Disk Storage
16 GB              16 (Linux)          960
8 (Windows)
Existing Virtual Servers
RAM              Cores               Disk Storage
16 GB            8                       960
If you have questions, please contact your dedicated GoGrid account team or GoGrid technical support.

Six New Images for GoGrid Dedicated Servers

We now support 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Ubuntu, CentOS, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for our GoGrid Dedicated Servers. All of the existing images continue to be supported and are still available.
See below for new image details:

• Ubuntu 10.04 (32-bit) Dedicated Server
• Ubuntu 10.04 (64-bit) Dedicated Server
• CentOS 5.5 (32-bit) Dedicated Server
• CentOS 5.5 (64-bit) Dedicated Server
• RHEL 5.5 (32-bit) Dedicated Server
• RHEL 5.5 (64-bit) Dedicated Server

Make an Impact on Your GoGrid Cloud

At GoGrid you have a dedicated service team with cross-functional expertise that is available to help you every step of the way. Our team of experts can translate your business and technical requirements into the best solution for you.

Interested in or have questions about:

• Getting started with Cloud Storage
• Deploying Cloud Servers and F5 load balancers in the US-East-1 data center
• Hardware and software firewall solutions
• Leveraging F5 load balancing
• Provisioning a Partner GSI (PGSI)
• Building a Hybrid solution

Contact us directly to discuss getting started with a GoGrid solution. We will be happy to coordinate a technical and strategy call, as well as a consultative GoToMeeting on how to use our system.

Unique Value Proposition

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Help Improve GoGrid and You Could Win an iPad

As part of our continued effort to provide a positive experience for our customers we are asking for your feedback. Below is a link to our quarterly customer survey. Simply fill out the survey and you’ll be entered to win an iPad. The survey is super quick (only a minute or two of your time) and will help us assess our ability to serve our customers and identify areas where we need to improve. This is your chance to provide input on the features that will help you. Here’s the link so that you can participate: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D7ZDKTY

Partner News

We continue to add exciting new partners to the GoGrid Exchange. In the past month we’ve added several new Partner GoGrid Server Images (PGSIs) to the GoGrid catalog. You can deploy an image directly from the GoGrid Portal.

NEW to the GoGrid Exchange:

• Trend Micro Deep Security – Trend Micro Deep Security 7 provides advanced protection for servers in the dynamic data center, whether physical, virtual, or in the cloud. Deep Security combines intrusion detection and prevention, firewall, integrity monitoring, and log inspection capabilities in a single, centrally-managed software agent.

• Automated Security Assessment Program (ASAP) – Cranium Solutions’ flagship product, ASAP™ (Automated Security Assessment Program), is the first fully automated end-to-end network security testing solution that runs as a loud-based service.  Businesses can perform simple and automated Vulnerability Assessments and Penetration Tests of any systems they have deployed on the GoGrid Cloud.

• enStratus – enStratus is a cloud infrastructure management platform for enterprise-class applications in private and public clouds including GoGrid. enStratus delivers governance for the cloud through a patent-pending security architecture and a range of management capabilities including financial controls, role-based security, auto-scaling, and auto-recovery.

UPDATES to the GoGrid Exchange:

• BitNami WordPress 3.0 – WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time. The project was started in 2003. Since then it has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.

• BitNami SugarCRM 5.5.2-0 – SugarCRM is a flexible customer relationship management solution for companies of all sizes. SugarCRM can be easily customized and integrated with other software to allow companies to build and maintain a more flexible system. The core functionality includes sales force automation, marketing campaigns, support cases, project management, and calendaring.

• GigaSpaces XAP – GigaSpaces Technologies is a leading provider of a new generation of application platforms for Java and .Net environments that offer an alternative to traditional application-servers. The company’s eXtreme Application Platform (XAP) is a high-end application server designed to meet the most demanding business requirements in a cost-effective manner. It is the only product that provides a complete middleware solution on a single, scalable platform.

Webinar: Sentrigo and GoGrid

Title: Learn to Build a Stable, Scalable, and Secure Databases in the Cloud
Date and time: Thursday, August 12, 2010 10:00 am – 11:00am PDT
In this webinar, GoGrid and Sentrigo, a leader and innovator in database security, share our expertise on database deployments and real-time security in this latest frontier of information technology. Click here to register, or paste http://go.gogrid.com/e/3442/7YXX2/RXDE/7101902 into your browser.

CDN News

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18 Global PoPs

GoGrid is pleased to announce that our Parisian CDN PoP (Point of Presence) is now fully functional, bringing the total number of global GoGrid CDN PoPs to 18. Also new to the GoGrid CDN are upgrades to our Flash Live Streaming Platform and new HTTP Rules Engine.

There are no fees to have a CDN account provisioned. Learn more or have yours created today.

Flash Live Streaming Platform

If you’re looking to stream live Flash video, then our new offering Live StreamCast offers superior scalability and performance over our previous Live Streaming service.
Enhancements include:

• Automatic redundancy and failover
• A new live publishing point in Australia
• Simpler URL structure
• Improved scalability

We’ll continue to offer and support our existing Flash platforms: Flash On-Demand and Flash via HTTP progressive download.

HTTP Rules Engine

The HTTP Rules Engine gives you highly granular control over how, when, and if your content is served. The possibilities are endless, but the end result is much more control over the security, cost, and burden of your content delivery.
The HTTP Rules Engine allows you to:

• Easily block content leeching and hotlinking
• Slash bandwidth costs by specifying precise “origin pull” update intervals for each URL or object
• Reduce load on your origin servers by offloading your existing rules to our processing engine

The cost is $299.99/month and $299.99 for setup.
For more information, consult your Service Team Account Manager.

Events and Other News

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Net Promoter Survey

If you’ve filled out our Net Promoter Survey, Thank You! We recently sent you a short survey asking you if you would recommend GoGrid to a friend or colleague. Your feedback is very important to us and will be reviewed closely by our executive team. If you haven’t had a chance to fill out the survey, there’s still time.

GoGrid 3.0 Webinar

On June 28, we hosted a webinar featuring the release of GoGrid version 3.0 and our new East Coast data center. If you were unable to attend or would like to review the recording, visit our blog.

As always, you can find more information about GoGrid by visiting the following links:

• GoGrid Product Site – www.gogrid.com
• GoGrid Blog – blog.gogrid.com
• GoGrid Wiki – wiki.gogrid.com
• GoGrid Forums – forums.gogrid.com

If you have any questions please feel free to contact your service team directly.

Thank you,

[Service Team Account Executive]

Your Service Team

Don’t forget to follow GoGrid on Twitter (@GoGrid) as well as become a fan (or like us) on Facebook. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment on this post or contact your Service Team.

Ever since the launch of GoGrid, we made sure that we included Open Source stacks in our server offerings. As the GoGrid ecosystem grew, we partnered with several companies who provide various Open Source solutions. Since these offerings have been gaining traction and popularity, we are now working much more closely with Partners providing Open Source Software within the GoGrid Exchange.

The following Press Release was distributed last Wednesday:

Open Source Community Embraces the GoGrid Cloud

GoGrid announces the launch of its Open Source Software (OSS) Partner Program. GoGrid is the industry leader in partnering with open source companies to enable their software in the cloud. Through the GoGrid platform, open source companies can deliver their offerings as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).

San Francisco, CA (Vocus) August 4, 2010

GoGrid, a leading Cloud Infrastructure and Hybrid Hosting Provider, today announced the launch of its Open Source Software (OSS) Partner Program. In recent months, adoption of GoGrid as a core and fundamental technology platform for enabling leading open source solutions to the cloud has accelerated. By packaging on-demand versions of software and leveraging the GoGrid Exchange, a unique cloud solutions marketplace, open source partners and businesses alike are realizing increased deployments and usage of popular open source software offerings.

GoGrid’s ease of use, robust feature set, and excellent customer service make it an ideal cloud platform for deploying web applications – open source or otherwise,” said Erica Brescia, CEO of BitNami. “We are proud to offer ready-to-deploy GoGrid Server Images of BitNami-packaged open source applications, such as Alfresco, Drupal, WordPress, and more, through the GoGrid Exchange. GoGrid’s seamless provisioning tools make it even easier for BitNami users to get open source applications up and running in the cloud.”

GoGrid is the industry leader in partnering with open source companies to enable their software in the cloud. By leveraging the GoGrid Exchange program, partners are able to share or sell a customized server image. Each image is available to the GoGrid community as a Partner GoGrid Server Image (PGSI), which includes the partner’s branding and technical information. GoGrid users can search by solution type (e.g. internet security, backup, monitoring, web apps, compliance, and application scaling,) and instantly provision—with the click of a mouse—eliminating a lengthy installation process.

Through the GoGrid platform, open source companies can deliver their offerings as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and realize unparalleled benefits, including:

• Detailed user data
• High visibility by a leading cloud provider
• Co-Marketing support
• Access to GoGrid’s large and growing customer base
• Low risk – no sign-up fees or long-term commitment
• Access to customer information and usage metrics by platform even for open source distributions

GoGrid is also working closely with Olliance Group, the leading open source business consulting firm, to work with partners to develop and refine their approaches for delivering open source solutions to the cloud.

All too frequently, SMBs and enterprises deploy expensive commercial software, not realizing that significant cost savings and flexibility can be realized through the use of industry-hardened open source solutions.” said Greg Olson, Senior Partner at the Olliance Group. “Packaged open source solutions coupled with near-instant deployment from the GoGrid Exchange will allow many more companies to realize the benefits of open source software.”

Notable open source GoGrid Partners include:

• BitNami – provider of multiple popular open source application stacks
• SourceFire/Snort – open source intrusion detection
• OpenVPN – offering open source security software technologies

Many of our customers want to embrace open source technology,” said GoGrid CEO and Co-Founder, John Keagy. “GoGrid provides both the open source software community and our customers with a fully integrated one-stop shop to build a complete cloud. GoGrid customers can provision complex IT infrastructure, scale their infrastructure with custom cloud server images (MyGSI), F5 load balancing, cloud storage, and launch open source software solutions all in one location and with the click of a mouse.”

For more information about the GoGrid Open Source Software Partner Program visit,
http://go.gogrid.com/oss_partner

To learn more about the GoGrid Exchange and uncover the power of cloud enabled solutions, visit
http://exchange.gogrid.com

About GoGrid

GoGrid is a Global Leader in Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure hosting. GoGrid enables sysadmins, developers, and IT professionals to create, deploy, and control free f5 load balanced cloud infrastructures and complex hosted virtual server networks with full root access/administrative server control. GoGrid physical and virtual server instances maintain industry standard specifications with no requirement to learn proprietary standards. Deploying GoGrid infrastructure takes minutes via a web control panel or GoGrid’s API. GoGrid gives users the control of a familiar data center environment with the flexibility and immediate scalability of the cloud. For more information, please visit: GoGrid Cloud Infrastructure.

The Press Release is available online on PRWeb as well as on the GoGrid site. To see more of our Partner solutions (Open Source and Commercial), I encourage you to visit the GoGrid Partner Exchange.

Right on the heels of the GoGrid 3.0 release, we needed to be sure that we didn’t slow our momentum down. To that end, this week we have released some new features to GoGrid which are important to highlight.

We have 3 exciting features, specifically:

• East Coast Load Balancers
• New GoGrid Dedicated Server Images
• 16 GB RAM on GoGrid Cloud Servers

East Coast Load Balancers

As we work towards obtaining full feature parity within a few months in our East Coast Datacenter launch, one of the first items that we enabled was that of Load Balancing. Just like in the West Coast Datacenter, Load Balancing on the East Coast remains FREE. With the rollout of Load Balancers in the East Coast, all GoGrid users now have the ability to deploy 6 total Load Balancers for free, 3 in each Datacenter.

Remember though, you can only balance traffic within 1 particular datacenter. That is to say, you currently cannot use one load balancer to manage traffic across 2 datacenters. You must set up a load balancer within each datacenter to route traffic therein.

New GoGrid Dedicated Server Images

At GoGrid, we were the first to pioneer the term “Hybrid Hosting” which means that you can mix and match the best of breed infrastructure solutions within your GoGrid Cloud. You can choose to instantiate GoGrid Cloud Servers for elastic scalability as well as deploy GoGrid Dedicated Servers should you want PCI compliance or require a dedicated solution. You can use the Load Balancers to route traffic between Cloud and Dedicated servers as well as attach Cloud Storage to either Server type.

With this release, we added SIX new images to the GoGrid Dedicated Server list, bringing the total available Dedicated Server Images to 26. The new Dedicated Server Images are:

• Ubuntu 10.04 (32-bit)
• Ubuntu 10.04 (64-bit)
• CentOS 5.5 (32-bit)
• CentOS 5.5 (64-bit)
• RHEL 5.5 (32-bit)
• RHEL 5.5 (64-bit)

With this update, the list of available GoGrid Dedicated Servers now includes:

• Linux
  • Fedora Core Linux 11 & 12 (32 & 64-bit)
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4.8, 5.4 & 5.5 (32 & 64-bit)
  • CentOS Linux 4.8, 5.4 & 5.5 (32 & 64-bit)
  • Ubuntu Linux 8.04, 9.04 & 10.04 (32 & 64-bit)
  • Debian Linux 4.0 & 5.0 (32 & 64-bit)
• Windows
  • Windows Server 2008 Standard (4 & 8 Core License)
  • Windows Server 2008 Standard with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Standard (4 & 8 Core License)
  • Windows Server 2008 Standard with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard (4 & 8 Core License)
  • Windows Server 2003 Enterprise (32 & 64-bit and 4 & 8 Core License)
  • Windows Server 2003 Enterprise (64-bit and 4 & 8 Core License) with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 & 2008 Standard (64-bit and 4 & 8 Core License)

The process for ordering a dedicated server has not changed. Simply click the ADD button within the GoGrid portal, and select Dedicated Server:

Then choose the Configuration you would like:

And then select the Operating System image you want on that GoGrid Dedicated Server (note: I have highlighted the new CentOS 5.5 options in the list):

Once you save your GoGrid Dedicated Server configuration, it will be available for you within 2 business days.

16 GBs of RAM on GoGrid Cloud Servers

For those GoGrid users requiring more RAM, Cores and persistent hard drive space, we have now enabled the ability to provision GoGrid Cloud Servers with 16 GB RAM allocations.

GoGrid Cloud Servers deployed with the 16 GBs of RAM configuration also have 960 GBs of persistent storage and either 8 or 16 cores depending on the Operating System (Windows and Linux respectively). 16 GB configurations are backwards compatible with MyGSIs and Partner GSIs. However, this configuration is only available for 64-bit Operating Systems.

There were also a series of bug fixes included with this release.

What other items would you like to see included in future releases of GoGrid? Leave a comment and let me know!

Yesterday, Cranium Solutions, a GoGrid Partner announced the launch of an automated cloud-based security assessment tool within the GoGrid Exchange.

About Cranium Solutions

Cranium Solutions’ flagship product, ASAP™ (Automated Security Assessment Program), is the first fully automated end-to-end network security testing solution that runs as a Cloud Based Service.  Businesses can perform simple and automated Vulnerability Assessments and Penetration Tests of any systems they have deployed on the GoGrid Cloud. Furthermore, the Cranium Solutions ASAP Service is a GSI based service that can be setup in minutes and requires no configuration by the customer unless they are performing assessments of servers that do not have external IP addresses.

Cranium Solutions on the GoGrid Exchange

There is currently 1 image live on the GoGrid Exchange for Cranium Solutions. It is on a CentOS 5.3 (64 bit) image:

Pricing

The ASAP Service is sold on a prepaid, per-use system, which means customers only have to pay for what they need or expect to use.  To get set up, just click on the “New User” link on the login page once you launch the Image. You will receive a confirmation email after creating your account that allows you to log back in and finish setting things up. On creation you are given 2 free IP credits. You then simply purchase more scan credits using the PayPal button on the login page.

Single device assessment credits are sold through an integrated PayPal system for $15 each, with purchase of credit required prior to the assessment. Blocks of assessment credits are sold at increasing discounts and purchased credits are recorded in the user’s account without expiration or requirement for immediate use. All GoGrid customers that sign up for the ASAP service will be given two free assessment credits after registration for use on two single IP devices.

Cranium Solutions Press Release

The following Press Release was delivered by Cranium Solutions yesterday and is available online as well:

Cranium Solutions Launches Automated Cloud-Based Security Assessment Service on GoGrid

Cranium Solutions ASAP Provides Automated Vulnerability Assessments and Penetration Tests of Cloud Deployments

CONCORD, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cranium Solutions, Inc, the creator of ASAP (Automated Security Assessment Program) and a leader in end-to-end automated Security Assessment solutions, today announced the release of its cloud-based Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Test services to GoGrid customers, based on its unique virtual portal delivery technology. The Cranium Solutions ASAP service is now available through the GoGrid Cloud in the form of a Partner GoGrid Server Image, enabling GoGrid customers to instantly deploy the portal and begin running complex security testing of their systems in the GoGrid cloud, including systems on a private internal network. As part of the launch, Cranium Solutions will provide each new GoGrid ASAP customer with 2 free IP assessments.

The Cranium Solutions ASAP service enables customers to quickly and easily identify vulnerabilities on their GoGrid servers, public facing or internal. Once found, vulnerabilities can be validated by performing the integrated Penetration Test to determine if they are truly exploitable or false positives. This comprehensive end-to-end assessment process creates highly accurate technical and executive summary reports, which contain recommended remediation steps. The Cranium Solutions ASAP infrastructure is fully hosted in the GoGrid Cloud, assuring that GoGrid customers will always have the latest updates and features without having to ever load a new version of the Virtual Portal Partner GSI.

“The deployment of the Cranium Solutions Virtual Portal on GoGrid enables GoGrid customers to easily assess and protect their systems, in a way that no other cloud provider can match,” said Mark King, CEO of Cranium Solutions. “Cranium’s Cloud based architecture and delivery system leverage the benefits of cloud computing, allowing us to offer a more comprehensive solution without requiring long-term subscriptions or licenses.”

About GoGrid

GoGrid is a Global Leader in Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure hosting. GoGrid gives users the control of a familiar datacenter environment with the flexibility and immediate scalability of the cloud. For more information, please visit: http://www.GoGrid.com.

About Cranium Solutions

Cranium is privately owned and headquartered in Concord, California. For more information about ASAP and Cranium Solutions, visit: http://www.cranium-solutions.com.

Please be sure to visit the GoGrid Exchange for other solutions that include: Software & Applications, Development & Testing, Disaster Recovery & Backup, Cloud Management, and Security Monitoring & Reporting.