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).

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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:

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Today, Sentrigo, a GoGrid Partner announced that several new images are now available within the GoGrid Exchange.

About Sentrigo

Sentrigo Hedgehog Enterprise Database Activity Monitoring and Compliance solutions, as well as the Hedgehog vPatch software for virtual patching are now available within the GoGrid Cloud. Hedgehog Enterprise and vPatch provide customers with the highest level of database security for compliance to protect sensitive information in Microsoft, Oracle, Sybase and shortly MySQL databases deployed within their GoGrid Cloud. Hedgehog Enterprise allows customers to monitor and log all database access to meet key compliance requirements, including PCI DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and more.  Hedgehog vPatch protects databases that cannot have vendor patches installed in a timely manner (for example, because applications have not yet been tested), allowing customers to meet their IT governance policies, thus preventing exploits of known vulnerabilities.

Sentrigo on the GoGrid Exchange

There are currently 3 images on the GoGrid Exchange for Sentrigo:

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At GoGrid, we firmly believe that having a rich and developing Partner ecosystem is critical to not only our success but also our customers. GoGrid Partners bring an incredible amount of value-added tools and services in the form of what we call PGSIs (Partner GoGrid Server Images) and we work with them closely to ensure that our joint offerings provide as much value as possible. If you haven’t explored the GoGrid Exchange, I encourage you to do so as we have a variety of tailored solutions to meet a wide variety of needs.

Categories for PGSIs currently include: Software & Applications, Development & Testing, Disaster Recovery & Backup, Cloud Management, Security, Monitoring & Reporting and more. Also, we are actively looking for new technology-enablers in the form of Partners so if you have a SaaS or PaaS offering that you would like to potentially be included in the GoGrid Exchange, simply fill out this form and we will start you on your way. All of our current partners are listed here.

Have you used a Partner GSI? If so, every Partner Server Image has a rating and comments section so that you can Review any of the images that you use. We hope that you will provide feedback as it helps us and our partners better evaluate the usefulness of their images on GoGrid.

NEW Partner Images

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In an effort to be as proactive as possible, GoGrid has officially notified select customers of the removal (End of Life – EoL) of two specific GoGrid images. The users that were notified are ones that are actively using the images. On 2/9/10, GoGrid will be removing the following images from the GoGrid image repository:

• CentOS – CentOS 5.1 (64-bit) w/ Apache 2.2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux – RHEL 5.1 (64-bit) w/ Apache 2.2

I’m sure that some of you will have questions about this. In anticipation of this, I have compiled some quick Q&A’s:

Question: What does the removal of these images mean?

Answer: Simply that after the removal date, they will no longer appear within the GoGrid Image Selection widget.

Question: I have server(s) deployed that use these images? Will they continue to function?

Answer: Yes, there is no change to how your server(s) will function if they are using one of these EoL-ed images. Just be sure that you keep everything current within those servers.

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Drum roll please! We are excited to announce the availability of GoGrid version 2.0, released today to all users. This is an important release from a product standpoint as it positions GoGrid firmly as the easiest to use hosting provider within the Cloud Computing Infrastructure marketplace.

What is new with GoGrid in the 2.0 release?

• MyGSI – GoGrid Server Images
• Improved Server Deployment Times
• IP Addresses in Passwords Tab

The 10,000 Foot View

Before I get into the 100 foot view, it is probably important to talk about what MyGSIs mean to you from a higher level.

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Last night we release a new version of GoGrid that has a few notable changes, specifically:

• Server Image Selection Widget
• Smart selection of RAM allocations (and 8 GB RAM options in web GUI)
• Updates to GoGrid API
• Enhancements to underlying Architecture

Server Image Selection Widget

The biggest visual change in this release is to how Windows and Linux Database, Web and Applications server images are selected within the GoGrid web interface. This is essentially the framework that will be used for the upcoming MyGSI feature. Since we continue to add new images to the GoGrid image repository, and we will be enabling your own personal server images to be stored within GoGrid, we realized that the current selection process of Application & Database servers doesn’t scale very well.

Our software engineering team has come up with an elegant image selection widget that will allow you to quickly drill-down to the image type you wish. Instead of trying to articulate what the new selector looks like, here are some screenshots of what to expect.

After you click on the Add Web/Application Server Icon, you are presented with a list of all available images:

You can see that the list shows the Name, Operating System (OS), Architecture type (32/64-bit), Type of server (Web/DB), Price (e.g., MS SQL, for example, shows a charge – see below) and the Date the image was Updated.

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If you are a GoGrid customer, you recently received the April GoGrid newsletter that talks about one of the exciting new features coming from GoGrid, specifically “Personal Server Images” which we call “MyGSIs.”

Definitions

First, it probably would be helpful to understand some of the new & current terms we are using:

• Base GoGrid Server Image is a standard GoGrid server images (e.g., Windows or Linux) that is created by GoGrid and currently available within the GoGrid system for deploying servers
  
• Image Sandbox is a development environment where you can create a “MyGSI.” Server Images created within the Sandbox are unique in that they have a predefined RAM allocation and hard drive sizes and are only used temporarily to create a Server Image. Images created within the Sandbox contain any and all custom code or applications that you choose to put on them.
  
• MyGSIs are based on either a Base GoGrid Server Image or other MyGSIs but where you have the ability to personally configure, customize and save it to your liking from the Image Sandbox environment. They are used to spawn or instantiate new custom servers within GoGrid, with all your customizations, code and applications present.
  

Think of MyGSIs as originals that can be used to make copies, much the way you would have a Golden Master CD and you would make copies or clones based off of that Golden Master.

Usage

From a high level, creating a Sandbox Image can be done in 3 easy steps:

1. Add an Image Sandbox;
2. Install, Configure & Prepare (bundling scripts) your Image Sandbox for imaging;
3. Save your Server Image from your Image Sandbox to your personal Images repository on Cloud Storage.

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Last week, we quietly released some new larger GoGrid Cloud server instances. Today we are making that announcement a bit louder. What does this mean to you? Well, your GoGrid cloudcenter just got a bit broader and more powerful. For a year now, we have been offering 0.5, 1 and 2 Gigabyte RAM options in both Windows and Linux, now we have 4 and 8 GB RAM instances available. These larger instances, available on all 64-bit operating systems, allow for new types of higher-end environments to be spun up using all of the characteristics of Cloud Computing.

The lower size RAM instances (0.5, 1 & 2 GB) are perfect for a web front-end, where either Apache or IIS are running. For extremely high-performance and high I/O instances, we have been offering Cloud Connect as a way to create a dedicated hybrid infrastructure where Cloud Web Servers running on GoGrid can be linked via private dedicated network connections to dedicated and managed servers within the ServePath network.

With the new 4 and 8 GB RAM options, you can now set up a infrastructure with a robust set of high-performance application servers within the Cloud. These types of high RAM instances are perfect for users who want to take advantage of the increased RAM, CPU cores and persistent storage, especially when used in conjunction with specific applications (e.g., Microsoft SQL server or other Enterprise applications) that require more larger amounts of resources like RAM or CPU.

The 4 GB RAM server images can be deployed via the GoGrid web portal and API. The 8 GB RAM server images currently may only be deployed via the GoGrid API. I recommend reading the API section of the GoGrid wiki in order to fully understand how to deploy 8 GB RAM instances.

The 4 and 8 GB RAM images, available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1, CentOS 5.1, and Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008 64-bit operating systems bring a new level of performance to the GoGrid line. 4 GB Cloud Servers have 3 CPU Cores and 8 GB have 6 CPU Cores, ensuring dedicated CPU allocations and high performance.

All GoGrid Cloud Servers come with persistent storage. The new larger RAM allocations announced today, are delivered with increased persistent storage: 4 GB Cloud Servers have 240 GB of hard drive space and 8 GB have 480 GB of storage allocated at boot time. Additional storage can be added using GoGrid’s dynamically scalable Cloud Storage offering which includes a 10 GB free allotment to start with. Each 1 GB thereafter costs $0.15/GB/month.

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2008 was an action-packed year for us here at GoGrid and ServePath and we have many accomplishments to be proud of. I thought it would make sense to reflect back on what major things we did over the year as well as a few other notables that happened within the industry. The easiest way for me to do this is through a blog post Chronology (not every post is highlighted):

1st Quarter 2008

• 01.03.08 – GoGrid Blog was launched
• 01.29.08 – “Sneak Peak” at GoGrid
• 02.01.08 – Twitter and Joyent go different ways
• 02.05.08 – Understanding “Clouded” Computer Terms – a post that made a 1st attempt to explain Cloud, Utility, Grid and other Computing terms.
• 02.13.08 – Dilbert does a series on Virtualization (here, here and here)
• 02.15.08 – Amazon’s S3 has major outage (my comments)
• 02.21.08 – GoGrid launches a new public website in anticipation of the product launch
• 03.11.08 – GoGrid Public Beta LAUNCH! After over 2 years of development, GoGrid hits the streets with many Cloud Computing firsts:
  • 1st Cloud Infrastructure provider with a Web GUI
  • 1st to offer Windows Server 2003 in the Cloud
  • 1st to offer Microsoft SQL Server in the Cloud
  • 1st with free Inbound Transfer
  • 1st with free f5 Load Balancing
  • 1st with free 24×7 Support
  • 1st with Persistent Storage
  • 1st with free managed DNS
  • 1st with 100% Uptime SLA
  • 1st with public and private VLANs
• 03.17.08 – Drilling down on the details of new GoGrid accounts
• 03.18.08 – Even I wasn’t initially on board with the whole “Cloud Computing” term. My thoughts have changed obviously.
• 03.28.08 – The initial GoGrid FAQ’s start rolling out.

2nd Quarter 2008 (more…)