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.

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.

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:

Sentrigo mages are available on Windows 2008 Server and CentOS 5.3 currently.

Sentrigo Press Release

The following Press Release was issued by Sentrigo and is available below as well as online:

Sentrigo Partners with GoGrid to Provide Database Security on Cloud Computing Platform

Hedgehog Enterprise and vPatch compliance solutions available for immediate installation via GoGrid Exchange

SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Sentrigo, Inc., the innovator in database security software, today announced that Sentrigo Hedgehog Enterprise and vPatch are now available for installation on GoGrid’s cloud computing infrastructure for database audit, protection and breach prevention. By leveraging Sentrigo’s database compliance and security solutions, organizations can implement cloud computing on GoGrid while addressing concerns regarding protection of sensitive data as well as issues related to compliance audits for key industry regulations.

As a greater number of applications move to cloud computing, organizations that manage their databases in virtual environments increase their risk of exposing highly-sensitive data to a broad base of internal and external attacks. Many organizations find it challenging to ensure compliance and protection when they have full control over the data within their own networks, let alone when deploying it in the cloud. Only Sentrigo’s host-based software approach monitors and audits data access from the inside of each database virtual server, allowing efficient operation in distributed, virtualized environments.

“The appeal of cloud computing is clear – with benefits that include reduced acquisition and operating costs for IT, greater flexibility and scalability of the infrastructure – it is not surprising that cloud technology deployments are increasing at a considerable rate,” said Slavik Markovich, CTO and co-founder of Sentrigo. “Yet, for many organizations, the critical applications that would potentially benefit most from a move to the cloud cannot be deployed without first overcoming a key obstacle – compliance with data privacy and security regulations.”

The combination of Sentrigo Hedgehog and GoGrid enables customers to deploy applications in the cloud environment, including those with sensitive data that may be subject to compliance standards – providing a layer of protection from external threats while also enabling a full audit of privileged insiders. Hedgehog provides canned compliance templates for SOX, PCI-DSS, SAS70, HIPAA, and more, that allow GoGrid users to quickly and easily satisfy regulatory requirements. As part of the combined solution, the monitoring and management console can be hosted either in the GoGrid cloud, or behind the customer’s firewall, where compliance and security events or audit reports can be sent securely over the WAN regardless of the physical location of the virtual infrastructure. By leveraging the pre-built Hedgehog images in the GoGrid Exchange, installation takes only a few minutes, and then Hedgehog begins auditing and protecting databases immediately.

“Sentrigo’s Hedgehog works well in the dynamic, distributed environment of our customer’s cloud computing infrastructure by providing full visibility into database activity regardless of where the data lies,” said John Keagy, GoGrid CEO and Co-Founder. “The combination of the Sentrigo and GoGrid technologies is a natural fit for our respective companies, and more importantly for customers looking to leverage the benefits of cloud computing technology with the assurance their data is protected by the best-in-breed database security solution currently available on the market.”

GoGrid customers can install a 14-day trial of Sentrigo’s Hedgehog Enterprise from the GoGrid Exchange Web site at: http://exchange.gogrid.com/. Hedgehog Enterprise is also available for purchase directly from Sentrigo.

Tweet this: Sentrigo Partners with GoGrid to Provide Best-in-Breed Database Security on Cloud Computing Platform

Follow Sentrigo on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/sentrigo

About GoGrid

GoGrid makes complex infrastructure easy. GoGrid’s Cloud and Hybrid infrastructure hosting 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 using a Standard or Partner Server Image takes minutes via a web control panel or GoGrid’s API. 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 Sentrigo

Sentrigo is a recognized innovator in database security solutions, offering a full suite of products for vulnerability assessment, virtual patching and database monitoring/auditing. The company’s flagship product, Hedgehog Enterprise, provides Database Activity Monitoring (DAM) and real-time Intrusion Prevention, protecting sensitive data from external threats and misuse by privileged insiders. Hedgehog can be quickly and easily deployed at small and midsize organizations, and scales to handle the largest enterprises, providing full visibility into all database activity and allowing enterprises to enforce security policy and comply with regulatory requirements, such as PCI DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, and HIPAA. The company has won wide acclaim for its technology leadership from publications such as Network World and SC Magazine, and recently received the 2010 Global Product Excellence Award for Database Security from Info Security Products Guide. For additional information and to download Hedgehog, visit www.sentrigo.com.

# # #

We encourage you to visit the GoGrid Exchange where you can find many other Partner Images available for other GoGrid Infrastructure solutions.

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

The following images are NEW to the GoGrid Exchange.

• SNORT IDS/IPS  - Snort® is an open source network intrusion prevention and detection system (IDS/IPS) developed by Sourcefire. There is an additional charge of $29/month per instance of this deployed. It gets the user access to updated rules via Sourcefire. [Snort on GoGrid Exchange]
• MediaWiki - MediaWiki is a wiki package originally written for Wikipedia. It is now used by several other projects of the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation and by many other wikis. MediaWiki was designed to be run on a large server farm for a website that gets millions of hits per day. [MediaWiki via BitNami on GoGrid Exchange]
• JasperServer – JasperServer Community Edition, the open source report server, built by the developers of JasperReports, the leading open source reporting library. It provides a Web and Web services based environment for reporting and dashboards. [JasperServer via BitNami on GoGrid Exchange]
• Spree – The Most Powerful and Flexible E-Commerce Platform for the Ruby Enterprise. [Spree via BitNami on GoGrid Exchange]
• Coppermine – Coppermine is a multi-purpose, full-featured web picture gallery script written in PHP using GD or ImageMagick as image library with a MySQL backend. [Coppermine via BitNami on GoGrid Exchange]
• Rubystack - Ruby on Rails is a full-stack MVC framework for database-backed web applications that is optimized for programmer happiness and sustainable productivity. It lets you write beautiful code by favoring convention over configuration. [Rubystack via BitNami on GoGrid Exchange]
• LAPPstack – It includes ready-to-run versions of Apache, PostgreSQL, PHP and phpPgAdmin and required dependencies [LAPPstack via BitNami on GoGrid Exchange]

UPDATED Partner Images

We have also UPDATED the following images:

• OpenVPN – OpenVPN Access Server is a full featured SSL VPN software solution that accommodates a wide range of configurations, including secure and granular remote access to your internal network and/ or your private cloud network resources and applications with fine-grained access control. [OpenVPN on GoGrid Exchange]
• Appistry CloudIQ – Appistry CloudIQ Platform is a comprehensive platform for delivering highly scalable, extremely reliable, and easily managed applications on private, public and hybrid clouds. [Appistry CloudIQ on GoGrid Exchange]
• SugarCRM – SugarCRM is a flexible customer relationship management solution for companies of all sizes. SugarCRM can easily be customized and integrated with other software to allow companies to build and maintain a more flexible system. [SugarCRM via BitNami on GoGrid Exchange]
• Joomla – Joomla! is an open source Content Management System with a growing and active community of more than 400,000 users. Joomla! creates multiple format sites from simple websites to complex corporate applications and allows users to manage each aspect of their website through a simple, browser-based interface. [Joomla via BitNami on GoGrid Exchange]
• DokuWiki – DokuWiki is a standards compliant, simple to use wiki mainly aimed at creating documentation of any kind. It is targeted at developer teams, workgroups, and small companies. [DokuWiki via BitNami on GoGrid Exchange]
• LAMPstack – It includes ready-to-run versions of Apache, MySQL, PHP and phpMyAdmin and required dependencies [LAMPstack via BitNami on GoGrid Exchange]
• Drupal – Drupal is a content management platform that allows an individual or community of users to easily publish, manage, and organize a wide variety of content on a website. [Drupal via BitNami on GoGrid Exchange]
• WordPress – 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. [WordPress via BitNami on GoGrid Exchange]

What other images would you find useful on the GoGrid Exchange? Leave a comment with some company or service names and we can reach out to them.

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.

Question: Will you continue to provide support for servers that are based on the EoL-ed images?

Answer: Yes, we will continue to support all Windows and Linux images that you have deployed using GoGrid, even ones that have been EoL-ed.

Question: But wait! I still want to use those particular images in my GoGrid infrastructure! What can I do?

Answer: If you want to use either of these images after February 9th, 2010, you will need to create a personal GoGrid Server Image (MyGSI) prior to that date. If you follow the process outlined in this blog post, you can be assured that you can deploy servers based on those EoL-ed image(s) after that date from your personal GoGrid repository.

Question: Since those images are being removed, what are replacing them?

Answer: As of the writing of this blog post, we have several CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) images available including the ones listed below and others will be added in the future:

• RHEL 5.4 (32-bit)
• RHEL 5.4 (64-bit)
• CentOS 5.3 (32-bit)
• CentOS 5.3 (64-bit)

The images below are a filtered set of images (filtered on OS and grouped by “GoGrid” owner) as of this writing (note that in the future, this set of available images WILL change):

Question: What if I have more questions about this? What can I do?

Answer: There are a couple of things you can do. First, be sure to read up on how to create, deploy and store MyGSIs. If you have further questions, you can contact GoGrid Support either via the Live Chat within the GoGrid Portal, or by logging a Support Ticket within the portal as well.

If you have further questions, feel free to contact me or leave a comment on this post. I hope that these proactive notifications are useful!