GoGrid Blog

Peter Wayner, contributing editor of the InfoWorld Test Center, today posted a side-by-side comparison of 4 Cloud Computing providers: Amazon EC2, Google App Engine, GoGrid and AppNexus, titled “Cloud versus cloud: A guided tour of Amazon, Google, AppNexus, and GoGrid.” What was fairly obvious was that there isn’t a clear “winner” simply because Cloud Computing is so new and standards are still being written. What was clear, is that Wayner believes that GoGrid is “easy to use” and differentiates itself through the offering of both Windows and Linux cloud server images.

Wayner writes:

“GoGrid also has a wider variety of OS images ready to go. There is the usual collection of CentOS/Fedora and common LAMP stacks. If you need Windows, you can have Windows Server 2003 with IIS 6.0, and Microsoft SQL Server is available at extra cost. There are also images with Ruby on Rails, PostgreSQL, and the Facebook application server. These make it a bit easier to start up. “

Wayner also recorded a video of his analysis of GoGrid. Below he shows how a GoGrid cloud server can be easily and quickly deployed as well as some of the management features within the GoGrid control panel:

Wayner writes: “while GoGrid offers many of the same services as Amazon’s EC2, the Web-based control panel is much easier to use than the EC2 command line.” However, to round out the offering, it is important to mention that the GoGrid API is now available for use by all GoGrid users. GoGrid now truly offers full “Control in the Cloud.” The extensibility that the API gives moves GoGrid quickly to the top of the Cloud Computing provider list.

Yesterday we officially launched the new GoGrid API and I wanted to pass on a few notable mentions that recently appeared in the blogosphere. This release was a fairly significant event for us as well as for users of Cloud Computing because for the first time, users now have a choice of using either a slick and intuitive web-based interface or an Application Programming Interface (API), depending on their needs.

NetworkWorld

Technology writer, Mark Gibbs, who has been closely following GoGrid’s progress over the past few months writes:

“The GoGrid API is remarkable because of its depth – through a REST-style interface it provides access to everything that the GoGrid platform can do including configuring components, starting and stopping services, and retrieving status information as well as real time usage and billing data. “

He continues by discussing some possible options for hooking the GoGrid API into a Microsoft Visio COM object or C# to use Visio to diagram and control the service architecture. He extends this idea to incorporate the use of Business Objects’ Xcelsius to potentially create comprehensive GoGrid dashboards.

Additionally, he calls out to other services providers with a global wake-up call:

“GoGrid’s API is the kind of positioning that all service providers should adopt – complete openness on the front end so that customers can use the default user interface or where they have specific service goals they can interface to the service with alternative and extended user interfaces.”

C|Net News

Dan Rosenberg, who discusses the dynamics of growing a startup company on c|net’s Negative Approach blog, comments on how GoGrid has moved from what was “previously called Utility Computing to more of a full-on Cloud approach.”

He, like Gibbs, see the importance of pushing the envelop with Cloud Computing, stating:

“It’s pretty interesting to see the smaller, bleeding edge vendors figure this stuff out before the BigCo’s. This should put some pressure on those who still seem to be missing the Cloud blimp.”

TechCrunchIT

TechCrunchIT, who exclusively covered GoGrid reaching the 1000 paying customer mark, also reported on the release outlining the more technical aspects of the API. Cameron Christoffers writes:

“The API allows user’s to programmatically control their GoGrid environment. This allows users to, for example, auto-scale the GoGrid instance in a timely and efficient manner…GoGrid delivers similar on-demand, pay-by-the-hour server hosting as Amazon’s EC2, but uniquely offers a web-based GUI, Windows Cloud servers, free load balancing, and free support deals.”

Calling All Press and Bloggers

If there are any press or bloggers who are interested in reviewing GoGrid and/or the new GoGrid API, please fill out the Contact form and I will guide you through the process.

If you were watching closely, the GoGrid API was released at the end of last week. Today however, we are making it official! With the release of the API, GoGrid users can now programmatically control their cloud infrastructure on GoGrid. What is truly unique about this offering is that we are the first Cloud Computing provider to provide both a web-based control panel/GUI (Graphical User Interface) and an API (Application Programming Interface), coupled with Windows and Linux cloud servers, free load balancing and support, free static IPs and more.

API’s are critical to many Developers and System Administrators who are looking to have even more rigorous control over their environments. The GoGrid API provides the ability to:

• create interactive GoGrid management applications
• allow Resellers to skin their own GoGrid portals
• script and link various GoGrid commands for automation
• connect GoGrid functions to other management tools or environments
• query and retrieve real-time information on billing, usage and GoGrid devices and objects

When we created the API, we wanted to be sure that it not only lived up to our phrase “Control in the Cloud” but also that it was easy to use, well documented and feature-rich. Others in the Cloud Computing space (like Amazon’s EC2) elected to release an API first and then hope that others would build more friendly interfaces around that API. We decided to produce the web GUI first (so that everyone from novices to tech-savvy users could use GoGrid immediately) and then round off our offering with the API (more skewed towards Programmers and Developers).

For those technically inclined, here are some details on what you can expect from the GoGrid API:

• REST-like Query interface that allows the sending of HTTP GET or POST requests to the GoGrid API REST server
• API Keys are easily generated within the GoGrid web GUI
• Unlimited number of API Keys can be generated per account
• API Keys can be individually enabled or disabled at any time through the web GUI
• API Keys can be assigned the same role-based access controls (RBACs) as GoGrid GUI users
• Changes made via the GoGrid API are reflected in GoGrid’s GUI in real-time
• API output formats: JSON (Java Script Object Notation), XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and CSV (Comma Separated Value)
• Supports API calls from Java, PHP, Python, and Ruby as well as shell scripting language like bash

There are several methods available:

• General commands
  • List – lists all requested objects
  • Get – retrieves all information on selected single object
  • Add – add a device or object
  • Delete – delete a device or object
  • Power – start/stop/restart servers
• Items supported and available methods:
  • Load balancer (list, get, add, delete) – commands related to Load Balancers
  • Server (list, get, add, delete, power) – commands related to Servers
  • Image (list) – lists available server images available
  • IP (list) – lists all assigned, unassigned, public and/or private IPs
  • Password (list, get) – lists all passwords for system/server
  • Billing (get) – display billing summary data for account
  • Utility (list) – lists all valid options for a particular lookup

Role Based Access Controls (RBAC) are available. The matrix below illustrates the support:

I could probably go on and on about the plethora of features contained within the API. Best bet though is to sign-up for a GoGrid account and try it yourself. More information on the API can be found on the GoGrid website.