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.

Our current breakdown of GoGrid Cloud Servers and associated RAM/CPU/Persistent Storage is as follows:

Further information on the new 4 and 8 GB RAM GoGrid Cloud Servers can be found on the GoGrid site. Server Release Information on these new images can be found on the GoGrid wiki. We have also posted a Server Compatibility Matrix that graphically shows what server instances are available with the associated RAM allocations.

If you are a Windows user, we ask that you please our Release and Errata pages as there are some known issues specific to 8 GB Windows Servers which may require a workaround and that they should be aware of before using 8 GB GoGrid Servers with Windows.

Our full Press Release on this information can be viewed here as well as on the GoGrid site.

As always, please leave any questions or comments here on this blog post, or open a Support case via the GoGrid portal should you need technical assistance.

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

• 04.10.08 – GoGrid launches new templates: multiple RHEL, CentOS, Windows 2003 flavors
• 04.14.08 – GoGrid launches the Wiki (wiki.gogrid.com)
• 04.21.08 – GoGrid exhibits at the Web 2.0 Expo (some of our Expo stunts)
• 05.20.08 – GoGrid starts getting some blog traction
• 05.22.08 – Soliciting feature and images requests from the GoGrid community produced many great ideas
• 06.02.08 – NetworkWorld reviews GoGrid
• 06.04.08 – IP Suggest feature débuts
• 06.10.08 – “Cloud Computing” terms really starts trending upwards
• 06.16.08 – Cloud Computing helps build communities
• 06.19.08 – InfoWorld reviews GoGrid
• 06.24.08 – Introduction of the Cloud Pyramid
• 06.27.08 – GoGrid at GigaOM Structure ‘08 and Rafe Needleman of WebWare talks about GoGrid

3rd Quarter 2008

• 07.07.08 – GoGrid hits 1000th user and coverage by TechCrunchIT
• 07.17.08 – GoGrid launches API
• 07.18.08 – NetworkWorld, C|net & TechCrunchIT cover GoGrid’s new API
• 07.21.08 – InfoWorld does a side-by-side comparison of GoGrid, Amazon’s EC2 and Google App Engine
• 07.22.08 – Teens-in-Tech founder, Daniel Brusilovsky, interview of GoGrid
• 07.31.08 – Google Web Toolkit (GWT) showcases GoGrid
• 08.06.08 – GoGrid WINS LinuxWorld 2008 Best of Show in Product Excellence
• 08.19.08 – GoGrid is the FIRST to launch Windows Server 2008 in the Cloud
• 09.09.08 – the first NoHardware.com video is released
• 09.16.08 – Financial Markets start getting very shaky. Cloud Computing can help stabilize.
• 09.17.08 – GoGrid and RightScale partnership announced
• 09.22.08 – Feature preview of GoGrid’s Cloud Storage (now live)
• 09.23.08 – the second NoHardware.com video is released
• 09.29.08 – The “Original” Cloud Computing in Plain English produced in-house by GoGrid launches
• 09.30.08 – GoGrid and Appistry partnership announced

4th Quarter 2008

• 10.01.08 – Other Cloud providers announce Windows in the Cloud, play catch-up with GoGrid
• 10.03.08 – Recession starts hitting – 10 Tips to Survive it
• 10.07.08 – GoGrid and GigaSpaces partnership announced
• 10.08.08 – the third NoHardware.com video is released
• 10.21.08 – Cloud Computing Product Announcement Bingo Game
• 10.27.08 – GoGrid launches PHP-enabled Windows Server 2008 Clouds
• 11.03.08 – GoGrid & ServePath beta release Cloud Connect (connecting dedicated servers with the Cloud)
• 11.24.08 – Appistry & GoGrid do a joint webinar on Cloud Computing
• 12.02.08 – My 10 Cloud Computing Predictions for 2009, our CEO’s Predictions and our VP of Technology Strategy’s Predictions
• 12.11.08 – GoGrid featured again on Google Web Toolkit (GWT)
• 12.11.08 – GoGrid launches Cloud Storage v0.7
• 12.15.08 – Santa “Cloud” or how Cloud Computing saved Christmas
• 12.29.08 – Some New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year to all of you from us at GoGrid. May 2009 be happy, healthy and prosperous!

A few days ago, I had an interesting conversation with a very excited GoGrid user. So much so, that he was working on getting all of his production websites migrated over to GoGrid, but only after he fully installed cPanel. Using cPanel, he said, would enable him to seamlessly migrate all of his clients’ sites. He kept running into little tweaks that he needed to do here and there, but kept working on it, happy that he could so easily build up and rip down server instances with GoGrid. Eventually, he got it to work. His ultimate suggestion? Get an Operating System image with cPanel installed, or at a minimum, have a bare-bones install of CentOS so that cPanel could be installed easily.

As we continue to build out the GoGrid Operating System images (shortly to roll out some new ones), I thought that it would make sense to ask what Open Source software you might want to see in upcoming template releases.

My list of Open Source apps that I would want on Windows and/or Linux is growing and includes:

• WordPress
• Joomla!
• Bugzilla
• Trac
• Moodle
• Subversion (maybe with Trac)
• SugarCRM
• MediaWiki
• Webmin
• cPanel
• Alfresco
• Twiki
• Community Server

What about actual Operating Systems like Ubuntu or Debian?

How about combinations of the OS and Open Source app?

I realize that these are simple Open Source applications but do you really want to spend hours installing and configuring your server for these to work? The whole goal of GoGrid is “control in the cloud” and make server deployments quick and easy. With these templates, we hope to make the process even easier, turnkey and ready-to-go out of the box! Post a comment with your wish list and we will see what we can do.

Our second round of new GoGrid templates have been released today, bringing some great new functionality: Ruby-on-Rails and Facebook! As mentioned previously, we are rapidly compiling and releasing new server OS templates with pre-configured useful application sets.

Today we released the following 3 new templates:

Web/Application Servers:

• CentOS 4.4 (32-bit) – Facebook-ready
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (32-bit) – Facebook-ready
• CentOS 4.5 (32-bit) with Ruby on Rails

We have some other templates queued up for release early next week:

Web/Application Servers:

• Windows 2003 Server (32-bit) – Facebook-ready
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (32-bit) with Ruby on Rails

Next week we will be explaining what exactly we mean by “Facebook-ready” and “Facebook Accelerators” but essentially, if are a Facebook developer and have an application that you want to quickly get on the Facebook network, just get a Facebook-enabled GoGrid server. These servers come pre-configured in order get your application in front of Facebook users with little configuration. While you have been suffering through the application development part, we have been taking all of the pain out of the hosting part! More later about Facebook.

We have made a few changes to the GoGrid website as well including a quick comparison between GoGrid, Dedicated Hosting and Amazon’s EC2. But don’t just take our word for it, give GoGrid a try by signing up for a Trial (Pay-as-you-go) account.

As part of our regular updates to GoGrid code and functionality, we have released several new Web/Application and Database Sever Templates to GoGrid. This is part of a two set release with the next round coming tomorrow. (More information on the second set of templates in a subsequent blog post.)

One of the great features of GoGrid is the ability to instantly create new servers based on precompiled and tested templates. Our goal is to provide a significant number of templates to match many different development needs and do so in a timely manner.

Yesterday, we released the following templates:

Web/Application Servers:

• CentOS 4.5 (32-bit) with LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) stack
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (32-bit) with LAMP stack
• Windows 2003 Server (32-bit) with IIS, ASP.NET and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express

Database Servers:

• CentOS 4.5 (32-bit) with PostgreSQL 8.2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (32-bit) with PostgreSQL 8.2
• Windows 2003 Server (32-bit) with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express

These 6 additional server images now compliment the original list of servers:

Web/Application Servers:

• CentOS 4.4 (32-bit) with Apache 2.2 and PHP 5
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (32-bit) with Apache 2.2 and PHP 5
• Windows 2003 Server (32-bit) with IIS 6.0

Database Servers:

• CentOS 4.4 (32-bit) with MySQL 5.0
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (32-bit) with MySQL 5.0
• Windows 2003 Server (32-bit) with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Workgroup (additional charge of $99.99/month)
• Windows 2003 Server (32-bit) with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard (additional charge of $249.99/month)

With 13 templates and growing, GoGrid is rapidly becoming the de facto source for scalable, on-demand servers. Also, remember that we are the first to bring FREE web-based load balancing into the mix, as well as an allotment of static IPs, free inbound bandwidth and a “utility” type of pricing model (pay as you go). So what are you waiting for? Sign up for GoGrid and get your development or production environment running in minutes.