Posts Tagged ‘Cloud Computing’

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013 by Dr. GoGrid Dr. GoGrid

The ongoing adoption of digital technologies has created mountains of information for the private sector, enabling decision-makers to capture, analyze and use resources to improve operations. This occurrence, commonly known as big data, is one of the main drivers behind cloud computing adoption strategies because the flexible hosted environments offer firms a scalable, on-demand infrastructure that is perfect for managing the ever-increasing volumes of information.

As big data evolves, cloud comes into focus

Gartner recently highlighted the growing demand for big data, noting that 42 percent of companies have either already adopted the strategies or plan to do so within the next year. This suggests that 2013 will be a major year for the trend, giving the private sector new opportunities to leverage information to their advantage.

The report said necessity and conviction are the two main reasons to leverage big data, though many firms are still in the early phases of adoption and have yet to understand the best ways to embrace technologies associated with the movement.

“Business and IT executives regularly say that information is one of their company’s greatest assets,” said Doug Laney, research vice president at Gartner. “Businesses are increasingly managing and deploying information more effectively than ever, but certainly not with the well-honed asset management discipline applied to their traditional material, financial or other intangible assets.”

The big data-enabled future
While the big data phenomenon is not necessarily a new trend in the business world, it is rapidly picking up momentum as organizations continue to use tools like social media and mobile devices that produce mountains of information per use. In the coming years, leveraging big data will be a necessity to remain competitive because the insight gathered will allow firms of all sizes to reduce costs, improve customer service and strengthen efficiency in the workplace.

(more…) «As Big Data Evolves, Cloud Comes into Focus»

Tags: Big Data, cloud, Cloud Computing, Gartner, private sector, social media
Posted in Big Data, Cloud Computing, General, News, Public Cloud | 6247No Comments »2013-03-20+14%3A08%3A57Dr.+GoGrid

What is Auto-Scaling, How Does it Work, & Why Should I Use it?

Monday, March 11th, 2013 by Michael Sheehan

Michael Sheehan

When I think about the phrase “auto-scaling,” for some reason it conjures up the word “Transformers.” For those not familiar with the Transformers genre of cartoons, toys, games, and movies, it is essentially about cars that turn into robots or vise versa, depending on how you look at it. When they need to fight or confront a challenge, Transformers will scale up from a vehicle (a car, truck, airplane, etc.) into a much larger robot. Then, when the challenge subsides, they scale back down to a vehicle.

Image source: teaser.trailer.com

Scaling Explained

Scaling – in terms of infrastructure – is a similar concept, but applied to the horizontal or vertical scaling of servers. Horizontal scaling means adding (or removing) servers within an infrastructure environment. Vertical scaling involves adding resources to an existing server (like RAM).

Let’s look at an example. An author of a content creation website may write an article that attracts the attention of the social media community. What starts as a few views of the article per minute, once shared by many in social media, may result in hundreds or thousands of requests for this article per minute. When this spike in demand occurs, the load to the server or servers handling the website’s content may experience extreme load, affecting its ability to respond in a timely manner. The results can vary from long page loads to the server actually crashing under the additional peak load. In the past, this scenario used to be known as the “Digg effect” or “Slashdot effect.”

Although this type of success is great publicity for the author, it’s bad for the brand hosting the content. And, if users encounter slow or inaccessible websites, they’re less likely to return for other content at a later point, which can eventually result in a loss of revenue.

(more…) «What is Auto-Scaling, How Does it Work, & Why Should I Use it?»

Tags: API, auto scaling, auto-scale, cloud, Cloud Computing, GoGrid, Horizontal scaling, how to auto-scale, Programmatic Control, Public Cloud, what is auto-scaling
Posted in API, Cloud Computing, Cloud Server, General, GoGrid, How To, Iaas, Public Cloud, Video | 6209No Comments »2013-03-11+15%3A35%3A51Michael+Sheehan

San Francisco Event – Cloud Computing, Cocktails, & Canapés

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 by Michael Sheehan

Michael Sheehan

It’s rare not to encounter fog in San Francisco. Call it fog, mist, clouds…it gives San Francisco part of its personality. With GoGrid though, it’s all about clouds, all of the time. And I’m not talking about those fluffy ones in the sky or shrouding the Golden Gate Bridge, I’m talking Cloud Computing. Being headquartered in “cloudy” San Francisco means we’re sitting on top of some of the brightest minds in tech, not just in the US, but in the world.

There are clouds (and fog) in San Francisco

In an effort to bring some of these brilliant technophiles together to discuss how cloud computing is shaping the future for businesses, small and enterprise alike, GoGrid is hosting a cloud event, “Cloud Computing, Cocktails, and Canapés,” in San Francisco. If you’re local, join us next week, Wednesday, March 13 and come share how the cloud in impacting your world.

GoGrid CEO and founder, John Keagy, will be kicking off the event with his views on the importance of cloud computing, how GoGrid started and the exciting direction it is taking us. And speaking of exciting, Excite Digital Media CTO, Allen Hammock, will be talking about how they leverage the cloud to support their massive global growth and outdistance their competition.

San Francisco Cloud Computing Event Details

Date: Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Time: 5:30-7:30 pm
Location: 111 Minna Gallery – Zappa Room, San Francisco, CA 94105

(more…) «San Francisco Event – Cloud Computing, Cocktails, & Canapés»

Tags: Allen Hammock, CEO, cloud, Cloud Computing, Cloud Event, Cloud infrastructure, Cloud Meetup, event, Excite Digital Media, John Keagy, Meetup
Posted in Cloud Computing, Customer, Events, General, GoGrid, Meetup, Public Cloud | 6157No Comments »2013-03-05+19%3A12%3A44Michael+Sheehan

3 Steps to Building a Healthy Cloud Partnership

Monday, March 4th, 2013 by Dr. GoGrid Dr. GoGrid

Implementing public cloud computing is quickly becoming a top priority for companies of all sizes and industries, as the technology enables employees to be more efficient and flexible – both of which are crucial in today’s highly competitive private sector. Because the public cloud is managed off-site, decision-makers need to find the right provider with services that will meet short- and long-term demands. Equally as important is developing a healthy cloud partnership.

TechTarget recently highlighted several ways to develop a strong partner program with a cloud vendor, as doing so will ensure a firm is given the best opportunity to succeed in the coming years. This growing demand for a robust relationship between the user and provider has forced many cloud companies to reevaluate their business models and create more relevant offerings.

3 steps to develop a healthy cloud relationship

Because cloud vendors come from a variety of backgrounds and offer myriad solutions, they need to find unique ways to differentiate themselves from other providers, TechTarget noted. Doing so will make certain services more appealing to companies and support healthy collaboration between the two parties.

“Every partner is slightly different,” cloud expert Jaywant Rao said, according to TechTarget. “They each have a different flavor of how they go to market. That means you have to focus on which models make sense for your own business and align things from there.”

Step 1: Decision-makers must identify objectives
Finding a service provider to meet corporate demands means executives must know what they intend to get out of the cloud. To do so, organizations should consider building a channel program that clearly defines the image of the perfect partner, TechTarget noted.

(more…) «3 Steps to Building a Healthy Cloud Partnership»

Tags: cloud, Cloud Computing, Cloud News, cloud partnership, healthy cloud partnership, Industry, partnership
Posted in Cloud Computing, General, Industry, News, Public Cloud | 6117No Comments »2013-03-04+13%3A07%3A42Dr.+GoGrid

How To Create a Distributed, Reliable, & Fault-Tolerant GoGrid Dynamic Load Balancer

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013 by Michael Sheehan

Michael Sheehan

As Rupert Tagnipes outlined in his article “High Availability with Dynamic Load Balancers,” crafting a fault-tolerant, reliable website is critical to a company’s online success. There’s nothing worse than going to a website to do a transaction only to have it either be slow to respond or have an interaction time out. By setting up a load balancer in front of transactional web or application servers, companies can ensure their web presence is resilient, responsive, and gets information to their customers reliably.

GoGrid launched with a free load-balancing service in 2008. This year, we introduced our next-generation cloud load-balancing service on GoGrid. Embracing the software-defined networking (SDN) mantra, we created our load-balancing service to embrace the key characteristics of cloud computing: on-demand, usage-based, and distributed. I encourage you to read more about our Dynamic Load-Balancing service in Rupert’s article.

Although understanding why load balancing is critical to success is important, knowing how to create a new GoGrid Dynamic Load Balancer is equally important. This How-To article will guide you quickly and easily down that path.