Following the announcement yesterday of the launch of GoGrid 3.0, today we officially announced the opening and availability of a new GoGrid datacenter presence on the East Coast in Ashburn, VA. We have partnered with Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX), a premier provider of global data center services. GoGrid users now the the ability to provision infrastructure in both the West Coast and East Coast. This was a frequent request from our customers so we are excited to now have this ability within GoGrid.

More information about the new datacenter can be found here.

Below is the Press Release that we sent out about the new datacenter:

GoGrid Continues Expansion with New East Coast Data Center

GoGrid Deploys Into Equinix to Meet Customer Demands

San Francisco, CA – June 30, 2010 – GoGrid, a leading Cloud Infrastructure and Hybrid Hosting Provider, announced today the opening of a new GoGrid data center in Ashburn, Virginia. GoGrid has chosen Equinix, Inc (Nasdaq: EQIX), a leading provider of global data center services as its data center partner as it continues to expand operations.

“We’re pleased to announce that GoGrid cloud computing services are now available from within our Ashburn, Virginia campus,” said Vince DiMemmo, general manager of Cloud and IT Services at Equinix. “Infrastructure on-demand is something our customers expect to be able to buy as they architect and deploy their Web and IT applications with us, and we’re pleased to add GoGrid as a cloud computing partner supplier.”

The new GoGrid facility is a comprehensive end-to-end hosting environment solution, complete with state-of-the-art environmental controls, power and security systems, and access to more than 165 network suppliers. Multiple interconnection options enable GoGrid cloud computing services to be readily accessible by its customers.

“The decision to expand GoGrid was a direct response to our customers and the market,” said GoGrid CEO & Co-Founder, John Keagy. “We are successfully executing our expansion strategy and securing an East Coast presence is critical for us to scale and capture a significant piece of the fast growing cloud market. We are very excited to be partnering with a leader like Equinix and deployed within their customer-rich Ashburn campus to help fuel the continued growth of GoGrid.”

GoGrid customers who deploy GoGrid Cloud (virtual) servers in multiple data centers receive a single invoice allowing for simplified financial insight into multiple infrastructure locations. Usage by data center will appear as line-item details. Also, the GoGrid API has been updated to allow for programmatic control of objects and appliances in multiple data centers.

For more information about the new GoGrid 3.0 features and East Coast Datacenter, please visit: http://www.gogrid.com/software-update/.

About Equinix
Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) provides global data center services that ensure the vitality of the information-driven world. Global enterprises, content and financial companies, and more than 575 network service providers rely upon Equinix’s insight and expertise to protect and connect their most valued information assets. Equinix operates 87 International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) and partner data centers across 35 metro areas in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.
Important information about Equinix is routinely posted on the investor relations page of its Web site located at http://www.equinix.com/investors. We encourage you to check Equinix’s website regularly for the most up-to-date information.

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:
Product site: http://www.GoGrid.com

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For the Press Release archive, please visit the GoGrid site.

GoGrid was selected by HostReview’s editorial staff to be one of the Top 10 Hosts in the Best Cloud Computing Provider categories for May 2010.

This award is based on a variety of items including:

• Overall Product Offering
• Value
• Customer Service
• Users’ Reviews

More information about HostReview’s Top 10 list can be found on their site.

GoGrid would like to congratulate the following other companies who were included in this list as well: Rackspace Cloud, Storm on Demand, NaviSite, Hosting.com, SoftLayer Technologies, 3Tera, BlueHost, VPS.NET and DediPower.

GoGrid previously was awarded the following from HostReview:

Today we sent out the January 2010 GoGrid Customer Update to all GoGrid customers. We wanted to ensure that all people who are interested in GoGrid have access to the latest and greatest information coming from our headquarters so the full newsletter is posted below. If you want to get regular updates similar to this newsletter, I recommend that you subscribe to the GoGrid blog RSS feed, subscribe to blog post via email, follow us on Twitter (@GoGrid) as well as become a GoGrid Facebook Fanpage.

Below is the entire GoGrid Newsletter (January 2010):

Hello Michael,

On behalf of everyone here at GoGrid, I want to wish you a very successful 2010!  We are starting the year off with a bang that includes some exciting new developments that I want to share with you in this edition of the GoGrid Newsletter.  Here are the specific topics:

1. New Features and System Enhancements
2. GoGrid CDN: New Singapore and Paris Points of Presence (POPs)
3. New Partner GSIs
4. Preventative Power Maintenance
5. End-of-Life: CentOS 5.1 w/Apache &  RHEL 5.1 w/Apache operating systems
6. New CentOS 5.3 & RHEL 5.4 base operating systems
7. Two New 3rd Party Services to Monitor your GoGrid Servers
8. Hosting for Haiti

New Features and System Enhancements

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The next GoGrid software release is scheduled for Tuesday, February 9, 2010 and includes the following new features and system enhancements:
GoGrid Dedicated Server ordering, provisioning, and support via the portal

We will offer three dedicated server options via the GoGrid portal with pricing starting at only $200/month.  GoGrid Dedicated Servers use the GoGrid IP address space, support power cycling, and are visible in the new List View tab located in the GoGrid portal.  The dedicated servers can be load balanced, connected to cloud storage, and managed via the GoGrid UI, providing a unique solution that combines the flexibility of the cloud with the control of dedicated hardware.
GoGrid Dedicated Servers support the following operating systems: Ubuntu, RedHat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, Debian, CentOS, Windows 2003, and Windows 2008.  Dedicated server hardware configurations and pricing details will be available on the GoGrid wiki the day of the software release.

Edit Load Balancer API Support

The GoGrid API will allow you to add and remove an IP address from an existing load balancer. This means you can add or remove a virtual or dedicated server from an existing load balancer without downtime.  The feature is great for rapidly scaling web and app servers in real time.

List View Tab

The GoGrid portal will contain a new tab called List View. The List View tab displays virtual and dedicated servers, Cloud Storage, and load balancing details, including: host name, IP addresses, operating system type, and storage utilization, in list form.  The list view makes it easier to manage large server deployments using a single convenient view.

New Links

Three new links will be visible in the GoGrid portal.  The new links make accessing the GoGrid Wiki, Forums, and API tool easier.  The links are visible in the Support and My Account tabs.

New Feature Webinar
If you have questions about any of the new features, sign up for a live demo given by the GoGrid Product Team.
Click here to reserve your seat: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/725449257
Date: Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM PST

GoGrid CDN

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GoGrid CDN customers that deliver content to Asia and Europe will be happy to learn that we will soon roll out two new Points of Presence (POPs):
Singapore: Along with our POPs in Hong Kong and Tokyo, our new Singapore POP boosts our already high-speed delivery of rich media to and from Asia. This newly installed state-of-the-art hardware supports all of our services including live and on demand Windows Media and Flash (FMS3.5) streaming services, web site acceleration and our industry leading reporting and analytics suite. Activate your account today and discover why more and more leading Asian web properties such as Asian Golf TV, QQ, Pixnet and Ninja Saga all use the GoGrid CDN.
Paris: Already strong in Europe, GoGrid will soon be even stronger with the addition of yet another POP, this one in Paris, France. The new Parisian POP will support all of our whole site delivery services, full Windows Media, Flash (FMS 3.5), and Silverlight streaming services as well as our rock solid live streaming service. Contact us today and learn why top tier European companies have partnered with GoGrid CDN for their European and global content distribution needs.
The Singapore POP will roll out in a couple of weeks and the Paris POP will rollout out in a few months.  Please feel free to contact your Account Manager with any questions.

New Partner GSIs

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We have rolled out five new Partner GSIs.  A PartnerGSI is a publicly available MyGSI (GoGrid Server Image) with the partner’s software preinstalled and preconfigured. Many of our partners specialize in internet security, backup, monitoring, web apps, compliance, and application scaling.  Check out our new PartnerGSIs:

• Gigaspaces
• Mailsites
• CohesiveFT
• Tapin Systems
• Objectivity

Visit the GoGrid Exchange to learn more.

Preventative Power Maintenance

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There will be a preventive maintenance performed on UPS 1, 2, 3 and 4 on 2/01 and 2/02 2010
The maintenance schedule will be completed in 2 phases.

1. Monday February 1st  – Preventive maintenance performed on UPS 3 and 4. Each unit WILL be put into bypass
2. Tuesday February 2nd  – Preventive Maintenance of UPS 1 and 2. Each unit WILL be put into bypass

There is no downtime expected during this maintenance schedule.

When: February 1st 10:00am – 5:00pm and February 2nd 10:00am – 5:00pm
Why: UPS maintenance is required to continue to provide consistent, uninterrupted power to our customers

End-Of-Life Server Images

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The below Linux images will be End-of-Life’d effective 02/09/2010:

• CentOS 5.1 (64-bit) w/ Apache 2.2
• RHEL 5.1 (64-bit) w/ Apache 2.2

These images will no longer be available in the GoGrid portal for deployment once they are retired. We will continue to support all current Linux base operating systems. If you would like to use the EoL’d images after February 9th you will need to create your own GoGrid Server Image (using the myGSI feature) before February 9th. MyGSI allows you to keep server images in Cloud Storage for future use.  Additional Information about myGSIs can be found here:

• GoGrid Wiki MyGSI Entry

You can also find more information about this on this GoGrid Blog post which includes some Frequently Asked Questions about this process:

• GoGrid Image EOL Blog Post

New Base Operating Systems

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We recently rolled out two new Linux base operating systems which are live and available in the GoGrid portal:

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

Two New 3rd Party Services to Monitor Your GoGrid Servers

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Monitoring your GoGrid infrastructure is an important task that should not be overlooked. Our Technology Evangelist, Michael Sheehan, recently spent some time analyzing two new 3rd party services that can help you manage and monitor your infrastructure:
Server Density: Monitor CPU load, memory, processes, disk usage, network traffic, Apache, MySQL & Nginx. Keep an eye on your servers and get e-mail, SMS & iPhone alerts when things go wrong.
See the GoGrid blog post about Server Density’s service here:

• GoGrid Server Density Blog Post

CloudKick: Easily and efficiently monitor and manage cloud server environments with robust graphing, alert and other tools.
See the GoGrid blog post about CloudKick’s service here:

• GoGrid CloudKick Blog Post

Hosting for Haiti

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With the recent earthquake devastation that crippled the nation of Haiti a couple of weeks ago, the country is struggling to care for the injured, rebuild infrastructure and basically survive as a nation. There has been tremendous outpouring of support from around the world. To that end, GoGrid was among the initial group of internet hosting providers to announce support for Hosting For Haiti, a site where all of us hosting providers have put aside our differences in order to provide release for Haiti. We have made a significant donation to the American Red Cross and encourage you to help out in whatever way you see fit.
More information on Hosting For Haiti can be found at:

• http://www.hostingforhaiti.com

Further details are in this GoGrid blog post:

• GoGrid Hosting For Haiti Blog Post

Become a Fan of GoGrid on Facebook and Follow Us on Twitter

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If you have photos from an event where you saw GoGrid in action or met with some of our employees, we encourage you to post them to the Fan Page:

• http://www.facebook.com/GoGrid

We also actively monitor and send out messages via Twitter. You can follow GoGrid on Twitter at:

• http://twitter.com/GoGrid

As always, you can find more information about GoGrid at:

GoGrid Product Site – http://www.gogrid.com
GoGrid Blog – http://blog.gogrid.com
GoGrid Wiki – http://wiki.gogrid.com
GoGrid Forums – http://forums.gogrid.com

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me directly.

Thank you,
Mario

This email was sent out by our VP of Product, Mario Olivarez.

As all of you know, a devastating series of earthquakes rocked the Haiti region on January 12th, 2010, crippling the infrastructure, killing thousands and leaving even more people utterly homeless. While relief efforts are currently underway, the recovery and assistance effort is an on-going uphill battle with little or no relief in sight. Countries from around the world have rushed people, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid, but as aftershocks continue (today there was a 6.1 registered aftershock, for example), the fragile and brittle stability is being further shattered.

The bottom line, the Haitian people need assistance of ANY TYPE immediately and in an on-going basis, whether it be in the form of time, money or other types of support. Doing absolutely nothing is the worst thing that you can do. Even if you cannot afford to donate time or money, there are other activities that you can do to assist in the relief efforts (one example is listed later in this post).

The outpouring of relief efforts thus far is impressive, however, as a worldly community living under the same “roof”, we all need to put aside our differences and work together to help the Haitians in their time of need.

Hosting for Haiti Initiative

Officially launching today is an initiative comprised of a group of Hosting Providers who normally compete head-to-head. The initiative brings together several hosting providers including Rackspace, Peer1, GoGrid, The Planet and ServInt, in an effort to create a consolidated and organized front to provide monetary assistance to the Haitian Relief Efforts. HostingForHaiti.com is a site designed to provide support from the hosting industry, because through a unified effort, more gains can be realized.

The site is simply a place where you can donate money to the American Red Cross. Even if you don’t donate through HostingForHaiti.com, we encourage you to donate elsewhere. However, our goal is to spread the word that donations are needed. We ask that you raise awareness of this site and encourage your own hosting provider to become a participant as well. Today, a variety of prominent bloggers will be talking about our effort to provide assistance and we ask that you join in this process of social awareness.

100% of the funds donated through the HostingForHaiti.com site will go immediately to the Red Cross relief efforts.

What YOU can do NOW

Please take a few minutes to not only contribute but also help to spread awareness via Social Networking sites like Facebook or Twitter.

Click HERE to tweet out the following message:
“Hosters are working together to support Haiti Relief Efforts! Please donate & RT! Info: http://hostingforhaiti.com #HostingForHaiti“.
Or create your own message to share!

GoGrid will be donating via the Hosting For Haiti site and encourage you to do the same!

For Hosting Providers: If you’re one of our industry partners and want to join us, contact us at info@hostingforhaiti.com about joining the cause.

Other Ways to Help – Identify Photos

Last week, GoGrid contributed Cloud Infrastructure to an organization looking to provide assistance in a different way. Conceived and created by The Extraordinaries, the contributions you make are not only helpful, they only require your time in helping to tag and identify pictures coming from Haiti.

Visit http://Haiti.beextra.org to get started.

Using the power of “crowdsourcing” and API integration, you are presented with a picture (pulled from Flickr using their API) and you are asked the following questions (which change based on your answers):

• Is this photo directly related to the Haiti Quake (Yes/No)
  • No – removes the picture from the identification list
  • Yes – Asks if there are people in the photo
    • No – Enter in comments or tags related to the photo
    • Yes – Asks a series of questions (see below)
• If the photo is related to the Haiti Quake AND there are people in the photo, you are asked the following questions:
  • Can you Clearly See a Person’s Face (Yes/No)
  • Gender(s) – (Female/Male/Mixed)
  • Age – (Young/Teen/Adult/Elderly/Mixed)
  • Alive – (Yes/No/Mixed)
  • Anything Else? – enter in description or tags

You also have the ability to view other tags or descriptions of the photo. Once you have filled out the answers based on your best judgment, you can move on to the next photo to tag.

An example is shown below:

By tagging the photos, you are assisting in matching these images against the various missing persons’ databases.

As of this writing, the site has the following encouraging statistics:

You can see some coverage of The Extraordinaries’ efforts on NBC in the video below:

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/video.

If you are looking for someone or have information to provide, you can visit the Google Crisis Response page for more information.

Just Be Sure To Help

I guess the bottom line here is that there are a variety of ways to help in the relief efforts. I have outlined a couple above in hopes to get the GoGrid community engaged in assistance efforts. As an individual, you can do a lot, and as a group or organization, you can do even more!

The GoGrid newsletter went out today. Unfortunately, if you are not already a GoGrid customer, you didn’t receive it…until now! There are a lot of exciting items covered here (a few of which you already know if you subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed including the Edit, Delete and Restore function of MyGSIs). If you aren’t already a GoGrid user, I recommend that you sign up (and here is a quick hint, if you want a $100 GoGrid credit on new account, contact a GoGrid Sales Rep and they can consult with you on your best options for the Cloud).

Below is the entire GoGrid Newsletter (October 2009):

Hello Michael,

In this edition of the GoGrid newsletter I cover recent feature releases, planned features for the next release, and the end-of-life (EoL) of Server Images with preinstalled applications.  Here are the specific topics:

1. MyGSI Enhancements: Edit, Delete, and Restore
2. Revamped Billing Summary Widget
3. Cloud Storage: Data Import via Postal Service
4. Sneak Preview: Planned features for the next two releases slated for early and mid November:
   • Windows 2003 32 bit base operating system
   • Windows 2003 64 bit base operating system
   • RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.4 base operating system
   • CentOS 5.3 base operating system
   • New Monthly and Annual Pre-Paid Price Plans
   • Partner GSI
   • Ubuntu 9.04
5. Server Images: EoL Image  List

MyGSI Enhancements: Edit, Delete, and Restore

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You can now edit, delete and restore GoGrid Server Images (MyGSIs).  Michael Sheehan, GoGrid Technology Evangelist, has provided an excellent screencast of the new functionality located at the GoGrid Blog.
Here is a quick snapshot of the enhancements:

• Edit allows you to change the “Name” and “Description” of a MyGSI
• Delete allows you to delete a MyGSI
• Restore allows you to restore a MyGSI up to 24 hours after it was deleted

The enhancements are live and available in the GoGrid portal and API.

Revamped Billing Summary Widget

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The Billing Summary Widget has been revamped to make it clearer.  The widget includes 3 new sections:

• Billing Cycle: displays your billing start and end date
• Memory: displays RAM deployed and projected monthly Server RAM usage
• Transfer: displays Transfer used and projected monthly usage

View Michael Sheehan’s screencast for complete details or read the documentation in the GoGrid wiki.
Cloud Storage: Data Import via Postal Service

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If you have a large set of data that you want added to your Cloud Storage account, and you don’t want to upload it via the internet, simply ship us a physical hard drive(s) with the data and we will upload it for you.  There is a one-time fee of $99.99/per device and you are not billed for the data transfer from the hard drive to Cloud Storage.  Read Michael Sheehan’s blog post for more details about this service.

Sneak Preview: Planned Features for the Next 2 Releases

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The next two releases are scheduled for early and mid November 2009 and include:

• Windows Server 2003 32 and 64bit base operating systems with no preinstalled applications
• RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.4 32 and 64-bit base operating system with no preinstalled applications
• CentOS 5.3 32 and 64-bit base operating system with no preinstalled applications
• New Monthly and Annual Server RAM Hour and Transfer prepaid pricing plans:
  • We are revamping all Pre-Paid plans.  Server RAM Hour pricing will start as low as $0.05/Server RAM Hour.  Annual Pre-Paid pricing plans are available today.  With Annual Pre-Pay plans, pay annually and receive 2 FREE months of service, which is a savings of 17%.  Speak to your account manager for more details.
• Partner GSI:
  • We are working with several Partners to make their Partner GSI images available to all users through the GoGrid portal.  A Partner GSI is a customized GoGrid Server Image that comes preloaded and configured with a partner’s software.  Some Partner GSIs have a monthly fee.  Expect detailed information on Partner GSIs in the next GoGrid Newsletter. To learn more about our partner programs and explore partnering with GoGrid to release your own Partner GSI please visit the partner page: http://www.gogrid.com/partners/index.php or contact Kole Hicks, GoGrid Product Manager, at Kole AT gogrid.com.
• Ubuntu 9.04 64-bit base operating system

Please expect more details on all these new features in the October newsletter, which will be sent out in late October.

Image Templates: End-of life list

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The below images will be end-of-life on 11/03/2009; moving forward our focus is on the root OS (of course you can add software installations as you see fit).  If you want to continue to use the images below, please create a MyGSI and save it to your Cloud Storage.  We will continue to support all current Windows and Linux base operating systems.

• Windows 2003 IIS (32 bit)
• Windows 2003 IIS (64 bit)
• 32-bit Windows Server 2003 IIS6 / MSSQL Server 2005 Express / ASP.NET
• 32-bit Windows Server 2003 R2 MSSQL 2005 Express
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7 / PHP / MSSQL 2005 Express
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7 / PHP / ASP.NET / MSSQL 2005 Express
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7 / PHP / MySQL
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 Apache / PHP / MSSQL 2005 Express
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7+FastCGI(PHP)+MSSQL 2005 Express
• 64-bit Windows Server 2003 R2 IIS6 / MSSQL Server 2005 Express / ASP.NET
• 64-bit Windows Server 2003 R2 MSSQL 2005 Express
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7 / MS SQL Server 2005 Express
• 32-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7 / MS SQL Server 2005 Express / ASP.NET
• 64-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7
• 64-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7 / MS SQL Server 2005 Express
• 64-bit Windows Server 2008 IIS7 / MS SQL Server 2005 Express / ASP.NET
• 64-bit CentOS 5.1 Apache 2.2
• 64-bit CentOS 5.1 Apache 2.2+PHP 5.1
• 64-bit CentOS 5.1 LAMP
• 64-bit CentOS 5.1 MySQL 5
• 64-bit CentOS 5.1 PostgreSQL 8.1
• 64-bit RHEL 5.1 Apache 2.2
• 64-bit RHEL 5.1 Apache 2.2+PHP 5.1
• 64-bit RHEL 5.1 LAMP
• 64-bit RHEL 5.1 MySQL 5
• 64-bit RHEL 5.1 PostgreSQL 8.1

Become a Fan of GoGrid on the Facebook Fan page!

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If you have pictures of your hundreds of GoGrid servers or photos from an event where you saw GoGrid in action or met with some of our employees, we encourage you to post them to the Fan Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/GoGrid/12731148364

As always, you can find more information about GoGrid at:
GoGrid Product Site – http://www.gogrid.com
GoGrid Blog – http://blog.gogrid.com
GoGrid Wiki – http://wiki.gogrid.com
GoGrid Forums – http://forums.gogrid.com

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me directly.
Mario AT gogrid.com

Thank you,
Mario

This email newsletter was sent out by our VP of Products, Mario Olivarez.