With the launch of the new GoGrid website and GoGrid 3.0, we also spent some time on a new calculator to help you estimate your costs of running your infrastructure on GoGrid. The calculator, just like GoGrid, is extremely easy to use and can definitely help you plan out your infrastructure in the GoGrid cloud.

Features of the calculator include:

• The ability to add numerous configurations of Cloud Servers (RAM/Hours Deployed/# of servers with that configuration)
• Add Load Balancing
• Add Cloud Storage
• Configure Inbound and Outbound monthly transfer
• Plan recommendations based on your configuration
• Estimated total monthly cost

So, for example, below is the following configuration:

• 2 – 2GB servers running for 30 days (720 hours)
• 2 – 4GB servers running for 30 days (720 hours)
• Load balancer –> it’s FREE
• 24 GB of Cloud Storage –> first 10 GBs are free so the charge is for 14 GB/Month @ $0.15/GB/mo
• 20 GB/mo Outbound Data Transfer ($0.29/GB/mo)
• Inbound data transfer –> it’s FREE

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Since the launch of GoGrid over 2 years ago, we have provided free F5 load balancing as part of our Cloud Infrastructure offering. Being able to provide load-balanced solutions in the cloud is critical to having a scalable environment and without F5′s load balancers, our service offering would be very different.

But understanding the nitty-gritty details of how the F5′s work within GoGrid is not something that most people understand. For the most part, customers are concerned that it simply works and works well, which it does. Yesterday, Lori MacVittie, the Technical Marketing Manager at F5, posted a technical article that does a great job explaining how the magic behind the scenes works with the F5 load balancers and GoGrid.

The article is available on F5′s DevCentral as well as below:

Cloud Load Balancing Fu for Developers Helps Avoid Scaling Gotchas

If you don’t know how scaling services work in a cloud environment you may not like the results

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This week, GoGrid was not only an exhibitor and Silver Sponsor of the Cloud Connect Event 2010 in Santa Clara, CA, but also our Lead Senior Software Engineer, Justin Kitagawa, was part of a panel titled “Writing Code for Many Clouds“.

The panel was moderated by Shlomo Swidler (Founder, Orchestratus) and the members included:

• Shashi Mysore, Product Specialist, Eucalyptus Systems
• Adrian Cole, Founder, jClouds
• George Reese, CTO, enStratus
• Michael Mayo, Rackspace
• Mitch Garnaat, President, CloudRight
• Justin Kitagawa, Lead Senior Software Engineer, GoGrid
• Sam Ramji, Vice President of Strategy, Sonoa Systems

Each panel member was allowed a few minutes to discuss how their service can be controlled programmatically via an API or other method. This is an important discussion point because many companies and developers are looking to build applications that span clouds. However prior to doing this, these developers must fully understand how a cloud is architected and can be utilized. Obviously, when building a cloud as a vendor, there are challenges and hurdles that must be overcome in the process. Each of the panelists discussed their design decisions and then answered questions presented to them by the moderator as well as by audience members.

As an attendee of this panel, I thought it important to present GoGrid’s thoughts on our own API and how we came to make the decisions behind its development. Below is a video of Justin’s presentation which covers: (more…)

As mentioned within the GoGrid Customer Update Video for February 2010, we have put together a webinar where we will cover a variety of subjects related to the new features and functionality found in this new GoGrid Release. If you are new to GoGrid or simply would like to hear about the new features that were included in the February 2010 Release, we encourage you to register now. The event details are as follows:

• DATE: Wednesday, February 24, 2010
• TIME: 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM PST
• REGISTRATION: Please visit – https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/725449257
• HOSTS: Rob Larson (Product Marketing Manager – GoGrid) & Michael Sheehan (Technology Evangelist – GoGrid)

Be sure to bring any and all questions you may have to this webinar and we will do our best to answer them. If you have questions ahead of time, feel free to leave a comment on this article.

The topics to be covered are:

General (more…)

Yesterday we announced new GoGrid functionality which allows you to edit, delete and restore personal server images known as MyGSIs. Since a picture is typically worth a 1,000 words, I compiled a quick screencast that walks you through this new functionality as well as through the changes we made to the Billing Widget.

If you have any questions about this functionality or other things “GoGrid”, please leave a comment on this post. As always, I’m reachable via Twitter (@hightechdad) and email (Michael AT GoGrid DOT com).

Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter (@GoGrid) as well as become a fan of GoGrid on Facebook.

Web Applications like WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, SugarCRM and others are all the rage and have been for quite a while. The huge availability of Open Source applications, typically based on Linux, Apache, mySQL and PHP (LAMP stacks) that you can find in SourceForge or other repositories, makes the implementation of powerful web-based solutions a snap. Once you find the web application of your dreams, the next step is finding a hosting provider. There are many VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting providers that offer shared hosting at pennies on the dollar. But with those VPS solutions, you are left with exactly that, a “shared” environment. So, if someone else on your shared server is running bad scripts or code that sucks up resources on your server, you are affected with little or no recourse to resolve other than to complain, moan or move to a different provider.

So, as you grow (or as your service deteriorates due to the resource-sucking of others on your shared box), you are left with a decision of what to do next. Many people choose the most obvious upgrade path of leasing a dedicated server (e.g., at ServePath, we offer dedicated, managed hosting) or colocating (where you bring your own hardware and a hosting provider like Coloserve leases space, power, cooling, security and bandwidth). But now, you have another option that truly fits the model of delivering scalable web hosting…put in in the Cloud, with GoGrid, for example.

Recently I helped map out the implementation of a secure, redundant, load-balanced web application in the Cloud using GoGrid.

Original Setup

A client originally set up the following implementation of a WordPress blog on GoGrid:

• One Web/Application Server (more…)

Last week, I participated in a webinar with GoGrid’s partner, Appistry, that was titled: “Unlock the Power of Scalable, Agile Cloud Platforms.” To quote: “Cloud computing has grown from a little-known buzz word into one of the hottest topics in IT today. View this On-Demand Webinar to learn how to get started with this exciting new technology. More importantly, learn about the best practices for enabling your applications to scale and truly harness the power of cloud computing.”

Sam Charrington (Vice President of Product Management & Marketing at Appistry) and I (Michael Sheehan – Technology Evangelist of GoGrid) discussed not only what the Cloud currently looks like (especially as related to Cloud Infrastructure and Cloud Platforms) but also showed a demo of how the Appistry/GoGrid solution works through a live demo of the product.

Shown below is the Webinar in its entirety (complete with plenty of audio mishaps, dropped calls and scratchy voices).

Also, there were several questions related to GoGrid asked during the webinar that were quickly answered or not answered at all. I wanted to provide some responses to those questions within this post. (Note: not all questions that were asked have been answered.) So without further ado…

Q: What is GoGrid’s role in this partnership?
A: GoGrid provides the Cloud Infrastructure on which the Appistry Platform runs. Customers who wish to dynamically scale their application code and deploy across multiple cloud servers use Appistry to manage these dynamics and the application code is deployed and scaled across GoGrid servers within the GoGrid infrastructure.

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NOTE: We are currently revising this article. Please bear with us as we modify the content below for improvement.

Content Management Systems (CMS’s) are all the rage these days because of their unique ability to manage and deliver so many different types of media. The ability to create community-based websites with permission-based access and the ability to dynamically deliver different media formats and content can allow users to easily develop websites, online communities or internal intranets in a matter of minutes. Drupal, winner of dozens of open-source application awards, is one of the best and most popular Content Management Systems available today. The basic installation allows users to create online blogs, forums, wikis, books and newsletters, all of which can be privately managed by individuals or groups depending on how you set up the available permissions levels.

Of course, Drupal installs are fully supported on GoGrid. So, before you jump in and install Drupal, be sure that you have a GoGrid account set up. If you simply want to give Drupal a try within a Cloud Hosting environment, then with a new GoGrid account, you could create a GoGrid server in a few minutes and then spend the rest of your time (after the 15 minutes of setup) getting to know Drupal. Once you get your Drupal install dialed in, you might want to keep it so GoGrid makes it easy with pay-as-you-go billing and volume pricing as well. If you just wanted to test out your install skills and simply play around with Drupal on GoGrid, you can delete your cloud server(s) and use GoGrid for something else. It’s your call.

To start, simply deploy a GoGrid server through the http://my.gogrid.com customer portal. In this example, we’ll use a RHEL 4.5-based LAMP stack since it has all the software packages needed for a Drupal installation already installed.

1. Click on the “+” button once you’ve logged in, then select “Web/App Server”. Enter a friendly name for your server, such as “Drupal” or the domain name you’ll use once your server is configured. Enter a quick description of the server and select an IP address (our new IP suggest function will suggest one automatically for you). If you already have a GoGrid server instance that runs your website and you want to install Drupal in a sub-directory or sub-domain, skip down to the second half of this article.
2. Next, select the operating system to run your Drupal installation on. Drupal can run on either Windows or Linux machines, but in this example we’ll use a Linux-based RHEL 4.5 server image. Please note that Drupal will not run on MSSQL, so using a Linux-based distribution is easier to manage out of the box. If you wish to run Drupal on a Windows server, you will have to manually install PHP 4 or 5 with MySQL or PostgreSQL to run alongside IIS.
3. Select the amount of RAM dedicated to your server. Depending on the amount of traffic you’re expecting, you may want to allocate a good amount of RAM to your server. I’m choosing to go with a 1GB server.
4. Select the server image you want to deploy. In this case, I’ll be using a LAMP stack. (For Windows servers, you may want to select a Windows 2003-based operating systems with IIS and MSSQL Express installed on the server image, then install PHP and MySQL or PostgreSQL.)
5. Click on “Save” and your server will be deployed within a matter of minutes.
6. Once your server’s light turns green, click on the new Drupal server and then select the “Passwords” button at the left. This will take you to the login information for your server.

Now that a server has been deployed, you can go ahead and connect to it remotely via SSH. If you work on a Windows machine, you can download the PuTTY client to connect to a Linux Server. If you’re on a Mac or a Linux machine, you can open your terminal and SSH directly to the IP address of the new GoGrid server.

1. SSH to the new server and log in using the username and password credentials located on the “Passwords” page in the GoGrid portal. In my examples, I will use the IP address 208.113.93.249. Replace this IP address throughout this document with the IP of the server you just deployed: (more…)

If you’re running software applications or services in your GoGrid cloud, then there’s a good chance that you need a way for your customers to communicate with one another. Forums and bulletin boards are great tools for companies to allow their customers to help each other out with your products. Using these tools also alleviates some of the load on your support teams, saving you labor expenses and time. One of the best bulletin boards is the open-source phpBB software. This is a simple-to-install, feature-rich, PHP-based web application that takes only minutes to configure on a GoGrid server.

The latest version of phpBB (version 3.0) does have some specific server requirements, namely: Windows or Linux, an SQL database system (e.g., mySQL 3.23 or above, MS SQL Server 2000 or above, or PostgreSQL 7.x or above) and PHP 4.3.3 or above. GoGrid has you covered with those requirements so you don’t have to monkey around with doing any changes (with the exception of Windows, you will have to install PHP for that).

To start, simply deploy a GoGrid server through the http://my.gogrid.com customer portal. In this example, we’ll use a CentOS 4.5-based LAMP stack since it has all the software packages needed for a phpBB installation already installed.

1. Click on the “+” button once you’ve logged in, then select “Web/App Server”. Enter a friendly name for your server, such as “phpBB” or the domain name you’ll use once your server is configured. Enter a quick description of the server and select an IP address (our new IP suggest function will suggest one automatically for you). If you already have a GoGrid server instance that runs your website and you want to install phpBB in a sub-directory or sub-domain, skip down to the second half of this article.
2. Next, select the operating system to run your phpBB installation on. phpBB can run on either Windows or Linux machines, but in this example we’ll use a Linux-based CentOS 4.5 server image.
3. Select the amount of RAM dedicated to your server. Depending on the amount of traffic you’re expecting, you may want to allocate a good amount of RAM to your server. I’m choosing to go with a 2GB server.
4. Select the server image you want to deploy. In this case, I’ll be using a LAMP stack. (For Windows servers, you may want to select a Windows 2003-based operating systems with IIS and MSSQL Express installed on the server image.)
5. Click on “Save” and your server will be deployed within a matter of minutes.
6. Once your server’s light turns green, click on the new phpBB server and then select the “Passwords” button at the left. This will take you to the login information for your server.

Now that a server has been deployed, you can go ahead and connect to it remotely via SSH. If you work on a Windows machine, you can download the PuTTY client to connect to a Linux Server. If you’re on a Mac or a Linux machine, you can open your terminal and SSH directly to the IP address of the new GoGrid server.

1. SSH to the new server and log in using the username and password credentials located on the “Passwords” page in the GoGrid portal. In my examples, I will use the IP address 208.113.93.242. Replace this IP address throughout this document with the IP of the server you just deployed: (more…)

WordPress is the most popular blogging content management system software in use today with over 4 million downloads in its existence. It can be seen on hundreds of thousands of websites, most notably on Ebay.com, CNN.com, People.com and the NewYorkTimes.com. Millions of readers view WordPress -based websites every day and get near real-time RSS feeds from their favorite authors. Blogging is a great way to promote your company (hence your visit here), review your current obsessions or talk about your hobbies in a community-oriented fashion.

That being said, this article will show you how to do a quick WordPress installation in less than 10 minutes on GoGrid. You will be up and running, ready to post content about what you ate for lunch or the newest tech gadget you saw on the streets, all with the clean aesthetics and easy, feature-rich navigation of a WordPress website.

To start, simply deploy a GoGrid server through the http://my.gogrid.com customer portal. In this example, we’ll use a CentOS 4.5-based LAMP stack since it has all the software packages needed for a WordPress installation already installed.

1. Click on the “+” button once you’ve logged in, then select “Web/App Server”. Enter a friendly name for your server, such as “WordPress” or the domain name you’ll use once your server is configured. Enter a quick description of the server and select an IP address (our new IP suggest function will suggest one automatically for you).
2. Next, select the operating system to run your WordPress installation on. WordPress can run on either Windows or Linux machines, but in this example we’ll use a Linux-based CentOS 4.5 server image.
3. Select the amount of RAM dedicated to your server. Depending on the amount of traffic you’re expecting, you may want to allocate a good amount of RAM to your server. I’m choosing to go with a 2GB server.
4. Select the server image you want to deploy. In this case, I’ll be using a LAMP stack. (For Windows servers, you may want to select a Windows 2003-based operating systems with IIS and MSSQL Express installed on the server image.)
5. Click on “Save” and your server will be deployed within a matter of minutes.
6. Once your server’s light turns green, click on the new WordPress server and then select the “Passwords” button at the left. This will take you to the login information for your server.

Now that a server has been deployed, you can go ahead and connect to it remotely via SSH. If you work on a Windows machine, you can download the PuTTY client to connect to a Linux Server. If you’re on a Mac or a Linux machine, you can open your terminal and SSH directly to the IP address of the new GoGrid server.

1. SSH to the new server and log in using the username and password credentials located on the “Passwords” page in the GoGrid portal. In my examples, I will use the IP address 208.113.93.243. Replace this IP address throughout this document with the IP of the server you just deployed: (more…)