I think that we may have broken a record in having one of the most news-filled newsletters in GoGrid history. And, I don’t think we were able to put everything in there. One feature of particular note is that of RAM Scaling. Now, within GoGrid, you can scale your cloud servers up or down as you need. This month’s newsletter has information about this important feature and a whole lot more, so for those of you who are not currently receiving the GoGrid newsletter, the full content is below.

Below is a copy of the October 2010 Customer Update newsletter that went out to all GoGrid customers:

Hello,

All of us at GoGrid have been working on providing more and more value to you not only in our feature and system enhancements, but also with educational webinars and trainings. In this issue of the GoGrid newsletter, you’ll discover ways in which we can form a partnership to help you leverage more from your GoGrid cloud.

This edition includes:

New Features and System Enhancements

• RAM Scaling Now Live
• API Enhancements
• GoGrid Firewall Enhancement
• Performance Boost with Intel’s Westmere Chipset
• New Terms of Service

Partner News

• New Partner Images for the GoGrid Exchange
• Updated Partner Images

Webinars

• Live GoGrid Training Session
• Cloud Hosting 101
• Load Balancing in the GoGrid Cloud
• Capture Your Share of the Cloud Market: Learn How With GoGrid’s Channel Program
• BuycPanel (title pending)
• Deploying NOSQL in the Cloud
• Scale Your Applications in the Cloud Without Downtime or the Headache

Events and Other News

• FailCon
• SYS-CON Cloud Expo

New Features and System Enhancements

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RAM Scaling

The ability to scale your RAM up or down is now available! Our RAM scaling feature allows you to upgrade to the maximum amount of RAM available for your operating system on your Cloud servers. RAM scaling only applies to RAM, so your core and disk allocations remain untouched. Also, all your settings and configurations (except RAM of course) remain the same when you scale your RAM.

Changing the RAM of any cloud server is easy. Use the API to programmatically change your RAM allocation or simply log in to the portal my.gogrid.com and follow these four steps:

1. Select the cloud server you wish to scale up or down
2. Click the Upgrade button.
3. Choose your desired RAM allocation.
4. Click Submit.
Note: the minimum amount of RAM available for downgrade is equal to the amount allocated when you originally provisioned that particular cloud server.
Read more on our blog.

FREE Live Training! Sign-up for our live training session on October 26 at 11:00 a.m. PDT, where a GoGrid Technical Account Manager will walk you through our new features and provide some use cases and best practices.

Register now: go.gogrid.com/webinar/20101026

API Enhancements

You now have even more control over your cloud servers via the API. Check out the new enhancements:

• Edit Server Description via API – using a simple API call, you can now fully edit the description of your GoGrid Cloud Server. See the API documentation on how to do this.

• Change Cloud Server Classification via API – you can now change the server classification via the GoGrid API. Options are: Web/App Server or Database Server. This will affect where your Cloud Server appears in both the Grid and List views. See the API documentation on how to do this.

The GoGrid Customer Portal and API now also present the number of Cores and Disk Space allocated to your servers. Read more about RAM Scaling and API enhancements on our blog.

GoGrid Firewall Enhancement

We are now accepting pre-sale sign-ups for our enhanced Fortinet Hardware Firewall. This new configuration now supports your existing public IP addresses, our free F5 load balancers and will be available directly in GoGrid’s networking infrastructure. Confidently secure your GoGrid cloud or hybrid infrastructure behind Fortinet’s enterprise-grade hardware firewall. Contact your Account Manager to add this essential security component to your infrastructure.
The Fortinet hardware firewall is $200/month, which includes one type of VPN.

Performance Boost with Intel’s Westmere Chipset

To continue improving GoGrid performance, as well as build an internal foundation for growth while upgrading our infrastructure with cutting edge technology, we’ve changed a few things:

1. We’ve upgraded our hardware, including outfitting our host machines with Intel’s Westmere chipset and fast SAS drives. As a result, you should see even greater I/O performance and in some cases greater CPU performance, an improvement upon our existing hardware, which is already rated the best in the industry. It will take us 4-6 months to completely build out enough Westmere capacity to handle 100% of new server adds. As a result, it is possible for new servers to be provisioned on non-Westmere nodes.
2. In order to achieve this performance boost, there will be a change to the cloud server disk allotment. As of September 15, all cloud servers will receive 50 GB of local storage for every 1 GB of RAM, a reduction of 17% compared with the 60:1 ratio we offered on the older hardware. As always, please note that the amount of usable storage presented by your cloud server’s OS may be slightly less than 50 GB.

Terms of Service

Please note that section 10 (g) of our terms of service has changed. Essentially, we have made improvements to the way we communication terms of service with you. We will now be notifying you via the GoGrid website and a written notice.

Please see www.gogrid.com/legal/terms-service for more information.

Partner News

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The GoGrid Exchange continues to grow with new and exciting partners.  Check out the new and updated Partner GoGrid Server Images (PGSIs) available in the GoGrid catalog.

NEW to the GoGrid Exchange:

• Genero: a platform-independent application development and deployment environment, optimized for data-intensive business applications suitable for businesses of all sizes. Genero applications work well in enterprise environments, interoperate with other languages and platforms, scale well, and lend themselves to Service Oriented Architectures (SOAs).

• Genero DB: a high-performance, fully transactional, ACID and SQL Compliant RDBMS optimized for modern computer architectures, designed for high throughput in high-content many-user, high-workload environments. Available both as part of the Genero GSI and on a stand-alone basis for use with other programming languages, Genero DB’s scalability makes it an ideal data management infrastructure product for cloud-based applications.

• Toad® for MySQL is a freeware development tool that improves the productivity of developers and administrators running MySQL on Windows.

• BitNami Alfresco is an Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system featuring document management, Web Content Management, Collaboration Management, Records Management, and Image Management.

• BitNami Opina is a web management tool for poll management. The application is designed so any user is able to create questionnaires, publish them to obtain responses, and process results.

• BitNami EnanoCMS is a content management system that strives to have less bloat and more float than other solutions. It includes powerful administrative capabilities and a variety of plug-ins to add portals, forums, blogs, and other functionality.

• BitNami Moodle is a Course Management System that is designed using sound pedagogical principles to help educators create effective online learning communities. It can scale from one computer to a 50,000-student university and is used in 175 countries around the world.

• Aneka is an integrated middleware package that allows you to seamlessly build and manage an interconnected network in addition to accelerating development, deployment, and management of distributed applications using Microsoft .NET frameworks on these networks.

• ZPanel is a free-to-download Web hosting control panel written to work effortlessly with Microsoft(R) Windows(TM)-based servers or computers. This solution can turn a home or professional server into a fully fledged, easy-to-use, and easy-to-manage web hosting server.

UPDATES to the GoGrid Exchange:

• OpenVPN™ Access Server enables secure and granular remote access to your private cloud network resources.

• BitNami Redmine Stack greatly simplifies the deployment of Redmine and its required dependencies. It can be launched via the GoGrid Customer Portal by selecting the BitNami Redmine image when deploying a new cloud server.

• BitNami SugarCRM Stack greatly simplifies the deployment of SugarCRM and its required dependencies. It can be launched via the GoGrid Portal by selecting the BitNami SugarCRM image when deploying a new cloud server.

• BitNami Joomla! Stack greatly simplifies the deployment of Joomla! and its required dependencies. It can be launched via the GoGrid Portal by selecting the BitNami Joomla! server image when deploying a new cloud server.

• BitNami Drupal WordPress 2.8 preinstalled and preconfigured out of the box.

• BitNami Drupal 6.15 preinstalled and preconfigured out of the box.

• BitNami MediaWiki Stack greatly simplifies the deployment of MediaWiki and its required dependencies. MediaWiki is a wiki package originally written for Wikipedia.

Webinars

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GoGrid Live Training Session

Would you like to have a little more hands-on training? Sign-up for our free live training session where a GoGrid Technical Account Manager will show you the advantages of our new features and provide some use cases and best practices.
Date: October 26
Time: 11:00 a.m. PDT
Register: go.gogrid.com/webinars/20101026

Upcoming Webinars

Cloud Hosting 101

Do you know anyone who would like to equip themselves with the information needed to take their company into the cloud? Suggest our Cloud Hosting 101 educational webinar. With this educational webinar, we’ll present the basics of cloud hosting, discuss how companies can benefit from the cloud, and what steps to take to get started.
Date: Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Time: 11:00 a.m. PDT – 12:00 p.m. PDT
Register: go.gogrid.com/webinars/20101110

Load Balancing in the GoGrid Cloud: Manage Traffic Spikes and Uptime

Join GoGrid’s Sales Engineer for a presentation and discussion on the top use cases and best practices for load balancing in the cloud.
Date: Thursday, October 28, 2010
Time: 11:00 a.m. PDT – 12:00 p.m. PDT
Register: go.gogrid.com/webinars/20101028

Capture Your Share of the Cloud Market: Learn How With GoGrid’s Channel Program

Interested in becoming a GoGrid Reseller? Learn more about the available opportunities with our channel program.
Date: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 or Thursday, November 18, 2010
Time: 11:00 a.m. PDT – 12:00 p.m. PDT
Register: go.gogrid.com/webinars/reseller/upcoming

Joint GoGrid and Partner Webinars

Become a Hosting Provider with cPanel and GoGrid

Need to automate and offer competitive hosting services? cPanel is the industry standard for turning servers into a fully automated point-and-click hosting platform. By combining GoGrid and cPanel you get a one-stop shop for your hosting and platform administration needs allowing you to instantly license cPanel and deploy infrastructure in the GoGrid cloud.
Date: Thursday, November 4, 2010
Time: 11:00 a.m. PDT – 12:00 p.m. PDT
Register: go.gogrid.com/webinars/20101104

Deploy NOSQL in the Cloud

Building a Web 3.0 application? Planning to leverage socially connected data, location based data or web analytics? Looking for alternatives to SQL data bases? Join InfiniteGraph and GoGrid for an educational webinar where we’ll provide you with a powerful data management system to help you build better applications.
Date: Thursday, November 9, 2010
Time: 11:00 a.m. PDT – 12:00 p.m. PDT
Register: go.gogrid.com/webinars/20101109

Scale Your Applications in the Cloud Without Downtime or the Headache

Are you ready to scale your applications and business but aren’t sure how to move forward? Join our Cloud experts from GoGrid and Cloudkick for an educational webinar where they’ll present best practices for scaling in the GoGrid cloud.

Date: Thursday, November 11, 2010
Time: 11:00 a.m. PDT – 12:00 p.m. PDT
Register: go.gogrid.com/webinars/20101111

Events and Other News

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FailCon 2010

GoGrid will be sponsoring FailCon on October 25. FailCon is the premier conference on start-up failures and how to prepare and recover from them. From their site: “You aren’t a real entrepreneur until you’ve had to deal with failure, and recovering from it – financially, emotionally and practically – can be challenging. Hear how major players in the industry have dealt with failure, recovered from it, and kept a positive, tenacious, and energetic attitude through it all.”

SYS-CON 7th International Cloud Expo

Cloud Expo Silicon Valley will feature 200+ technical breakout sessions and General Sessions across four days from the leading Cloud industry players in the world. All the main layers of the Cloud pyramid (see: http://pyramid.gogridcom) will be represented in the 7th International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo – the infrastructure players, the platform providers, and those offering applications. This event is a must-attend for senior technologists including CIOs, CTOs, directors of infrastructure, VPs of technology, IT directors and managers, network and storage managers, network engineers, enterprise architects, and communications and networking specialists.

GoGrid will be exhibiting at booth #510 as well as presenting a few sessions throughout the conference.

As always, you can find more information about GoGrid by visiting the following links:

• GoGrid Product Site – www.gogrid.com
• GoGrid Blog – blog.gogrid.com
• GoGrid Wiki – wiki.gogrid.com
• GoGrid Forums – forums.gogrid.com

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me directly at maria[at]gogrid.com.

Thank you,

Maria Gallegos

Stay tuned for more exciting announcements coming from GoGrid!

GoGrid partner, InfiniteGraph, today announced an exciting program targeted towards startups called the “InfiniteGraph Startup Program” which provides its technology, hosted on GoGrid, at no cost to qualified startups beyond the cost of GoGrid’s standard cloud computing infrastructure usage rates.

To qualify for the program, startups need to have annual revenues below $1 million U.S. and is targeted towards privately held companies who are planning to build and promote software and/or services. Currently there are 2 images within the GoGrid Partner Exchange that are available for the GoGrid community to use, specifically: Linux 32 and 64-bit RHEL.

The following Press Release was delivered yesterday about this new offering:

InfiniteGraph Launches Free Program for Technology Startups, through GoGrid Cloud Hosting

The program supports new ventures around social and professional networking, advanced relationship analytics and business intelligence

Sunnyvale, CA (Vocus) September 8, 2010

InfiniteGraph has developed an exciting new program through its cloud partner, GoGrid, to provide its technology at no cost to qualified startups. The InfiniteGraph Startup Program allows developers to build highly scalable and distributed systems and services around social networking, business intelligence, scientific research and more, at no cost beyond GoGrid’s standard cloud computing infrastructure usage rates.

InfiniteGraph offers a unique, graph database solution based on a highly-scalable, distributed data persistence technology that has been deployed in some of the most advanced and mission-critical enterprise and government systems in operation today. Organizations can use this cloud hosted solution to discover complex relationships in their data and develop applications with significant time-to-market advantages and technical cost savings.

“We are very pleased to be working with GoGrid Cloud Hosting to offer new startups and technology ventures the opportunity to build the next great web-scale service,” said Jay Jarrell, president and CEO. “The InfiniteGraph Startup Program enables these innovative entrepreneurs to compete at the highest levels, while more effectively allocating their often limited financial and human resources.”

How to Apply:
To apply for the InfiniteGraph Startup Program, visit InfiniteGraph.com/GoGrid.

The Startup Program Includes:

• Unlimited instances of the InfiniteGraph distributed graph database, free.
• An enterprise-ready technology solution.
• World-class commercial support from a company committed to your success.

Qualifying Startups:
To qualify, organizations must have annual revenues below U.S. $1 million. Other conditions may apply.

Getting Started:

• Go to InfiniteGraph.com/GoGrid.
• Complete the online applications form.
• We’ll contact you to finalize the paperwork.
• Start building the next big social network, business intelligence, real-time interactive web service, or whatever you can imagine!

About GoGrid
GoGrid is a Global Leader in Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure hosting. GoGrid enables sys-admins, 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 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, please visit: http://www.GoGrid.com.

About InfiniteGraph
InfiniteGraph enables large-scale graph processing, data analytics and discovery in systems and services developed around social networking, business intelligence, scientific research, national security and other advanced, mission critical requirements. For more information, visit www.infinitegraph.com.

About Objectivity, Inc.
Objectivity, Inc. is the leader in distributed, scalable data management technology, and provides the core technology for InfiniteGraph. The company’s patented distributed data engine and persistent object store is the enabling technology within many markets, powering some of the most complex applications and mission critical systems used in commercial, enterprise, government and research organizations today. Objectivity, Inc. is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, USA. Please contact Objectivity, Inc. online or call (408) 992-7100 for more information.

Objectivity, Objectivity, Inc., Objectivity/DB and InfiniteGraph are trademarks of Objectivity, Inc.. All other company, organization, product or alliance names mentioned herein remain the property of their respective owners.

Please be sure to explore other Partner Solutions within the GoGrid Exchange which include offerings for Software & Applications, Development & Testing, Disaster Recovery & Backup, Cloud Management, and Security, Monitoring & Reporting.

Recently, Microsoft announced WebMatrix, a free Web development suite of software and tools that bring together a Web Server, a database and programming frameworks all within a single, integrated solution. WebMatrix allows you to code, test and deploy ASP.NET and PHP applications, all within the same environment. What does this have to do with GoGrid you might ask? Well it’s pretty simple actually, once you have developed your application locally on your PC’s desktop, you will need an easy way to copy it over and show to the world. GoGrid has worked with Microsoft to create a seamless publishing and hosting experience practically effortless.

To make it easy for new GoGrid users, we are offering a $150 GoGrid service credit for you to get started with Microsoft WebMatrix and GoGrid. To get going, simply sign-up here.

About WebMatrix (and a bit of GoGrid)

Microsoft does a clear job outlining the features of WebMatrix, specifically:

• Small, but complete package – simply download and install WebMatrix for free on your desktop. From there, you can immediately start to use the built-in webserver, database and programming framework to jump-start your web-development. And, you can quickly get started on the hosting side of things as well by deploying a GoGrid server that is ready to automatically connect to WebMatrix.
• Grows with you – you start simple and then grow as your application and development grows, much like that of Cloud Computing. As your coding expands, you can easily integrate Visual Studio into your work environment. Similarly, you can update the built-in database from SQL Server Compact to a full-blown Microsoft SQL Server.
• Start > Open Source – if you aren’t ready to start from scratch, WebMatrix includes a variety of popular and free open source applications like WordPress, Joomla!, Umbraco and DotNetNuke. Just choose your software package from the library and WebMatrix will download and install the software. And you can tweak each environment using the built-in code editor.
• Database made simple – don’t let data-driven websites scare you either. If your web application needs to serve data like a online catalog or CMS, WebMatrix has you covered by providing a small, embedded database (SQL Server Compact). But the really nice thing is, once you are done doing all of the development on your Desktop, you can publish your database quickly and easily to your GoGrid production environment.
• Elegant interface, simple experience – WebMatrix has editors galore! It includes a rich code editor and database editor, but also has easy management consoles for SEO, web server management and FTP publishing as well. Couple this management with the ease of use of the GoGrid portal and you can’t go wrong.
• Simple to code – at GoGrid, we have always believed in adhering to industry standards when it comes to hosting and managing infrastructure. WebMatrix follows a similar suit by sticking to HTML, CSS & JavaScript standards. Your code is easy to read and by using the software suite, you can do some learning in the process as you create your next web application.
• More than “Hello, World” – WebMatrix has a variety of built-in code helpers that make development even easier by simply tagging your HTML.
• Desktop or server, it’s all the same – moving from a desktop development environment to a full-fledged production environment is practically effortless since the Desktop version is built with the same frameworks, web server and database engine as production servers.
• Tightly knit, fully integrated – WebMatrix also acts as the “traffic cop” because of its integration with IIS Developer Express and other Web server components that run your site. You can monitor things in real-time and if an issue pops up, it helps you to track down and resolve that issue.
• Optimized for search – you no longer need to pay a 3rd party to ensure that your website or application is SEO optimized. Built in guides assist you in optimizing your site to the fullest.
• Site publication – once you are ready to move your web site or application to a robust production environment, WebMatrix can help in that selection process. But you may not even need that since GoGrid has partnered with Microsoft to provide a full production-ready environment within the GoGrid cloud. And, we are giving new GoGrid users a $150 service credit to make that on-ramp even faster!

Now that you know a bit about what Microsoft WebMatrix (and GoGrid) can do for you, let’s learn a bit more about it.

Getting Started with WebMatrix & GoGrid

There are two components to setting up the WebMatrix and GoGrid environments: Desktop and Server. The Desktop environment is the one where you do all of your coding and development, all within the WebMatrix development suite. The Server environment on GoGrid is where you will host the product of your labors.

Starting with the Desktop side, you will need to download the WebMatrix installer which is located at: http://www.microsoft.com/web/webmatrix/.

Installing the Desktop version of WebMatrix

Initiating the installer. Do note that depending on your choices, the installation process could be a bit longer:

The Installer confirms your selections:

Be sure to set up a secure password for SQL Server Express (you will be prompted to change it if it isn’t very secure):

Go grab a cup of coffee while the components are downloaded and installed:

Once the installation is complete, you will receive a confirmation screen:

Installing an Application (e.g., WordPress) via WebMatrix Locally

Once your installation of WebMatrix is complete, you can either start coding on your own, or install a pre-configured Open Source application. In this case, I chose to install WordPress. There are other items that you can install as well, including:

• DotNetNuke Community Edition
• nopCommerce
• Gallery
• WordPress
• Umbraco CMS
• mojoPortal
• ResourceBlender.NET
• Kentico CMS for ASP.NET
• BlogEngine.NET
• Acquia Drupal
• ScrewTurn Wiki 3.0
• Gallery Server Pro
• nService
• Moodle
• Sitefinity Community Edition
• DasBlog
• SugarCRM
• Subtext
• SilverStripe CMS
• Joomla!
• Mayando
• AtomSite
• My Web Pages Starter Kit
• phpBB
• KoobooCMS

You choose which Web Server you want to use. I chose Microsoft WebMatrix.

The Installer confirms your installation choices:

Since WordPress uses MySQL, you need to configure a secure password for it:

Time for another cup of coffee while the installer runs:

Once you have completed the installation, you can begin configuring your WordPress (or other application) install on your local machine. Just launch WebMatrix from your Start menu:

I clicked on My Sites:

The WebMatrix management console has everything you need right at your fingertips:

You can edit files using the built-in code editor that is complete with context-color-coding:

Similarly, you can manage your database (in this case, MySQL) through the database console:

Creating a GoGrid Server Ready for WebMatrix Publishing

The beauty of the WebMatrix install is being able to develop locally on your Desktop and then publish your final site to a production server on GoGrid. Before you can do the publishing, you need to set up a GoGrid server running WebMatrix. Be sure to take advantage of our $150 GoGrid Service Credit by signing up here.

Once you log into the GoGrid Portal, click the Add button and then select Cloud Server. Within the Image Selection widget, choose the “WebMatrixServer2″ image:

After that, configure your server and click Save:

Within a few minutes, you will have your production environment ready to go. At that point, you need to use a Remote Desktop Connection to remotely manage your server. Remember that the Administrator password is within the Support > Passwords section of the GoGrid portal.

Getting Your GoGrid /WebMatrix Server Environment Ready

Once you connect to your server running on GoGrid using a Remote Desktop Connection (RDC), you will see two files on the desktop, a Getting Started document and a link to Microsoft WebMatrix.

To quickly summarize, here are the high-level steps you need to complete on the GoGrid Server:

1. Run the Certificate Preparation script
2. Change the Default Application Pool
3. (Recommended) Change your MySQL or SQL Server password from the default one listed in this blog post

1) Certificate Preparation Script

Before you configure your publishing environment, you need to run a Certificate Preparation script on the server. It is located at: C:/certprep/CertPrep.exe. Simply double-click the application and it will run quickly. You will see a DOS prompt pop up briefly and then automatically close.

2) Change Default Application Pool

In order for the publishing to work properly, you do need to change the Default Application Pool from version 2 to version 4. To do this, go into your IIS manager on the server, select Application Pools, select “DefaultAppPool” (which will probably say “v2.0″) and make the change (to “v4.0″) as shown below:

Original Setting:

Updated Setting (Note: it might show a different version – just choose the v.4.0.xxxxx one):

3) Change Default Database Password

While this is not a required step, it is a recommended one. You might want to change the default password on your MySQL or SQL Server database from the default one that the server starts with. Just use the appropriate method for the database that you are using.

Editing & Publishing from Local Environment to GoGrid

Now, we will dive into the publishing to your GoGrid server. For a test, I made some edits to my WordPress theme locally. I wanted to see how it could be pushed over to WebMatrix running on the GoGrid Server instance. Here is the minor code change:

And how it appears in the local version of my WordPress blog:

The Getting Started guide which resides on the GoGrid WebMatrix Image will tell you how to configure your local development environment for publishing, specifically:

1. Click Start and Microsoft WebMatrix Beta.
2. Click Site from Gallery or create your own website
3. Click Publish
4. Enter the following information in the Publish Settings dialog:

Protocol: Web Deploy
Server: http://IP address e.g. “http://111.222.33.44″
Username: Administrator
Password: password of local Administrator account (you can get this from the GoGrid portal)
Site Name: Default Web Site
Destination URL: http://IP address

If your application needs a database connection, use the following formats in the Publish Settings:

SQL: Data Source=.\SQLEXPRESS; Initial Catalog=gogrid_db;User Id=sa;Password= $trongPassw0rd;
MySQL: Server=localhost;Database=gogrid_db;Uid=root;Pwd=$trongPassw0rd;

Note: If you changed the default password on your server, be sure to change it in the appropriate string above.

Within WebMatrix locally, click on the Configure button under Publish:

You will see the Publishing Settings:

Fill in the Publishing Settings as per the list in the Getting Started guide (as mentioned above):

Once you enter in all of the information, be sure to push the “Validate Connection” button. Assuming you have no validation issues, you can proceed with the publishing of your code/site. Clicking “Publish” will show you a confirmation screen of the files that will be published. If you want to include your database, be sure to check off that box:

Click “Continue” to publish your site/code (and database). WebMatrix will start publishing your content. You will see a status bar at the bottom showing the progress:

Clicking on “More Details” can show you what is happening:

Once you publish the site (using the Publish button) and send over the database, you may also need to change which Default Document loads first. By default, it is Default.htm. In order to have the WordPress default document show up, you should move Index.php to the top of the list within your IIS manager. Once you do that, the WordPress blog (in this case) will load, complete with the changes you had made locally:

Now, any changes that you do locally on WebMatrix can be published to your GoGrid Server.

Summing It Up

Obviously, you don’t need to use one of the pre-packaged webapps that are available. You can just as easily create your own custom code and publish it the same way as I have outlined above. Regardless, using the GoGrid/WebMatrix combo does fulfill a variety of end-to-end development, testing and publishing scenarios. And with the $150 GoGrid service credit, you can test out this environment to see if it meets your needs.

Let me know how it goes or if you have any questions!

GoGrid Partner, Librato, who provides a service called Silverline which enables customers to control and maximize the utilization of resources within their cloud servers and datacenter servers, today announced the availability of the Silverline service within the GoGrid cloud.

With a GoGrid server running Silverline, customers can control the amount of resources each workload can consume meaning that you can process your workloads on a smaller number of servers but still ensuring that SLAs with your customers are met. More information about Librato Silverline can be found within the GoGrid Exchange.

There are currently 10 GoGrid Partner Server Images (PGSIs) available with Librato’s Silverline installed:

• CentOS 5.2 (32-bit)
• CentOS 5.2 (64-bit)
• CentOS 5.3 (32-bit)
• CentOS 5.3 (64-bit)
• RHEL 5.4 (32-bit)
• RHEL 5.4 (64-bit)
• Windows Server 2003 (32-bit)
• Windows Server 2003 (64-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 (32-bit)
• Windows Server 2008 (64-bit)

The following Press Release was delivered today about this new offering:

Maximizing Server Utilization with Librato’s Silverline in the GoGrid Cloud

Instantly Deploy Servers with GoGrid Partner Images Preconfigured for Spare Cycle Harvesting, Application Monitoring and Event Triggers

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Librato^®, Inc., a leading provider of software solutions that maximize the utilization of cloud and data center resources, today announced the availability of Silverline service on GoGrid’s cloud hosting infrastructure. Silverline is preconfigured for the GoGrid cloud in the form of a Partner GoGrid Server Image (PGSI) in the GoGrid Exchange and delivers spare capacity harvesting, monitoring of application resource consumption, and event handling on GoGrid servers.

Silverline encapsulates applications in virtual “containers” that precisely monitor resource consumption, up to 100 times per second. Use cases for Silverline include:

• spare cycle harvesting – where a background application uses only resources not consumed by primary applications,
• application monitoring and capacity planning – which provides detailed statistics on resource usage and demand, and
• event triggers – where thresholds are set with corresponding user-defined actions configured to occur when an application crosses a threshold.

Silverline supports Linux and Windows running on virtual or physical servers. Silverline is always available for free on Windows Desktop systems and is available for a 30-day free trial on Linux and Windows servers.

GoGrid makes it easy to build and manage cloud servers with an award-winning, web-based GUI or programmatically through an API,” said Fred van den Bosch, CEO of Librato. “Silverline is available for a free 30-day trial and provides a powerful mechanism to monitor resource usage for complex workloads that can span multiple GoGrid servers or hybrid clouds.”

Librato Silverline, when coupled with the GoGrid Cloud, allows customers to get even more out of their existing “cloudcenter” by giving them precise control over the amount of resources that each application workload on their GoGrid server consumes. This enables customers’ workloads to be dispersed among different GoGrid servers in the most efficient manner possible, which means they will now easily be able to maximize utilization, productivity, and moreover, the value they obtain from all of the servers they have running in their “cloudcenter”.

Silverline gives GoGrid users the ability to control their infrastructure utilization on GoGrid down to a level never before seen,” said GoGrid CEO, John Keagy. “While Cloud Computing gives you better control over your infrastructure, by adding the Silverline service to the mix, GoGrid users can fully benefit from increased server resource management.”

About GoGrid

GoGrid is a Global Leader in Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure hosting. GoGrid 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 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, please visit: http://www.GoGrid.com.

About Librato, Inc.

Librato, Inc., is a leading provider of software for maximizing the utilization of resources in clouds and data centers. Librato’s products are based on a unique, application-centric virtualization layer that is transparently interposed between application and Operating System. This allows its products to be easily deployed in existing cloud and data center environments and generate a rapid return on investment. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. For more information visit http://www.librato.com or follow Librato on Twitter at http://twitter.com/librato.

Librato, the Librato logo, and Librato Silverline are trademarks or registered trademarks of Librato, Inc. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Please be sure to explore other Partner Solutions within the GoGrid Exchange which include offerings for Software & Applications, Development & Testing, Disaster Recovery & Backup, Cloud Management, and Security, Monitoring & Reporting.

Yesterday, Cranium Solutions, a GoGrid Partner announced the launch of an automated cloud-based security assessment tool within the GoGrid Exchange.

About Cranium Solutions

Cranium Solutions’ flagship product, ASAP™ (Automated Security Assessment Program), is the first fully automated end-to-end network security testing solution that runs as a Cloud Based Service.  Businesses can perform simple and automated Vulnerability Assessments and Penetration Tests of any systems they have deployed on the GoGrid Cloud. Furthermore, the Cranium Solutions ASAP Service is a GSI based service that can be setup in minutes and requires no configuration by the customer unless they are performing assessments of servers that do not have external IP addresses.

Cranium Solutions on the GoGrid Exchange

There is currently 1 image live on the GoGrid Exchange for Cranium Solutions. It is on a CentOS 5.3 (64 bit) image:

Pricing

The ASAP Service is sold on a prepaid, per-use system, which means customers only have to pay for what they need or expect to use.  To get set up, just click on the “New User” link on the login page once you launch the Image. You will receive a confirmation email after creating your account that allows you to log back in and finish setting things up. On creation you are given 2 free IP credits. You then simply purchase more scan credits using the PayPal button on the login page.

Single device assessment credits are sold through an integrated PayPal system for $15 each, with purchase of credit required prior to the assessment. Blocks of assessment credits are sold at increasing discounts and purchased credits are recorded in the user’s account without expiration or requirement for immediate use. All GoGrid customers that sign up for the ASAP service will be given two free assessment credits after registration for use on two single IP devices.

Cranium Solutions Press Release

The following Press Release was delivered by Cranium Solutions yesterday and is available online as well:

Cranium Solutions Launches Automated Cloud-Based Security Assessment Service on GoGrid

Cranium Solutions ASAP Provides Automated Vulnerability Assessments and Penetration Tests of Cloud Deployments

CONCORD, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cranium Solutions, Inc, the creator of ASAP (Automated Security Assessment Program) and a leader in end-to-end automated Security Assessment solutions, today announced the release of its cloud-based Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Test services to GoGrid customers, based on its unique virtual portal delivery technology. The Cranium Solutions ASAP service is now available through the GoGrid Cloud in the form of a Partner GoGrid Server Image, enabling GoGrid customers to instantly deploy the portal and begin running complex security testing of their systems in the GoGrid cloud, including systems on a private internal network. As part of the launch, Cranium Solutions will provide each new GoGrid ASAP customer with 2 free IP assessments.

The Cranium Solutions ASAP service enables customers to quickly and easily identify vulnerabilities on their GoGrid servers, public facing or internal. Once found, vulnerabilities can be validated by performing the integrated Penetration Test to determine if they are truly exploitable or false positives. This comprehensive end-to-end assessment process creates highly accurate technical and executive summary reports, which contain recommended remediation steps. The Cranium Solutions ASAP infrastructure is fully hosted in the GoGrid Cloud, assuring that GoGrid customers will always have the latest updates and features without having to ever load a new version of the Virtual Portal Partner GSI.

“The deployment of the Cranium Solutions Virtual Portal on GoGrid enables GoGrid customers to easily assess and protect their systems, in a way that no other cloud provider can match,” said Mark King, CEO of Cranium Solutions. “Cranium’s Cloud based architecture and delivery system leverage the benefits of cloud computing, allowing us to offer a more comprehensive solution without requiring long-term subscriptions or licenses.”

About GoGrid

GoGrid is a Global Leader in Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure hosting. GoGrid gives users the control of a familiar datacenter environment with the flexibility and immediate scalability of the cloud. For more information, please visit: http://www.GoGrid.com.

About Cranium Solutions

Cranium is privately owned and headquartered in Concord, California. For more information about ASAP and Cranium Solutions, visit: http://www.cranium-solutions.com.

Please be sure to visit the GoGrid Exchange for other solutions that include: Software & Applications, Development & Testing, Disaster Recovery & Backup, Cloud Management, and Security Monitoring & Reporting.