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!

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So the cat is sort of out of the bag with the release of the May 2010 GoGrid Newsletter. We definitely have some exciting news to share with GoGrid customers and those looking to move their infrastructure into the GoGrid Cloud. If you are currently a GoGrid customer receiving our newsletter, you should have received the following:

For those of you who do not receive the Newsletter and are interested in the latest and greatest news coming from us at GoGrid, what follows is the contents of the May 2010 GoGrid Newsletter:

Hello,

Spring is upon us and the change of the season presents us with new beginnings. In this edition of the newsletter, we’ll discuss information and opportunities that can help your business with new growth.

Specific topics include: (more…)

At GoGrid, we are experts in “Hybrid Hosting“! What is hybrid hosting you ask? Essentially it takes the best of the physical and virtual hosting worlds and combines the two in order to provide a compelling and flexible infrastructure offering in the Cloud. If you desire the elasticity of virtual servers, being able to horizontally scale on demand, with GoGrid, you have that option with a variety of GoGrid and Partner virtual server images available. However, if you or your clients require compliance certification or you are simply accustomed to working with bare metal servers, a GoGrid physical server may be the solution you need.

If you haven’t experienced the power of Windows Server 2008 or Microsoft SQL Server 2008 running on a dedicated machine, we have come up with a program to get you using them quickly. Not only can you instantiate Windows Server 2008 or Microsoft SQL Server 2008 as a GoGrid Virtual Server, you NOW have the option to deploy them as GoGrid Physical Servers.

So, for a limited time, we are providing a $500 discount on dedicated servers running Windows Server 2008 or Microsoft SQL Server 2008.

Getting your infrastructure into the Cloud with GoGrid has always been quick and easy. Now, with the physical/dedicated server offering that we recently added, you have the added flexibility of being able to choose the type of infrastructure you desire as well as mix virtual and physical environments, and all of it on-demand, without contracts and within the same network infrastructure.

In order to qualify for this $500 promotional credit, customers must contact a GoGrid sales representative AND mention this offer. And be sure to tell them that you read about it on the blog. You can also find more information as well as a sign-up form here.

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Yesterday GoGrid finished the rollout of a series of updates designed to make the GoGrid Windows end user experience even better. While not a major feature release, there are some important items to note moving forward.

Windows Image Updates

With this update, there are a few things that GoGrid users should be aware of, specifically:

• The following GoGrid Windows images have been updated with the latest (as of February 2010) Microsoft Windows Security Hotfixes (see table below).
• Windows image names are now more consistent with Microsoft naming standards
• This only applies to GoGrid Virtual Server Images and does not affect Partner or Personal GoGrid Server Images (MyGSIs).

The full list of updated Windows images is below.

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We are excited to announce a new event for GoGrid and WebsiteSpark which will be taking place on Tuesday, March 30 from 10am to 6pm Pacific Time in the San Francisco Bay Area. For those of you who are new to WebsiteSpark, it is a powerful program designed to help Web Designers and Developers drive new business opportunities through connections and customers around the world. I posted some detailed information about the WebsiteSpark program and how GoGrid can be your preferred hosting partner in this program.

In order to help educate you on this outstanding business opportunity that can save your startup or small business literally thousands of dollars in licensing & hosting costs, Microsoft and GoGrid have teamed up with an event called “WIN with GoGrid & Microsoft WebsiteSpark” that will be taking place on the Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus. Wondering if you should attend? Please take a look at the bullet points below to help determine if this is a good event for you:

Are you a Web Professional…

• Interested in free software and support to grow your web development business?
• Who needs help getting your customers’ websites to the top of the search rankings?
• Looking for tips and tricks to design and develop next generation web experiences?
• Looking to make your web development business more profitable?
• Looking to streamline the way you design, build and deploy websites?
• Looking to mix the best of Open Source with the best of Microsoft in your customer’s websites?
• Questions on how to deploy Microsoft infrastructure in the Cloud?
• Learn about Windows Azure Application Lifecycle Management on GoGrid!

But wait! There’s more! All attendees of this event are entered into a drawing to win one of the following: (more…)

Whoops! Missed a day there. I was busy planning out events for 2010 for GoGrid! I realize now that this is somewhat difficult writing about Cloud News every day so I’m going to start something for Fridays called “This Week in Cloud” which will have some of the bigger Cloud Computing news stories that I came across. I may still do the regular “Cloud News” if there are events or items that warrant coverage. Without further ado, here’s what I read about that got my interest:

• Amazon’s Data Center Outage Reads Like a Thriller
  “When an Amazon Web Services data center lost power early Wednesday, the company wrote about the unfolding event with the brevity and tension of one its bestselling pot boilers.” (Source: CIO/ComputerWorld)
  • Commentary: Ok, we all know that outages happen, whether in the cloud or not. The cloud is under intense scrutiny so when there is even the most minor of hiccups, people scream and yell and pull out their SLA’s and demand immediate recourse. It’s never fun when I read about an outage since we are all birds of a feather working towards a common good. The reason I linked to this article in particular is because of the nature in which it was written…truly like a technology thriller! The funny thing is, I have been through a few outages in various companies that I have worked for and they are never fun. You are torn in many directions of trying to find out internally what is going one, and figuring out the best way to communicate with customers in a way where they won’t freak out but still understand that an “event” is being actively working on. When there is an outage, it truly does unfold organically (and hopefully not catastrophically, causing a cascade effect). Third party monitoring is important as is a good backup and disaster recovery strategy. (GoGrid recently partnered with Stratonomic who provides real-time DR solutions.)  Regardless, the Amazon Data Center outage did not last long and everyone was back on track (but hopefully thinking about making their IT infrastructure more resilient). It was nice to see that GoGrid had (and still seems to have) the highest marks on the Apparent Networks Cloud Provider Scorecard.
• Hackers Find a Home in Amazon’s EC2 Cloud
  “Security researchers have spotted the Zeus botnet running an unauthorized command and control center on Amazon’s EC2 cloud computing infrastructure. This marks the first time Amazon Web Services’ cloud infrastructure has been used for this type of illegal activity, according to Don DeBolt, director of threat research with HCL Technologies, a contractor that does security research for CA.” (Source: PCWorld)
  • Commentary: I don’t want to turn this into an AWS bashing, that is not my intent (even though they are a direct competitor to GoGrid). But this news (old by internet news speed standards) is important to look at. Hackers are an inquisitive (yet destructive) bunch. Recently, I heard about how some hackers created a service (called AutoWhaler) to pull account details from phishing sites. Now if that isn’t innovation, I don’t know what is! Seriously though, hackers can cause a variety of damage to infrastructures that are not protected and actively monitored. The problem is, they are so innovative (or perhaps “creative” is a better word), that it is often difficult to prevent or plan for intrusions within one’s infrastructure. Obviously this and other examples simply prove that while Cloud Computing can help many, we still have a ways to go. On the flipside, this same type of invasion could well have happened within a server farm of physical servers. It’s just the Cloud has the spotlight now.
• Microsoft buys Opalis to strengthen cloud management capabilities
  “Moving to strengthen its management tools related to virtual environments, Microsoft Friday said that it has purchased IT process automation vendor Opalis for an undisclosed sum. Microsoft said the acquisition, which had been rumored for nearly two months, adds to its System Center portfolio needed tools that can manage highly automated and scalable virtual environments. The tools complement Microsoft’s strategy to stretch its management tools across on-premises environments and the cloud.” (source: NetworkWorld) (more…)

More news raining from the Cloud:

• Microsoft Azure, Server teams form new cloud division
  “In a much anticipated move, Microsoft announced the combination of the Windows Azure group with the Windows Server and Solutions group into a new organization, titled the Server and Cloud Division. The new division, headed by Senior Vice President Amitabh Srivastava, will be a part of the Servers and Tools Business, headed by Bob Muglia.” (source: cnet – the Wisdom of Clouds)
  • Commentary: As always, James Urquhart breaks the news on his great blog, the Wisdom of Clouds. While it seems that this announcement has been some time in the making, it is good to see it materialize. It only makes sense to me that Microsoft blend the Server/Cloud environments. It’s important that synergies exist from the get-go since many of the features can be leveraged cross-departmentally and should be views as a “single solution.” I’ve mentioned this numerous times before but this is why we at GoGrid developed Cloud Connect which is a Hybrid Hosting solution of physical and cloud servers all connected via private dedicated physical connections. Buried in James’ article is the mention that CTO Ray Ozzie is no longer in charge of the Azure team which signifies Microsoft’s move toward making Azure an important part of their business offerings.
• Microsoft, Cisco, IBM and Others Form Cloud Computing Group
  “A group of companies is starting up an Enterprise Cloud Buyers Council in hopes of removing barriers to enterprise use of hosted cloud computing. Initial members include companies that offer hosted cloud computing as well as enterprises that use such services, including Microsoft, IBM, HP, Cisco, AT&T, BT, EMC, Deutsche Bank, Alcatel-Lucent, Amdocs, CA, Nokia Siemens Networks, Telecom Italia and Telstra. Two industry organizations, Distributed Management Task Force and the IT Service Management Forum, are also involved. The TM Forum, an industry association that helps information and communications companies create profitable services, came up with the idea of the council.” (source: PCWorld)
  • Commentary: It’s great to see so many big names joining together to form a “Council.” My only fear is that egos within each of the organizations will come into play as each company tries to promote their own agenda. I can only hope that this (and other similar organizations that have been set up) will actually do something constructive with their efforts. Working on avoiding “vendor lock-in” and “standards-based solutions” is great and all, but these are overly hyped buzz-words that have been discussed throughout 2009 (and back some). Perhaps by throwing some big names behind a council will help to mitigate the fear that so many enterprises have about the cloud (e.g., security, reliability, compliance, standards, etc.) Time will tell if this new organization will produce any effects or results whatsoever. I’m a bit skeptical myself.
• Top 5 cloud computing predictions for 2010
  “Cloud computing standards and major cloud computing outages top Linthicum’s list. Evidently it’s a requirement that all of those in the cloud computing world must chime in with their cloud computing predictions for 2010, so here are mine…” (source: InfoWorld)
  • Commentary: Oh boy, I’m already behind on my predictions. Guess I need to start on that really soon! David’s Linthicum’s top 5 is a pretty sensical list actually, although numbers 4 and 5 might indirectly go hand-in-hand. Hint, if you are thinking about a successful new-business to start, do a cloud computing startup since you will be snapped up by a large player once you are mildly successful. Well, that is a dramatic oversimplification of #’s 4 and 5. Read through his list though as they are distinct and good thoughts.

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This past Wednesday night, GoGrid was the host of another StartUp SF (along with co-host Microsoft BizSpark of which we are a Hosting Partner). The guest speaker was David Weekly, founder of PBWorks, a client of GoGrid & ServePath. StartUp SF is a regular meetup in San Francisco designed to help young businesses become more successful. Each meetup has a format designed to stimulate, engage and network in a social learning environment. Each event has a guest speaker who talks about expert subject matter and how it relates to helping startups. Also, successful companies showcase their products and services in an interactive manner with product demos occurring throughout the event.

Full details from the 12/02/09 event are on the StartUp SF page.

Below is the video of David’s talk titled “Give Your Ideas Ex-Lax“:

David Weekly (PBWorks) Speaks at StartUp SF v2.2 from HighTechDad on Vimeo.

His presentation is also available on SlideShare and is below:

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Over the past few days, I have seen a lot of articles, tweets and commentary about how the recent failure within Danger (who was purchased by Microsoft about a year ago) of data for the T-Mobile Sidekick was “the Cloud’s fault,” and this really bothered me. As Microsoft is poised to do something with the Danger brand (“Project Pink“) as well as soon release their Cloud Computing Platform called Azure, this could not have come at a worse time for them. There is obviously a lot of attention being paid to the cell phone market place as the Android platform is trying to make a positioning move to attempt to dethrone Apple’s iPhone. The Danger (now Microsoft) Sidekick was a device that provided great functionality “back in the day” (I actually went through quite a few generations of Sidekicks – from the B&W version up to a few color ones a few years ago). The Sidekick has a tiny market share and the user demographic is really much younger (e.g., teens) than the iPhone/Android/Blackberry crowd.

Last week, the Danger data network started experiencing some degradation of service where users were unable to access their data. A quick side note about the Sidekick, unlike other data-containing cellphones, the Sidekick stores all of the data (contacts, appointments, pictures, etc.) in a network datastore and not within the device itself. Most users rely solely on this service and don’t back up their data to a local computer. Other “smarter” phones like the Blackberry and iPhone rely on data synchronization with a physical computer or an Exchange Server to reliably back up their data. In my opinion, this is where the failure of the Sidekick started – single remote source of data only.

Details on the data issue are still being revealed (recently, there is a discussion about “dogfooding” or even “sabotage” where Microsoft may have wanted to replace the existing technology with their own – I will let the conspiracy theory experts battle that one out) but my understanding is that Microsoft wanted to upgrade the SAN (Storage Area Network) that powered the Sidekick data network and contracted with Hitachi to get the job done. Unfortunately for reasons unknown, no backup of the data was performed prior to this upgrade attempt (Failure #2). The upgrade of the SAN proceeded without a backup in place and the data was “destroyed” resulting in thousands of Sidekick users stuck without their data. As of this writing, some users have actually been able to recover data (e.g., if they didn’t power off their device or if they did a “reverse sync” from their Sidekick back to the Danger servers – I don’t have details on this so please don’t try anything without doing any research first).

This brings me back to the title of this post: this fiasco is NOT a failure of Cloud Computing, it is simply a failure of not following standard IT practices, ones that even an average computer user knows. Back up your data, your servers and your infrastructure regularly and store it securely in different locations.

It is somewhat understandable (and unfortunate) that mainstream media and even the tech community jump so quickly to the conclusion that the Cloud is at fault here. Cloud Computing is relatively new and as with any new technology or service, people are looking for any and all holes therein. The same could be said about the launch of eCommerce back in the mid-1990′s. There were failures, fraud and other issues associated with it and the naysayers were quick to point out only the negatives of the movement. Today, people use eCommerce for everything and could not live without it (there are still issues with fraud and security but the technology has evolved and stabilized). Cloud Computing is now going through a similar hype-cycle and we are in the phase where many are adopting and using it wholeheartedly but others are sitting in wait, hoping for some sort of a failure to point out the disadvantages of it.

With recent Gmail failures, users were quick to blame the Cloud. Gmail is a great example of a SaaS application (which many, including me, call a “Cloud Application”). However, Gmail has been around longer than the term “Cloud Computing” so have we simply compartmentalized it into a Cloud Application category? It is not a huge issue if we have. However, what DOES bother me is when a failure happens therein and people simply say “oh, it’s the Cloud’s fault”. Sorry, but what would we have said if a similar failure happened 4 years ago? “Oh, it’s a failure of SaaS” and “SaaS is evil”?

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GoGrid, and parent company ServePath, are excited to announce participation in Microsoft’s new WebsiteSpark Program, specifically targeted towards Web Professionals. Using WebsiteSpark, Web Pros can drive new business opportunities through connections with partners and customers around the world.

Before jumping into the details and Q&A, if you already know that you want to participate in this program with either GoGrid or ServePath as your Hosting partner, please visit our signup pages on the GoGrid site or ServePath site.

But what does all of this mean? Trust me, I have read through all of the 19 pages of Frequently Asked Questions and Program documentation and it is a bit overwhelming. So, this blog post is really an effort to try to cull out the critical points of importance for you. However, if there are any questions that you do have after reading this, I encourage you to talk to some WebsiteSpark folks or sales reps at GoGrid or ServePath. At a high-level, this is an incredibly helpful program targeted towards Web Professionals.

Probably the best way to approach this is through a series of questions and answers.

What is WebsiteSpark?

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