At GoGrid we are always looking for ways to improve our product and add value for our customers. We have recently released some new services built on our new Software-Defined Networking (SDN) architecture that customers are already adopting: the Dynamic Load Balancer and Firewall Service. We have recently released a Console access feature on our management console for all our customers.
The new console service allows customers to directly access their cloud servers through the management console without using a third party client. Customers have been asking for this feature as it allows for emergency access in the case where they have locked themselves out with a bad host firewall configuration or if they need to do further diagnostics. Accessing the service is easy.
Public clouds are fantastic for a majority of infrastructure use cases. And interconnectivity between clouds enables myriad solutions to empower businesses to have multiple synchronized points of presence across the world. Companies can easily set up connections that traverse the public Internet as a means to transmit and potentially synchronize data between cloud data centers. But these connections need to be reliable and more often than not, private.
CloudLink private network between cloud data centers
With public network connections between clouds, users are at the mercy of hops and latency. For example, data may take one route with a particular number of hops, and a second later, may follow a completely different path and take a longer or shorter amount of time based on the connection.
In terms of securing the transport, some companies rely on point-to-point VPN connections using a hardware or software solution or some combination of the two. However, these solutions are also constrained by the connection and have limited speeds.
There are some scenarios or use cases that warrant using dedicated private networking to join geographically dispersed clouds. This is where GoGrid’s CloudLink service comes into play.
GoGrid’s CloudLink is a data center interconnect product—a redundant 10 Gbps pipe that is isolated to GoGrid traffic only. CloudLink enables private network traffic between different servers in GoGrid’s US data centers. As part of our “Complex Infrastructure Made Easy” mission, we designed this service to be basic yet powerful and still meet the needs of demanding organizations. Because this is a private network, much like the private network within GoGrid’s standard cloud infrastructure, there are no bandwidth costs. You simply decide on the connection speed (10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, or 1 Gbps), configure your connection, and pay for just the dedicated connection. (more…) «The Top 3 Private Networking Use Cases for CloudLink»
GoGrid has recently released some new features that improve on the customer experience using our private network. Private Network Automation (PNA) is currently available in all our data centers. As of this most recent release, these new features will be exposed if you enable PNA by contacting support:
All servers will have a private IP assigned upon creation (both virtual and dedicated)
Any private IPs that are used will be marked as assigned on the portal
Cloud Storage no longer requires static routes. It is now accessible via your favorite protocol (Samba, SCP, etc.)
The assignment of private IPs happen automatically at the time a new server is deployed. GoGrid has enabled this for all new customers. If you are an existing customer, this is feature IS NOT enabled in data centers where you have servers deployed. You will need to file a support ticket to request this feature. Note that once enabled, this will be active for all new servers only – existing servers will keep their existing settings.
As you can see from the screenshot below, once you create the server, you will have a public IP and a private IP assigned. Note that this feature is enabled for both virtual and dedicated servers.
This is also visible in the Networking tab so that you can monitor private IPs that have been assigned from your block.
When it comes to cloud computing, you have a variety of choices to make should you decide that you want the cloud powering your products and services. Do you go for a Cloud Application or traverse down the Cloud Pyramid to a Platform or Cloud Infrastructure service? Each layer represents different strengths and weaknesses in terms of control, breadth and depth of service and cost. Obviously, you should choose the solution that is both the most flexible and cost effective to suit your business or application needs. But sometimes the choices can simply be daunting. We are here to help – it’s important to choose a cloud partner and not simply a provider.
To add more complexity to the mix, there are now a few choices for Private Cloud deployments and implementations and yes, private clouds are hot right now. Why would you want a private cloud in the first place? Perhaps your organization deals with confidential data or needs to meet some compliance requirements. Or does your company have requirements the dictate limited or no public Internet access? Perhaps your corporation is looking to roll out cloud infrastructure for various divisions and needs to control cloud sprawl and renegade cloud “purchases?”
To make things simple, there are really two choices for a private cloud: do-it-yourself in-house OR use a managed solution. There are some pretty clear differences between the two but instead of me listing them out, sit back and watch this 4 minute video to help explain the differences:
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