One of the most powerful aspects of Cloud Computing is the ability to scale your infrastructure. But did you know that there are two components to scalability, horizontal and vertical. GoGrid has been offering easy horizontal scaling since we launched.

So what is scaling and how are you able to do this with GoGrid. Let’s break it down with a quick, high-level definition and then show you how you can do it on GoGrid

What is Scaling?

Horizontal scaling simply means the ability to expand your infrastructure out, for example, adding additional servers to your infrastructure. You can currently do this using the GoGrid web portal or API or even using one of the solutions offered by our partners in the GoGrid Exchange. Similarly, if you use our MyGSI feature to create a Golden Master of your server, you can quickly scale out vertically with cloned instances of that MyGSI. Conversely, you can also scale your infrastructure back by removing servers from the mix.

Vertical scaling means that you can add additional resources to your individual infrastructure components, for example, adding addition RAM or cores to a server.

How To Scale Your RAM on GoGrid

So, how do you scale your infrastructure on GoGrid? As I mentioned, you’ve always been able to horizontally scale your infrastructure and now we are pleased to announce the availability that you can vertically scale using our new RAM Scaling feature. GoGrid customers can now scale the RAM up or down on GoGrid Cloud Servers within their existing and new infrastructure in the GoGrid cloud.

At GoGrid, it is our goal to live up to the phrase “Complex Infrastructure Made Easy™“, so we have designed our RAM Scaling feature to be as easy to use as possible.

For starters, the RAM Scaling feature is backwards compatible, meaning that you will have the ability to scale your GoGrid Cloud Server RAM on your existing infrastructure. You can increase as well as decrease the amount of RAM allocated to a particular Cloud Server Instance. An important point to note prior to diving into the details is that there is a “minimum” threshold amount that is set to the original amount of RAM you selected when you first created your Cloud Server. However, you have the ability to scale the RAM up to a larger amount (if available) and then back down to that original level.

Below is an example of how the RAM scaling works. In this case, I started with a server that had 512 MBs of RAM (the original configuration). I then scaled it up to 4 GBs and then back down to 2 GBs of RAM. Note that throughout the process, I always have the ability to scale back to the original RAM allocation.

Once the Cloud Server is available, you can see its original configuration by holding your mouse over the server.

You can also see the server creation history in the Job History tab:

Let’s take a look at the process involved in upgrading the server to have 4 GBs of RAM. First, you click on the Cloud Server you would like to upgrade and you will not a new icon in the task menu:

Simply click on the “Upgrade” icon and you will be presented with your RAM scaling choices. As mentioned above, your minimum RAM options is the amount of RAM the server was originally spun up with. Your maximum  RAM option is the maximum available for your OS. In this case, my server has a 32-bit OS and was originally created with 512 MB of RAM:

Select the new amount of RAM you want allocated to that particular server and click “Submit”. Within 5 minutes or less, your server will have the new allocation in effect. In some cases, the RAM scaling process may take as long as 30 minutes. Below is the updated server:

If your server is powered up with you click “Submit”, it will be gracefully shut down and then restarted, so please be sure that you have already shut down any running processes on your server directly. If the server is powered down, it will remain shut down after upgrading. You can always view the status within the Job History tab:

Conversely, if you want to scale your Cloud Server’s RAM down, you would go through the same process of selecting the server, clicking the “Upgrade” icon and choosing a lesser value of RAM. You can scale it back down to the original creation allocation (in the example above, that would be 512 MB).

You can also perform RAM scaling within the List view by selecting the server you want and clicking the “Upgrade RAM” link at the top of the list:

Hopefully you can see what a powerful feature this is for your GoGrid cloud. It enables you, on demand, to instantly add RAM to your RAM-hungry environments. But it also gives you a way to “upgrade” your existing infrastructure.

Some things to note:

• The Scalability is ONLY for RAM. It does NOT affect your Hard Disk size nor your CPU/Core allotments
• You CANNOT scale below the original amount that your server was configured
• The functionality is FULLY SUPPORTED via the GoGrid API
• Be sure to power your server down or prepare your server for a graceful shutdown by stopping or ending any running applications or processes.

Other Changes in this Release

In addition to the important RAM scaling feature, we also released the following 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.
• More Details about Cloud Servers – you can, in addition to RAM, IP address, and OS, now see the number of Cores and Disk Space of your servers. This is true on the Grid view and List views:
  
  
• Minor Redesign to the Tool Bar in the List view

We believe that with this release, GoGrid continues to show leadership within the Cloud Infrastructure Hosting space. If you have suggestions or other features that you would like to see implemented, please leave a comment to this post.

We are excited to announce a joint webinar with F5 and GoGrid that discusses the top Use Cases and Best Practices for load balancing in a public cloud. When GoGrid launched several years ago, we were pleased to have F5 as a technology partner in our initial offering. It remains a core feature of the GoGrid Cloud today. Recently, with the addition of our East Coast datacenter, we released load balancing for GoGrid infrastructures in that datacenter as well.

Many current GoGrid users are not taking advantage of our free F5 load balancing so if you are one of those customers, we encourage you to attend this webinar. Things to think about:

• You can prevent application downtime – when you have more than one server in a load balanced environment, you can rest assured that if one of those servers happens to become unavailable, traffic to your site is automatically redirected to the other available server(s).
• Scaling infrastructure – without a load balancer in place, it can be difficult to scale up (or down) your infrastructure.
• 1-2-3 Process – deploying a load balancer is just a matter of filling out a form and once you configure it, your new load balancer is available in minutes.
• Moving beyond the “Free” offering – if your routing needs are more complex, we are here to help with other solutions.

Webinar Details

Title: “Load Balancing in the GoGrid Cloud – Utilizing F5 BIG IP to Manage Traffic Spikes and Uptime”
Date: Wednesday, 8/25/10
Time: 10:00 AM – 10:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time
Registration: http://go.gogrid.com/webinars/20100825

Topics to be covered in this webinar include:

• Enterprise grade hardware load balancers
• Multi-data center resource provisioning
• Configuration options at different levels: load balancing types and persistence
• And more!

Presenters:

• F5 Networks: Doug Lohf, Senior Systems Engineer
• GoGrid: David Michael, Sales Engineer
• GoGrid: Rob Larson, Product Manager

As a thank you for attending, all attendees will be eligible for a $50 GoGrid Service Credit.

Be sure that you attend this important webinar as it can help you do more with your F5 load balancing solution that you already have available within your GoGrid cloud.

GoGrid is pleased to announce today our technology partnership with Zeus Technology. This strategic partnership brings Zeus’ leadership in software-based application traffic management to GoGrid’s Cloud Hosting infrastructure. Using Zeus’ ZXTM VA (Virtual Appliance), GoGrid customers can now add robust traffic management capabilities like traffic shaping and prioritization, content compression and service level monitoring, among others.

Other benefits of using Zeus’ ZXTM include:

• TrafficScript—the most intuitive traffic routing language available
• Java Extensions for sophisticated traffic processing needs
• Server Load Balancing providing Layer 7 traffic management for all applications
• TrafficCluster Scalability to grow capacity and prevent compound failures
• Application Acceleration for enhanced ROI on new and existing deployments
• Control API for tight integration between ZXTM and other devices
• Event Handling for automated alerting and resolution of key events
• More are listed on the Zeus GoGrid Partner page

The full press release is below as well as available online.

Cloud Computing Provider GoGrid Enables Highly Scalable Web Applications Using Zeus Technology

GoGrid deploys Zeus ZXTM software to provide a fast, highly reliable and scalable Cloud Computing infrastructure to its customers

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – June 2, 2009 – GoGrid, the Cloud Computing division of ServePath Dedicated Hosting, today announced a strategic partnership with Zeus Technology, the only software-based application traffic management company. The partnership will enable GoGrid to offer Zeus’ ZXTM VA (Virtual Appliance) software as an integral part of its on-demand service offering to its customers, who are deploying their web infrastructure within a Cloud environment.

Without the worry of significant upfront hardware costs, Cloud Computing offers vast savings in bandwidth costs, provides total flexibility as well as energy efficiency and economies of scale. GoGrid’s customers can purchase Zeus’ secure, layer-7 load balancing and application acceleration solution on a flexible, pay-as-you-go licensing fee calculated on monthly usage. This will give them access to dedicated traffic management features, not available from hardware based competitors.

With the ability to handle massive volumes of web traffic and ensure consistent availability and uptime, ZXTM VA is much more than a load balancing solution. Additional features include bandwidth management, traffic shaping, traffic prioritization, content compression and service level monitoring, coupled with TrafficScript™, an intuitive traffic routing language. This will result in huge performance improvements for GoGrid’s customers.

Travis Reed, General Manager, Americas, Zeus Technology, explains: “As organizations review and upgrade their IT infrastructure and their business requirements change, we are seeing a shift to the Cloud. In doing so, customers are able to rapidly scale their IT infrastructure, also taking advantage of greater operational efficiency, better quality of service and commercial flexibility.
“The combination of the great Cloud Computing infrastructure provided by GoGrid and the power of Zeus’ software solutions, enables existing and prospective GoGrid customers to have dedicated, enterprise-class traffic management solutions in GoGrid’s Cloud.”

John Keagy, CEO, GoGrid, said: “It was a logical choice to partner with Zeus. Offering a pure software solution as a virtual appliance makes it ideally suited to a Cloud environment. Zeus fits our model of delivering scalable web hosting perfectly. By integrating Zeus’ unique SPLA program into our Cloud infrastructure, we can now offer a dedicated, instantly scalable and cost-effective traffic management solution to all our customers, on-demand and in a more agile manner. Our customers will find the ability to avoid the initial investment in proprietary hardware, while improving efficiency, managing traffic growth and enabling applications  to scale and burst as they need to, to be hugely advantageous for them.”

Whilst GoGrid offers free load balancing via a physical f5 hardware appliance, Zeus’ ZXTM Virtual Appliance software allows you to further manage and control scalable web applications with robust traffic management features not available in the standard GoGrid out-of-the-box solution. Creating a full-featured “cloudcenter” using GoGrid with Windows and Linux cloud servers, load balancing and Cloud Storage has never been easier. Plus, you can now take your cloudcenter to the next management level with the addition of Zeus’ ZXTM VA software.

About GoGrid – http://www.gogrid.com

GoGrid is the leading Cloud Computing, hosted, Internet provider that delivers true “Control in the Cloud™” in the form of cloudcenters. GoGrid enables system administrators, developers, IT professionals and SaaS (Software as a Service) vendors to create, deploy, and control load balanced cloud servers and complex hosted virtual server networks with full root access and administrative server control. GoGrid server instances maintain the industry standard specifications with no requirement to learn and adapt to propriety standards. Bringing up servers and server networks takes minutes via a unique web control panel or GoGrid’s award winning API. GoGrid delivers portal controlled servers for Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, SQL Server, and ASP.NET. GoGrid hosts multiple open-source server operating systems including several Linux operating systems (Red Hat Enterprise and CentOS) and supports application environments like Ruby on Rails. Free load balancing and other features are included to give users the control of a familiar datacenter environment with the flexibility and immediate scalability of the cloud, a “cloudcenter.” GoGrid won the coveted 2008 LinuxWorld Expo’s Best of Show award.

About ServePath – http://www.servepath.com

ServePath, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, is the leading managed and dedicated hosted server provider, delivering custom solutions and managed services to businesses that require powerful Internet hosting platforms for their production environments. Thousands of companies worldwide look to ServePath for its reliability, customization, and speed. ServePath has a Keynote-rated A+ network and guarantees uptime with a 10,000% guaranteed™ Service Level Agreement. The employee-owned company has been in business for nine years and operates its own San Francisco data center and is SAS70 Type II certified. ServePath uniquely delivers server infrastructures optimized for complex databases with cloud front-ends and application servers with Cloud Connect.

About Zeus Technology – http://www.zeus.com

Zeus software enables our customers to create, manage and deliver exceptional online services in Physical, Virtual and Cloud environments. Implementing a Zeus solution allows organizations to visualize and manipulate the flow of traffic to their web-enabled applications, thus ensuring a consistently robust web infrastructure. Coupled with the ability to deploy new online services very quickly, Zeus helps provide the competitive advantage businesses need, by making their online services faster, more reliable, more secure and easier to manage. Zeus software can be deployed on industry standard hardware, virtual machines and any Cloud platform, making it the right strategic choice for today and tomorrow. Zeus holds strategic partnerships with world-class companies such as Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Oracle, Sun, Qualcomm and VMware. Zeus powers over one million website infrastructures across the world including, BT, Comic Relief, Domino’s Pizza, Gilt Groupe, ITV, PLAY.COM, STA Travel and Virgin Media. Zeus is in a unique position to assist any business looking to enhance their mission-critical Internet service infrastructure.

For more information regarding the GoGrid/Zeus offering, please visit the Zeus Partner page within the GoGrid Partner section of the website.

Today we released a new Whitepaper written by Randy Bias, GoGrid’s VP of Technology Strategy titled “Scaling Your Internet Business.” If you are a Web Application Developer or interested in learning about scalability, specific to how it relates to Web Applications in or outside of the Cloud, I encourage you to give this whitepaper a read.

The whitepaper can be downloaded here from the GoGrid site.

Scalability is critical to the success of many organizations currently involved in doing business on the Web or who are providing information that may suddenly become heavily demanded. While there are many strategies that IT organizations can undertake, the way they are designed and implemented can make or break these businesses.

The GoGrid whitepaper discusses the following topics:

• How web applications scale
• Cloud Computing and scalability therein
• Thinking through and choosing a scaling strategy
• GoGrid & ServePath scalability options

Scalability can come in all shapes, sizes and flavors. You can scale “up” (vertically) or “out” (horizontally). Choosing the right option can be tricky, if not daunting. Depending on what you want your strategy to be, you can choose “cloud-only”, “dedicated/colocated-only” or a “hybrid” approach.

A Cloud-only environment.

A “Hybrid” environment using Cloud Connect.

A “Hybrid” environment using Dedicated and Colocated servers in conjunction with a Cloud front-end using Cloud Connect.

“Businesses need more than just cloud computing to solve their scalability problems,“ says the whitepaper author Randy Bias. “Web operators and developers want to use the best tool for the job and, right now, cloud computing is one tool in their arsenal. GoGrid has pioneered the concept of cloudcenters, datacenters-in-the-cloud, which provide the full range of scalability tools needed for a growing business including cloud servers, managed dedicated database servers, private VLANs, VPNs, and even co-location for those who need their own hardware. This whitepaper describes how a growing business can use vertical and horizontal scaling techniques to the most advantage to save money and never miss a prospect, customer, reader or interaction.”

Companies interested in learning about Web Application Scalability, Cloud Infrastructure, hybrid hosting and scaling solutions available from GoGrid or ServePath are encouraged to download this whitepaper from either the GoGrid site or ServePath site.

With the MacWorld Expo 2008 hitting the Internet today, many users were looking for a good way to get live updates from the Steve Jobs’ Keynote Address. There were many sites offering the traditional “write and update” blog posting method where the blogger continually update their blog post. Those sites actually turned out to be slow and with spotty service. Even the big names like Engadget and Gizmodo and C|net had issues of demand.

Recently, I tested out a new service from CoverItLive.com whose service allows for the embedding of live-blogging within a blog post. It’s actually a pretty well thought out, feature-rich service that we may use in the future at our local Meet-Ups like SFBeta or SFNewTech. However, there was one part of the service that they didn’t “think out” very well today…that of capacity.

I believe that several sites were planning on using CoverItLive’s service during the Keynote address (sites like geekbrief.tv). Unfortunately, when I went to look at GeekBrief, it simply did not load. So, digging deeper, I looked to see if perhaps CoverItLive was showcasing some of today’s Apple Live-Blogging events. What I was greeted with on their site was this:

“Global demand exceeded our capacity.” Those words hurt. They hurt CoverItLive and they hurt all of their customers who were planning on using the service to cover this event. Again, let me reiterate that I believe that CoverItLive seems to be a great product offering. It just seems that their demand forecasting needs a bit of work.

So, where would GoGrid have helped? As I see it, in a couple of ways:

1. The ability to quickly deploy new web servers in just a few minutes
2. To only pay for the outbound bandwidth that was used (during the event)
3. The ability to delete servers once the event is completed
4. Setting up a mirrored or back-up environment to direct other traffic to

And this is only with the GoGrid version launching shortly. (Sorry, but I can’t reveal future features as of yet.). Perhaps as other companies begin offering services that need rapid scalability, they will take the time to “plan ahead” and look towards virtualized server hosting as a saving grace.