On Wednesday, we held a webinar titled: “Load Balancing in the GoGrid Cloud – Utilizing F5 BIG IP to Manage Traffic Spikes & Uptime“. As with previous webinars, we wanted to make this GoGrid webinar public to other users in case you were not able to attend.

The agenda of the webinar was as follows:

• Overview of GoGrid and F5 Networks
• Load balancing with GoGrid and F5 BIG IP
  • Benefits of load balancing overview
  • Use cases
  • Best practices
• Question and Answer Session

As mentioned previously, if you aren’t using a load balanced solution in your Cloud infrastructure, you may be putting your site or services at risk. Here are some reasons why you should seriously consider using GoGrid’s FREE F5 load balancing service within the GoGrid cloud:

• 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 on GoGrid 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 – we have solutions that go beyond the standard load balancing offering within GoGrid. If your routing needs are more complex, we are here to help!

If you were unable to attend this webinar, the complete recording is available below as well as on our Vimeo channel:

Load Balancing in the GoGrid Cloud – Utilizing F5 BIG IP to Manage Traffic Spikes and Uptime – Webinar (August 2010) from GoGrid on Vimeo.

The presentation that was used in the webinar is also available on our Slideshare channel:

If you are looking for a Load Balancing solution in the cloud, definitely consider GoGrid’s free F5 load balancing service. If your needs go beyond what is offered for free, you can contact a GoGrid Sales Representative or if you are a current GoGrid customer, you can talk with your Dedicated Service Team and work on some more advanced solutions.

If there are any other topics you would like covered in a future webinar from GoGrid, please let me know.

Yesterday, I posted an article about a webinar we held that was targeted at current GoGrid users. To round out the mix, we held another webinar geared towards users who might be new to Cloud Computing and GoGrid itself. This second webinar, titled “Complex Infrastructure Made Easy – Learn How You Can Leverage the GoGrid Cloud” was recorded on 6/29/10.

Similar to its predecessor, this webinar covered many aspects of the GoGrid 3.0 release. Presenters were Jeff Samuels, Michael Sheehan and Kole Hicks of GoGrid. The topics we discussed included:

• Overview: Complex Infrastructure Made Easy
• Landscape & GoGrid 3.0: What is the Cloud, GoGrid 3.0 new features
• Partner Ecosystem: Solutions from the GoGrid Exchange
• GoGrid’s Unique Value Proposition: Direction of the GoGrid Cloud

If you were unable to attend this webinar, the full recording is available below as well as on our Vimeo channel:

GoGrid 3.0 Webinar: Learn How You Can Leverage the GoGrid Cloud from GoGrid on Vimeo.

The presentation deck is also embedded below and is similarly available on our SlideShare channel:

We realize that it is very difficult to cover all of the features and services available to GoGrid customers. This webinar obviously only touches upon a few key items. We encourage you to explore the newly redesigned GoGrid website and be sure to contact a Sales Representative should you have any additional questions.

If there are other topics you would like to see covered in future webinars (or blog posts), please leave a comment and let me know.

GoGrid was a sponsor and exhibitor at the recent Structure 2010, a Cloud Computing industry event that took place on June 23 & 24 in San Francisco.

The event topics covered a wide range of Cloud subjects, with many industry leaders discussing their views on the subject matter at hand. Topic titles included:

• Dealing with the Data Tsunami: The Big Data Panel
• Cloudonomics: The Value of the Cloud
• Guru Panel: Web Infrastructure for Real Time and Critical
• Hitting Reset: Reinventing Core Internet Technologies
• Analytics and Management Layers
• What Comes After the Blade? Architectures for the Cloud
• Fatter and Faster: Reducing Latency and Increasing Capacity on Broadband

There were several panel sessions as well.

GoGrid’s CEO & Co-Founder, John Keagy, was interviewed by GigaOM Pro’s Derrick Harris. John answered the following questions:

• “GoGrid is a cloud provider, can you explain the GoGrid service?”
• “Cloud computing is a hot topic right now, how is GoGrid’s business?”
• “One of the keys to GoGrid’s success is your strong Partner program. Can you talk a a little bit about your Partner program and why it is important for Cloud providers to have one?”
• “Do you find that a lot of your Partners bring a lot of business to GoGrid?”
• “Another unique thing about GoGrid is your background in managed hosting and dedicated servers. Can you talk about how that enables GoGrid to offer a hybrid cloud option?”

You can also catch up on a variety of other sessions using the GigaOM/Structure widget below:

Do you have any questions for our CEO? If you do, feel free to leave a comment on this post or you can drop me an email to: michael[at]gogrid.com.

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

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

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

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

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

• Who and What is GoGrid?
• The GoGrid Portal
• The GoGrid API
• The Anatomy of a GoGrid API Call
• A Sample API Request
• Sample Code
• GoGrid API Objects & Actions
• Challenges in Developing
• Who is the API for?

The full presentation is also available below:

If you are interested in how the GoGrid API works, I encourage you to look at the GoGrid Wiki where you can find the “Getting Started Guide” as well as the following items:

• Anatomy of GoGrid API Call
• Common API Call Patterns
• API Frequently Asked Questions
• API Libraries and Tools
• Download a GoGrid API Quick Reference Guide
• API Version Log

Also, I’m personally curious to find out if and how you are using the GoGrid API. Have you created a program to hook into our API to control scaling or deployment of servers? What about creating your own interface to our service? Please leave a comment and let me know!

With the March 2010 GoGrid newsletter, we welcome and introduce a new name to our communications, that of Maria Gallegos who has joined us as a Product Marketing Coordinator for GoGrid. Maria comes from a marketing background (from financial services to non-profits) and will be producing the GoGrid newsletter as well as managing other customer experience programs. One of her first tasks has been the March 2010 Customer Update Newsletter.

For those who are not current GoGrid users, we provide the full newsletter on our blog, just so that you can see what you are missing out on! If any of the items that are mentioned here interest you, or if you want to get started on GoGrid right away (remember, we provide a full range of hosted infrastructure solutions ranging from Cloud Servers to Dedicated Servers to Cloud Storage, all within a Load Balanced network), I encourage you to speak with a GoGrid Sales Representative. They can provide you with answers to many of your infrastructure hosting questions. Just tell them that I sent you!

Here is the full March 2010 GoGrid Customer Update newsletter:

Hello,

As 2010 continues to progress, so does GoGrid. From system enhancements to new partners, you’ll find this edition of the newsletter full of information to better help you manage your cloud hosting infrastructure. Specific topics include:

1. New Features and System Enhancements
2. New Windows Minimum RAM Limits
3. New Partners GSIs
4. GoGrid and Microsoft WebsiteSpark Event
5. Other News

New Features and System Enhancements

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Coming April 1, 2010

GoGrid will offer two new hardware firewall services. The firewall services are great for ensuring your hosted servers are free from malicious threats. Plus, you can manage security for your GoGrid VLAN from a single device. The hardware firewall services are delivered via a custom hybrid network and require a GoGrid Prepaid Data Transfer Plan.
Here are the available options:
Option 1: Fortinet Firewall
Pricing

• $99.99/month
• Free setup
• Requires a monthly data transfer plan

Included features

• 100 Mbps throughput
• 100,000 concurrent sessions
• Includes one VPN (SSL, site-to-site, or IPSec)

Option 2: Cisco ASA Firewall
Pricing

• $349.99/mo
• Free setup
• Requires a monthly transfer plan

Included features

• Robust site-to-site and remote access IPSec VPN connectivity
• Multi-Vector Attack protection
• Layer 2 transparent firewall capability

To learn more about GoGrid firewall services, please contact your GoGrid account manager or call the GoGrid sales line 1-877-946-4743.

System Enhancements

On Thursday, March 25, we will release updated Windows Server 2003 and 2008 base operating system images. The new images will appear in the image selection widget located in the GoGrid portal and include the following enhancements:

• Updating the images with the latest (as of Feb. 2010) MS Windows Update HotFixes

New Windows Minimum RAM Limits

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On March 25, we will implement new minimum RAM limits for all Windows Server 2003 and 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server operating systems.
Here are the new minimum RAM limits:

• Windows Server 2003 – 1 GB minimum
• Windows Server 2008 – 2 GB minimum
• Microsoft SQL Server – 2 GB minimum

We are implementing these minimum RAM limits (based on Microsoft recommendations) in order to address server performance issues caused when Windows virtual servers are deployed without sufficient RAM. Existing virtual servers will not be affected by the new minimum RAM limits – the new RAM limits apply only to new server deployments.

New Partner GSIs

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The GoGrid Exchange allows our partners to offer their services to the GoGrid community. This month we have rolled out 3 new partners. The new partners offer services that should allow you to better manage, control and secure your GoGrid infrastructure. Here are the new partner details:

EVault Off Site Backups

This is a cost-effective off site backup and recovery service for businesses that are hosting critical data in the GoGrid cloud. Look for EVault SaaS in the image selection widget located in the GoGrid portal.
For price details, please contact your GoGrid account manager or visit the GoGrid Exchange for EVault service details.

art of defence: hyperguard® SaaS

Protect your web and cloud applications against known and unknown attacks at the application layer (such as SQL injection, cross site scripting or more general OWASP Top10) with art of defence’s firewall (dWAF), hyperguard.
Pricing: $39/month
Access hyperguard SaaS by simply using the image selection widget locate in the GoGrid portal.
More details on art of defence is on the GoGrid Exchange.

Gear6

Delivers higher memory efficiency and is the only Memcached service that can leverage cloud-based storage to increase cache depth by several orders of magnitude. Free and paid images are now available in the GoGrid portal.
Find out more about Gear6 on the GoGrid Exchange.

Upcoming Webinar: Learn about the pros and cons of implementing Memcached in a cloud environment, the basics and best practices of implementation and leveraging free and commercial Memcached GoGrid offerings.

Title : Memcached: Making the Cloud Scalable for Web 2.0 presented by Gear6 and GoGrid
Date: Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Time: 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM PD
Reserve your webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/511484563

To get started with any of our featured PartnerGSIs or to learn more, visit the GoGrid Exchange or contact your GoGrid account manager.

GoGrid and Microsoft WebsiteSpark Event

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Win with GoGrid and Microsoft WebsiteSpark

Learn about this outstanding business opportunity that can save your startup or small business literally thousands of dollars in licensing and hosting costs.

Date : Tuesday, March 30, 2010 from 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM PST
Location: Microsoft – Silicon Valley, Mountain View, CA
Click here to register: http://websitespark-gogrid-01.eventbrite.com/?ref=ecount
For more information about using GoGrid as your WebsiteSpark Hosting Partner visit: http://www.gogrid.com/microsoft_websitespark/

Cloud Connect 2010 Expo

GoGrid will be an exhibitor at the Cloud Connect Expo. Explore the benefits and opportunities of cloud computing, learn how to develop successful business models and build relationships and get in-depth technical information on cloud development.
Date: March 15th – 18th
Location: Santa Clara Convention Center
For a Free Expo Pass or to save 40% on the price of a Conference Pass, use priority code: CNJPCC01 when registering at: http://www.cloudconnectevent.com

Other News

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Watch the GoGrid New Feature Release Webinar

We recently hosted a webinar featuring recent updates to GoGrid. If you didn’t get a chance to attend, you can still view the video at GoGrid Feature Release Webinar.

GoGrid is HIRING!

We currently have over 10 open positions in Engineering, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Sales, Services and Administration. See: http://www.gogrid.com/company/careers.php for more details.

As always, you can find more information about GoGrid at:
GoGrid Product Site – http://www.gogrid.com
GoGrid Blog – http://blog.gogrid.com
GoGrid Wiki – http://wiki.gogrid.com
GoGrid Forums – http://forums.gogrid.com

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me directly at Maria[AT]GoGrid.com.

Thank you,
Maria Gallegos

Thanks for reading!