Rackspace

Change.org: 20M users but not a single server

The online social networking platform for promoting social change handles more than 20 million users, but has a tiny in-house IT footprint thanks to its use of cloud services from Amazon and Rackspace. The key thing, says infrastructure manager Kyle VanderBeek, is flexibility.

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Sonian gets new funding — but no more from Amazon

Cloud storage player gets $13.6 million from newbie OpenView Venture Partners and existing investors with the conspicuous exception of Amazon, which ponied up $9M last time out. Sonian will use the money to bring CAD and medical images into its managed/searchable cloud service.

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There’s no need to be a one-cloud company

We’ve all heard the saying, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” It’s a simple, but profound message that many of us forget on a daily basis. When it comes to the cloud the same idea prevails, but using multiple clouds can have advantages.

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AWS Adds Very Cheap, Very Expensive Support Options

Amazon Web Services has made available two additional support options for customers of its cloud computing services. Customers can now choose from the Bronze level, which costs $49 a month, or the Platinum level, which costs at least $15,000 a month.

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Jan. 5: What We’re Reading About the Cloud

Despite the fact that it’s still a mystery how big the cloud computing business really is, it’s already having huge effects on the IT world, including shortening the timeline from idea to product, maximizing profit per server and changing CIOs’ jobs.

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Hybrid Computing: Using the Right Tool for the Job

Some of the most creative uses of cloud computing use a hybrid of cloud servers and conventional servers to provide the best of both worlds. But there are disadvantages to such an approach, so here’s how engineering organizations have designed hybrid architectures to counter issues.

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Rackspace Buys Cloudkick. Here Is Why

Rackspace is moving up the cloud stack by acquiring Cloudkick, a startup that provides server management and monitoring as a service. Rackspace already has a partnership with CA-owned Nimsoft, so I suspect the purchase was spurred by a desire to compete with Amazon Web Services.

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Rackspace Launches CloudConnect, Critical Sites

Rackspace today launched two new services targeting the enterprise customers: Cloud Connect, which allows folks to seamlessly integrate Rackspace Cloud and dedicated hosting. Cloud Connect, which was released from beta at the beginning of November. Critical Sites is a monitoring service for large customers.

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Nov. 9: What We’re Reading About the Cloud

Today’s new demonstrates just how young, but promising, the cloud really is. Engine Yard is adding users fast, streaming video is driving demand for computing resources, and Rackspace is growing its cloud revenue and offerings while battling a little negative PR from disgruntled users.

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No Kidding! Telx, a Data Center Operator, Files for a $100M IPO

The Telx Group, an NYC-based data center operator, has filed for an initial public offering that could see it raise as much as $100 million from the public markets. With the demand for data centers and Internet services on an upswing, Telx’s IPO is very timely.

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Report

Amazon’s Virtual Private Cloud: What’s New, What’s Next

On Aug. 26, 2009, Amazon announced a new initiative: the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). Essentially, the new service enables a company to extend its internal data center to incorporate Amazon EC2 compute instances — it’s as though the perimeter of the data center has bulged out to incorporate a set of AWS compute resources. All traffic between the data center and the EC2 instances in the VPC runs over an encrypted virtual private network, ensuring that the traffic is secure and private. Tools commonly used within data centers, like traffic analyzers and intrusion detection, can be used on the Virtual Private Cloud. The net effect is that companies can incorporate scalable, cheap computing into their existing compute arrangements and treat the VPC resources as though they reside within the data center. The new services hold the potential for making enterprises that are reluctant to trust public cloud computing more comfortable and thereby increase acceptance of cloud computing. This service, by itself, does not address all aspects of “privatizing” a public cloud; the issue of securing persistent storage within Amazon still remains and must be addressed at the EC2 instance level rather than via a general AWS Service. Nevertheless, this is a significant announcement and one that hold the potential of increasing corporate adoption of AWS. This note looks at further implications of the announcement, what questions are left to be answered, and what to expect next from both Amazon and its competitors.

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Amazon Opens Windows For All, and EC2 Graduates

Amazon Web Services, which said three weeks ago it would begin offering Windows on its Elastic Compute Cloud in closed beta, has opened the beta service up for all. Even bigger news is the beta tag has been removed from the rest of the EC2 service and it now has an SLA.

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Tech IPOs Return With Rackspace

After a long dry spell, technology initial public offerings took a small step towards a comeback as Rackspace Hosting, a San Antonio,…

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