Tuesday, July 16th, 2013

Time	Event
12:42p	CloudVelocity Announces $13M Funding, New Tools for AWS CloudVelocity today released its One Hybrid Cloud software for migrating applications to Amazon Web Services. The company seeks to provide seamless movement of apps between cloud platforms and data centers, as shown in this diagram. (Image: CloudVelocity) Cloud startup CloudVelocity has raised $13 million to further its tools to provide seamless migration of enterprise applications between data centers and cloud platforms, and has released its One Hybrid Cloud software to move workloads to Amazon Web Services, the company said today. CloudVelocity says its software will make it easier to seamlessly move complex cloud deployments between data centers and multiple public clouds. More importantly, the One Hybrid Cloud technology adds security features that may make cloud adoption more accessible for enterprise customers with stringent compliance and security requirements. It allows users to clone multi-tier app clusters and services, without modification, into the Amazon Web Services EC2 cloud, with migration and failover capabilities. The Series B funding was led by Third Point Ventures, while Pelion Venture Partners and previous investor Mayfield Fund also participated. The $13 million round brings the total raised by CloudVelocity to $18 million. The Santa Clara, Calif. company plans to use the funding to further accelerate its roadmap and growth. Automating Multiple Processes “Today’s solutions for migrating existing apps into the cloud fall short for most enterprise apps,” said Rajeev Chawla, chief executive officer of CloudVelocity. “We automate five sets of critical processes and extend authentication and other network services into the cloud, making the cloud a seamless extension of the data center. Our goal is to accelerate the migration of enterprise apps into the cloud and to drive higher levels of agility, protection and scale for apps trapped in the data center today.” The company’s investors believe CloudVelocity can become a key enabler of enterprise cloud adoption. “We believe that enterprises are highly motivated to leverage cloud economics and features but have been slowed by persistent obstacles,” said Robert Schwartz, Managing Partner at Third Point Ventures and a member of CloudVelocity’s board. “We spoke with numerous CloudVelocity customers, target customers, partners and other industry participants as a part of our lengthy due diligence process. The comment we heard consistently was that CloudVelocity was introducing a much needed, massively disruptive yet simple to deploy solution that would accelerate enterprise cloud adoption. That is why we’re excited to partner with CloudVelocity.” CloudVelocity says more than 100 enterprise trials have conducted trials since the company emerged from stealth in December 2012. Today it announced the general availability of One Hybrid Cloud for AWS. Other platforms will be added, but CloudVelocity led with AWS due to Amazon’s leadership in the public cloud computing market. Cloning Cloud Apps One Hybrid Cloud can “clone” existing cloud applications, making it easier to replicate a deployment in a new cloud environment or create a failover solution that keeps an app online when your public cloud crashes. CloudVelocity detects an existing environment, discovering the constituent hosts and blueprinting system components and configuration. It can then provision cloud resources, replicating and synchronizing the entire app stack (including operating system, kernel, app software stack, and app data) in the cloud site. The company says this process differentiates its offering from image or template-based tools. “Until today, cloud migration and cloud-enabled disaster recovery have not been viable for the vast majority of enterprise data center apps,” said Chawla. “With today’s launch of One Hybrid Cloud, we are significantly reducing the amount of manual processes, risks and expenses otherwise required to deploy robust enterprise data center apps into the cloud.” CloudVelocity was founded by a team of experts in distributed systems, storage, virtualization and networking in 2010 and emerged out of stealth mode in December 2012. (Comment on this)
2:09p	Pairing for Scalability: In-Memory Data Grids and the Cloud William Bain is CEO of ScaleOut Software. WILLIAM BAIN Scale Out Software Cloud computing is rapidly being adopted by companies across a wide range of industries. Among its many benefits, the ability to offer on-demand elastic computing enables enterprises to maintain fast application performance in the face of burgeoning workloads. Cloud infrastructure must easily scale to add more application instances, and the environment must offer platform services that enable applications to effectively and transparently scale performance over those instances. This is where cloud-based in-memory data grids (IMDGs) enter the picture. By dramatically simplifying and enhancing the deployment of scalable applications within cloud infrastructures, in-memory data grids play a key role in delivering on the promise of cloud computing. Even better, today’s advanced IMDGs can work across cloud and on-premise environments and some even integrate data parallel computational engines that can perform real-time analytics on cloud-based data, while the data is rapidly changing. Elastic, Memory-Based Storage in the Cloud Scalable applications hosted in the cloud need to eliminate performance bottlenecks so that they can take full advantage of the cloud’s elastic resources. The use of an in-memory data grid gives applications a scalable storage repository for fast-changing application data, eliminating disk bottlenecks and minimizing use of cloud-based persistent storage. It also enables transparent sharing of application data across a pool of application instances, which simplifies design and reduces development time. To be effective, the IMDG needs to natively support elastic scaling of the data grid to meet application requirements. As servers are added, the grid should automatically scale its storage capacity throughput and load, permitting applications to benefit from consistently fast access times. When no longer needed, grid servers can be removed, and stored data automatically compacts into the remaining servers. The in-memory data grid’s natural elasticity helps applications enjoy the full benefits of running in the cloud. Transparent Data Migration In-memory data grids can also significantly reduce the complexity of migrating applications to the cloud, which helps both developers and IT managers seamlessly take advantage of cloud resources. They do this by integrating data grids at multiple sites into a single logical, and coherent in-memory data grid. It can be viewed as forming a “bridge” to the cloud, automatically migrating data between on-premise and cloud environments as needed. By making data seamlessly available regardless of location, you can avoid the need for applications to manually re-stage grid data into a separate cloud-based store. Applications benefit from immediate, transparent access to fast-changing data worldwide. For example, consider a premise-hosted ecommerce Web farm that needs to scale into the cloud to handle high seasonal demand. To accomplish this, the Web site’s administrator reconfigures the IP load-balancer to distribute Web requests across both on-premise and cloud-based Web servers. By using an in-memory data grid that supports data integration, all Web servers transparently and coherently share session data within a single, virtualized Web server farm spanning both sites. The migration of session data is automatically managed as it flows into and out of the cloud without the need for explicit re-staging by IT administrators. Data Analysis In addition to automatic scalability and transparent data migration, in-memory data grids open the door to performing powerful data analysis within the cloud. Advanced IMDGs provide an integrated computational platform for data-parallel analysis in the cloud. By integrating a highly efficient “map/reduce” style execution engine with a scalable, in-memory data grid, real-time analysis can be performed on live operational data held in the IMDG and can be run continuously while the data is being updated. The result: businesses can spot opportunities and issues when they arise and take immediate action. There are a multitude of use cases that can benefit from real-time analysis, like financial risk analysis, fraud detection, recommendation engines, reservation systems, and many more. In summary, the cloud and IMDGs are highly complementary to each other. Together they offer an environment where elastic computing can be employed to provide a range of benefits to help enterprises meet today’s computing challenges and to optimize business results. Industry Perspectives is a content channel at Data Center Knowledge highlighting thought leadership in the data center arena. See our guidelines and submission process for information on participating. View previously published Industry Perspectives in our Knowledge Library. (Comment on this)
3:30p	Rackspace: AWS is Clouding the Picture on Dedicated Servers All dedicated servers are not created equal. That’s the message today from Rackspace Chief Technology Officer John Engates, who says recent price cuts on dedicated virtual machine instances from rival Amazon Web Services have led to confusion about “dedicated” products. In a blog post, Engates responded to the recent AWS price cuts. He emphasized that Rackspace doesn’t aspire to be the cheapest cloud player, building its business on its “Fanatical Support,” which is a major differentiator for the San Antonio firm. But Engates also asserted out that the cuts don’t have the impact that the investor community seems to perceive. After last week’s announcement from Amazon, Rackspace stock dipped as much as 8.5 percent amid concerns that the cuts in AWS’ dedicated EC2 offerings could potentially be seen as a threat to Rackspace’s lucrative business in dedicated and managed hosting. Engates says the current discussion is conflating apples and oranges. “The real conflict lies in the way that AWS defines dedicated computing, which is at odds with the view of the rest of the industry, including Rackspace,” writes Engates. “At Rackspace, we don’t charge a separate fee for each region or for each data center where you have a dedicated server. Nor do we charge extra for our renowned Fanatical Support. Our pricing philosophy is to provide transparency and simplicity. We won’t nickel and dime you with hidden costs, extra charges and complex pricing structures.” Dedicated as Gateway to Hybrid Rackspace is famous for removing itself from the hosting pricing wars several years ago and focusing on providing a premium product with its Fanatical Support. The strategy worked well. As a public company, it is under additional scrutiny from an investor community. Rackspace asserts that there’s a disconnect in Wall Street’s reaction that doesn’t reckon with the intricacies of internet infrastructure. Engates’ blog post goes into great detail in laying out the differences between the companies, both philosophically and from a cost perspective. Engates goes over the differences between servers vs. instances, as well as unit cost vs. total cost.   There has been a lot of anecdotal evidence that some companies are leaving public cloud for a service provider hybrid cloud. “Many of our customers come to us from a one-size-fits-all public cloud, and they tell us that the hybrid cloud approach has improved the performance, reliability and overall cost of their infrastructure,” writes Engates. “One thing we’ve learned from these customers is that dedicated hardware (whether bare metal or with virtualization) isn’t going away. If anything, there’s a renewed need for it with the increased use of I/O-heavy applications such as databases and Big Data platforms. The public cloud is a powerful technology, but it isn’t the answer for every business or every workload. Customers want to run the cloud where they want (whether on premise or in a vendor’s datacenter), how they want, and in the combination that best fits their applications. In many cases, dedicated hardware will play a key role.” (Comment on this)
6:44p	Bay Area Internet Acquired by Private Equity Firm Private equity firm The Stephens Group has acquired Bay Area Internet Services (BAIS), a colocation provider in Santa Clara with a Tier IV facility. DH Capital served as exclusive financial advisor to BAIS, and The Stephens Group partnered with the vXchnge management team on the transaction. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. “This is an excellent opportunity for our customers and employees,” said Thomas Wye, Chairman and CEO of BAIS. “I am grateful to the DH Capital team for the guidance they provided us every step of the way as we negotiated this strategic transaction.” BAIS provides colocation, managed IT and high speed access services. It completed the first phase of its Santa Clara colocation facility in 2009 and added 83,000 square feet and an additional six megawatts of power in 2010 to support the high-density requirements of an unnamed large new customer. This is a fully redundant, Tier IV datacenter facility constructed with environmentally friendly products and systems, utilizing the newest energy efficient technology and architectural design methodologies. The site won the Silicon Valley Power Energy Innovator Award for its energy efficient technologies and architecture. It features an innovative economizer design. DH Capital is well known in the Internet infrastructure space, specializing and advising in some high-profile deals in the space, including SoftLayer’s sale to IBM. The firm’s principals have extensive experience in capital formation, finance, research, business development in operation. “We are pleased to have assisted BAIS in this exciting transaction,” said Townsend Devereux, Partner of DH Capital. “Tom and his team have built a first class data center business and facility.” “Through this transaction, BAIS is well-positioned to achieve further success with the financial support from The Stephens Group and the successful track record of the vXchnge management team,” said Peter Hopper, CEO of DH Capital. The vXchnge management team, led by former industry veteran Ketih Olsen (formerly of Switch & Data)  adds strong leadership atop of a premier data center asset in BAIS. “Bay Area Internet Solutions complements the specific value drivers of our business,” said Olsen,. “Over the past eighteen months we have visited many data centers, spoken with numerous customers, both of which were instrumental in creating the tenants of the vXchnge value proposition for network centric businesses. The users of data center services continue to seek more efficient places to run their businesses. The need for increased power solutions, being generated from high performance platforms such as Cloud Services, require an architecture, infrastructure and operation not yet available in a choreographed suite of services.” The Stephens Group has been active in the Internet infrastructure space of late. Last month it led a  Notably, it led a Series D Funding round for FireHost, a company known for providing ultra-secure cloud. FirHost has raised a total of $34M in three years, brought secure cloud hosting to the European market, introduced FluidScale, a unique rebootless scaling technology for cloud. As with FireHost, the Stephens Group is playing at the top-end, premium part of the market with this acquisition. “The Stephens Group has successfully backed strong management teams for over eight decades,” said Robert Covington, Managing Director of Stephens Group. ”We have a history of building excellent companies in growth focused markets. By combining the BAIS company with the vXchnge management team, we have the perfect combination of leadership talent and a world class asset.” (Comment on this)
6:50p	Cosentry Doubles Capacity in Omaha Data Center Cosentry has doubled capacity in its Midlands data center in Omaha, Nebraska, citing increased demand as the reason for expansion. The data center is effectively doubling in size, including space for over 250 new cabinets with the capacity to support up to 12 kilowatts per cabinet. “Cosentry has rapidly sold out the first phase of our latest generation data center in Omaha, which proves enterprise customers in both Nebraska and the broader Midwest markets are seeking a full service data center provider that can manage their mission critical IT infrastructure,” said Derek Gillespie, Chief Sales Officer with Cosentry.  “The additional capacity in Midlands will support the growth demands for our existing client base as well as help answer the call for data center services we are seeing from emerging enterprises in our local markets.  Our customers are telling us that their business applications require data center solutions that offer assured availability and we have been able to deliver.” The Midlands data center is in tornado country, so it’s designed with safety in mind. Initial construction of the data center was completed in 2010, and it was built to accommodate anticipated expansion. The facility was designed to withstand the harshest weather conditions, including the ability to withstand 250 mile per hour winds. The roof of the facility has multiple layers, built out of reinforced concrete, and equipment to run services is kept within wind resistant walls. “Cosentry set out to build the world-class data center in Nebraska and the broader Midwest by offering a combination of the highest level of critical infrastructure, such and power and cooling, along with ensuring the center can withstand the most severe weather conditions,” said Kevin Dohrmann, Chief Technical Officer with Cosentry. ”Our Omaha data center was built to withstand tornado level winds and other disasters, so customers can rest assured their IT Infrastructure will maintain highest level of availability in the market.” Cosentry specializes in Midwest data center services, providing colocation, cloud, hosting and managed services out of facilities built with resiliency in mind. Private equity firm TA Associates acquired CoSentry in 2011. The Midlands Data center also maintains OSHA Compliance, and was the first LEED Registered data center facility in the region. The Midlands Data Center was given Energy Star Certification in 2012. (Comment on this)
8:11p	‘Catastrophic’ Storage Failure Slows Oregon Jobless Checks A “catastrophic failure” in the state of Oregon’s government data center has delayed unemployment payments to residents, the state said Tuesday. The outage began Monday night during scheduled maintenance, but kept state systems offline until midday Tuesday. The delay caused backups in the Oregon Employment Department’s processing of unemployment insurance payments and claims, state officials said. Checks usually are processed Monday night, the department said. Technicians from a state contractor were expanding storage Monday night when something went wrong, according to Matt Shelby, a spokesman for the Department of Administrative Services, which administers the State Data Center. Shelby told The Columbian that the problem left state agencies unable to connect to databases or run batch computing processes that typically run overnight. Shelby said operations returned to normal Tuesday morning. A “catastrophic failure” typically refers to a total failure of a system, which leaves little or no option for recovery. The description of the Oregon outage suggests a hardware failure for a storage unit. State officials said the unemployment data was intact, and they expected to try and resume the payment processing on Tuesday evening. (Comment on this)

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