At only 7 months old, Cloud Linux has received several notable accolades from the hosting industry. The latest award is from HostReview and the
HostReview’s Top 10 Web Hosting Awards are chosen based on the overall product offering, value, customer service and users' reviews and CloudLinux was chosen for its momentum in the marketplace and its reputation for quality.
Last week, CloudLinux won the . Cloud Linux received the award for its ability to isolate individual websites on a multi-tenant server using Lightweight Virtual Environment™ technology and for its web hosting-centric focus as hosting providers migrate to cloud based service models.
CloudTweaks also listed CloudLinux as one of the CloudTweaks is an online news media and resource site focusing specifically on the cloud.
Back in June, CloudLinux was the recipient of the in the “World Series” Innovation competition. Cloud Linux received the award for its new innovation on how to “crash proof” servers as hosting providers migrate to a cloud based services model.
We are excited to receive the recognition from our peers in the industry and thank our customers and partners for their support!
Cloud Linux Wins Multiple Awards & Recognition
09/03/201010:4609/03/2010 10:46:18
Hosting and Cloud Computing - What Does the Future Hold?
07/16/201009:5607/16/2010 09:56:50
The promise of cloud computing is huge and many of us in the hosting industry have solutions or ideas on what the hosting future looks like. The only fact that remains constant is the constant amount of change that moves through this industry.
It is our belief that hosting providers and datacenters need the right set of tools to manage the increasing complex computing configurations customers demand. CloudLinux was created for just this purpose. As we look to the future, there are some themes we at Cloud Linux think are important to consider when thinking about what lies ahead.
Space
For hosting providers, space is a big deal. Whether it is space on a shared server or space in your datacenter, space costs money. There was a time when bigger was better – the more servers you had, the more important you must be. But that may be changing. With the cost of datacenter space, electricity and cooling on the rise, it is time to reconsider this idea. There just is no such thing as infinite datacenter space or unlimited dollars to cover management costs. So how do you maximize the space you have? Density and stability are the keys to solving the growing space issues. Improving server stability and therefore increasing density helps hosting providers do more with the same amount of infrastructure.
Security
Another key theme for the future is security. Headlines are filled with cyber threats and identity theft. Consumers, enterprises and small businesses alike are increasingly concerned about security. Because of this dynamic they will continue to put pressure on their service providers to improve security and protect their data, identities and networks.
Efficiency
As the complexity of computing grows, we need to take efficiency to the next level. To keeping servers running efficiently as well as making our technical staff manage more and more complex solutions, it becomes increasingly important to maximize the efficiency of operations. At Cloud Linux, our solutions are purposely built with this goal in mind.
Our CEO Igor Seletskiy will discuss some of these themes with other hosting industry leaders during a panel discussion on technology and trends in the hosting market. He’ll discuss recent developments and future indicators with other industry leaders such as Michael Jaffe from Microsoft, Doug Toombs of Tier 1, George Karidis from SoftLayer, Ditlev Bredahl from UK2 Group, and Jack Zubarev from Parallels. HostingCon will take place at the Austin Convention Center from July 19 - 21, 2010.
Mark your calendars and join the discussion. Share your thoughts on these themes and learn what tomorrow brings.
It is our belief that hosting providers and datacenters need the right set of tools to manage the increasing complex computing configurations customers demand. CloudLinux was created for just this purpose. As we look to the future, there are some themes we at Cloud Linux think are important to consider when thinking about what lies ahead.
Space
For hosting providers, space is a big deal. Whether it is space on a shared server or space in your datacenter, space costs money. There was a time when bigger was better – the more servers you had, the more important you must be. But that may be changing. With the cost of datacenter space, electricity and cooling on the rise, it is time to reconsider this idea. There just is no such thing as infinite datacenter space or unlimited dollars to cover management costs. So how do you maximize the space you have? Density and stability are the keys to solving the growing space issues. Improving server stability and therefore increasing density helps hosting providers do more with the same amount of infrastructure.
Security
Another key theme for the future is security. Headlines are filled with cyber threats and identity theft. Consumers, enterprises and small businesses alike are increasingly concerned about security. Because of this dynamic they will continue to put pressure on their service providers to improve security and protect their data, identities and networks.
Efficiency
As the complexity of computing grows, we need to take efficiency to the next level. To keeping servers running efficiently as well as making our technical staff manage more and more complex solutions, it becomes increasingly important to maximize the efficiency of operations. At Cloud Linux, our solutions are purposely built with this goal in mind.
Our CEO Igor Seletskiy will discuss some of these themes with other hosting industry leaders during a panel discussion on technology and trends in the hosting market. He’ll discuss recent developments and future indicators with other industry leaders such as Michael Jaffe from Microsoft, Doug Toombs of Tier 1, George Karidis from SoftLayer, Ditlev Bredahl from UK2 Group, and Jack Zubarev from Parallels. HostingCon will take place at the Austin Convention Center from July 19 - 21, 2010.
Mark your calendars and join the discussion. Share your thoughts on these themes and learn what tomorrow brings.
Cloud Linux Inc. a Cloud Computing World Series Award Finalist
06/16/201010:2606/16/2010 10:26:56
We are thrilled to receive notification that CloudLinux has been named as a finalist in the . Cloud Linux is featured in the ‘Best Start-Up’ category, which recognizes companies that were founded after January 2009 and provide a cloud-based product or service in the cloud computing and Software as a Service (SaaS) market. We are really jazzed to show off the nominee icon on our home page!
We knew our was a hit, but now others recognize the benefits as well. The word is out to hosting providers and cloud computing organizations who can see how CloudLinux can increase performance as compared to other solutions available on the market.
Winners of the Cloud Computing World Series Awards will be announced on June 29th at an award ceremony to be held at the Olympia Conference Center in London as part of the . The conference offers a comprehensive view of the most complete and innovative platforms across the global cloud computing and SaaS industry.
We are honored to be part of the event and we will keep our fingers crossed!
We knew our was a hit, but now others recognize the benefits as well. The word is out to hosting providers and cloud computing organizations who can see how CloudLinux can increase performance as compared to other solutions available on the market.
Winners of the Cloud Computing World Series Awards will be announced on June 29th at an award ceremony to be held at the Olympia Conference Center in London as part of the . The conference offers a comprehensive view of the most complete and innovative platforms across the global cloud computing and SaaS industry.
We are honored to be part of the event and we will keep our fingers crossed!
Is everything unlimited in shared hosting?
05/05/201009:1505/05/2010 09:15:57
Is everything unlimited in shared hosting?
Overselling has been the name of the game for shared hosting since day one. Though many have frowned upon the practice, it made sense. The most obvious case for overselling was for disk space. A majority of hosting customers couldn’t use 20% of their disk quota – so as long as there was available space left on the hard drive – why not oversell? The customer still received everything it needed and was promised; and the hosting business made money that could be used to continue to grow and optimize the business.
The same was true for bandwidth. It didn't matter that the server was connected by a 10Mpbs Ethernet connection; theoretically, that still provided 3285 GB/month. So, why not sell 30GB/month plans? It is true you could reach a point that the number of accounts on the server could consume double the available bandwidth. And loading the server like this did not leave room for peak hours and traffic spikes. But in reality, most sites would never use more than 1GB of traffic per month so it did not matter; there was usually enough bandwidth.
Of course there are always exceptions. Popular sites as well as websites with a lot of pictures could get a lot of traffic and sometimes use a lot of disk space – and those would cost a lot of money.
At least they used to.
In 2000, a 10GB hard drive cost about $175.
In 2004, a 160GB hard drive cost about $170.
Today, a 2TB hard drive costs about $100!
Hard drive prices have fallen dramatically. With the one time cost of $0.06/GB, it does not matter how much disk space a website uses if they are paying you $8/month. Disk space can run out, but as NAS & SAN are used more and more, it becomes less of an issue. The price of bandwidth is also dropping fast which is a very small portion of the overall cost of hosting an account.
The amount of traffic any site can produce can be limited by CPU & IO usage. Most terms of service (ToS) agreements prevent sites from using too much CPU and IO. Over time websites have become more dynamic and the use of Ajax techniques have increased the demand on CPU and IO with more dynamic interfaces on web pages. While many websites use more disk space from 3-4 years ago, they often use much more CPU & IO.
So, why use unlimited? Most customers have no idea how much disk space or traffic they need. ‘Unlimited’ is a great marketing technique - it always wins against 10GB, 300GB or 3000GB plans against the competition.
Why not offer unlimited everything? Unlimited domains, unlimited emails, etc. It sounds like a joke but many hosting companies do in fact offer all of that. Today, it does not matter how many domains or mail boxes the hosting account has. The acquisition and support costs are two of the largest line items in running a hosting business - so it is worth it to attract new customers.
Shared hosting has become highly commoditized in that regard. The low price, all-you-can- eat offer is becoming the norm. It is easy to deliver and easy to sell.
What prevents a customer who would be best suited for a dedicated server from using shared hosting? Usually it is the terms of services that prevent this. Often they state that a user cannot use too much CPU, IO or any other system resources.
Why not charge for these resources instead? Or at the very least why not limit them? The answer is simple – there has never been a good way to limit or account for CPU and IO usage, nor there been a good way monitor it.
Until now.
The best solution for the “everything unlimited, all-you-can-eat” plan is .
CloudLinux is an operating system that is RPM-based and interchangeable with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Centos. What CloudLinux does that other OS cannot is give the hosting service provider the ability to control the CPU resources on the server by limiting the amount of resources (CPU, I/O, memory) available to a group of processes. This ensures that each account on a shared server is allocated enough CPU resources to run efficiently without jeopardizing the other tenants on that server. Check out more at .
Overselling has been the name of the game for shared hosting since day one. Though many have frowned upon the practice, it made sense. The most obvious case for overselling was for disk space. A majority of hosting customers couldn’t use 20% of their disk quota – so as long as there was available space left on the hard drive – why not oversell? The customer still received everything it needed and was promised; and the hosting business made money that could be used to continue to grow and optimize the business.
The same was true for bandwidth. It didn't matter that the server was connected by a 10Mpbs Ethernet connection; theoretically, that still provided 3285 GB/month. So, why not sell 30GB/month plans? It is true you could reach a point that the number of accounts on the server could consume double the available bandwidth. And loading the server like this did not leave room for peak hours and traffic spikes. But in reality, most sites would never use more than 1GB of traffic per month so it did not matter; there was usually enough bandwidth.
Of course there are always exceptions. Popular sites as well as websites with a lot of pictures could get a lot of traffic and sometimes use a lot of disk space – and those would cost a lot of money.
At least they used to.
In 2000, a 10GB hard drive cost about $175.
In 2004, a 160GB hard drive cost about $170.
Today, a 2TB hard drive costs about $100!
Hard drive prices have fallen dramatically. With the one time cost of $0.06/GB, it does not matter how much disk space a website uses if they are paying you $8/month. Disk space can run out, but as NAS & SAN are used more and more, it becomes less of an issue. The price of bandwidth is also dropping fast which is a very small portion of the overall cost of hosting an account.
The amount of traffic any site can produce can be limited by CPU & IO usage. Most terms of service (ToS) agreements prevent sites from using too much CPU and IO. Over time websites have become more dynamic and the use of Ajax techniques have increased the demand on CPU and IO with more dynamic interfaces on web pages. While many websites use more disk space from 3-4 years ago, they often use much more CPU & IO.
So, why use unlimited? Most customers have no idea how much disk space or traffic they need. ‘Unlimited’ is a great marketing technique - it always wins against 10GB, 300GB or 3000GB plans against the competition.
Why not offer unlimited everything? Unlimited domains, unlimited emails, etc. It sounds like a joke but many hosting companies do in fact offer all of that. Today, it does not matter how many domains or mail boxes the hosting account has. The acquisition and support costs are two of the largest line items in running a hosting business - so it is worth it to attract new customers.
Shared hosting has become highly commoditized in that regard. The low price, all-you-can- eat offer is becoming the norm. It is easy to deliver and easy to sell.
What prevents a customer who would be best suited for a dedicated server from using shared hosting? Usually it is the terms of services that prevent this. Often they state that a user cannot use too much CPU, IO or any other system resources.
Why not charge for these resources instead? Or at the very least why not limit them? The answer is simple – there has never been a good way to limit or account for CPU and IO usage, nor there been a good way monitor it.
Until now.
The best solution for the “everything unlimited, all-you-can-eat” plan is .
CloudLinux is an operating system that is RPM-based and interchangeable with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Centos. What CloudLinux does that other OS cannot is give the hosting service provider the ability to control the CPU resources on the server by limiting the amount of resources (CPU, I/O, memory) available to a group of processes. This ensures that each account on a shared server is allocated enough CPU resources to run efficiently without jeopardizing the other tenants on that server. Check out more at .
VPS.NET Offers CloudLinux
04/01/201005:4904/01/2010 05:49:19
While I was at in Germany a few weeks ago, I had a chance to meet CloudLinux partner, . They are a Virtual Private Server Cloud solution provider that offers their customers a flexible, innovative alternative to traditional hosting.
works by allocating a partitioned portion of a physical server, then breaks its infrastructure into “nodes,” or blocks of resources (256MB of RAM, 10GB storage, 250GB transfer, and CPU share) that can be pooled together in various ways to create custom virtual machines. It’s very cool and easy to scale.
VPS.NET is part of the , a global group of web hosting brands that provides web hosting and Internet services to savvy surfers, small businesses and blue chip giants alike.
Even though Carlos Rego, Senior Usability Officer at UK2 Group, insists they come up with ideas and launch them quickly into the market, the solution and the web site presentation are top notch – well designed, informative and excellent customer facing design. If you are looking to build, test and deploy a website quickly, VPS.Net lets you do it fast with access limitless resources for instant scalability.
With VPS.NET's flexible and scalable options and CloudLinux OS's high performance benefits - VPS.NET and CloudLinux make a great combo. Some of the CloudLinux OS benefits include:
• Achieve a higher density capability per server
• Increase server stability and efficiency
• Prevent load spikes which can slow or take down a server
• Reduce operational costs related to hardware, electricity, datacenter space and management costs
If you want to experience these benefits, go to VPS.NET and sign up now. It’s a great solution and if you have questions and configuration needs, there is a very active user group.
CloudLinux OS on VPS.NET's platform is reasonably priced at $7 per month (50% off the standard $14/mo pricing), and as a released special, VPS.NET customers can deploy CloudLinux for FREE until June 1st.
Also check out VPS.NET's active forum loaded with excellent questions, ideas and conversations such as integrating with control panels such as l.
works by allocating a partitioned portion of a physical server, then breaks its infrastructure into “nodes,” or blocks of resources (256MB of RAM, 10GB storage, 250GB transfer, and CPU share) that can be pooled together in various ways to create custom virtual machines. It’s very cool and easy to scale.
VPS.NET is part of the , a global group of web hosting brands that provides web hosting and Internet services to savvy surfers, small businesses and blue chip giants alike.
Even though Carlos Rego, Senior Usability Officer at UK2 Group, insists they come up with ideas and launch them quickly into the market, the solution and the web site presentation are top notch – well designed, informative and excellent customer facing design. If you are looking to build, test and deploy a website quickly, VPS.Net lets you do it fast with access limitless resources for instant scalability.
With VPS.NET's flexible and scalable options and CloudLinux OS's high performance benefits - VPS.NET and CloudLinux make a great combo. Some of the CloudLinux OS benefits include:
• Achieve a higher density capability per server
• Increase server stability and efficiency
• Prevent load spikes which can slow or take down a server
• Reduce operational costs related to hardware, electricity, datacenter space and management costs
If you want to experience these benefits, go to VPS.NET and sign up now. It’s a great solution and if you have questions and configuration needs, there is a very active user group.
CloudLinux OS on VPS.NET's platform is reasonably priced at $7 per month (50% off the standard $14/mo pricing), and as a released special, VPS.NET customers can deploy CloudLinux for FREE until June 1st.
Also check out VPS.NET's active forum loaded with excellent questions, ideas and conversations such as integrating with control panels such as l.
Webhostingday and CloudLinux
03/23/201003:5703/23/2010 03:57:01
CloudLinux attended the Webhostingday conference in Bruhl, Germany last week. We had a great time meeting with European hosters and talking with them about the newest Linux OS on the market…
Two things struck me as interesting while talking with hosters in Europe. The pain point that CloudLinux was invented to solve – the age-old problem of having one account on a multi-tenant environment that is able to slow down or take down the rest of the server – is universal for hosters.
When we talked with webhosts in the U.S. at the Parallels Summit, they all professed they had this problem and it is a real pain. It is the same here in Europe. It was also confirmed in our recent survey and analysis of server logs and will be published in our upcoming whitepaper, “How to Squeeze More Efficiency Out of Your Infrastructure.”
The second thing that struck me was the number of referrals we are getting at our trade show booth. By the end of the first day, we had several people come to visit our booth who had heard about us from a colleague. Word of mouth is amazing and so glad to see people spreading the word about how to solve some big issues for hosters!
We are also starting to get referrals from potential customers who are talking about our solution and sending other hosters to come talk with us about this solution. The buzz is out!
Our first 4 weeks since official launch of CloudLinux have been fruitful. An affirmation that CloudLinux is a welcome solution to the market and that people are talking about it – we are off to a great start!
Two things struck me as interesting while talking with hosters in Europe. The pain point that CloudLinux was invented to solve – the age-old problem of having one account on a multi-tenant environment that is able to slow down or take down the rest of the server – is universal for hosters.
When we talked with webhosts in the U.S. at the Parallels Summit, they all professed they had this problem and it is a real pain. It is the same here in Europe. It was also confirmed in our recent survey and analysis of server logs and will be published in our upcoming whitepaper, “How to Squeeze More Efficiency Out of Your Infrastructure.”
The second thing that struck me was the number of referrals we are getting at our trade show booth. By the end of the first day, we had several people come to visit our booth who had heard about us from a colleague. Word of mouth is amazing and so glad to see people spreading the word about how to solve some big issues for hosters!
We are also starting to get referrals from potential customers who are talking about our solution and sending other hosters to come talk with us about this solution. The buzz is out!
Our first 4 weeks since official launch of CloudLinux have been fruitful. An affirmation that CloudLinux is a welcome solution to the market and that people are talking about it – we are off to a great start!
What I learned at the Parallels Summit
03/12/201005:0303/12/2010 05:03:35
I was nervous to be honest. As the VP of Marketing of CloudLinux, a brand new company, we were launching at the prestigious Parallels Summit last week in Miami. We all agonized about the messaging on our materials. We worried about our big presentation where we were introducing data from our proprietary study. We prepped for the reporters and analysts who were going to meet with. Mostly, we hoped we would get attention and not be the “wallflower” of the show.
So with confidence and a tinge of fear, we set up our booth and the show began. It was going well -- lots of interested folks were with us in our booth and there was certainly plenty of interest in this new Linux distribution. (Whew!)
But as I heard more and more conversations, I could see that people really didn’t get what we do – in clear simple terms! Igor and I and our board have worked hard bringing together the right messaging for CloudLinux – making sure it was clear and correct – and explained and underscored the product. But while we had great detail level information and a great set of benefits, what we forgot was the top-level description of the simple features!
What is great about meeting with partners and potential customers is that you have to explain to them what your product is and does in a short and understandable sentence or two – the basics. So on the fly, Igor and I were able to come up with the simple description and the features that are most compelling and easy to understand.
CloudLinux -- Linux Optimized For Shared Hosting
• Double the density
• Improve server stability
• Easy to deploy
This is a great message to explain quickly what CloudLinux is and what it can do – and opens up the door for the deeper discussion on how it works and how it can help your business.
Being at the trade show is important even for seasoned marketing pros. Our hammer is much closer to our nail now – and on we go to Webhostingday with a new sign that states these simple phrases…
So with confidence and a tinge of fear, we set up our booth and the show began. It was going well -- lots of interested folks were with us in our booth and there was certainly plenty of interest in this new Linux distribution. (Whew!)
But as I heard more and more conversations, I could see that people really didn’t get what we do – in clear simple terms! Igor and I and our board have worked hard bringing together the right messaging for CloudLinux – making sure it was clear and correct – and explained and underscored the product. But while we had great detail level information and a great set of benefits, what we forgot was the top-level description of the simple features!
What is great about meeting with partners and potential customers is that you have to explain to them what your product is and does in a short and understandable sentence or two – the basics. So on the fly, Igor and I were able to come up with the simple description and the features that are most compelling and easy to understand.
CloudLinux -- Linux Optimized For Shared Hosting
• Double the density
• Improve server stability
• Easy to deploy
This is a great message to explain quickly what CloudLinux is and what it can do – and opens up the door for the deeper discussion on how it works and how it can help your business.
Being at the trade show is important even for seasoned marketing pros. Our hammer is much closer to our nail now – and on we go to Webhostingday with a new sign that states these simple phrases…
The Importance of Partnerships
03/05/201003:4103/05/2010 03:41:37
In any business, but particularly in the hosting business, having partners is an important part of success. In a very networked and complicated world where there are hardware and software vendors, product developers and product enhancements, platforms and applications, it is an understatement to say that partners are a really important part of your business.
That is why it was no surprise when CloudLinux launched in January, we were able to attract partners quickly. We were proud to announce our first partnership with Cartika and CloudLinux will be included as part of the CartikaCloud offering.
What is great about the partnership is the synergies our two companies realized right at the start. CartikaCloud is an elastic computing and hosting model that allows customers the ability to pay for the infrastructure they require only when they need it. CartikaCloud is designed to streamline and optimize operations and budgets as well as improve the bottom line.
Leveraging CloudLinux as the OS on their cloud offering will provide the stability and performance needed and addresses the traditional technological challenges of control of resources on your server to give greater density and stability.
At the heart of it all, partnerships are not about the machinery, the bits and bytes of software and the hardware in between. Or about the whizzing streams of data that pass between emails and websites, but about human technology – the relationships and connections that people make.
We look forward to working with Cartika and delivering a highly available and high performance system to their customers. That is why we do business. It’s about the relationships forged and the people and businesses we can support that makes our inaugural partner very special to us.
That is why it was no surprise when CloudLinux launched in January, we were able to attract partners quickly. We were proud to announce our first partnership with Cartika and CloudLinux will be included as part of the CartikaCloud offering.
What is great about the partnership is the synergies our two companies realized right at the start. CartikaCloud is an elastic computing and hosting model that allows customers the ability to pay for the infrastructure they require only when they need it. CartikaCloud is designed to streamline and optimize operations and budgets as well as improve the bottom line.
Leveraging CloudLinux as the OS on their cloud offering will provide the stability and performance needed and addresses the traditional technological challenges of control of resources on your server to give greater density and stability.
At the heart of it all, partnerships are not about the machinery, the bits and bytes of software and the hardware in between. Or about the whizzing streams of data that pass between emails and websites, but about human technology – the relationships and connections that people make.
We look forward to working with Cartika and delivering a highly available and high performance system to their customers. That is why we do business. It’s about the relationships forged and the people and businesses we can support that makes our inaugural partner very special to us.