In a recent article from iTWire, we learned about a hosting company that has launched its own virtual infrastructure services suite that can be purchased by companies looking to quickly scale up. I love reading about these things. Interestingly, I was involved with starting this very concept back somewhere around 2001 using a little known product called VMware ESX Server at a company called ProTier. We actually had quite a few companies who outsourced their entire IT to us by purchasing their "office in a box". We were a little bit ahead of our time back then, even though people bought into it. Check out this latest article and read what Smartyhost is doing.
Vigabyte from Australian web hosting company Smartyhost has launched wht it claims is the first true virtual infrastructure services suite which allows companies to instantly purchase and scale up their hosting, server and data capacity through a simple web console.
Developed over three years, during which the system has been trialled with over 100 small business and enterprise customers in Australia, it aims to revolutionise the way that companies can access and manage hosting services, enable them to change their hosting requirements on the fly, add extra memory, storage and bandwidth capacity on the fly – at prices which Vigabyte say are much better value than traditional shared hosting companies.
According to Vigabyte, its solution is “a suite of virtual infrastructure solutions that provide enterprises access to secure, flexible, responsive IT resources. The technology includes smart open source software that connects the customer IT network to a virtual machine environment, giving IT managers complete control over their technology systems. With Vigabyte, companies can now upgrade their IT resources instantly online, and respond to the immediate demands of the business without disruption."
Their press release continues that “The Vigabyte offering of virtual servers delivers an extremely competitive data solution to companies by deploying the flexibility of virtualisation software to deliver a dedicated server offering at prices below that of its shared hosting competitors. The ability of Vigabyte to offer dedicated server prices to enterprises below that of the shared hosting packages that exist across the industry currently marks a significant breakthrough in the web hosting market”.
The Founder and MD of Smartyhost and Vigabyte Anoosh Manzoori says that “Vigabyte is a virtual data provider that challenges existing IT infrastructure models by offering enterprises with on demand IT services on the fly, at a reasonable price. We offer a truly disruptive virtual IT model that enables companies to set up their Vigabyte server instantly. We allow large corporations and all sizes of business to undertake instant server provisioning and immediate virtual data, to provide them with a competitive advantage.”
Vigabyte say that a “Vigabyte’’ can be defined as a ‘variable gigabyte’ that allows users to host business critical applications, test and development environments, websites, and email accounts. Enterprises can customize their specific data resources, storage needs and server capacity, and alter those requirements at any time, allowing their IT network to behave as a dynamic resource that serves the operational needs of the business.
The company said it believes its mix of extremely competitive pricing and innovative technology will have a significant impact on the IT infrastructure market. Manzoori said enterprises can now order and customize their IT infrastructure online, without the restrictions that are inherent in managing a physical network. The company uses a network of clustered servers, SAN storage and internally developed management tools and applications to create a series of individual servers called 'Vigabyte Servers'. The virtual network offering enables customers to instantly deploy, and scale their memory, storage and network resources in real time, based on business needs.
Manzoori said that “By purchasing Vigabyte Servers, enterprises are able to deploy new servers faster and cost-effectively, and the virtual environment is easier to manage, while also eliminating the associated hardware costs from running physical IT networks”. The pricing packages allow customers to purchase 256MB of RAM at A$49 per month, 512MB RAM at A$80 per month, and 1GB RAM at A$99 per month. All of the Vigabyte server offerings come with a standard 40GB of high-end fibre-channel storage – and with no lock-in contracts and instant deployment. If a customer only needs a development platform for a few weeks, they can access that without needing to be locked in for a fixed period of time.
Manzoori also said his “new model of virtualised hosting brings productivity to the data center by enabling IT managers to purchase and connect Vigabyte servers to their enterprise IT networks by offering unlimited RAM, storage and overall value to companies seeking to maximise their investment in core IT systems. Without the restrictions and time delays associated with deploying physical servers, businesses benefit from the speed of immediate deployment”. He also explains there is no ‘single point of failure’ in the system, as it is designed with VMWare and other technologies to instantly recover from any failures, with absolutely minimal downtime for customers.
When we asked about competitors, Manzoori explained that it could take years for the competition to come up with a similar system, which would also eat into their shared hosting customers. Manzoori also explained that there is also an API for resellers who can offer it via a white label solution to their own clients, and that it is built on an open platform, with PHP, MySQL, Pearl and more all supported. He also told us that the word has been spreading despite being in a trial up until now, with calls coming from overseas from interested customers wanting to sign up.
Manzoori said the company plans to invest millions of dollars into a super computer in over the next 12-18 months, which will have the equivalent memory and storage of 10,000 desktop PC’s. “We are also taking on new staff and will have a virtual IT team of 20 people to sell and support the solution,” said Manzoori.
Vigabyte say that the commercial launch of the Australian business will be shortly followed by expansion into the US market. Vigabyte already leases hosting capacity in the United States, allowing it to easily turn on the service in that market. Vigabyte’s parent company is Smartyhost, the number two web hosting player in Australia, with 30,000 customers. Smartyhost is also one of the leading domain name registrar in Australia.
Vigabyte is built on high capacity infrastructure, deploying a mix of Sun Microsystems storage area network hardware and servers and VMware virtualisation software. The Vigabyte server network is housed at the Optus data centre in Melbourne. The virtualisation software offering includes services such as business continuity, high availability, distributed resource scheduling, and VMotion. Vigabyte customers can use any operating system, including Linux, Solaris and Windows.