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News: Data Center Energy Efficiency, Focus of Green Grid U.S. EPA Collaboration
Denver, Colorado - (The Hosting News) - May 1, 2008 - The Green Grid organization, dedicated to accelerating the growth of energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems, has issued a Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA).
The Green Grid's agreement with the EPA will first promote energy efficiency in EPA computer facilities and then broadly share results in order to impact change within both other governmental agencies and the private sector. The alliance with SNIA, formally announced by SNIA earlier this month, is designed to further networked storage best practices for energy efficiency.
The Green Grid's Memorandums of Understanding with the EPA and SNIA highlight the organization's continuing efforts and progress in working with government agencies and key industry players to define and promote the adoption of standards, processes, measurements and technologies for energy efficiency in the data center.
Roger Tipley, Director of The Green Grid noted, ''The goal of the agreement between the EPA and The Green Grid is to build further collaboration between the private and public sectors, and to set an example by improving energy efficiency in federal government computer facilities. The Green Grid will play a key role in this project by providing a team of technical experts who will perform the assessment and direct strategies and techniques for maximizing energy efficiency.''
The Green Grid's collaboration with the EPA will accelerate the adoption of best practices for energy efficiency in existing computer/server rooms throughout the EPA. As an initial step The Green Grid and the EPA will identify an existing small EPA computer/server room as a target for an energy efficiency showcase, and execute a public project demonstrating the feasibility, approach and benefits of optimization. The results, best practices and real-world takeaways from this project will be shared with other governmental agencies, industry stakeholders and the private sector.
The Green Grid and the EPA formalized their MOU in a signing ceremony held today in Washington, D.C., highlighted by remarks from EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson and John Tuccillo, director of The Green Grid.
Earlier this month, SNIA announced a formal alliance with The Green Grid. The Green Grid will work with SNIA and its Green Storage Initiative to develop and promote standards, measurement methods, processes and technologies to improve data center energy efficiencies. SNIA will use its expertise in networked storage and membership (over 400 member companies and 7,000 individual members) to work with The Green Grid on best storage practices for achieving more efficient storage infrastructures, including more efficient storage networking technologies.
Vincent Franceschini, Chair of the SNIA remarked, ''Addressing the challenges associated with energy efficiency and green computing will require collaboration across all IT areas, including the storage industry. The Green Grid is a key industry organization for improving energy efficiency within data centers and business computing ecosystems. Through its Green Storage Initiative -- dedicated to applying the technical and educational expertise of the storage industry to develop and find more energy efficient solutions in the data center -- SNIA will work with The Green Grid to develop best practices and education for the industry.''
Mark Monroe, Director of The Green Grid added, ''Within the IT industry, there are a number of professionals who are responsible for data center functionality -- from CIOs and IT managers, to heating and cooling experts. It is imperative that we look at the energy efficiency issue from a single, united point of view. Together we can leverage each other's core expertise and areas of focus to deliver a holistic and complete approach for an energy-efficient data center.''
The Green Grid is a global consortium of companies dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centers and business computing ecosystems. The Green Grid does not endorse any vendor-specific products or solutions, and will seek to provide industry-wide recommendations on best practices, metrics and technologies that will improve overall data center energy efficiencies. Membership is open to companies interested in data center operational efficiency at the Contributor or General Member level. General Members attend and participate in General Meetings of The Green Grid, review proposals for specifications and have access to specifications for test suites and design guidelines and IP licensing. Additional benefits for Contributor Members include participation and voting rights in Committees and Work Groups.
To learn more, please visit: www.thegreengrid.org.
Posted by editor on Thursday, May 01 @ 09:13:46 EDT (211 reads)
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News: Web Hosting Firms, Website Source, SpeedFox, Acquired by Alentus
Laguna Niguel, California - (The Hosting News) - May 1, 2008 - Web hosting and managed services firm, Alentus Corporation, has acquired the Austin, Texas-based Linux website hosting firms, Website Source, Inc. and SpeedFox.
Financial details of the cash and stock transaction were not disclosed. William King, CEO of Alentus Corporation noted, ''This acquisition provides a stable and solid addition of Linux powered web hosting to the Alentus client base. And at the same time, it offers Windows hosting options to Website Source and SpeedFox clients. We are pleased with how the companies complement one another and look forward to growing our client base by offering a more complete menu of website hosting services to the Internet community.''
The acquisition immediately adds $2.6M in annual revenue to Alentus' current long-term profitable operations record and will add an additional 14,000 clients to Alentus already impressive client portfolio. The current Website Source infrastructure is being integrated into the Alentus global, redundant Cisco-powered network, and all Texas staff has been retained.
Founded in 1998, Website Source and SpeedFox offer Linux-based shared web site hosting, Virtual Private Servers (VPS), Dedicated Servers, E-Commerce, and Domain Registration services. WebSite Source operates a Cisco-powered network in downtown Austin, TX and manages over 200 servers.
Alentus Corporation is based in Laguna Niguel, California, with Data Center and Network Operations Center facilities in Edmonton, Alberta. The company provides Windows web hosting, SharePoint Hosting, SQL Hosting, Microsoft Exchange hosting, and Windows Dedicated Servers to thousands of small- to medium-sized companies and customized solutions to larger organizations including many Fortune 500 clients. Alentus is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and in discussions with several North American and European hosting and managed services providers to further enhance network and service offerings.
To learn more about WebSite Source, please visit:
www.websitesource.com.
For more information about SpeedFox, please visit: www.speedfox.com
To learn more about Alentus Internet Services, please visit: www.alentus.com.
Posted by editor on Thursday, May 01 @ 09:03:31 EDT (215 reads)
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News: Web Hosting Utilities Firm, 3Tera, Demonstrates Cloud Computing, at Web 2.0 Expo
San Francisco, California - (The Hosting News) - May 1, 2008 - Utility and grid computing solutions firm, 3Tera, Inc., recently demonstrated at the Web 2.0 Expo, for the first time, the foundations for its Cloudware Computing without Compromise architecture.
The cloud computing technology and utility computing services, were developed as a flexible solution, empowering customers to build and run large-scale applications in the cloud without compromising their choices of operating system, middleware, security, location, architecture and vendors.
Cloudware is based upon technology proven in 3Tera's award winning AppLogic grid operating system. The Cloudware architecture incorporates the fundamental building blocks used in developing today's most popular applications: storage, computing, connectivity, security, and how they all relate to each other in a far reaching architecture for building an open cloud computing system. Cloudware is intended to be vendor agnostic so that any third party vendor's software can be incorporated in a Cloudware-enabled system. The new architecture will initially support the most popular operating systems - Linux, Solaris and Windows - and is targeted toward clients who want to explore the extreme scale and flexibility of cloud computing infrastructures quickly and easily.
Some of the upcoming features include adding support for Solaris and Windows to the existing support for Linux; choice of multiple data centers worldwide, pre-built MySQL clusters, database replication appliances and NAS integration with third-party storage solutions.
Peter Nickolov, President and CTO, 3Tera, Inc. noted, ''The Web has succeeded by allowing each individual or company to add their own unique capabilities to the system. Cloud Computing should develop the same way, and 3Tera is demonstrating that there are no architectural obstacles to doing so. Giving developers the ability to write and design their applications and services with whatever software and architecture they choose is at the heart of Cloud Computing without Compromise.''
Barry X Lynn, Chairman and CEO, 3Tera, Inc. remarked, ''With Cloud Computing without Compromise, small shops can have the most modern, world-class IT infrastructure and can grow dynamically as their businesses grow. Enterprises can always have available the resources they need while only paying for what they consume.''
Todd Abrams, COO and President, Layered Technologies, a 3Tera hosting partner commented, ''With the introduction of Cloud Computing without Compromise, hosting your application in the cloud just became incredibly easier. Customers not only have the ability to choose their own operating system, middleware, security, vendors, location, etc., they also get their own personally customized virtual private datacenter.''
James Staten, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research in a recent report stated, ''If you have vast data center resources, and application deployment is a core competency of your business, leveraging cloud architectures can help make your IT shop more responsive to business needs. Is Cloud Computing Ready For the Enterprise, Forrester Research, Inc., March 2008. Many hosting providers - and several enterprises - are building clouds using 3Tera AppLogic, a grid engine that has evolved into full-blown cloud computing infrastructure software. This technology works across physical and virtualized servers (sitting below the OS) and has built-in high availability, virtualized storage, and per-use reporting.''
3Tera is currently working with major hosting providers and data center operators in USA, Europe, Japan and Australia to offer together a choice of multiple locations worldwide for the Cloud Computing without Compromise architecture.
Oliver Hurst-Hiller, CTO of DonorsChoose.org, a nonprofit teaching organization added, ''We're looking forward to moving our Web system to the highly scalable and flexible Cloudware platform. As a small organization, it can be a challenge to manage the up-front costs and technical complexity of traditional infrastructure technologies when you need to scale rapidly, especially in response to the spikes in Web traffic that often result from media coverage. 3Tera's AppLogic gives us cost-effective agility and control of our computing infrastructure so we can move at the speed of the teachers and donors we serve.''
3Tera, Inc. is a utility and cloud computing developer, simplifying the deployment and scaling of web applications. Named ''Cool Vendor in IT operations, 2008'' by Gartner Group and one of the Top 20 Companies to Watch in 2008 by Linux Magazine, 3Tera offers the AppLogic grid operating system that enables the first true utility computing services to completely remove the cost and complexity associated with infrastructure. The operating system converts commodity servers into scalable grids on which users can visually operate, deploy and scale transactional Web applications without any modification of code. Software-as-a-Service providers, Web 2.0 companies, enterprises and open source developers can now get new online services quickly to market by utilizing resources from commodity hosting providers on a pay-as-you-go basis, while maintaining complete control of applications including visual operation, scaling and on-demand resource provisioning.
To learn more about cloud computing, please visit: www.3tera.com/cloud-computing.
For more information about 3Tera, please visit: www.3tera.com.
Posted by editor on Thursday, May 01 @ 08:51:49 EDT (196 reads)
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News: Web Hosting Firm, DiscountASP.NET, Recognized by asp.netPRO Consumers
Pasadena, California - (The Hosting News) - April 30, 2008 - ASP.net hosting and SQL hosting provider, DiscountASP.NET, has been honored through recognition as the Best Hosting Service, for the fourth consecutive year, by the consumers of asp.netPRO.
The Readers' Choice poll for asp.netPRO Magazine determines the outcome of which firm will receive the title. During March/April 2008, asp.netPRO Magazine asked their readers to participate in voting for their favorite ASP.NET products and services. There were over 20 categories, including Best IDE, Best Forum Application, and Best Hosting Services.
Takeshi Eto, VP Marketing at DiscountASP.NET noted, ''We are extremely proud to win this recognition and we thank the asp.netPRO magazine readership and the ASP.NET developer community for their continued support. Our team is energized by this win and remains committed to innovation and cutting-edge Windows hosting.''
Recently, DiscountASP.NET entered into a partnership with vendor of advanced ASP.NET user interface components and .NET reporting solutions, Telerik. Under the partnership, DiscountASP.NET customers can receive a $50 discount on Telerik RadControls and Reporting solutions. Telerik users can get 6 months free hosting for the first year of DiscountASP.NET's base ASP.NET hosting annual plan.
Last month, DiscountASP.NET debuted the integration of Microsoft Windows 2008 Hosting, on its enterprise-class shared hosting infrastructure.
The new Windows 2008 hosting platform includes many new enhancements, including:
- Windows Server 2008 Standard edition
- Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7)
- FTP 7 (including FTP over SSL)
- PHP5
- Trust Level Control
- Microsoft IIS Manager access
DiscountASP.NET introduces two new Control Panel tools for IIS7 hosting management. Customers can use the Application Pool Pipeline Mode chooser tool to switch between Classic and Integrated mode. In addition, a new Microsoft IIS Manager Permission tool is introduced allowing customers to manage the users that can have IIS 7 Manager access privileges.
asp.netPRO is an information resource for the ASP.NET developer community. Through its magazine and website, asp.netPRO provides valuable programming techniques through real-world applications and code, as well as expert opinion and strategy. asp.netPRO is focused on helping professional software developers build, deploy, and run the next generation of dynamic, distributed web applications.
DiscountASP.NET is a Microsoft Windows-based shared hosting provider, focused on providing the best value in ASP.NET and SQL database hosting. A Microsoft Gold Certified partner, DiscountASP.NET was one of the first hosts to launch Windows 2008 hosting, and .NET 3.5 hosting supporting LINQ and ASP.NET AJAX hosting.
To learn more about asp.netPRO, please visit: www.aspnetpro.com.
For more information about DiscountASP.NET, please visit: www.discountasp.net.
Posted by editor on Wednesday, April 30 @ 09:10:12 EDT (204 reads)
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News: Dedicated Server Firm, SoftLayer, to Sponsor eMazing Guitar Hero 3 Competition
Dallas, Texas - (The Hosting News) - April 30, 2008 - On-demand hosting services and virtual data center provider for the small to medium enterprise (SME), SoftLayer, will sponsor eMazing Gaming, LLC's Guitar Hero 3 competition.
The event is scheduled to take place at the Wildflower! Music and Art Festival in Richardson, Texas from May 16-18. Over 60,000 festival attendees will have the opportunity to play and watch as competitors vie for a trip to Rocklahoma, a 4-day rock concert that will feature many of the artists featured in the Guitar Hero 3 game.
George Karidis, SoftLayer Chief Strategy Officer noted, ''We are glad to sponsor the competition at WildFlower. Gaming is part of SoftLayer's DNA. The technology and services we provide are ideal for powering the growing online gaming industry. It's thrilling to see how each new generation of Internet-enabled game, from Guitar Hero 3 to World of Warcraft, is connecting people around the world in all new ways.''
SoftLayer's sponsorship of the eMazing event grew out of an ongoing relationship between the companies. SoftLayer is the provider behind eMazing's GamersZone, the online hub for all its tournaments and activities. James Tyler, Chief Executive Officer at eMazing remarked, ''There is no better solution for us than SoftLayer, with their commitment to providing the best performance and control. We look forward to seeing where and how our partnership will grow.''
Based in Dallas, eMazing produces interactive game competitions that are staged online and at events across the country. The company began as an e-sports franchise before evolving to organize the same kinds of tournaments that it was competing in, with a vision of enabling more people to enjoy the convergence of traditional and interactive entertainment.
The Wildflower! Guitar Hero 3 event is just one event in eMazing's complete Guitar Hero 3 tournament. Players can compete online or in person at similar events in multiple states. Eight players will progress to the Central Region Finals at the Rocklahoma event, where the two best players will progress to the U.S. finals.
Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer provides next-generation web hosting and on-demand datacenter services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX and Seattle, WA. Utilizing proprietary management tools coupled with the industry's first network-within-a-network topology, the company delivers unprecedented power and control to securely manage IT environments while providing unparalleled scalability.
For more information about the event, please visit: www. emgamerszone.com.
To learn more about SoftLayer, please visit: www.softlayer.com.
Posted by editor on Wednesday, April 30 @ 09:00:27 EDT (205 reads)
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