Why Cloud Computing?

Posted on by CeraNet
  1. You can instantly create development and testing environments for each individual development teams.   Keep the dev and testing servers running for as long as you need them and then bring them down when you are done.  This provides tremendous savings and benefits including:
    1. Instant resources without the capital costs of making these resources available.
    2. Less costly support and infrastructure resources – fewer servers in your data center equals less staff, power, HVAC, rack space, and networking requirements
    3. JIT computing (just in time servers) — something rarely achieved by companies (even global multi-billion dollar corporations)
    4. 100% uptime SLA — if you go with a proven provider like CeraNet
    5. More — email sales@cera.net for more info
  2. You get access to enterprise IT security and computing power and resources at a fraction of the cost of doing it yourself (DYI data center is almost never the most economical choice).  Our engineers have vast practical experience and resources available to help you with security, regulatory compliance (PCI, HIPAA, FERPA, etc.), database administration (DBA), application development, VOIP, and other specific solutions.
  3. Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for costly capital expenses and ongoing maintenance that you will use 25% of the time at most.  Use a professional data center partner that offers a 100% uptime guarantee, offers services that you only pay for when you use them, upgrades their equipment and software behind the scenes to make sure you are always protected and using the best available solution, and more.  The bottom line is using someone else’s resources and only paying for what you use is almost always the better decision.

    When you need gas for your car, do you search for oil in your backyard, setup an oil derrick, figure out how to get the oil out of the ground, figure out how to convert raw oil into gas, setup a refinery, and pump the gas straight into your car???  Of course not.  Then why would you want to have your own data center?

  4. While setting a network, servers, installing software, configuring everything, and locking the server and software down with the latest security procedures is not impossible, why would you want to do that when you should be taking the kids to the park or spending the time building your business?   I’m sure you are proud of your accomplishments in growing and building your business.  Stick to what you are good at and let the professionals take care of what they are good at.  I wouldn’t want to create my logo shirts and hats, I leave that to companies that specialize in that business.

Email me to find out how we can help you – info@cera.net

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CeraNet Cloud Control (panel)

Posted on by CeraNet

Here are some of the things we offer to help you control your hosting environment:

  • Hosting based on Cloud Technology backend for ultimate uptime and reliability
  • Internal Backups for ultimate data protection – in addition to cloud storage platform
  • Control Panel based hosting for full end-user control – backed by 24/7/365 live phone and email support from CeraNet
  • Windows/Linux Hybrid platform with full support for both technologies without switching between hosting plans
  • Some of the Supported Technologies
        • MySQL
        • MS SQL Server
        • PHP 5
        • .NET 1.1, 2.0, 4.0
        • Classic ASP
        • Smarter Tools SmarterMail
        • Smarter Tools SmarterStats
        • Supports 32-bit and 64-bit software applications
        • Supports all Apache major Apache modules (.htaccess, mod_rewrite, mod_cache, etc.)
        • Supports all IIS 7.5 features
  • Control Panel Features (there are more — this is just a starter list)
      • Add and Manage Unlimited Domain Names in the DNS (buy domains from CeraNet or any other provider)
      • Create multiple Web Sites (Shared and Dedicated IP Options)
      • Install SSL certificates (buy from CeraNet or any other provider)
      • Manage Website Security and other features (file level permissions + file manager)
      • Create and Manage Virtual Directories
      • Manage Programming Languages (easily enable/disable PHP, .NET, etc.)
      • Enable/Disable Apache Modules (use .htaccess, mod_rewrite, etc.)
      • Create custom error handlers, manage headers, manage MIME Types, etc.
      • Start/Stop web sites and other services as needed
      • Create and manage FTP accounts (manage usernames/passwords and paths to control access to certain areas)
      • Create file storage areas outside of the scope of the web site
      • Access to raw log files
      • Deploy email accounts and manage email services (Access with clients such as Outlook, Web mail, iPad, Android and iPhone)
      • Create stand-alone SMTP service to deliver email
      • Create and manage MySQL databases and users (One-click backups and access to PHPMyAdmin)
      • Create and manage Microsoft SQL Server databases and users (One Click backup and access with SQL Studio Management)
      • Advanced Web Statistics with professional reporting tools and SEO campaign management
      • Disk space and Bandwidth utilization reports
      • Full featured web-based File Manager with ZIP utilities
      • Create and manage scheduled tasks
      • Application Gallery with lots of popular applications that can be installed in just a few minutes. A few of them are as follows:
            • WordPress
            • Drupal
            • Joomla
            • BlogEngine
            • CoreEcommerce
            • DashCommerce
            • DotNetNuke
            • DropThings
            • mojoPortal
            • MonoX
            • Orchard CMS
            • phpBB
            • SugarCRM
            • Moodle

There is more — email sales@cera.net for more info.

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Types of Cloud Computing and How They Benefit You

Posted on by CeraNet

Cloud computing is as much a paradigm shift in data center and IT management as it is a culmination of your capacity to drive business ahead through innovative information technology (IT) solutions.  It can be narrowly defined as “just-in-time (JIT) provisioning and scaling of services on shared hardware and data center infrastructure.”  But really, it’s an opportunity to completely transform how your business and its people work.

The cloud makes it possible for you to:
– Scale rapidly—up and down.
– Deploy services only when and where they’re needed and only pay for what you need, when you need it.
– Deliver rich experiences across the PC, iPad / tablet, smart phone, or any other device that has a browser.
– Generate efficiencies and cost savings by using existing infrastructure from a proven provider (CeraNet).

In moving to the cloud, you can choose to implement any combination of several cloud models. The “public” cloud typically describes complete services offered by third-party providers.  A “private” cloud involves organizations enabling their own cloud-computing capabilities on-premises or via dedicated hardware from a third-party host.

There are three basic models in mind:
– A private cloud is a set of computing resources that is dedicated to an organization, usually on-premises.
– A hosted private cloud has a dedicated infrastructure that’s hosted by a third-party but is inaccessible to other customers.
– A public cloud involves computing resources hosted externally but shared with other organizations and dynamically provisioned and billed on a utility basis – pay for what you use as you use it.

None of these models are all-encompassing.  Part of the cloud’s unique power is its flexibility. Cloud models are designed to work together, so you can use the right models for your organization as well as for individual workloads.

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IT as a Service (ITaaS)

Posted on by CeraNet

A good explanation of how you can benefit from using CeraNet Cloud Computing Services — If you had to sum up the power of the cloud, the term IT as a Service (ITaaS) fits the bill. Putting your hardware, platforms, and/or software in the Cloud will allow you to increase agility, simplify IT for end users, and speed up key business processes.  Here are examples:

Corporate build vs use as a service

It costs millions of dollars to build out the infrastructure… land and building costs, power including multiple utility feeds, generators, UPS and power conditioning, HVAC / CRACK units to hand the heat from servers (you need this if you have three servers or three thousand – without physically taking care of your equipment, you are greatly increasing the risk of failure), connectivity – you need multiple high-speed fiber connections (if one goes out, you cannot go out), maintenance – expensive vendors and on-staff management, equipment – routers, switches, racks, raised floors, miles of cables, etc. All of this and you haven’t even installed a single server, let alone get it all to work and run your websites, email, business applications, backup services, disaster recover, etc.  The list goes on, but you get the point.  Use an existing public data center and you not only pay a small fraction of the total costs, but also only pay for what you use.  The costs are ongoing operational expenses vs high capital expenses.

Small / Mid sized businesses or outsourced IT provider

After you get past the hold up of building and owning a data center of your own, you have the decision of using your own equipment vs using a cloud computing provider.  If you are doing it yourself (DIY – HomeDepot style), you’ll need to figure out what kind of processing power, memory, and storage you need at peak use, buy the server ($10,000 plus), setup and configure the server + software (licenses are another $2,000 to 20,000), install all the business applications and databases, and get it working in the data center.  According to recent research, you’ll spend on average $22,000 on each server just to get started and another $3250 per year for maintenance and upkeep.  The same research says that the average server is only 15% used.  That means you are wasting $18,700 when you turn on the server + $2762.50 per year, per server.  If you use a cloud service provider you can do this in minutes and have the entire platform ready to go by the end of the day.   More importantly, no capital outlay, pay only for what you use, and you can change the resources as you need them!

Contact us today at sales@cera.net to learn how we can help you get more for your money.

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What is the ‘Cloud’?

Posted on by CeraNet

I am asked this almost every day.  Cloud computing, cloud servers, cloud service, cloud storage, cloud application, storm cloud, etc.  What is a cloud server?  How is that different from a regular server or ‘virtual’ server?

Well here goes…  a cloud server is simple from the end-user perspective.  It looks like a server, feels like a server, functions like a server, and is a the same as any other server that they access remotely.   It is simple.  It is easy to use.  Just fire up remote desktop and type in your username and password and you are working on the server.

From an infrastructure perspective it is an entirely new field to play on.  Everything is highly redundant, not just RAID or having two power supplies in your server, truly redundant.  Separating the processing power and storage allows you to be more flexible and agile when responding to changing business needs.  It is a software defined data center that you can run with an easy to use command line interface / API or web based control panel.  Its having multiple network running easier and faster (private for private between server data transfer, Internet for public access, and if you can run Hybrid – like CeraNet can – virtual private using Cisco’s hardware firewall / vpn).

The main differences between a regular server and a cloud server is in the flexibility, agility, and redundancy.

Flexibility & Agility

On a cloud server you can add / change / remove processing power, memory, and storage as needed.  On the fly, little to no downtime, and in an instant.  *Some OSs require a reboot, but that’s it.    With a regular server, you have to find out what kind of hardware you need, order it from the vendor, schedule installation and reconfigure the software to accept the new drives/memory, and hope all goes well.  It can take days (if not weeks) and you’ll be out of service during the ‘upgrade’.   True cloud providers also let you turn up new servers on the fly… something that would take considerable resources in a traditional environment.

Redundancy

If you run a single dedicated server and the power supply blows, you are out until it is fixed.  If you are on a cloud server (a true cloud server, not just a virtualized server), you will never know or see any problems.  On a dedicated or ‘virtual private’/virtualized server and the hard drive goes bad, you lose your data.  On a high availability cloud server, you will never know.

To learn more – contact sales@cera.net

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