Building a successful Web Services business is all about enabling scalability and managing costs, particularly on the hosted infrastructure layer. Cloud Computing, Grid Hosting, Utility Computing, Virtualisation, instantly scalable infrastructures and multi-threaded network-native applications are all facets of the same solution being touted as the next generation of Web Services enablement, but is Grid Hosting the right choice for your business?

In this article:

• What is Grid Hosting?
• What are the Benefits of Virtual Data Center (VDC)?
• What are the Benefits of a Virtual Grid Server (VGS)?
• Summary

What is Grid Hosting?

Grid Hosting is the next generation of webhosting services that is evolving from the On-Demand Computing revolution led by 3Tera, Google, IBM, Amazon and Microsoft.

DNS Europe Grid Hosting uses 3tera's AppLogic virtualisation software which allows us to take a network of servers (Nodes) and make them work together as a team to create a single, massively powerful, stable and flexible hardware resource, a Virtual Data Centre (VDC) or Grid.

DNS Europe offers two types of Grid Hosting solutions:

• Your own hosted Virtual Data Centre (VDC) Grid;
• Virtual Grid Servers (VGS) and other bespoke Software as a Service (SaaS) applications, based on our own VDC.

What are the Benefits of Virtual Data Center (VDC)?

Here are some benefits by potential business type:

Hosting providers

Hosting providers need to attract new customers by offering differentiated services at low entry prices and sell additional resources and services to existing customers when their needs grow. Large numbers of entry-level accounts mean providers have to manage tens of thousands of customers cost-efficiently. At the same time, they need to support their best customers with large numbers of servers and tools that make managing their systems easier. All while controlling labour costs.

With our VDC service, a control panel, a virtual grid server, a clustered database, or even a social networking system are all just applications. This enables providers to deliver shared hosting, virtual private servers (VPS), complex hosting environments and advanced applications from the same grid without investing in new equipment or skills.

Grid computing enables hosting providers to easily automate the deployment of customisable services. Hardware resources usage is flexible and each user can be scaled with a single command, without affecting other customers. VDC based applications aren't limited to a single server so a single user can scale to multiple servers, making it easy to manage multi-server configurations.

Grid computing greatly simplifies managing resources and users. Because applications run on the grid rather than individual specific servers, resources can be added or subtracted without affecting users. Even server failures are handled automatically by the Virtual Data Centre without data loss.

Shifting from managing individual servers and software images to operating a shared scalable grid allows hosting providers to efficiently scale existing lines of business and branch into new high margin services like offering utility computing. All the while providing customers with low prices and scalability.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies

Building a multi-tenant application has its own costs and architecting systems for multi-tenancy requires scarce skills. Additional engineers are required and development and test cycles are longer. In addition, when all subscribers share the same application, upgrades and outages affect the entire user base, creating spikes in support needs. Therefore, designing for multi-tenancy is a trade-off: Increasing engineering expense and time-to-market in order to lower the cost of service.

A DNS Europe Virtual Data Centre changes the economic assumptions that drive the need for multi-tenancy by eliminating most of manpower required in typical IT operations. Instead of provisioning servers and installing software, VDC applications are built with virtual appliances, essentially disposable infrastructure that becomes part of the application. When an application runs, the infrastructure required is created dynamically, maintained while the copy runs, and then disposed of when it stops. In this way, utility computing allows operators to maintain a simple grid of commodity servers, and not the complex infrastructure used by the applications. The VDC enables copying and deploying complete applications for subscribers without operator intervention. The provider can automate the entire process starting with the user's click on a browser to subscribe and ending with the user logged into a private copy of the application.

Enabling SaaS providers to deploy individual copies of applications for their subscribers eliminates the need for multi-tenancy in most applications. Therefore applications can be brought to market quicker with smaller staffing levels.

Software development companies

Software development operations embrace a dizzying pace of change. Deployments must be immediate, and roll-backs must be automatic. Amidst the rapid product changes, Software development firms (especially web app developers) face an unprecedented demand for scale (think MySpace or Facebook).

Growth on this scale, requires being able to add resources to the application without downtime and preferably without operator assistance. Achieving this, means the deployment mechanism must either be an integral part of the infrastructure or be built directly into the application.

Grid hosting addresses and solves all of these vexing these operational issues.

By separating the application from the underlying resources means instead of dedicating servers to applications, servers can be built into a flat array, a grid, on which multiple applications will be run. Servers and storage can be added and removed at any time, without affecting running applications in any way. New resources are discovered automatically, merged into the grid and placed into service.

This means scaling becomes dynamic, rollouts become immediate and failed resources can be routed around automatically. Well designed applications can be scaled 10X to 20X without code changes or reintegration. And there's no complex integration or capital expense for adoption.

What are the Benefits of a Virtual Grid Server (VGS)?

A Virtual Grid Server (VGS) is exactly the same as a dedicated server except it has some unique benefits enabled by Grid Hosting.

Extreme uptime

Hosting on a grid means an effective end to failure related downtime.

Your server is not at the mercy of the hardware quality of a single machine or even a group of machines. Grids are incredibly robust with data fully mirrored across nodes and immediate automatic migration of servers off damaged or underperforming hardware.

If uptime is critical to you and you want the back-up of a team of servers instead of one, then Grid Hosting is for you.

Lifetime Hosting: No more growing (or shrinking) pains

Many companies starts off with shared hosting and as their business grows they repeatedly upgrade to more powerful solutions (small dedicated server, large dedicated server and multiple dedicated servers).

Every upgrade involves expensive hardware purchases, expensive experts to migrate systems, a serious risk of data loss and most critically, downtime.

With Grid Hosting you can start off with the equivalent of shared hosting (but with all the benefits of Grid Hosting) and as you grow we simply dedicate more Grid resources to you. You can be upgraded in minutes, without the need to buy any additional hardware or hire expensive technical experts to move your system.

Massive adaptability

Thanks to Grid Hosting’s unique ability to upgrade or downgrade your services fast and painlessly, you have the flexibility to adapt to business realities (business slowdowns, spikes of activity or growth). You will no longer need to risk your business on vague estimates of future requirements or waste money on over-provisioning hardware. With Grid Hosting you can simply meet those future requirements as they arise.

If you plan to grow or want the flexibility to expand and contract your requirement in response to real-world needs, then Grid Hosting is for you.

Off-the-shelf enterprise web applications in a minute

You can instantly add any of our pre-packaged web application modules to your VGS in minutes.

Currently we have packaged DirectAdmin and SugarCRM for our Grid and near future plans to expand our catalogue include: modules ranging from pre-built enterprise e-mail solutions to popular premium open-source CMS, VoIP, helpdesk, document management, project management and eCommerce applications

Since each of these applications is completely unique and operates in its own run-time environment, you can add or remove them without any impact whatsoever to any other modules or applications on your VGS.

If you want immediate plug-and-play access to world class web application solutions, then Grid Hosting is for you.

In summary

With Grid Hosting you have:

• The power of a perfectly sized dedicated server for your needs
• The flexibility to grow or shrink is needed
• The reliability and scalability of an entire server farm
• Instant access to expert built web applications
• Ultra low costs because you only pay for resources that you really need