Cloud Services

By Lisa Gecko

SaaS, or Software as a Service, is a computing distribution model where businesses rent online software instead of purchasing and installing it on their own computers. SaaS is a fundamental concept behind centralized computing where organizations rent their computing software from a host. All of the processing work is completed on the Internet, with users accessing their tools and files using a web browser.

Software as a Service refers to applications that are hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network, typically the Internet. SaaS is becoming an increasingly prevalent delivery model as underlying technologies that support Web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA) mature and new developmental approaches, such as Ajax, become popular. At the same time, high-bandwidth broadband service has become increasingly available to support user access from more areas around the world.

SaaS is closely related to ASP (application service provider) and on demand computing software delivery models. IDC identifies two slightly different delivery models for SaaS. The hosted application management (hosted AM) model is similar to ASP: a provider hosts commercially available software for customers and delivers it over the Web. Alternatively, in the software on demand model, the provider gives customers network-based access to a single copy of an application created specifically for SaaS distribution.

Benefits of the SaaS model include:
• easier administration
• automatic updates and patch management
• compatibility: All users have the same version of software
• easier collaboration, for the same reason
• global accessibility
• affordability: organizations can pay for computing power then need without having to purchase expensive hardware and software

In contrast to SaaS, the traditional model of software distribution, in which software is purchased and installed on personal computers, is sometimes referred to as software as a product.

SaaS describes the business model of users logging into a centralized web host to access their software products. Users open their files and software only while online. With this model, businesses do not need networking equipment or a large IT staff in order to develop and maintain it. All an organization needs is their personal computers and an Internet connection, the host provides everything else including the hardware, software, and support staff.

To summarize, SaaS provides access to software and its functions remotely as a Web-based service. Software as a Service also allows organizations to access business functionality at a cost typically less than paying for licensed applications since SaaS pricing is based on a monthly fee. Also, because the software is hosted remotely, businesses do not have to invest in additional hardware. Software as a Service removes the need for organizations to handle the installation, set-up and daily upkeep and maintenance. Software as a Service is sometimes referred to as simply hosted applications. With the numerous benefits the SaaS model provides, it is becoming an increasingly popular option for businesses moving into cloud computing.

By Lisa Gecko

Cloud computing has quickly become one of the most popular computing models for organizations throughout the world. The 24/7 availability, efficiency and affordability of virtual server infrastructure, the familiarity of a web-based interface, and the almost infinite scalability of a cloud-based architecture has contributed significantly to its speedy adoption. But even with its numerous benefits, many organizations still have many questions about cloud computing and how it could best meet their specific needs. One of the most important questions organizations should ask is which kind of cloud is best for them. There are essentially two types of clouds: Public and Private. A third type known as a Hybrid Cloud is simply a combination of the two. Let’s take a closer look.

A Public Cloud, also known as a Shared Cloud, is one in which virtual computing services are provided publicly over the Internet with little to no control over access or the underlying infrastructure. Benefits of a public cloud are the reduced complexity in software, hardware, and administration, and the lack of delays and expense associated with developing in-house applications. And a public cloud’s resources are shared across the Web, and this means an organization does not have to manage or administrate the underlying architecture that supports the cloud. As computing needs change for an organization, a public cloud can be scaled up.

A Private Cloud (also called an Internal Cloud or Enterprise Cloud) offers virtual computing services deployed over a company’s private intranet or hosted datacenter. This is a controlled-access application or network that offers an in-house computing solution where resources are purchased, installed, and maintained on site. With a private cloud, performance limits are determined by the computing capacity of the in-house hardware and software, and an organization must allocate additional resources for cloud computing upgrades. Whereas public cloud resources can be scaled instantly, a private cloud requires hardware and software upgrades to be purchased and installed on-site.

A Hybrid Cloud is an integrated approach that attempts to combine the best features of both public and private clouds. With a hybrid cloud, you can customize rules and policies that govern areas such as access and security, as well as the underlying infrastructure. And administrators can choose to allocate activities and tasks to internal or external clouds as required.

Which cloud is right for you? That may depend on your service needs. There are three main service types. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a model that consists of an end user accessing a remote computing service over the Internet. Examples of this include an outsourced email service or a hosted data center.

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is best suited to organizations with developers who wish to deploy applications in the cloud without the need to manage or administer the underlying server infrastructure. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is a service model that allows developers almost complete management and administration of the cloud’s underlying server infrastructure including, but not limited to, deploying back-office applications within the cloud.

Remember, with cloud computing the options are endless. Many organizations choose to start with a single cloud-based application and go from there.

By Lisa Gecko

SQL Server 2012 was released earlier this year and has many new improvements in database management, data integration, business intelligence and integration with cloud-based computing.

Significant updates include performance improvements, high availability and organizational security. These included the AlwaysOn feature – a new high availability and disaster recovery solution which enables faster application failover during downtime. Also upgraded is the Column Store Index: A new indexing feature available to cater to faster query performance while dealing with huge number of records. This aids in performing analysis against data warehouses with dimensional modeling without implementing an OLAP solution. This feature is based on the Vertipaq technology that was introduced in PowerPivot for Excel. Scaling up has been improved with the use of 15K partitions for large databases. There is now even faster performance for full-text search capabilities with provision to search and index the document metadata. SQL 2012 also contains authentication for organizational security in order to avoid security issues while migrating databases between servers (on-premise or in a cloud). Finally, there is the new Distributed Replay feature, which can be used to test production workloads on test environments for changes in underlying schemas or hardware.

In addition to the performance improvements, there are also features that provide useful insights into organization data with appropriate tools which can cater to both business users as well as IT professionals. This makes your data more reliable and consistent to provide accurate information. One example is the Business Intelligence Semantic Model (BISM) for scalable self-service BI. This modeling technique was used in PowerPivot in SQL Server 2008 R2 but now it is being implemented as a universal approach for BI tools like SSRS, SSAS and Sharepoint. It supports the tabular model alongside the already existing UDM technique. So now we can have SSAS cubes using the tabular approach to cater to Personal BI users. And there is Power View, which is an ad-hoc reporting option available in Sharepoint with Silverlight features using which the user can quickly create visually enhanced reports. These reports are created on top of BISM models. This is integrated with PowerPivot enhancements to create effective tabular models which will be more aligned to business scenarios. Powerpivot now provides options to create KPIs, hierarchies, Measures, perspectives along with a diagram view of the underlying model. The diagrammatic representation is similar to Data Source Viewer option available while creating Analysis Services cubes. In conjunction with these features, there is a new statistical semantic search which can be used to extract useful information from unstructured documents that are stored in SQL Server databases. It also makes use of the features of full-text search capability of SQL Server and adds features to find key phrases in a document, find related documents based on the key phrases. Reporting services is now also provided as a shared service inside Sharepoint so all the management and administrative activities can be handled using Sharepoint configuration tools. And Data Quality Services is a new component in SQL Server which can be used in conjunction with Master Data Services to implement MDM solution. It analyzes your data and builds knowledge base which can be used as a reference for data cleansing, matching and profiling activities. Additionally, DQS features can be embedded inside your package and executed while integrating information from various sources. To further improve business intelligence, a Master Data Services is now available as an add-in in Excel to perform functions such as loading master data or validating the existing data and publishing it to the centrally located master data store.

Further features included with SQL Server 2012 simplify the process of implementing databases in a cloud as well as expedite the movement of databases between on-site and cloud servers. To empower this, contained databases has been introduced in SQL Server 2012 to specifically address the issues faced when moving databases between in-house and cloud servers. SQL Server Data Tools is a development platform for creating database solutions for variety of target platforms including 2005 and 2008 versions and also for SQL Azure. It has options for online and offline development wherein the changes can be applied directly to the server instance. Also the database projects can be realized as a data-tier application (DAC) which is a concept introduced in SQL Server 2008 R2 for easy deployment on cloud-based servers.

By Lisa Gecko

There a several cloud computing models and each has their pros and cons. Add to these the numerous supporting technologies associated with each and it can be confusing to figure out the best option. In this series we will introduce these service models, and then take a deeper look at each.

The three primary types of cloud computing are SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS; software, infrastructure, and platform as a service. When you take a closer look, you’ll see that your company’s needs and comfort level will determine which service works best for you.

These services are made possible by virtualization, the availability of high-speed networks and the capabilities of today’s browsers. With these technologies in place, it becomes less necessary to own your own infrastructure, or even to own your own software. You can rent what you need from a cloud hosting service, as you need it.

The easiest way to understand these as-a-service offerings is to start with SaaS, the most virtual layer and the one you may already be using today on some level. Saas is simply a software service available over the Internet. The software has already been developed and you access it and make use of it through your browser.

SaaS provides benefits across your organization and is relatively simple to get started with. The host determines how many resources to utilize based on your needs. The host also provides the servers, the virtual machines, the network equipment, and technical support to maintain your cloud. In contrast to SaaS, IaaS is a more complex cloud host option, but no less easy to get started with. With an IaaS based cloud service, you can maintain control of your software environment, but you will not need to maintain any equipment. You won’t have to purchase servers and maintain them in a climate-controlled room or need expensive systems administrators. Instead, you rent the equipment from an IaaS provider.

With IaaS, you can run whatever software you want on your cloud. On the back end, the host provides storage or other resources as you need them. This is made easier with virtualization technologies, which isolate the physical hardware from the virtual machine you’re cloud is running on. IaaS is readily available from a number of providers, but care should be taken in choosing a host that is reliable and dependable with the latest software and hardware solutions.

PaaS is somewhere in between IaaS and SaaS. It’s not a complete software application like SaaS, and it’s not a complete cloud network, like IaaS. PaaS gives your application developers tools and resources to develop in-house software on a cloud based platform. The platform gives you tools to develop mobile apps, social apps, websites, office application and more. Your IT staff designs and develops its own custom software, but they use the APIs and tools to build and install them in the platform.

By Lisa Gecko

In this article we will explore Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and what it has to offer organizations looking for cloud-based solutions. Of the three main models in this series, IaaS is the most comprehensive in scope, providing a fully outsourced computing infrastructure environment that is scalable to the fluctuating needs of the client. What IaaS offers companies is the ability to utilize the power of enterprise grade hardware on a pay-as-you-go model, without investing in the initial and expensive servers, security, and cooling systems. Following are some of the more prominent advantages with the IaaS model explained in greater detail.

On demand access to compute, storage and networking resources. This is the dynamic scalability that provides near limitless power that is affordable even for smaller companies looking to move to the cloud. For most businesses, servers and other data center equipment remain idle the majority of the time, yet still have to be powered and cooled. For enterprise grade hardware the cost to maintain operations with up to ninety percent downtime are even more extensive and wasteful. Cloud service providers (CSPs) utilize multi-tenancy to offset these costs on their end, and are able to offer IaaS to their clients in an affordable, scalable package. This on demand model offers substantial savings for organizations that have variable computing needs as most do.

With IaaS there is no need to purchase any expensive high-end hardware. One of the problems facing small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) is the ability to cover the initial investment in IT infrastructure. Even for larger corporations it is often the staggering cost of equipment required to keep their organizations competitive that tops the list of concerns for CIOs. IaaS eliminates the need for purchasing and inevitably upgrading expensive hardware which replaces these capital expenses for a far more manageable operational expense.

IT resources allocated to the management of data center infrastructure are reduced. CSPs handle all of the hardware management with IaaS which allows client IT resources to be reallocated to other, more productive endeavors. Most IT professionals wear many hats, and are required to handle multiple operations. Outsourcing the responsibilities of maintaining the infrastructure frees up the IT department to focus on other areas.

IaaS provides flexible accessibility. Many organizations today find that their central office is not always the hub of activity. There are more businesses today that require remote access to their data center for employees and third parties than ever. This is a trend likely to continue, and CSPs address this with IaaS. Users will be able to access the infrastructure globally, using any device that can connect to the internet.

CSPs offer exceptional security to accommodate flexible accessibility. Enterprise grade security hardware is part of any IaaS package with upper-tier providers. When considering a CSP for cloud-based solutions it is important for businesses to expect a level of security that they would otherwise not be able to afford. Just as with the enterprise grade compute power, the security hardware is made affordable to the client via multi-tenancy and scalability.

By outsourcing to a vastly improved infrastructure provided on a pay-as-you-go basis, organizations can finally take advantage of the power that cloud-computing provides. IaaS offers companies the ability to utilize enterprise grade hardware without incurring the capital expense that it would require to build in-house. Working in this virtual environment, provides more freedom within the IT department, a partnership with CSP professionals, and a safer, accessible infrastructure to work with from anywhere in the world.

By Lisa Gecko

“Cloud computing” has dramatically changed how business applications are built and run. At its core, cloud computing eliminates the costs and complexity of evaluating, buying, configuring, and managing all the hardware and software needed for enterprise applications. Instead, these applications are delivered as a service over the Internet.

Cloud computing has evolved to include platforms for building and running custom applications, a model known as “platform as a service” (PaaS). PaaS applications are platforms to write and create your own software as a service (SaaS) solutions. One popular example of a PaaS is VMware’s Cloud Foundry. This software allows developers to quickly deploy Java Spring applications on your choice of cloud service providers, and is a full featured, open PaaS service that enables customers to build and deploy applications on multiple frameworks and multiple clouds.

With the in-house network model, building and running on-site applications has always been complex, expensive, and risky. Each application required hardware, an operating system, a database, middleware, Web servers, and other software. Once the tiers were installed, a team of developers had to navigate complicated programming technologies like J2EE and .NET. A team of network, database, and system management experts was needed to keep everything up and running. Inevitably, organizational growth would require an update to the application, which would then kick off a lengthy development, test, and redeployment cycle.

Large companies often needed expensive facilities to house their data centers. Extensive amounts of electricity were also needed to power the servers to keep them cool. Finally, a failover site was needed to mirror the data center so there was a backup in case of a disaster.

Just as Amazon.com, eBay, Google, iTunes, and YouTube made it possible to access new capabilities and new markets through a Web browser, PaaS offers a more effective and cost efficient model for application development and delivery.

With the PaaS model, cloud hosts provide all the infrastructure and services needed to develop applications over the Internet. It is delivered in a similar way to a utility like electricity or water. Users simply log on and use what they need without worrying about the complexity behind the scenes. And like a utility, PaaS is based on a usage based fee structure so users only pay for what they use.

PaaS is driving a new era of mass innovation. For the first time, developers around the world can access unlimited computing power. Now, anyone with an Internet connection can build powerful applications and easily deploy them to users wherever they’re located.

As you can see, PaaS has several advantages for developers. With PaaS, operating system features can be changed and upgraded frequently. And distributed development teams can work together on software development projects. Services can be obtained globally without concern for international boundaries. Initial and ongoing costs can be reduced by the use of infrastructure services from a single vendor rather than maintaining multiple hardware facilities that often perform redundant functions or run into incompatibility issues. And overall expenses can also be minimized by integrating programming development efforts.

On the flip side, PaaS offerings may require proprietary service interfaces or complex programming languages. And the flexibility of offerings may not meet the needs of some users whose requirements rapidly evolve. Organizations must carefully choose their cloud host based on capacity, scalability, service features, as well as pricing.

By Lisa Gecko

In this series of articles we are looking at features and benefits of vCloud Director (vCD), and in this installment we explore some of the advances in self-service networking. This paper will only touch briefly on the technical aspects of vCD’s network hierarchy. Instead, the focus is on the key networking features that this powerful platform management tool offers, and their importance for businesses looking for more control of their cloud infrastructure. For cloud service providers (CSPs) that offer VMware vCD as part of their cloud-based solutions, vCD also presents the opportunity to work with organizations that have delayed a move to cloud computing due to a previous lack of autonomy.

Let’s take a look at a few of the more important self-management networking advantages that VMware vCD provides.

End-user administrators can now manage their own firewalls choosing what protocols are allowed to reach their servers without requiring any involvement from the CSP. What this means is that vCD allows users to manage their firewall protection at any time without any outside assistance, adding or removing allowed protocols and services at will. For businesses that need varying degrees of security that can change on the fly, this is an important development. For example, when multiple levels of security need to be fluid due to changing department needs and varying degrees of accessibility required, vCD provides the user with the tools to handle these security changes with ease.

In-house admins can load balance servers without outside assistance from the CSP. With vCD, end-users can deploy multiple web servers and load balance connections among them. This network load balancing can be self-managed for terminal servers, or any other type of server for that matter. This once time-consuming process is now made easy and autonomous with vCD. By allowing end-user management of load balancing, organizations can expect to save time and money on the maintenance of their virtual data centers, and a more self-service environment within which to achieve maximum resource utilization.

The CSP is not needed to establish site-to-site virtual private network (VPN) tunnels. What vCD is accomplishing here is providing the self-service tools allowing organizations to use the internet as a transport between their cloud environment and their internal network securely. With vShield Edge and vCD, organizations can now open up VPNs in a matter of minutes from the easy to navigate vCD GUI.

It should also be noted that internal networks can be created with no access to the internet. This is very useful for in-house vApps builds that are intended for research and development where nothing from inception has outside accessibility. This is in part due to the networking layers of vCD and how external, organization and vApps networks function.

The real strength of vCD is that it provides clients with an easy to use interface that allows end-users the ability to foster a self-service networking and creative cloud environment. The benefits of the cloud are many, and for some companies it works best to allow the CSP to handle the day to day configuration. Fortunately, the advantages of cloud-computing are opening up for businesses working with CSPs offering vCD as a solution for a more self-managed cloud.

By Lisa Gecko

As the heir apparent to VMware Lab Manager, vCloud Director (vCD) is the next generation in cloud computing management platforms. For businesses moving to cloud-based solutions via private or hybrid clouds, vCD provides the interface for cloud service providers (CSPs) to offer clients access to their virtual resources at the user end, with significantly less IT expertise required. Put simply, vCD is a very user-friendly virtual management tool within the family of VMware products designed to automate previously rigorous tasks, while providing businesses access to their virtualization infrastructure. While CSPs certainly have IT experts on hand, vCD does make the job of managing VMware services on the provider end much simpler as well.

From a client perspective, one of the benefits of vCD is it should free up substantial IT resources for other endeavors. For example, network configuration, once a time-consuming undertaking can be accomplished in a matter of minutes with vCD. There are a number of automated or near-automated features that vCD brings to the table, all of which free up more time for the IT department to focus on other projects, saving money in the process.

One of the most important advantages with cloud-based solutions is the flexibility a virtual environment offers. Knowing this, CSPs are always looking to provide their clientele with as many advantages as possible. With vCD it is important to understand that this flexibility involves allowing users the accessibility to transform their virtual machines (VMs) in ways that were previously available only to administrators from the provider end of the cloud. For organizations that have capable IT staff the general network administration with vCD should comparatively be a walk in the park to any previous IT workload.

It is also important to understand what a herculean effort it is to provide this kind of self-service environment outside of the CSP without risk of conflict within the entire cloud community. The ability to define custom layers and configure services at this level has heretofore remained entirely in the realm of IT experts, and in this case, VMware administrators. With vCD this flexibility is now available for organizations that wish to have a more hands-on approach to their virtual infrastructure without having to rely entirely on the CSP to carry the water.

For companies that wish to rely more on the CSP for the management of their virtual resources, vCD is a state-of-the-art tool for CSPs to offer an array of cloud-based services that are automatically deployed. Looking at this point fiscally, CSPs will spend significantly less time with configuration and management allowing them to pass on the savings to their clients. Either way, vCD is an incredibly versatile tool that provides any level of collaboration between the CSP and corporation. Businesses that need to move resources and retool network configurations on a regular basis will find vCD to be exceptionally well-designed for that purpose, while companies that would prefer to outsource those responsibilities will be happy to know that vCD can save man-hours on the provider end.

By Lisa Gecko

For businesses looking to have more autonomy and control over their virtual infrastructure without relying on the cloud service provider (CSP) to perform the majority of the tasks, VMware’s vCloud Director (vCD) is the right platform management tool for a variety of operations. With the ability to self-manage virtual applications (vApps) which are simply a collection of one or more virtual servers, organizations can build and modify their own virtual environments, as well as a number of other previously labor-intensive projects, without the assistance of the CSP. For corporations looking for CSPs that can offer a self-service cloud experience, it is important to consider working with a CSP that offers vCD as a solution.

Taking a look at some of the features of vCD and their benefits, building your own hosting environment is a good place to start. With vCD end-users can upload their own vApps into a catalog, which they can then use at a later date, to modify or clone. This task can be performed repetitively with ease, without involving the CSP whatsoever. Why is this important? For one, even the best service providers require time to make changes within a company’s virtual infrastructure, so in a sense what vCD is accomplishing here is removing the middle man. These self-service features allow your IT department to work more freely and on much shorter notice to accommodate fluctuating business needs.

With vCD companies can also create their own vApps when building a hosting environment either from scratch or they can deploy vApps from predefined templates from the CSP. Providers that offer vCD as part of the solution have catalogs of pre-created virtual machines that businesses can choose from when purchasing a plan. The advantage here is that organizations can take these pre-created vApps and modify them as they see fit, uploading to their catalog or hosting environment, once again, without relying on the CSP to take any action. For businesses that need to accomplish these kinds of tasks with a rigorous time schedule involved, the ability to manage an autonomous hosting environment is extremely advantageous.

Another nifty attribute is that vCD allows users to upload ISO images, or disc images right into the virtual environment. The benefit here is once again time-oriented. All applications can now be introduced into the company’s hosted environment without outside assistance from the CSP. This will save countless man-hours for businesses that need to move software from one virtual machine to another quickly and effortlessly. Also, this frees up time for “what if” virtual scenarios that would not be possible to explore without the self-service aspect of vCD.

Another feature that vCD offers allowing a more self-managed virtual cloud-computing experience, is the ability to power up and power down at will. There are a number or reasons organizations will need to power up and down regularly, so accomplishing this without the need to contact the CSP every time grants the IT department the ability to work on projects without fear of a system reset required from the provider. This may not sound important at first, but this feature is included to allow companies the freedom to work within their hosted environment as autonomously as possible, which is the crux of the innovation that vCD offers to cloud end-users.

Put simply, vCloud Director changes the way businesses can access virtual resources, providing a number of advantages in the process. The self-service aspect of vCD eliminates the need to wait on the CSP to create or manage resources, instead offering catalog-based services accessed through a Web portal. This increased accessibility improves business agility, reduces costs, and empowers companies with a self-managed virtual environment that offers a number of features as well as pre-configured infrastructure and services at the click of a button.

By Lisa Gecko

Cloud-based computing is quickly becoming the IT model of choice for organizations around the world. The reasons for this are many: it offers all the features and power of a traditional network with a pay-as-you go model with reduced operating and personnel costs, greater efficiency, and virtually unlimited scalability. In addition, a cloud-based network is accessed with a simple, convenient, and familiar Internet-based desktop or mobile platform. If you are new to cloud-based computing and are considering a conversion, it couldn’t be easier.

Converting to cloud-based computing can be completed in several quick and easy steps. First, consider converting a single application to try out cloud computing. Then do your research and decide on a cloud hosting service. This includes decisions such as what application and services you want hosted on your network, what capacity you need, and what your budget is. Variables among cloud hosts include pricing, applications and services offered, platforms and underlying hardware types, levels of technical support, and security features. Once you have decided on a cloud host and hosting package, and the application to convert, prepare a conversion timeline and market essential information to your employees. Ultimately the conversion should be seamless for the end user. On the determined date of the conversion, the old application will be put on standby, and the new one will be accessed online over the Internet. Remember to have the host transfer any essential data over to the cloud before conversion. Finally, consider any conversion training requirements for employees. Cloud based platforms tend to be simpler and easier to operate than a traditional one so necessary training should be minimal.

Your cloud host’s technical support contact information and website should be shared with your employees before the conversion so that they know who to call when questions arise. You may want to maintain your traditional application as a backup for a short while. As your employees quickly become accustomed to your cloud based application, you can then uninstall your in-house application. With no expensive physical hardware or software to maintain, IT staff can then be transferred to supporting roles that better serve the end users. Routine reviews of application usage and services should be performed. Additional services can be purchased as your company grows. And as new cloud based applications and features become available, you always have to option to add them as you go. Select cloud hosts also offer customized cloud computing solutions based on your specific needs, and you are never stuck with a single platform and can modify your network as needed.

There has never been a better time to convert to a cloud, as the technology and services available have never been more powerful and feature rich, or as affordable. The efficiencies of running multiple virtual servers and applications on less and less hardware has contributed to the reasonable price-point. And this will only improve as both the virtual machines and underlying hardware are continuously improved over time. So save now and save later. When considering the simplicity and cost-savings of converting to a cloud, the choice is easy.

By Lisa Gecko

Beyond the fiscal benefits of virtual desktop as a service (DaaS) of which there are many, there are security and environmental advances that are desirable as well. While these opportunities may not appear to be as plainly advantageous as the cost-effectiveness of virtual DaaS, they are no less significant. While the first part of this paper focuses primarily on short and long-term savings, this article will expand on specific security issues that are addressed with the implementation of virtual DaaS, as well as the benefits of green technology.

Virtual DaaS in a nutshell is the process of moving all the applications and sensitive corporate data located on the hard drives of every machine on the network, to a hosted environment provided by a cloud service provider (CSP). By doing so, the virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) becomes far less vulnerable as there are no longer multiple points of weakness that are susceptible to all manner of security risks. Instead, end-users will communicate via keystrokes, mouse, and screen refreshes with the CSP, eliminating the need for storing any information locally.

This is good news from a security standpoint. The problem with personal computers in a business environment is that they can be hacked, lost or stolen. For businesses that are particularly wary of who might gain access to important company data, this has been an issue of paramount importance for quite some time. Considering the vast number of remote users alone that are not even protected by physical corporate walls, security risks for stolen or lost hardware has increased dramatically in the last decade. Virtual DaaS addresses this quite simply. If there is no sensitive information stored on any hard drive, or if there is no hard drive at all as is the case with most thin client hardware, there is nothing to steal.

CSPs intelligent enough to offer virtual DaaS are also equipped with security hardware and software that in many cases is far too expensive for businesses to afford. One example would be intrusion detection prevention systems (IDPS) hardware running outside the CSP firewall. For a CSP working with multiple businesses these expenses are justified and expected of the upper tier in cloud solutions, but for most small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) this kind of investment in infrastructure is not feasible.

End-point security cannot be stressed enough. The remoting protocol for virtual DaaS does not allow any potential threats that either reside on a hard drive, or that are originating from a malicious user, to actually access the corporate network. This means that for one, business travelers can access the virtual DaaS from any insecure network in the world without fear of any possible corporate contamination. This is a very valuable development in IT security, especially for larger organizations that have to depend on multiple end-users in a wide variety of remote locations.

Environmentally friendly business practices have become the topic du jour as of late, and CSPs are more than willing to tout the benefits of greener technology. Unfortunately “greener technology” usually translates to “more cost”, though with virtual DaaS the opposite is true. While not required, most businesses adopting virtual DaaS will also make the move to thin client hardware to replace cumbersome and problematic PCs as they become outdated. The energy savings alone makes for a greener business model, that is a given. The vast reduction in energy consumption both from end-user hardware, and the outsourcing of processing responsibility to the CSP is impressive indeed. Considering the constant upgrading and maintenance of PCs and laptops, the savings, both fiscal and environmental are at least twofold. Lacking the vulnerable moving parts of PCs which are usually the first to break down, thin client machinery requires far less upkeep and replacement, resulting in a more environmentally responsible business approach.

While the advantages of virtual DaaS are clear, cloud-based solutions for some CIOs can be less than so. When considering a move to the cloud, it is important to work with CSPs offering the latest developments in services and security. Every business is unique in their IT needs, and cloud solutions offer multiple services that can be tailored for specific corporate requirements. Taking the time to explore virtual DaaS as an option could lead to other solutions the cloud may provide.

By Lisa Gecko

One of the interesting developments with virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is the adoption of desktop as a service (DaaS) by cloud service providers (CSPs). As businesses continue to embrace the cloud, forward-thinking CSPs are looking to offer as many cloud-based solutions as possible to appeal to a broad spectrum of clientele. With the addition of virtual DaaS, CSPs continue to challenge the status quo, offering companies an alternative to rigid platforms, energy waste, expensive PC upgrades and the security issues involved with on-site and remote network traffic.

Virtual DaaS is the outsourcing of VDI to a CSP, offering integral changes that address power consumption, security, hardware longevity, manpower and environmental issues. Put simply, the desktop environment is no longer contained on multiple machines, eliminating security threats, IT maintenance headaches, and in general, outdated technology. Instead, the desktop environment with all of it’s applications, remains protected entirely within the CSPs infrastructure.

Taking a look at cost-effectiveness, there are a few key points to explore. With a virtual DaaS, in-house employees will no longer require expensive big-box PCs that need to be maintained and upgraded regularly. The typical end-user will utilize far less expensive thin client hardware, or personal laptops and other devices. Even with current in-house and remote hardware, a move to virtual DaaS will extend the life of older PCs and laptops, which will no longer be required to struggle with operating system (OS) and application upgrades. Organizations can take their time upgrading to newer thin client hardware, which is a welcome rarity for essential IT improvements.

Continuing with fiscal benefits, thin client hardware draws approximately one-tenth the power of the average PC. Even without a thin client upgrade, current PCs will use significantly less energy utilizing virtual DaaS considering they will no longer be burdened with the brunt of the processing. This translates into less heat, and a substantial reduction in air-conditioning, especially for larger office spaces. This isn’t even considering the reduction in data center cooling and energy consumption with the majority of the processing relegated to the CSP. Or the lack of expensive servers required to house a virtual DaaS.

Upgrading an OS or company-wide mission-critical application even without major setbacks, has always been a time-consuming and arduous process. This can become very costly not only in man-hours, but in potential system downtime and work latency. With a virtual DaaS this is no longer the case. A virtual PC is not device dependent, therefore any software or OS upgrade is universal. The individual “personal” computer no longer exists. The days of IT professionals marching from computer to computer performing the same tasks on multiple PCs are thankfully over. With virtual DaaS after a major upgrade is integrated, there is no need to perform any tasks at an employee level, in-house or remote. Their machines are effectively the same, all of which are accessing data and applications through the CSP without storing anything locally.

Virtual DaaS also offers a great deal of flexibility, which in turn, translates to more savings. Scalable volume and processing power is one of the fundamental cloud solutions that is applicable to many services including virtual DaaS. The ability to not only eliminate energy waste that in some cases is upwards of ninety percent in traditional in-house data centers, while having the flexibility to scale virtual resources based on fluctuating need, is a tremendous benefit to any organization. Virtual DaaS should prove to be one of the more stimulating developments in cloud solutions yet.

The added upside of virtual DaaS vs. an on-site DaaS is that it is already operational, providing a fluid transition requiring no additional in-house expertise for implementation. Small to mid-size businesses (SMBs) will find the upgrade to be cost-effective and green, with some very enticing short and long-term benefits. Larger corporations, especially those with sensitive data transmissions via internet connections, will appreciate several security concerns that are addressed with the implementation of DaaS—specifically the much-needed intelligent, secure approach to remote access. Large or small, organizations will find significant advantages with a virtual DaaS solution, not the least of which is the bottom-line.

By Lisa Gecko

One of the less-touted benefits of working with Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) is how much “greener” the cloud is versus the traditional in-house data centers. Drastic reduction in energy expenditure translates into bottom-line savings as well as a substantial reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. With cloud computing’s environmentally friendly carbon footprint, the advantages for corporations working with CSPs are substantial on many levels. Even from a purely fiscal point of view, the age of businesses operating their own IT infrastructure is coming to an end. With each passing year, more and more organizations are moving from managing in-house data centers to much more cost-effective, efficient and environmentally friendly cloud solutions.

The problem with the majority of in-house data centers is that they are not very energy efficient. If you factor in all of the typical IT hardware, as well as the non-IT equipment for cooling, lighting, etc., most companies suffer from a significant percentage of energy waste. One of the metrics for measuring data center efficiency is Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). The PUE is a simple equation (data center energy used divided by the total IT equipment energy used) that is an indicator of non-IT hardware energy consumption. The average PUE for in-house data centers in the United States is currently just shy of 2.0, while some CSPs are already approaching an impressive 1.1 PUE. To appreciate this, it should be understood that a 1.0 PUE would require zero energy from non-IT equipment.

The biggest hurdle for most corporations attempting to reduce their carbon footprint elsewhere is affordability. For some businesses certain changes just aren’t feasible financially to facilitate a greener business model. When making the move to cloud computing the opposite is true. Cloud solutions can reduce carbon dioxide emissions in a number of ways, including dynamic provisioning, multi-tenancy, server utilization and improved data center efficiency, while being more affordable. On average, corporations adding an in-house server will be saddled with 234 Kilowatt hours (Kwh) a month. This is per server, and those servers are idle drawing energy more than ninety percent of the time. Cooling that server at a PUE above 2.0 more than doubles that energy consumption. 500 plus KWh per server cannot compete with cloud-based servers sitting comfortably under 50 Kwh. This is purely fiscal.

How do CSPs accomplish this? Several ways. For one, if your server is idle approximately ninety percent of the time, and still drawing the same amount of energy, that is wasteful. CSPs servers are by function set up to work as close to capacity as possible. This is where dynamic functioning and multi-tenancy come in. Dynamic provisioning refers to waste reduction via matching server capacity with demand, while multi-tenancy is associated with public and hybrid clouds. Multi-tenancy, which is one of the prominent reasons cloud computing is so eco-friendly, involves the sharing of cloud computing facilities—which has really made a dent in the IT carbon footprint. When you take a look at the thousands of businesses world-wide that are already sharing resources in the cloud instead of hemorrhaging energy and money with wasteful on-site data centers, the savings both fiscal and environmental, become clear.

Another aspect to look at regarding in-house data centers beyond energy waste is upkeep and manpower. The cost of upgrading IT hardware has certainly weighed heavily on the minds of many CIO’s looking to remain on top technologically without breaking the bank every year. Also, as data centers grow, more IT specialists are required to keep everything running as smoothly as possible. By migrating to the cloud these issues are far less relevant. This translates to a greener planet as well. A smaller IT department uses less energy, reducing overhead, and less gas traveling to and from work. Also, companies that have made the move to cloud-based solutions no longer need to worry about discarding outdated IT equipment.

The undeniable reasons for turning to CSPs for future IT needs aside—cost savings, service flexibility, etc.—the fact that the cloud is a far greener option than traditional in-house data centers should be exciting for both businesses and their clientele. Given the choice, most people will choose to work with organizations that are committed to reducing their carbon footprint. With less in-house hardware, less heat is generated requiring less energy for cooling and lighting leaving less obsolete equipment, and overall less maintenance necessary. The cloud is not only a bottom-line decision, but a responsible choice for businesses that are genuinely concerned about their role in the future of the environment.

By Lisa Gecko

Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS) are a more recent development in IT security, and an important one considering that even the most up-to-date firewalls are not designed for certain types of threats. A well-implemented IDPS is important for any organization that communicates via the internet, whether their data centers are in-house, solely residing in the cloud, or a hybrid of the two. For companies looking to take advantage of everything that the cloud has to offer, it is important to work with cloud service providers (CSPs) that offer the very best security measures as part of any package. The upper echelon of CSPs will have state-of-the-art IDPS hardware protecting the client at all times, therefore it is important for businesses looking to utilize cloud solutions to work with a CSP that has made the necessary investments in IDPS security measures.

Another factor to consider when looking to cloud-based solutions is expense. High-end IDPS hardware is far too costly for most corporations to afford, so many companies choose to take the risk of relying on firewalls that are not capable of handling for example, the latest types of malware attacks. Working with CSPs that have dedicated IDPS hardware, companies have access to this infrastructure to significantly improve their security, without incurring the debt. Not to mention the vast increase in computing power and service flexibility.

To understand the difference between a firewall and IDPS it helps to visualize the firewall as if it were the company building. The building has entrances and exits and the security checks at various points provide different levels of access. The problem is, the firewall does not look at what anyone is bringing with them into or out of the building. If they adhere to the proper protocol, then as far as the firewall is concerned, everything is fine. This is where IDPS picks up the slack. An IDPS can monitor data in an entirely different and expanded way, exposing, logging, and eliminating threats lurking outside or above the firewall protocol layer. Also, a well-implemented IDPS understands over time what “normal” network traffic looks like, and is able to identify anomalies and take the necessary actions to eliminate the threat.

To expand a bit further, an IDPS will act like heightened security outside the building. It will act in some ways just like the firewall, but it will also be able to “sniff” out undesirables by constantly scanning all traffic coming to and from the network all the way up to the application layer. It has this ability because for one, just like human security, an IDPS goes through a learning period where it identifies normal activity and over time is able to spot malicious intent that the firewall would miss. This can help with the protection from radically new malware or “zero hour” threats.

There are some additional fiscal advantages beyond the expensive IDPS hardware involved with a move to cloud-based solutions. Even if the hardware were an affordable in-house option, there would most assuredly be extensive capital costs involving maintenance and support. Security engineers with the level of expertise required to monitor and fine-tune the IDPS alone would be a costly venture. By moving data centers to the cloud, companies can reap the benefits of working with a CSP that has the knowledge, experience, and hardware while incurring a fraction of the cost.

When considering the ever-changing landscape of internet security, it must seem at times for executives in charge of making important IT decisions, quite maddening. While it is only a matter of time until cloud solutions are the norm, the jump for many companies can be understandably daunting. One important thing to consider is whether or not a CSP has made investments in security measures that would not be affordable to the organization otherwise. There is a range of quality with CSPs just like any other business, and the few that remain at the top have continued and will continue to invest heavily in the latest IDPS hardware as well as all other next-generation security.

By Lisa Gecko

When organizations are comparing virtual server hosting companies, they need to quickly assess service quality and reliability. Standards for Attestation Engagements (SSAE) No. 16 Type II is one of the most rigorous auditing standards for hosting companies. SSAE 16 is designed to provide customers with a level of assurance of corporate controls beyond previous SAS 70 Type 1 and Type 2 audit reports. The leading audit firm Deloitte & Amp; Touche LLP, conducts the SSAE 16 audits. SSAE 16 Type II audits confirm the highest service level attainable for a virtual server hosting company.

SSAE is an internationally recognized standard developed by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). It effectively replaces SAS 70 as the authoritative guidance for reporting on host organizations – and is a recognized mark of IT service quality. The SSAE 16 Type II compliance designates that the host delivers reliable and secure operating environments with the proper controls for conducting high-availability data center operations.

An SSAE report is produced after a redundant independent examination of internal controls and processes, and demonstrates the reliability, security and operational excellence of modular data center technology for a host’s customers. The SSAE 16 report scope focuses on performance procedures, which are likely to be relevant to its customers’ internal controls. The report is intended for use by a host’s customers and their auditors.

Strictly speaking, SSAE 16 compliance indicates that a service auditor has performed an attestation engagement to report on controls at a host, which resulted in the issuance of an SSAE 16 Type 1 or SSAE 16 Type 2 report. To learn more about SSAE 16 and the new reporting requirements, organizations can utilize SSAE 16 Readiness Assessment; a proactive and useful assessment tool for helping better understand the entire SSAE 16 reporting process.

SSAE 16 Type II compliance controls include facilities and asset management, logical access and access control, network and information security, computer operations, backup and recovery, change and incident management, organizational and administrative controls, security policies, reporting, and monitoring, and physical and logical security.

An SSAE 16 compliant web host should offer the following features: SSL capability, enterprise-level, application level protection, hardware firewall, IP-restricted FTP, managed backups with 14-day retention, advanced monitoring, and multi-level intrusion prevention (IPS/IDS).

SSAE 16 compliant hosting practices allow organizations to achieve compliance for more control objectives, and it help businesses do it for less money than it would take to adopt policies, infrastructure and expertise to implement the same control objectives in-house. When a host provides a solid foundation built around SSAE 16 requirements, it enables a company to compete on an international level.

Outsourcing hosting infrastructure and facilities to a provider that already meets SSAE 16 regulations allows a company to focus its time, money, and manpower on its core business. By inheriting a SSAE 16 compliant host’s infrastructure, policies, proficiency and efficiency, instead of developing secure hosting policies and network environment from scratch, companies achieve SSAE 16 compliance without the expense.

By Lisa Gecko

Many companies are running on virtual networks that feature cloud computing. Cloud-based virtual networks offer a cost-effective way to have a high-performance and high-availability network that is independent of the underlying physical hardware, and they make it possible to increase capacity or add capabilities on the fly without the cost of expensive infrastructure upgrades, technical support training, or additional software licensing. Cloud computing manages computing needs through a subscription or pay-per-use service, so businesses can match their computing needs with their resources. Capacity can be increased along with business needs, and mission critical processing can be prioritized in the network.

A new type of cloud based virtual network is known as a hybrid cloud. A hybrid cloud integrates both a private, in-house network and public network. Hybrid clouds are usually formed in two ways: a business has a private cloud and forms a partnership with a public cloud provider, or a public cloud provider forms a partnership with a business that already runs a private cloud platform.

A hybrid cloud is a cloud computing environment in which an organization provides and manages some resources in-house and has others provided externally. For example, an organization might use a public cloud service for a specific need such as placing applications in the public cloud that are not cost effective to deploy in their private network, or that they do not have the skills to deploy. Other organizations may have a data center that is running out of power or space and they want to focus finite resources on business critical applications. The hybrid approach allows a business to take advantage of the scalability and cost-effectiveness that a public cloud computing environment offers without exposing in-house applications and data to public vulnerabilities. This type of cloud computing is also referred to as hybrid IT.

Another advantage of a hybrid cloud is it allows organizations to maintain a centralized governance of IT resources while taking advantage of cloud computing services where needed.

There are several forces driving the adoption of a hybrid cloud: an enterprise’s need to maintain control of data, the cost effectiveness of cloud-based services such as virtual software and storage, and the ability of hybrid networks to respond as quickly as possible to rapidly changing business needs.

Organizations can utilize hybrid clouds in order to achieve a variety of goals. Hybrid clouds provide a way to experience the advantages of public cloud computing where needed without completely abandoning the benefits of a private network. Specific network infrastructure can be out-sourced to a public cloud environment, while the remainder of the network can be managed and maintained on premise.

Hybrid clouds also allow an organization to mix and match resources between local infrastructure, which is typically paid for but difficult to scale, with a virtual infrastructure that’s scalable and can respond to changing demand. A company can also share applications and data between platforms without users even being aware.

For many organizations, the use of hybrid computing provides the best of both worlds. Considering the complexities of compliance issues, performance requirements, and security needs, some local governance of IT resources is desirable. At the same time, a hybrid cloud allows businesses to experience the numerous advantages that public cloud computing offers without the risk of completely shutting down their in-house network.

By Lisa Gecko

With government agencies as critical to national security as the Department of Defense migrating to the private sector for cloud computing solutions, what will this mean for larger cloud service providers (CSPs) that might not be able to comply as quickly as smaller, niche-driven cloud hosting companies? It might mean that some of the bigger players will find themselves out of the loop. CSPs both large and small that drag their feet will miss out on this unprecedented opportunity to work with state and federal agencies. Until recently, lucrative government contracts have, for the most part, remained unavailable for commercial CSPs. With the implementation of the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP), the doors will open to all government agencies interested in working with the private sector.

One of the ancillary benefits with FedRAMP could be the increase in cloud adoption by businesses that to date have remained wary of the move. A government-wide standard for contracting IT services from outside providers will most likely alleviate any lingering doubt in the corporate world in regards to cloud computing solutions and security concerns. In that sense, FedRAMP is a win-win for CSPs. FedRAMP is intended to be applicable to all cloud deployment and service models. So Public Clouds, Private Clouds and Hybrid Clouds, as well as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) (as defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)) could be judged by businesses in the private sector by federal standards across the board. This should be exciting news for cloud solutions providers looking for yet another bullet point when broaching the subject of cloud security with potential clients.

Cloud solutions providers should also find the universal standard a benefit in acquiring multiple government agencies as clients. One of FedRAMP’s goals is to eliminate any duplication of compliance effort, thus enabling commercial CSPs to work with a variety of state and federal departments without reapplying for any certifications they have already achieved. This will also spare both providers and agencies unnecessary investment of time and money in the process. Standardization of the contract language is already underway to further assist with the integration of FedRAMP, which should also in turn, provide an easier road for CSPs to work with multiple state and federal agencies.

There are some very interesting opportunities for CSPs with the implementation of FedRAMP, but there is a potential downside for the smaller to mid-sized cloud solutions providers. It is possible that the lion’s share of these government contracts could go to the larger, more established organizations due to something as simple as name recognition. If the big guns are on their game, they each might be able to slice off a sizable portion of the pie, leaving little for even the well-prepared of the rest; and nothing for the stragglers. This is just another reason for smaller to mid-sized CSPs to get a head start on FedRAMP certifications. Even though monopolization is a possibility, the sheer scope and breadth of governmental agencies in the United States makes that likelihood doubtful at best.

Even though FedRAMP may not be necessary to the private sector as a security standard, given the fact that the government concedes that the security provided by commercial CSP’s is equal to or greater than what is currently being provided within most governmental agencies—it may be fundamental in bringing the rest of the business world into the cloud. As long as FedRAMP delivers on promises made, and does not bog down the certification process, the implementation should bode well for all CSPs interested in working with state and federal agencies. If a universal security standard does indeed accelerate the corporate migration to cloud solutions, then the benefits for CSPs are at least two fold.

By Lisa Gecko

Expected to be operational by June of 2012, the Federal Risk and Authorization Program (FedRAMP) is the current administration’s attempt to set cloud computing security standards for cloud service providers (CSPs). The primary goal of FedRAMP is to streamline the authorization process for government agencies to work with public and private cloud hosting companies. This is coming on the heels of certain provisions in the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act that require the Department of Defense to migrate data to private-sector cloud solutions. This is mainly due to assessments confirming that the private-sector is more capable of providing equal or greater security at a fraction of the cost.

This is exciting news within the cloud hosting community, although there are concerns. How will FedRAMP accomplish what it proposes? As of January 6^th, FedRAMP's Joint Authorization Board has approved the control baselines for federal agencies. What this means for CSPs is that once approved, the process need not be applied again. The control baselines are universal, therefore working with multiple government agencies should, in theory, be easier. If a particular agency has additional security needs, CSPs will not be required to jump through the same hoops, as that groundwork has already been laid. Of course this is the best-case scenario, as with all bureaucracy the potential for becoming bogged down in red tape is always on the horizon.

This is a significant concern as every state and federal agency will use FedRAMP as a building point, and can if they so choose, decide to implement a host of security requirements in addition. This could effectively render FedRAMP compliance irrelevant. In fairness to these agencies, they are not all going to fit nicely into what FedRAMP will package as a cloud security standard. From a provider’s point of view the questions are many. Most CSPs are concerned about how to make legislation and compliance work effectively for the company. Yes, it is wonderful that the federal government feels that the private-sector CSPs can provide better security for less. Before we all pat ourselves on the back, we need to take a look at how IT industry standardization has played out in the past.

IT solutions that change the landscape have outdistanced the governments ability to legislate in a timely manner for over a decade now. These changes are coming faster and faster, while the ability to create new contract programs continues to move at the same pace. Reverse auctions and seat management for example accomplished nothing more than time and debt on both sides. There really is nothing to suggest that FedRAMP will be any different, other than the refreshing idea of “do once, use many times.” The concept of laying down universal cloud-based security standards is a fundamentally sound concept. Working with government agencies will most certainly appeal to many CSPs. Corporations ready to make the move to cloud-based solutions will most likely find comfort with the knowledge that a universal security standard is in place. It unfortunately remains to be seen if the government can keep up with every new advance in the IT world without dragging it back down in the legislative process.

How will FedRAMP affect cloud security? Historically the government allows too many chefs in the kitchen when it comes to IT legislation. If this administration can manage to field the right people for the task, there are high hopes that FedRAMP is a step in the right direction for cloud security standards. The possible downside is that FedRAMP could end up obsolete before it is ever implemented, or worse do actual damage. If the private-sector is already providing a level of security superior to the federal government, is it really necessary?

By Lisa Gecko

Lync 2010 is Microsoft’s latest instant messaging, presence, and collaboration suite for PC, smart phone, and Internet. It creates a real-world communications experience over a network with streaming high-resolution video and audio. This article will focus on the benefits of having a hosting company run and support Lync in a cloud based virtual network. Why pay a hosting company for Lync when you could purchase, install, and run it yourself?

First off, Lync has a hefty set of hardware system requirements. Businesses that already outsource their networking needs are not likely to have a system that is capable of running Lync without significant investment and upgrades. And those with in-house networks are not likely to have a Lync compatible platform either. Recommended server requirements to run Lync include a 64-bit dual or quad processor, quad-core, 2.0 GHz or higher (Intel Itanium processors are not supported for Lync Server 2010), at least 16 GB of memory, and local storage with at least 72 GB free disk space on a 10,000 RPM disk drive. In addition, at least 1 network adapter is required (2 recommended), each 1 Gbps or higher. A cloud hosting company can meet these hardware requirements with a much lower monthly service fee.

Software requirements are also significant. Lync 2010 is available only in 64-bit, which requires 64-bit hardware and 64-bit editions of Windows Server. Lync is not available in a 32-bit version. Computers running Lync Server administrative tools must run a 64-bit edition Windows 7 or Vista operating system. Database management systems for the back-end database, the Archiving database, and the Monitoring database require a 64-bit edition of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 as well. Additional software requirements include Windows PowerShell 2.0 and .NET Framework 3.5 with SP1.

Lync requires a specialized technical staff to install, backup, and maintain it. An IT staff with the skills and experience to run Lync is going to be expensive. A cloud hosting company can provide this specialized support without the overhead. Select cloud hosts also offer a 100% up time guarantee, with a 24-hour support staff running redundant clusters and multiple connections, with full-data backup in case of a system crash. And if your company already has an active directory, a cloud host staff can integrate it with Lync for a seamless transition.

Another benefit of having a hosting company run Lync is scalability. Your Lync network can grow with your company without expensive hardware and software purchases and upgrades. And at any time, if you need to scale back, you can. Security issues associated with network based communications are covered as well. Physical and virtual firewalls, anti-virus, and secured connections are included as part of most cloud hosting network services.

To put it simply, a cloud host can save you significant time and money. A host would make expensive hardware and software purchases and upgrades unnecessary, and provide an IT support staff to run and maintain it all for a low monthly fee. Lync could infinitely scale with your business, and you could scale back at any time if needed. And finally, your network communications would be safe and secure with redundant physical and virtual security features.

By Lisa Gecko

Microsoft Lync 2010 is the latest cross platform real-time instant messaging client that offers several features and improvements over the previous incarnation, Microsoft Office Communicator. In short, Lync provides messaging and presence, voice, and conferencing workloads for the era of Unified Communications. Support for the mobile workforce, which is of paramount importance in the current corporate landscape, is provided across remote and mobile communications devices with no virtual private network (VPN) required. Lync is also extremely customizable, allowing companies to tailor the power of Lync to very specific needs.

With the addition of multi-client software collaboration, which includes everything from your traditional Microsoft applications such as Power Point and Word, to whiteboard documents and polling lists to name a few, the benefits become clear for businesses that need to communicate seamlessly across a wide variety of applications, both internally and externally. Microsoft Lync 2010 is also able to provide rich audio and high-definition video. Instances of dropped signals are almost non-existent unlike internet communications predecessors. Lync’s Call Administration Control handles bandwidth parameters with ease, and can also be customized for optimal efficiency.

Collaborations across any of the multiple applications supported are automatically defined as conferences, and with the well-designed interface it is simple to add attendees, promote participants, launch new applications, and invoke other key new features all with a simple click. Also, the interface will be familiar to anyone that uses Microsoft products. This is of course a significant draw for corporations that have a large number of less tech-savvy employees that would really benefit from Lync’s many improvements in real-time instant messaging communications.

From the server side, the Enterprise and Plus Editions should be of interest to mid-sized and larger companies for a variety of reasons. One being that deployment is significantly easier with the new Lync Server 2010 planning tool. This was a time consuming process with the Office Communications Server. Even with the myriad of new features available, the ability to export deployment design to a configuration file streamlines the process.

Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype can only improve Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology within Lync. When it comes to competing in or controlling the enterprise Unified Communications market, this was a bold move. Microsoft Lync’s goal to become a complete private branch exchange (PBX) replacement is a welcome breath of fresh air for many businesses struggling with the costs and difficulties of managing the relatively labor-intensive VoIP PBX systems. With the addition of Skype’s VoIP technologies, Microsoft has put in place one of the pieces for Lync to match up better than any competitor across the board.

So what is Microsoft Lync? Right now it is a vast improvement over its previous version, Microsoft Office Communicator. Lync is a unified experience across all communications including instant messaging, mobile devices, phone, rich audio, high-definition video and conferencing. Communicating within oft-used applications is a new addition, and the ability to make connections with the new rich presence features is impressive. The complete enterprise voice features are equally impressive. The ability for businesses to be able to work and communicate from anywhere in the world, with ease and familiarity, is the end game. What will Microsoft Lync become? To truly replace PBX infrastructure is no simple feat. With the acquisition of Skype, Microsoft has a good chance of accomplishing this. Also the familiarity with Microsoft, particularly the way the software looks on the screen, will always be a draw for businesses wary of drastic change.

By Lisa Gecko

Lync 2010 is Microsoft’s latest instant messaging, presence, and collaboration suite. Available for the PC, the smart phone, and via web browser, Lync is designed to empower communication in the workplace. Its robust features along with an interface that is easy to use make Microsoft Lync essential for online communications. Lync enables face-to-face quality communications in the network, with rich audio and video streams. It also enables the use of Microsoft Office applications when communicating over your network.

Attempting to collaborate and communicate with others over the internet can be complicated and problem prone process. Getting an exact thought or idea across to a colleague over the network can be difficult. Virtual communication is much simpler, easier, and flexible with Lync. A conversation that was started via instant message can, with the click of the mouse, turn into a voice conversation, or a video conference. A few more clicks and that same conversation can launch a whiteboard for brainstorming. And sharing your Desktop and other applications has never been easier than with Microsoft Lync.

Lync shares the same contacts as other Microsoft programs including Outlook, and there is no difficult set-up that requires time-consuming sending and receiving of invitations. In addition, contacts from social media can be added through Microsoft Lync so that new users can be added without leaving the program.

Microsoft Lync is highly customizable and can be tailored to your specific network communications needs. While it can be used to connect those working together from all over the world, it can also be loaded on a network that is inaccessible from the web so that employees can collaborate on sensitive projects without fears of security breaches.

Microsoft Lync is known for its stability. Dropped signals or freezes are a thing of the past. Even in highly congested networks, Lync’s Call Admission Control is able to actively adjust bandwidth utilization for continued smooth communication.

Lync includes support for common calling features such as, answer, forward, transfer, hold, divert, release, and park, and extends these capabilities outside the office via secured internet access without requiring a VPN connection. And with Lync running on the cloud, every interaction is a near face to face meeting. Network conversations with Lync include high-resolution video, application, and desktop-sharing and it enables full presence meetings without the need for a physical trip.

And for the first time ever, you can now add needed context to communications by utilizing Microsoft Office applications within a single application. Lync provides a visually compelling communications experience with the consistent look and features of Microsoft Office and other Microsoft business applications, including color-coded presence icons, pictures, high-resolution video, and desktop sharing. And Lync enables employees to stay connected from virtually anywhere with a single experience across PC, phone, or Web browser interfaces. This allows users the choice to connect from many devices.

By Lisa Gecko

One of the more impressive new additions from VMware included with the release of vSphere 5 is the Storage Distributed Resource Scheduler (SDRS), which utilizes data store clusters to intelligently balance resource levels and oversee virtual disk placement automatically. Storage DRS and Profile-Driven Storage reduce the possibility of I/O bottlenecks, and provide a level of control over storage resources ensuring the highest disk performance to date. The new cluster-level management capacity of vSphere 5 and the inclusion of Storage DRS drastically increase the capability and fluidity of resource pools, allowing for a broader spectrum of specifications for service level agreements (SLAs). With the automation of virtual machine (VM) migration across storage tiers based on a variety of preset conditions, the ability to seamlessly balance the changing needs of any single-provider cloud hosting client is easier, far more powerful, and almost invisibly fluid. On the market there is currently nothing as effective as vSphere 5’s Storage DRS, and Profile-Driven Storage that can provide this level of control over storage resources.

On a base level, not only does vSphere 5’s Storage DRS ensure high disk performance, it is one of the essential tools that VMware includes that afford companies both large and small the ability to modify the cloud to an ever-increasing set of specific needs. From a client perspective this is of paramount importance. Applications maintaining the appropriate level of resources across multiple servers is fundamental to cloud computing, and with the new addition of Storage DRS automated load balancing, the draw of single-provider cloud hosting is stronger than ever. Companies can now have access to intelligently designed resource pool management, shared across infinitely definable group parameters that provide tailor-made resource availability. What this means is that businesses opting to move to the cloud can now expect to be able to operate relatively hands-free, with all of the advantages that cloud computing provides. It should come as no surprise that VMware is leading the way in virtualization, but the importance of dynamic automation in virtual disk placement with vSphere 5’s new Storage DRS cannot be overstated.

Disk performance and business-critical processing rank a close second to security for concerns in the new world of virtual computing, and rightfully so. The allure of the cloud, still in its relative infancy, brings to mind a host of frontiers where the advantages were at best misunderstood. Without waxing poetic regarding the trials and tribulations of pioneers that have paved the way to present day cloud computing, it would be fair to say that fear, due to a lack of information, have held many back in the past. Cloud hosting, and in particular single-provider cloud hosting is breaking beyond that barrier. Leading the vanguard is VMware, which continues to address the complex issues of cloud-based hosting with innovations that have consistently reached far beyond expectations. An excellent example is vSphere 5’s Storage DRS which is now essential, and still at this point groundbreaking, in regards to high disk performance.

With the release of vSphere 5 and the cloud infrastructure set firmly in place, it is no longer an issue of “if,” but “when.” Storage DRS is just one of many features that are stacking the odds against in-house computing versus moving to a virtual platform. The ability to utilize resources at this level is cost-effective across the board, and the fiscal benefits for any business are just the beginning. Performance at this level can no longer viably be obtained outside of the cloud.

By Lisa Gecko

Storage is the slowest and most complex host resource, and is capable of severely handicapping your virtual machines (VMs) performance during business critical processing. In a VMware environment, Storage I/O Control (SIOC) provides much needed control of storage I/O and is used to ensure that the performance of your business-critical VMs are not affected by VMs from other hosts when there are competing demands for I/O resources. vSphere 5’s new Storage I/O Control now supports NFS and network-attached storage (NAS)–based shares on shared datastores. This allows cloud hosting companies to set storage quality of service priorities per virtual machine for better access to storage resources for high-priority applications. It also enables enforcement of storage service level agreements (SLAs) with NSF. Let’s take a closer look.

Storage I/O Control allows cloud hosting administrators to control the amount of access virtual machines have to the I/O queues on a shared datastore. This ensures that virtual machines running business-critical applications have higher priority to access the I/O queue than that of other virtual machines sharing the same datastore. And the new Storage APIs and resulting Storage Awareness in vSphere 5 eliminates the need for maintaining massive spreadsheets detailing the storage capabilities of each LUN that are needed to guarantee the correct SLA to virtual machines. While vSphere 4.1 supported SIOC on VMFS-based datastores that used SAN with iSCSI and Fibre Channel, vSphere 5s SIOC support has been extended to NFS-based datastores.

Storage I/O Control now dynamically regulates multiple virtual machines’ access to shared I/O resources, based on disk shares assigned to the virtual machines. It also helps isolate performance of latency-sensitive applications that employ smaller (<8KB) random I/O requests. This feature has been shown to increase performance by as much as 20%. Simultaneously, it now redistributes unutilized resources to those virtual machines that need them in proportion to the virtual machines’ disk shares, resulting in a fair allocation of storage resources without any loss in utilization. And in order to provide reliable performance during critical workloads, it limits performance fluctuations to a small range during periods of I/O congestion. This boosts performance by 11% compared to an unmanaged scenario without Storage I/O Control.

Storage I/O Control provides a dynamic control mechanism for managing virtual machines’ access to I/O resources, Fibre Channel (FC), iSCSI or NFS, in a cluster. It delivers the same performance benefits to NFS datastores as it does to already supported FC or iSCSI datastores. Tests have shown that with the right balance of workloads, Storage I/O Control might improve performance of critical applications by as much as 10%, with a latency improvement per I/O operation of as much as 33%.

Recent tests conducted at VMware Performance Engineering lab studied several performance aspects of SIOC and found that the enhanced access management of the I/O queues resulted in a 10% improvement in the response time of the workload used for the tests. SIOC’s ability to isolate the performance of applications with a smaller request size resulted in a significant performance boost as well. Tests found that SIOC helped databases with I/Os ?8K workload achieved higher performance when sharing the underlying datastore with a workload that used large-sized I/O requests. SIOC monitors virtual machines’ usage of the I/O queue at the host and dynamically redistributes any unutilized queue slots to those virtual machines that need them. Tests confirmed this results in a more reliable and consistent use of cloud hosting resources.

By Lisa Gecko

The new virtual machine hardware version 8 included with vSphere 5 has several new features, including support for 3D graphics for Windows Aero and USB 3.0 devices; but the most beneficial might be the ability for cloud hosting companies to run larger virtual machines. With this, it is now possible to configure VMs with 1TB of RAM and 32 simultaneous CPUs. This allows for a significant expansion of cloud hosting network services. Let’s take a closer look at the new features included with VM version 8.

First off, VM version 8 supports 32-way virtual SMP. This enables ESXi 5.0 to support virtual machines with up to 32 virtual CPUs. Cloud hosts can now run much larger CPU-intensive workloads on the VMware ESXi platform. In addition, you can now assign up to 1TB of RAM to ESXi 5.0 virtual machines, up from 256 GB in previous versions. Along with this memory boost, version 8 supports non hardware accelerated 3D graphics for Windows Aero and Basic 3D applications on ESXi 5.0 virtual machines. And version 8 supports the latest USB 3.0 devices in virtual machines with Linux guest operating systems. Client computers running the vSphere Web Client or the vSphere Client can be connected to a virtual machine and USB 3.0 devices can be accessed within it. USB 3.0 devices connected directly to the ESXi host are not supported at this time. And virtual machines running on ESXi 5.0 can boot from and use the Unified Extended Firmware Interface (UEFI) virtual BIOS.

Along with all the new features, the vCPU configuration has been expanded in the new layout as well. When creating a new VM, or editing virtual machine hardware, you can now choose a virtual socket and core allocation to the VM as opposed to being limited to choosing a vCPU count in previous versions. The amount of vCPU’s you can distribute is based on the amount of physical cores available on the host. For example, if you have a single Quad Core Intel chip on each physical server, your VM can be configured with up to 4 available vCPUs in an array of different options. This can significantly reduce costs in application licensing. If you have an application that needs more resources but is licensed by the socket, virtual or physical, you can now apply multiple cores to a single socket. Cloud hosts can now move from a 12 vCPU VM in vSphere 4 with 12 licensed sockets to a single vCPU socket with 12 cores in vSphere 5.

These upgrades make an extensively larger virtual machine platform available to cloud hosting companies. Thus, the services offered by cloud hosts can be greatly expanded without expensive physical hardware or infrastructure investments, and at a relatively low cost to the host, and ultimately the consumer.

By Lisa Gecko

2011 proved to be a watershed year for business migration to cloud-based services, and with the much anticipated release of VMware’s vSphere 5, hosts and providers concerned with cloud security welcome the addition of the ESXi stateless firewall. An absent feature since the ESX server, the addition of the ESXi firewall provides another layer of defense, functioning fundamentally as a packet filter. Enabled by default, the firewall blocks all incoming and outgoing traffic with exceptions such as DNS and DHCP. Configuring inbound and outbound TCP and UDP ports is an addition, as well as configuring specific rulesets within the ESXi Shell. VMware Installation Bundles (VIBs) can be utilized to customize ports and protocols for the ESXi firewall, allowing for a more tailored provider-host environment and infrastructure. The Host Image Profile Acceptance Levels for the VIBs have a broad range including VMware Certified, VMware Accepted, Partner Supported, and Community Supported.

Cloud security is, and always has been, at the top of the list of concerns for businesses considering a move to a virtual platform. While it is understandable that many CEO’s and other corporate decision makers are not always well-informed regarding every new development in cloud hosting security, it should be of some concern that many in the IT community are in the same boat. This is most assuredly no slight, but with the growth in cloud hosting this year, and every reason to expect exponential growth in the industry in the coming years, it would be a mistake to not recognize single-vendor cloud hosting as the new frontier. A basic understanding of cloud security alleviates some of these concerns and promotes a healthier relationship between hosts and their clientele, and with the addition of the ESXi firewall to vSphere 5, several security-related issues have been addressed.

The good news is that over the next few years as businesses continue to embrace the advantages that cloud-based computing provides, the wealth of talent within the IT community will gravitate as well. The first hurdle is to educate. With virtualization software developers like VMware catering to the concerns of both cloud hosting companies and their clients, it’s not that high of a hurdle. Providers requested another layer of defense, and VMware answered with the ESXi firewall. This addresses amongst other things, one of the potential problems involved with the lack of understanding regarding open ports and the security risk therein. Granted, the lightweight hypervisor has little to attack with very few ports open, but the addition of the ESXi firewall can only help to assuage any doubts about VMware’s commitment to customer satisfaction. Companies like VMware are also providing a wide variety of tutorials on virtualization, furthering the effort to bring about a better understanding of cloud hosting and everything it has to offer.

Security will always be of paramount importance. The move towards single-vendor cloud hosting and away from multiple providers or the traditional corporate data centers drives the need for innovation and cooperation in this field. Does the addition of the ESXi firewall enable cloud hosting companies to provide better security? Of course it does. It is another layer of defense that addresses specific issues. Equally important though is a community of hosts, providers and developers working together to bring security to the cloud one collaborative step at a time.

By Lisa Gecko

vSphere 5 includes significant new features and functionality across the VMware virtualization platform. A core component that was upgraded is the Distributed Switch (vDS). This is an administrative interface that enables the management and updating of network configuration in a central location as opposed to separate ESX hosts as in previous versions of vSphere. The benefit provided by vDS to Cloud Hosting Companies is enormous. Among those, hosts can now manage cloud hosting networks from a single location, thus reducing operational configuration time and scripting activities.

vDS provides connectivity for virtual machines running on VMware ESXi hosts to intercommunicate and maintain connectivity to the external physical infrastructure. This enables cloud hosts more visibility into the traffic that is flowing into the virtual infrastructure and supports the monitoring and troubleshooting of network issues.

While each new feature included with vDS is valuable, NetFlow is perhaps the most useful. Netflow only had experimental support until the vSphere 5 upgrade; now it has been completely integrated into vDS and is officially supported. Netflow gives cloud hosting administrators the ability to monitor virtual machine network communications in order to assist with intrusion detection, network profiling, compliance monitoring, and general network forensics. By enabling Netflow in vDS, the status of virtual network environments can quickly and easily be determined and essential information for cloud hosting business decisions can be provided. Feature enhancements and standards support are always favorable in an upgrade, but tools like Netflow are even better because they can be immediately utilized in virtual networks and thus show explicit value and return on investment.

Another powerful feature included with vDS is the ability to create user-defined network resource pools. This enables cloud computing networks to group traffic beyond standard system traffic types by setting shares, limits, and IEEE 802.1p tag parameters. For example, by configuring two user-defined resource pools with virtual machines connected to their respective independent port groups, shares can be managed so that during contention scenarios, one pool will have a higher guaranteed share than another. By utilizing this feature, cloud computing customers that are deploying critical applications on virtual infrastructure can reserve network resources for important, business critical applications traffic and provide SLA guarantees. In addition, cloud hosting companies can now define and provisions traffic resources based on each client’s needs.

Beyond user-defined traffic types, vDS can be configured for systems-level types as well. After selecting a traffic type, QoS tag fields can be prioritized, thus priority of service can be automated and ensured across multiple cloud computing networks and user types.

A list of additional vDS features and functionality that benefit cloud hosting companies includes a new stateless firewall that is built into the ESXi kernel, network I/O Control improvements including network resource pools and 802.1q support, support for LLDP standard for network discovery in addition to CDP support, the ability to mirror ports for advanced network troubleshooting or analysis, and the ability to configure NetFlow for visibility of inner-VM communication.

LOS ANGELES–November 2, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce they are in the process of upgrading their VMware vSphere 4.1 infrastructure to vSphere 5.

Infinitely Virtual uses VMware vSphere for its cloud infrastructure because it is the ultimate virtualization platform, providing users with complete confidence in the running of business-critical applications, and allowing for immediate response to changing business needs. There are many innovative additions to come in VMware vSphere 5, in the areas of Infrastructure (Compute, Storage, and Network), Application (Availability, Security, and Scalability), and Management Services.

Some of the new features found in vSphere 5.0’s Infrastructure Services include: vSphere ESXi convergence, which enables vSphere users to benefit from a thinner architecture, a more secure footprint, and a sleeker patching and setup model. A new virtual-machine format (Version 8 ) allows for 3D graphics for Windows Aero, and the use of USB 3.0 devices. Other additions include support for Apple products, increased storage efficiency, new per-virtual-machine controls for more-granular SLA enforcement, and improved visibility of virtual machine traffic.

In the area of Application Services, vSphere 5.0 introduces vSphere High Availability, which allows for simplified setup and configuration, plus expanded scalability. vSphere vMotion enables the migration of virtual machines over higher-latency networks. The new ESXi Firewall restricts access to specific services by IP address or subnet, while support for larger virtual machines mean that machines with vSphere 5.0 can have up to 32 virtual CPUs and 1 TB of RAM.

Under Management Services, an advanced Web Client allows users to access vSphere from any Web browser in the world, and clients can run the vCenter Server as a Linux-based virtual appliance.

“I’m excited to take Infinitely Virtual and our customers to the next level of cloud computing with vSphere 5.0. The enhanced features and applications will allow for better business management and productivity,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual’s addition of vSphere 5.0 to their line takes the company further in its commitment to deliver revolutionary, high quality virtual products and services to clients, at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual
Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

By Lisa Gecko

VMware’s just released vSphere 5 is the latest upgrade to the industry’s most comprehensive suite of infrastructure virtualization products. With this release, VMware has upped the ante with new features designed to nearly eliminate downtime from the corporate network infrastructure. Some of these enhancements include improved vMotion, Storage vMotion, vSphere High Availability (HA), and VMware Fault Tolerance (FT).

Improved vMotion
vMotion is VMware’s technology for hot-migration of a virtual machine (VM) from one host to another. In a highly dynamic data center, physical servers require both software and hardware maintenance, both of which require the host to be shut down. With vMotion, VMs can be seamlessly moved from one host to another, enabling the maintenance of the underlying hardware without disruption. In previous versions, if a server was under high memory load, it can prevent a vMotion to proceed successfully. In this new version, VMware has implemented Slowdown During Page Send (SDPS), which can slow down the VM for a short period of time to enable the successful completion of a vMotion. A new feature called Metro vMotion has been added. This feature increases the maximum allowable latency for vMotion to 10ms. This enables organizations to move VMs over larger distances without disruption.

Improved Storage vMotion
Like vMotion, Storage vMotion allows a VM to be moved from one storage medium to another without disruption, enabling SAN maintenance and SAN load balancing without the need for downtime. VMware has enabled migration between hosts with dissimilar storage, i.e. from Direct Attached Storage to a SAN. Storage vMotion performance has also been enhanced with I/O mirroring in vSphere 5.

Improved VMware High Availability
VMware High Avalailability (HA) is a host clustering technology that protects VMs from underlying hardware failure. In the event of a host failure, VMs on a host that becomes unavailable will be immediately started on another host in the HA cluster. Additionally, if a VM becomes unresponsive, HA can automatically restart the VM. This enables automatic recovery of a system before a system administrator becomes aware of the problem. In version 5, VMware has increased the number of maximum hosts in a cluster.

vSphere Fault Tolerance (FT)
vSphere Fault Tolerance takes HA one step further. FT is enabled on a VM by VM basis. When enabled, vCenter immediately creates a second VM that shares the underlying virtual disks. If the primary VM stops communicating, the secondary VM takes over. This is enabled by using vLockstep technology. vLockstep mirrors the CPU and memory state of the primary VM to the secondary in real-time. If a failure occurs, the affected VM is automatically recreated. This configuration enables recovery with zero downtime.

Increasing Uptime
Over time it is becoming clear that highly available workloads should be virtualized. Early adopters who virtualized non-production servers and servers on the fringe are now virtual nearly everywhere. For all but the most intense workloads, virtualization enables organizations to protect their systems with little change to their applications. As VMware continues to improve their products, there will be fewer and fewer situations where virtualization will not be the norm.

LOS ANGELES–October 24, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce that InfiniteApp is now available as an option to both the Virtual Terminal Server Premium and Virtual Office Network Standard+ plans.

InfiniteApp is Infinitely Virtual’s cutting-edge application virtualization platform, and allows users to stream applications directly from the cloud, save data in the cloud or on a local computer, and access applications and data from Windows, Linux, Mac, iPad or Android devices.

Advanced desktop features include Multimedia Acceleration, Universal USB, Text Echo, Universal Print Driver, Multi-monitor Support, Graphics Acceleration, Bi-directional Audio, and Support for iPad/Android, and RemoteScan.

InfiniteApp is powered by Infinitely Virtual’s revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), which includes features like clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, clustered Juniper firewalls, and a 100% uptime guarantee.

E.V.E. Virtual Dedicated Server features include Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD & Floppy, and Virtual Power Buttons, permitting administrative control of machines from virtually anywhere, at anytime. Each server can be configured to have between 1 and 8 2.53 Ghz virtual CPUs, shared on hosts operating on average, below 30% CPU utilization. Servers can share excess RAM and CPU. Dedicated OS, around-the-clock U.S. based support, and a 30-day satisfaction guarantee all come standard, as does the ability to install 3rd Party Applications.

“InfiniteApp makes cloud computing feel like your applications are running on your own computer,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual’s addition of InfiniteApp as an option to the VTS–Premium and VON Standard+ plans takes the company further in its commitment to deliver revolutionary, high quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual
Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

By Lisa Gecko

vSphere 5 is the latest version of VMware’s popular virtual server infrastructure product. It includes an extensive upgrade with many new infrastructure improvements, as well as new application and management services. Perhaps the most powerful new tool included with vSphere 5 is the Auto Deploy feature. Provisioning numerous vSphere servers is a time consuming task, even when using host profiles. Auto Deploy enables a massive reduction in the resources it takes to deploy vSphere servers by automatically creating a base image and deploying it to new hardware, saving both time and cost.

Auto Deploy is essentially an advanced provisioning technology that takes advantage of standard PXE boot features to obtain a DHCP-provided IP address. Once it has done this, the host is redirected to a TFTP server which streams an ESXi image over the network and into the memory of the intended host. Once the image has been moved into memory on the host, ESXi reboots and contacts a vCenter server for further instructions such as the application of a host profile.

The days of time consuming and expensive deployment errors are over. Using a rules engine, Auto Deploy is able to precisely install specified images to the hosts of choice. The rules engine is activated during the provisioning stage as hardware data is fed to Auto Deploy so that the specified rules are applied. Thus, errorless deployments are practically guaranteed.

Beyond automating the initial deployment process, Auto Deploy has many other benefits as well. For example, it eliminates the need for a host to boot from any kind of local storage. Since a full boot image is sent to the machine over the network, the host can boot from this image and further reduce the potential for hardware failures. In addition, replacing non-functioning hosts has never been easier.

With Auto Deploy it is now possible to have a complete stateless installation, with the image stored in memory, eliminating the need to install ESXi manually. Whether you have many physical vSphere hosts, or a few, Auto Deploy will save you time and money. And it is completely scalable as your network grows, with the capability to install hundreds of physical server if need be. With Auto Deploy and vSphere 5, business can stay productive at all times.

Auto Deploy is just one of the many upgrades with the new vSphere 5. Upgrade today and keep your business moving on the right track.

LOS ANGELES–October 16, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the release of the InfiniteApp Cloud–Virtual Terminal Server plan.

InfiniteApp Cloud–Virtual Terminal Server is a part of Infinitely Virtual’s new standout application virtualization platform. InfiniteApp Cloud–VTS provides each user a remote desktop on a terminal server farm. Access is simple and easy, as users login via web page on a Virtual Dedicated Connection Broker.

The InfiniteApp Cloud–VTS package features redundant Active Directory Controllers, a Virtual Dedicated File Server, and at least one Virtual Terminal Server. Advanced desktop features include Multimedia Acceleration, Universal USB, Text Echo, Universal Print Driver, Multi-monitor Support, Graphics Acceleration, Bi-directional Audio, Support for iPad/Android, and RemoteScan.

InfiniteApp Cloud–VTS gives organizations the power to purchase pools of resources, prioritize access, and to share those integrated resources across servers–which allows for the provisioning of much larger servers. Advanced cloud features include the ability to share CPU, RAM, Storage & Bandwidth, Provision from Windows Templates, Provision from Virtual Appliance Templates, Self-Install Servers, Private Managed VLANs, ability to Overcommit CPU & RAM, Provision from Linux Templates, Upload Servers, Rent Microsoft Licensing, and Manage Distributed Resource Scheduler.

InfiniteApp Cloud–VTS is powered by Infinitely Virtual’s revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), which includes features like clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, clustered Juniper firewalls, and a 100% uptime guarantee.

E.V.E. Virtual Dedicated Server features include Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD & Floppy, and Virtual Power Buttons, permitting administrative control of machines from virtually anywhere, at anytime. Each server can be configured to have between 1 and 8 2.53 Ghz virtual CPUs, shared on hosts operating on average, below 30% CPU utilization. Servers can share excess RAM and CPU. Dedicated OS, around-the-clock U.S. based support, and a 30-day satisfaction guarantee all come standard, as does the ability to install 3rd Party Applications.

InfiniteApp Cloud–VTS Plans
Silver
• 20 InfiniteApp Users
• 1 Terminal Server
• 6 Ghz CPU Burst
• 1 Ghz CPU Reserved
• 6 GB RAM Reserved
• 200 GB Storage
Gold
• 50 InfiniteApp Users
• 2 Terminal Servers
• 12 Ghz CPU Burst
• 2 Ghz CPU Reserved
• 12 GB RAM Reserved
• 300 GB Storage
Platinum
• 100 InfiniteApp Users
• 3 Terminal Servers
• 24 Ghz CPU Burst
• 4 Ghz CPU Reserved
• 24 GB RAM Reserved
• 600 GB Storage
Diamond
• 250 InfiniteApp Users
• 5 Terminal Servers
• 50 Ghz CPU Burst
• 8 Ghz CPU Reserved
• 50 GB RAM Reserved
• 1.2 TB Storage

“Our InfiniteApp Cloud – Virtual Terminal Server plan enables organizations to embrace the cloud, placing even their largest mission-critical applications safely online,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual’s suite of InfiniteApp Cloud–Virtual Terminal Server products takes the company further in its commitment to deliver cutting-edge, high quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

By Lisa Gecko

The newest version of vSphere is loaded with features that enhance and expand its capabilities. Infrastructure upgrades include new hypervisor architecture, a new virtual machine format, and extended support for Apple xserve. These enhancements alone make vSphere 5 the most powerful and most flexible on the market. Beyond infrastructure improvements, vSphere 5 also includes numerous expanded application and management services, including ESXi firewall, and larger virtual machines. High availability and vMotion migration features have also been enhanced. Management service improvements include an updated web client and the vCenter server appliance. All these feature upgrades save your business time and money. But one feature, Auto Deploy, promises to go above and beyond.

vSphere 5’s Auto Deploy feature is a new deployment and patching model for the new vSphere hosts that are running the ESXi hypervisor. Auto Deploy allows you to get new vSphere hosts up and running in minutes and update them more efficiently and quickly than ever. This feature takes advantage of the ESXi hypervisor architecture, which is the gold standard in hypervisors, with thinner architecture, a more secure footprint, and a streamlined patching and setup model. With Auto Deploy your vSphere 5 upgrade will be seamless and reduce business costs.

The new virtual machine format (version eight) included with vSphere 5 has several new must have features in today’s virtual machine world including support for Windows Aero 3D graphics, and support for USB 3.0 devices. With Apple servers becoming more visible in the virtual server market, it is assuring to know vSphere 5 supports Apples server products, including full compatibility with Apple’s Xserve servers running OS X Server 10.6 (Snow Leopard).

Storage enhancements include storage DRS, which enable more efficient use of storage resources through grouping, placement and balancing. And profile driven storage enables appropriate use of storage resources by indentifying virtual machine service levels. The vSphere file system enables non disruptive upgrades to the platforms latest clustered file systems. The storage I/O control enables better management of service level agreements. And vSphere’s Storage API program includes the ability to interface with arrays when using the new vSphere Storage DRS and Profile-Driven Storage features.

Network upgrades include a new network I/O control which allows more-granular SLA enforcement. And the new vSphere distributed switch improves visibility of virtual machine traffic through NetFlow and enhances monitoring and troubleshooting through Switched Port Analyzer (SPAN) and Link Layer Discovery Protocol (LLDP) support.

Additionally, the new vSphere 5 enables higher availability and larger scalability than ever before. Virtual machines can now grow four times larger than in any previous release to support even the largest applications. Virtual machines can now have up to 32 virtual CPUs and 1TB of RAM. Whether your company is large or small, the ability to expand your network with vSphere is a plus. And vSphere’s compatibility with numerous hardware platforms ensures that you will not be limited by undue hardware constraints.

LOS ANGELES–October 10, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the company has been profiled as a success story in an HP Customer Case Study.

The article explains Infinitely Virtual’s initial vision to provide enterprise-class, high performance cloud computing, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server and email hosting technology to small and medium businesses, and details how this was achieved through the company’s use of server virtualization with the HP BladeSystem and HP Virtual Connect.

Supplying customers with reliable and affordable services is a part of Infinitely Virtual’s constant mission. By utilizing the latest in server technology, Infinitely Virtual was able to double server capacity while halving the cost; deploy servers faster (within hours); maintain 100 percent uptime; preserve a minimal energy footprint; create infinitely scalable networks and service; and increase the management capability per employee.

The article also mentions Infinitely Virtual’s revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), which includes features like clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, clustered Juniper firewalls, and a 100% uptime guarantee.

“We’ve worked extremely hard this year to improve our system management and in doing so have doubled server capacity and halved our costs. It’s great to be recognized by HP’s case study for all that hard work, but it doesn’t end there. As always, we are committed to improving our business and providing the best possible service,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual’s HP case study profile is a testament to the company’s success in its commitment to deliver cutting-edge, high quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

LOS ANGELES–October 3, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the release of the InfiniteApp–Application Virtualization plans.

InfiniteApp–Application Virtualization is a part of Infinitely Virtual’s new standout application virtualization platform. This plan allows users to stream applications directly from the cloud, save data in the cloud or on a local computer, and access applications and data from Windows, Linux, Mac, iPad or Android devices.

Advanced desktop features include Multimedia Acceleration, Universal USB, Text Echo, Universal Print Driver, Multi-monitor Support, Graphics Acceleration, Bi-directional Audio, Support for iPad/Android, and RemoteScan.

InfiniteApp–Application Virtualization is powered by Infinitely Virtual’s revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), which includes features like clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, clustered Juniper firewalls, and a 100% uptime guarantee.

InfiniteApp–Application Virtualization Plans

Personal
• InfiniteApp Experience
• Sun Open Office
• Microsoft Office (Optional)
• 1 GB Storage
Business
• InfiniteApp Experience
• Multi-User
• Sun Open Office
• Microsoft Office (Optional)
• 5 GB Storage
Dedicated
• InfiniteApp Experience
• Multi-User
• Sun Open Office
• Microsoft Office (Optional)
• Custom Apps
• 22 GB Storage

“We’ve developed our new InfiniteApp-Application Virtualization products to enhance our client’s hosting experience; connect from anywhere, from any hosting device, any time,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual’s suite of InfiniteApp–Application Virtualization products takes the company further in its commitment to deliver cutting-edge, high quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual
Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

LOS ANGELES–September 29, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the release of the InfiniteApp–Virtual Office Network line of plans.

InfiniteApp–Virtual Office Network is Infinitely Virtual’s new standout application virtualization platform. InfiniteApp–VON replaces Infinitely Virtual’s previous Virtual Office Network–Premium plan, and brings all of InfiniteApp’s enhanced suite of options to the VON Premium package.

The InfiniteApp–VON package features seven servers, a dedicated Microsoft Exchange Server hosting plan, redundant Active Directory Controllers, a Virtual Dedicated Exchange Server, a Virtual Dedicated File Server with SharePoint Foundation 2010, and redundant load-balanced Virtual Terminal Servers in a private VLAN. Advanced desktop features include Multimedia Acceleration, Universal USB, Text Echo, Universal Print Driver, Multi-monitor Support, Graphics Acceleration, Bi-directional Audio, Support for iPad/Android, and RemoteScan.

InfiniteApp–VON is powered by Infinitely Virtual’s revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), which includes features like clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, clustered Juniper firewalls, and a 100% uptime guarantee.

E.V.E. Virtual Dedicated Server features include Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD & Floppy, and Virtual Power Buttons, permitting administrative control of machines from virtually anywhere, at anytime. Each server can be configured to have between 1 and 8 2.53 Ghz virtual CPUs, shared on hosts operating on average, below 30% CPU utilization. Servers can share excess RAM and CPU. Dedicated OS, around-the-clock U.S. based support, and a 30-day satisfaction guarantee all come standard, as does the ability to install 3rd Party Applications.

InfiniteApp–VON Plans
Bronze
• 10 VON Users (Max: 500)
• 10 GB Storage (Max: 2 TB)
• 10 GB Mail Storage
Silver
• 25 VON Users (Max: 500)
• 25 GB Storage (Max: 2 TB)
• 25 GB Mail Storage
Gold
• 50 VON Users (MAX: 500)
• 50 GB Storage (MAX: 2 TB)
• 50 GB Mail Storage
Platinum
• 100 VON Users (MAX: 500)
• 100 GB Storage (MAX: 2 TB)
• 100 GB Mail Storage
Diamond
• 250 VON Users (MAX: 500)
• 250 GB Storage (MAX: 2 TB)
• 250 GB Mail Storage

“Combining InfiniteApp with our highly successful Virtual Office Network – Premium plan gives our customers a complete suite of services, hosted in the best virtualization environment, with a compute experience comparable to local servers and workstations,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual’s suite of InfiniteApp–VON products takes the company further in its commitment to deliver cutting-edge, high quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

As server virtualization takes over the datacenter, the glitz and glam of the rich features within the VMWare suite easily overshadows the stodgy world of server hardware that it operates on. This is understandable, however, the perception that server virtualization diminishes the importance of the hardware layer is entirely out of focus. On the contrary, virtualization of servers increases the importance of the hardware layer for the simple reason that the ability to host multiple virtual machines amplifies any hiccup in hardware in proportion to the increased number of services the hardware now supports. In the one-to-one world, where a single host provided a single service, the impact of hardware failure could be gauged in a linear manner. With hardware today supporting a many-to-one relationship with virtual machines, a failure could result in the loss of multiple services, and damage to many different datasets. For this reason, VMware developed a feature known as High Availability (HA) and included it as an option in the vSphere product line.

HA allows a cloud service provider to deliver value from the cloud by provisioning extra capacity within their hardware cluster that can be used to maintain services in the event of a failure. For instance, the provider might provision a cluster of three physical servers, or hosts, to support a group of 9 virtual machines. With HA enabled, VMWare reserves a portion of each host to act as failover for the other units. Should hardware become unavailable, say to a power or system board failure, HA will recognize the loss of the host, and re-allocate the three virtual machines that the unit supported to the space on the two remaining functional hostst that it has reserved for this purpose. This decoupling of service from hardware reduces the impact of failures, and maximizes server and application uptime.

Anyone having had the pleasure of configuring a clustered environment at the application layer will attest to the difficulty this task has presented in the past. The beauty of HA is that the complexity of providing an environment with built-in application failover is handled at the server level by the provider. No more dual operating systems requiring twice as many patches, and twice as many potential problems. With HA, an autonomous server hosts an application, and in the event of hardware malfunction, that same server is maintained, and continues with the dedicated services that it’s configured to provide.

The net result of obtaining a service from a provider that has implemented HA in their virtual environment is that high availability for applications is achieved in a manner that is easy for the client. All an organization need know about HA to ensure that their applications and services will run with the highest degree of availability is that it is implemented on their provider’s platform. With this knowledge in hand, those responsible for service delivery are assured that the best possible uptime is delivered.

LOS ANGELES–September 13, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce their partnership with Quest in the creation of their new InfiniteApp Cloud Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) plans.

InfiniteApp Cloud VDI employs Quest’s innovative vWorkspace to simplify the deployment and management of VDI and desktop virtualization technologies by giving organizations the power to supply each standard or power user with their own Virtual Dedicated Desktop, and the ability to share integrated resources across servers.

InfiniteApp Cloud VDI plans are user-friendly and employ Linked-Clone technology, which free up SAN storage, and allow for entire desktop environment upgrades by simply installing patches and software on one single image. Systems can automatically create new desktops when users join an organization. Advanced desktop features include Multimedia Acceleration, Universal USB, Text Echo, Universal Print Driver, Multi-monitor Support, Graphics Acceleration, Bi-directional Audio, Support for iPad/Android, and RemoteScan. Plans also include redundant Active Directory Controllers and a Virtual Dedicated File Server, plus the ability to add a Virtual Terminal Server.

InfiniteApp Cloud VDI is powered by Infinitely Virtual’s revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), which includes features like clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, vMware HA clustering, clustered enterprise firewalls, and a 100% uptime guarantee.

E.V.E. Virtual Dedicated Server features include Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD & Floppy, and Virtual Power Buttons, permitting administrative control of machines from virtually anywhere, at anytime. Each server can be configured to have between 1 and 8 2.53 Ghz virtual CPUs, shared on hosts operating on average, below 30% CPU utilization. Servers can share excess RAM and CPU. Dedicated OS, around-the-clock U.S. based support, and a 30-day satisfaction guarantee all come standard, as does the ability to install 3rd Party Applications.

InfiniteApp Cloud VDI Plans
Silver
• 5 Desktops
• 6 Ghz CPU Burst
• 1 Ghz CPU Reserved
• 6 GB RAM Reserved
• 200 GB Storage

Gold
• 10 Desktops
• 12 Ghz CPU Burst
• 2 Ghz CPU Reserved
• 12 GB RAM Reserved
• 300 GB Storage

Platinum
• 25 Desktops
• 24 Ghz CPU Burst
• 4 Ghz CPU Reserved
• 24 GB RAM Reserved
• 600 GB Storage

Diamond
• 60 Desktops
• 50 Ghz CPU Burst
• 8 Ghz CPU Reserved
• 50 GB RAM Reserved
• 1.2 TB Storage

“I’m very excited to announce the development of our Cloud VDI plan. Our new plan allows users to upgrade entire desktop environments quickly and easily and is unlike anything on the market,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual’s alliance with Quest to develop their suite of InfiniteApp Cloud VDI products takes the company further in its commitment to deliver cutting-edge, high quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

By Lisa Gecko

In these demanding times, real estate agents are constantly working on the go: at an open house, showing a property, or signing papers at a title agency. Agents need a virtual network that can keep up with their mobile work life. More and more agents are using laptop computers and tablets such as Apple’s iPad to interface with the Internet and their virtual office network applications. In addition, agents with smart phones that run on Google’s Android operating system are becoming prevalent as well. It’s no longer a luxury for a virtual network to support mobile computing hardware and software, but a necessity. Agents must have access to applications and data on the road and in the office in order to stay competitive and productive.

With Cloud Hosting, an agent can run a variety of applications including MLS, Quickbooks, and Microsoft Office. For real estate agents, it is not enough to access these in the office anymore. Reports may be needed at an open house, when potential buyers ask data intensive questions. In this situation, running back to the office to access the network is not an option. The sale may depend on network data accessed immediately on site through mobile computing devices such as an iPad or Android supported smart phone.

Perhaps the most critical time for access to office networks is during an open house. Potential buyers will likely have questions that require access to the network. Financial information may be needed for the local housing market, detailed specifications on the house, and important tax related data as well. With a mobile computing supported virtual office network, all this information can be accessed immediately on site. With so many options in a buyers market, this can make the difference between closing a sale and losing a sale.

Mobile computing network services are not only important for working with buyers, but for working with home sellers as well. In today’s market, sellers have many options. Who will they choose to sell their home: the agent that offers to call back later or the agent with the iPad and all the answers right at their fingertips? Mobile access to the office network can make all the difference, especially with complex short sales or foreclosures.

In the fast paced real estate market, agents deserve 24/7 mobile access to their office networks. Whether working in the office or on the go, computer applications are needed more than ever to make the sale. And working on site with an iPad or Android equipped smart phone reduces the need for time in the office. Why not work where your sales are most likely to occur? By staying out of the office, yet still connected to the virtual office network, you have the best of both worlds: full access to the network including critical applications and data, and on site availability to contractors, inspectors, and your clients, the buyers and sellers.

When shopping for Cloud Hosting, remember mobile computing is not an option for agents. Make sure your network not only works for you in the office, but on site as well.

By Lisa Gecko

A primary reason for an organization to explore hosted mail services is the desire to offload the cost of procuring and maintaining the mail server infrastructure. While a hosted service can deliver on this promise, it is important to understand the differences between a shared Exchange environment, and having a service hosted on a dedicated Exchange server, either virtual or physical.

In a shared environment, the service provider will utilize the security permissions in Exchange to allow a rudimentary set of features and a basic level of administrative control to the client. This allows for mailbox set up, very basic messaging functionality, calendar and scheduling features, the ability to add and delete mailboxes, and not much else. While a “mail 1.0” service like this will provide some communications functionality, it does so by sacrificing the myriad of productivity features that exist within the Microsoft Exchange Server suite, and that are only available with an on-site server, or a dedicated Exchange service. A shared service also denies control of the underlying OS to the client organization, preventing the installation of third party software or monitoring tools.

A dedicated Exchange service provides a complete server instance, with a dedicated server OS and full control of the entire MS Exchange suite. The organization is provided with every advantage of Exchange, without the cost and complexity of hardware, maintenance, staff, and upgrades. With a hosted dedicated Exchange server at your fingertips, your business can have the full functionality of a mail server without the high cost of ownership.

The foremost advantage of a dedicated Exchange service is the ability to interact with and manage Active Directory (AD). Taken a step further, with the addition of a Site-to-Site IPSec VPN, this type of service can be integrated with the onsite AD, making the customer network seamless. Of course this cannot be accomplished with a shared environment, leaving the customer with at least two systems that must be managed separately.

In a dedicated Exchange environment, administration is handled through standard snap-ins and tools, as if the server were local. With the integrated AD/Exchange environment user account creation, personnel details, and security profiles integrate to provide a flawless administrative environment. By choosing a provider with a dedicated Exchange server, companies can receive the benefits of both the cloud, and of the built in features of Microsoft’s domain architecture. Any additional software that is required to be run can be installed on the box, and run as usual. By locating the dedicated mail server in the cloud, it is possible to take advantage of the strengths inherent to a virtualized infrastructure without having to develop this environment in the datacenter.

Your dedicated solution should be fault-tolerant, giving you 100% uptime. The features that enable this are redundant Active Directory Controllers, server clustering, SAN storage with clustering, redundant network components, and redundant Internet connectivity. Your system should be in a private virtual LAN behind redundant firewalls. You should be protected by a daily application-consistent backup, ensuring you can restore system regardless of the fault.

With a dedicated Exchange environment, any business can fulfill its communication needs with a full suite of dedicated services, while avoiding the capital expense and operational costs of maintaining the messaging infrastructure. A dedicated server in a virtualized hosted environment is able to expand and grow as the business does, and only a dedicated Exchange server can be fully integrated with the existing Microsoft domain architecture. With a dedicated server, administration is quick and easy, as if the host were on site. When deciding on a hosted mail service for your organization, choosing a vendor with a dedicated Exchange offering is the best value at a competitive price.

By Lisa Gecko

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) is a technology that helps businesses to alleviate management issues with the corporate desktop fleet, security vigilance, and end user help desk satisfaction. Virtualization has become common place in many data centers because of the advantages, like saving rack space, environmental and energy reductions, and easier management. Just like server virtualization, when using virtual desktop infrastructure, IT management has full control of end users desktops, applications, and data as they are run from the data center, yet still allowing users to experience their own individual desktop.

Desktop Images
One of the biggest tasks for IT support departments is to keep the desktop systems updated with the correct applications, versions, virus clients, and other desktop settings. Normally, support personal will create an image containing the operating system, programs, program updates, drivers, and security policies and deploy it through the organization. Creating these images can be time consuming, and if errors occur during the deployment, extra labor hours may be needed to determine the failure point. Couple this issue with computer systems located in remote areas, home offices, around the country or globe and the time and labor can become very costly.

Management Advantages
With Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, the creation, management and maintenance is easily achieved. For instance, in the event of an application desktop issue or update, instead of manually creating a new image and deploying on thousands of system, VDI images are created with the fix and swiftly deployed to the end users, before your help desk becomes inundated with end user reports of miscellaneous errors and operating issues.

For most organizations, the number of applications, operating systems, and configurations for numerous company departments and projects can be a daunting assignment. With virtual desktops, your IT can spend less time managing the desktops and more time on cost cutting initiatives or new product rollouts.

Having your desktops hosted and served from the corporate data center has other intrinsic benefits. Primarily, servers contain large memory, storage and processors, and many support two or more. This power is then used to increase operating speeds of and response times of applications. Having a central location that houses computing power eliminates the need to run expensive desktops, helping to save on capital expenditures. Although the end users are actually seeing and utilizing the desktop from the server, their experience is seamless.

Even for desktop configurations that require legacy hardware or external USB devices, desktop virtualization permits access and utilization without barriers.

One of the most valuable features is the security provided. With Virtual Desktop Integration, your desktop data is safely protected by firewalls, and within corporate servers. A stolen piece of hardware becomes useless, as the operating system, applications and data are all housed separate from the PC.

For the data center that embraces a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, the benefits are endless. Faster deployment of corporate solutions, better time management for IT staffers, and end user satisfaction, along with reduced errors and faster operations, make VDI a must have for expanding businesses.

By Lisa Gecko

In today’s 24/7 business world, downtime and server availability can be a company’s worst nightmare. However, the integrated features of vSphere’s Fault Tolerance (FT) effectively eliminate any possibility of downtime or lack of availability, keeping your business running smoothly.

Virtual servers are becoming the norm in enterprise level networks. The many benefits include higher server consolidation ratios and more efficient resource utilization. vSphere’s Fault Tolerance feature maintains 24/7 data systems uptime, giving businesses the virtual protection they need. Along with virtual servers, systems data is protected as well. Fault Tolerance is simple to activate and maintain, and provides continuous automated protection of select or systems wide virtual machines.

Fault Tolerance maintains continuous availability of applications in the event of hardware failures by allowing the virtual machine to run in parallel with the primary virtual server. In then event of a hardware failure, the virtual machine seamlessly takes over. The feature also protects any kind of operating system or hardware along with homegrown or custom application, all without the expensive traditional high availability products, or the need for modifications or reconfiguration.

Set up is simple; by leveraging existing vSphere clusters, Fault Tolerance can be activated for specific virtual servers in the cluster. For example, critical workloads such as quarter end processing can be Fault Tolerance protected to provide additional insurance of high-availability.

Additional Fault Tolerance features include automated rollover to redundant servers when a virtual machine fails to respond, resulting in zero downtime and zero data loss. Fault Tolerance works with all shared storage types including Fiber Channel, NAS, and iSCSI, and with all VMware vSphere compatible operating systems. In addition, Fault Tolerance is compatible with existing DRS and HA clusters with a single dedicated gigabit Ethernet network, allowing advanced load balancing and optimized placement of virtual machines. The service is also attuned with all vSphere hosts, thus primary and secondary virtual machines can run under different patch levels. Advanced login gives the ability to differentiate between primary and secondary VM’s and report if a vSphere host is not Fault Tolerance compatible. Finally, Fault Tolerance offers easy point and click administration as well as high availability, even in maintenance mode.

FT is offered as an additional component of the VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus or as an add-on acceleration kit (vCenter Server is a requirement for Fault Tolerance activation).

LOS ANGELES–August 15, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the release of the InfiniteApp Cloud–Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) plans, which give organizations the power to supply each standard or power user with their own Virtual Dedicated Desktop, and to share integrated resources across servers.

InfiniteApp Cloud–VDI plans are user-friendly and employ Linked-Clone technology, freeing up SAN storage, and allowing entire desktop environment upgrades by simply installing patches and software on one single image. Plans include redundant Active Directory Controllers and a Virtual Dedicated File Server, plus the ability to add a Virtual Terminal Server. Desktop features include Multimedia Acceleration, Universal USB, Text Echo, Universal Print Driver, Multi-monitor Support, Graphics Acceleration, Bi-directional Audio, Support for iPad/Android, and RemoteScan.

InfiniteApp Cloud–VDI is powered by Infinitely Virtual’s revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), which includes features such as clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, clustered enterprise firewalls, and a 100% uptime guarantee.

Each server can be configured to have between 1 and 8 2.53 Ghz virtual CPUs, shared on hosts operating on average, below 30% CPU utilization. Virtual Dedicated Server features include Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD & Floppy, and Virtual Power Buttons, permitting administrative control of machines from virtually anywhere, at anytime. Servers can share excess RAM and CPU. Dedicated OS, around-the-clock U.S. based support, and a 30-day satisfaction guarantee all come standard, as does the ability to install 3rd Party Applications.

InfiniteApp Cloud-VDI Plans
Silver
• 5 Desktops
• 6 Ghz CPU Burst
• 1 Ghz CPU Reserved
• 6 GB RAM Reserved
• 200 GB Storage

Gold
• 10 Desktops
• 12 Ghz CPU Burst
• 2 Ghz CPU Reserved
• 12 GB RAM Reserved
• 300 GB Storage

Platinum
• 25 Desktops
• 24 Ghz CPU Burst
• 4 Ghz CPU Reserved
• 24 GB RAM Reserved
• 600 GB Storage

Diamond
• 60 Desktops
• 50 Ghz CPU Burst
• 8 Ghz CPU Reserved
• 50 GB RAM Reserved
• 1.2 TB Storage

“I’m excited to release our new InfiiteApp Cloud-VDI plans. These new plans give each user the power and freedom of their own virtual dedicated server, without costly and tedious management,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual’s InfiniteApp Cloud–VDI takes the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

By Lisa Gecko

Do you ever need a file from the office computer, but you’re on the train, at home or away from your desk? Wouldn’t it be great to have immediate access to your data regardless of your location? Direct Access, a feature of Server 2008 R2, makes this possible. Using the Internet and the built in networking function in your Windows 7 PC, data can be retrieved quickly and easily.

What is Direct Access?
Direct Access on Microsoft’s 2008 R2 server is a technology which uses the Internet to connect an end user system and Direct Access servers to other network resources, be they inside or outside the corporate LAN.

In the past, in order for a remote computer to connect to the internal enterprise local area network, a VPN, or virtual private network was required. This too used the Internet as the link between server and client, but requires several things: client software installed on the workstation, end user initiation of the “dialer” to connect their PC to the company LAN, and IT installation and management of the VPN client software.

How is it Used?
Once configured, the remote user connects to the Direct Access server with no user interaction besides turning on the PC and choosing the corporate network. Once the employee connects to the Internet, they will be presented with all the servers and resources to which they have been granted permissions. This includes email, printers, and other computers. For IT professional, there is no need to manage a VPN client as Direct Access operates from the machine level, meaning the computer will “know” what server is on their Direct Access system. On their Windows 7 computer, will be a link to the company’s network. Additionally, the Direct Access server can be used to publish group policies to your end users to help manage software and computer configurations.

For companies that have remote employees, mobile and telecommuting workers, this technology can ease the burden of IT needing to have the computer on site for software updates and management. Not only do remote workstations and end users benefit, but other Direct Access servers can connect to other resource servers running this feature. For instance, if a global company has an internal SharePoint document repository, other Direct Access servers located in regional offices can use the Internet to access remote data, and then present those files or resource to their local users, without the need to have the data stored on the local server. Again, all servers communicating will require Direct Access.

What is Required?
Besides the standards of Active Directory, a Domain Controller and DNS structure, the server must use R2 release of Windows 2008. Also, the server requires two internal network cards and two public IP addresses. Microsoft’s web server, Internet Information Server is mandatory.

How is Security Handled?
As with other servers, you will configure authentication for end user and incoming connections. Other security services needed are PKI and IPSec. PKI certificates are issued to the clients to validate authenticity of the requester and the certificate over a public network, i.e. the Internet. IPv6 is not required on the company LAN, but Direct Access does utilize this protocol. The IPv6 traffic will run across an IPv4 LAN and the Direct Server feature called ISATAP, “Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol” which handle this function when configured.

A routing protocol included in Direct Access is Name Resolution Policy Table or NRPT. This protocol creates a routing table on each DA client such that it will know how to handle traffic directed to the DA server versus other Internet traffic, like search engines and basic web browsing. If you are sitting in the airport or a café, DA server traffic will be transferred directly to it and other traffic will be routed accordingly.

The Benefits for You
Features of Windows 2008 R2 provide multiple benefits for IT management and end users. Whether your users are working at home, or sitting at the airport, an Internet connection with Direct Access can easily link remote workers back to the company and server resources. Any data that is transferred in or out is secured using IPSec, certificates, encryption and user authentication. If you are considering using Direct Access, consult Microsoft’s Deployment guide for a successful project and rollout.

By Lisa Gecko

In the dynamic whirlwind of a growing organization, the art of delivering the latest and greatest applications to meet business needs can be a time consuming and expensive task. Tracking down remote or roaming users, updating branch offices, applying and verifying security patches, and interoperability issues with multiple client operating systems or hardware quickly inflate the cost of applications deployment, in both time and cash. Using remote desktop, much of this headache and expense can be avoided, while providing the best services and applications.

Remote desktop allows an organization running a server to share applications with client machines running other versions of Windows operating systems, or with Apple hosts running Windows Remote Desktop for Mac. Applications are installed and execute on a server, and are accessed through the Remote Desktop software on the client laptop or desktop. Apps look and feel as though they are installed on the client’s machine, allowing the user to run them side-by-side with other programs that are installed on their PC. Window size/resize/minimize acts as usual, and if multiple apps are accessed, the same terminal services session is utilized, reducing bandwidth requirements.

Using remote desktop has some great advantages over installing software on individual client PC’s. The most important is that only one instance of the software is installed on the server. This is in stark contrast to the traditional lengthy software deployment cycle to individual client PC’s which starts with procurement of multiple versions, regression testing for multiple OS platforms (both client and server), security patching and updating, rollout package creation, deployment cycles, outlier tracking and mitigation and finally competition of the enterprise wide deployment. With remote desktop, the software is procured for the single OS which is running on the server, deployed and tested, patched or updated, then made live for the entire enterprise with a click of a button. Once live, all users accessing their remote desktop software are instantly brought to the current corporate standard. No more lengthy tail of trouble tickets that extends for months as occasional users of the software realize that they have an outdated version. No more calls for stuck or failed installs. No more incompatibility with legacy data sets. All of these pitfalls can be tested, and once mitigated, the enterprise is updated seamlessly.

Once deployed, the advantages of serving applications with remote desktop continue. Patching and update cycles can be completed in short service windows, as only one copy of the software is being updated. This is done by the server admin once, and relieves the organization of the burden of software vault infrastructure. Software corruption on the client side and re-install tickets become a thing of the past. Because the client machine accesses the application through Remote Desktop, the execution of the software happens on the server, any variations or instability in the client PC is bypassed. Users experience the look & feel of having the application installed directly on their machine, while administrators have the assurance & ease of managing a centralized server-side application.

Using remote desktop to consolidate applications will increase service delivery, while reducing the cost of systems management. Providing software services on a single hardware and OS platform reduces complexity in the install/patch/upgrade lifecycle, while maintaining a common version across the enterprise. A common version for all users will increase productivity and reduce support time and cost. Locating applications servers alongside other datacenter resources preserves security and control, while limiting the overhead required providing and maintaining services.

By Lisa Gecko

The total cost of ownership for a full fledged messaging system based around Microsoft Exchange can be a significant hurdle for a business to jump over. The cost of purchasing, installing, and managing a mail suite requires a large upfront capital investment, followed by the recurring operational costs of skilled staff to maintain the system. Instead of dealing with such a high maintenance system, businesses should consider a hosted mail service as an exciting alternative to an in-house system.

With the release of Exchange 2010 SP1, Microsoft has introduced a suite of cloud-centric features designed to increase the flexibility of messaging services offered as a hosted service. Now, all of the advanced services that the enterprise requires are available on demand from a hosted solutions provider. Exchange 2010 is engineered to function as well in the cloud as it would on site. Significant progress to alleviate the massive I/O requirements of earlier versions of Exchange allows users to experience the same quality of service from the hosted provider, without the cost of an in-house system.

The improved Outlook Web App allows users to experience the benefits of a unified communications solution delivered from the cloud. Using a standard web browser, access to voicemail, email, instant messaging and SMS text can all be viewed and managed in one place. With Microsoft ActicveSync, these services become universally and securely accessible via Smartphone or Tablet. With these services hosted in the cloud, the corporate communications suite becomes transparent, and transforms itself into an enabler of the bottom line.

With a cloud based system, a new database replication design allows for the creation of Database Availability Groups (DAG). These are a series of up to 16 Exchange servers that use continuous replication to maintain multiple copies of the mail database. In the event of a failure, the Exchange service is maintained, with failover to the new database occurring in less than 30 seconds. This structure is ideal for a cloud based service, where the Exchange cluster could be provisioned across a vendor’s hosting locations, or across multiple vendors’ locations to ensure system survivability, and reduce the risk of data loss.

Exchange 2010 was designed with virtualization in mind. The various server roles that comprise a cluster are intended to be distributed across multiple hosts for high availability. With this in mind, a virtualized exchange cluster in the cloud can scale to meet the requirements of a large enterprise, or increase in capacity to meet growth demands of a mid-sized organization by either scaling up the resources available to individual servers as required, or by scaling out the cluster to include more virtual machines. This two dimensional scalability provides the enterprise with multiple paths for meeting demand and managing growth, all while maintaining budgets.

LOS ANGELES–July 18, 2011— Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, is growing its reseller channel, helping resellers capitalize on the high-growth virtualization market.

Through its partner program, Infinitely Virtual aims to fill in a gap that exists in the virtual server market for technology solutions that feature the utmost in performance quality and low power consumption, saving both energy and costs. The services Infinitely Virtual offer are a great solution for resellers who are interested in growing their customer base by delivering virtualization solutions that address their customers’ business and data center challenges. Resellers are able to develop complete virtualization solutions for their clients, including hardware, software and services, by drawing from Infinitely Virtual’s portfolio of industry-leading virtualization suppliers and around-the-clock support.

Infinitely Virtual Partners have the option of joining either the IV Reseller program or becoming an Infinitely Virtual Value Added Reseller (IVVAR). The IV Reseller program is ideal for companies looking to sell Infinitely Virtual products and services under the IV brand. Under the IV Reseller plan, all post-sales technical support will be provided by Infinitely Virtual. The IVVAR program is designed for companies desiring to privately label any or all of Infinitely Virtual’s products and services. IVVAR Partners have access to discounted plans, enhanced infrastructure, and are required to provide all post-sales technical support.

“Becoming an IV reseller is a simple way to increase your company’s revenue and maintain strong, positive relationships with their clients, by offering complete virtualization solutions,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual boasts a strong history of working in partnership with resellers, and is committed to providing the tools, training, and technical support needed to gain expert knowledge of Infinitely Virtual products, and in turn maximize returns on investment.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

LOS ANGELES–July 11, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the development of Infinite App Personal Edition. This exceptionally useful service will allow Infinitely Virtual clients to run Windows Applications from any PC, tablet, Android phone, Mac, Linux, or thin client.

The ideal option for a single user, Infinite App Personal Edition provides a private and secure location in which one user can store documents and data. Standard features include driverless printing, display acceleration, multimedia direction, support for scanner, Exchange server, and Sun Open Office.

Driverless printing allows Wi-Fi enabled PC’s, laptops, and handheld devices to print documents, emails, web contents and other files without installing and setting up a print driver; enabling faster printing, enhanced security, the capacity to print remotely, a minimization of bandwidth, and the ability to restrict printing access. Display Acceleration brings about faster screen updates, and seamless interaction across WAN and Internet or VPN connections; thus easing the transition from physical to virtual desktops and applications for users. Multimedia Redirection decreases bandwidth usage, saving crucial server resources.

“Our new Infinite App Personal Edition will be perfect for the single remote worker; whether you are a small business owner or self-employed, we are creating an app that lets you manage your work flow from any internet capable device, anywhere, anytime,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Microsoft Office is an optional feature for Infinite App Personal Edition, and can be added onto a plan at any time.

The introduction of Infinite App Personal Edition by Infinitely Virtual takes the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual
Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

In the business world, it is common knowledge that a hosted exchange solution is a good idea for small and medium sized organizations with perhaps as many as 500 users. Anything beyond this size requires a dedicated on-site mail infrastructure. With the release of Exchange 2010 SP1, Microsoft has created a suite of matured Cloud-Centric features designed to increase the flexibility of messaging services while reducing the total cost of ownership.

At the core of these capabilities is the fact that Exchange 2010 is engineered to function as well in the cloud as it would on site. This feature set allows for some very creative options for mail service delivery, including the ability for a large organization to divide its user base into tiers, one for ‘heavy’ email use, and one for less intense usage. The mailboxes for these users could then be allocated to either an in-house infrastructure or to a third party hosted service. User classes that would primarily access mail services via the web would be ideal for a third party provider to support, while mail intensive users, perhaps at HQ, could still benefit from an in house dedicated infrastructure. This would allow for a more modest investment in hardware infrastructure, and a good deal of flexibility to manage growth spurts, such as sudden contract wins or project assignments, by leveraging the ability to rapidly scale mail services in the cloud.

Behind the scenes, a complex new database replication design allows for the creation of Database Availability Groups (DAG). These are a series of up to 16 Exchange servers that use continuous replication to maintain multiple copies of the mail database. In the event of a failure, the Exchange service is maintained, with failover to the new database occurring in less than 30 seconds. This structure is ideal for a cloud based service, where the Exchange cluster could be provisioned across a vendor’s hosting locations, or across multiple vendors’ locations for true system survivability, and the subsequent reduced risk (cost) of data loss.

Exchange 2010 was designed with virtualization in mind, and the various server roles that comprise a cluster are intended to be distributed across multiple hosts for high availability. With this in mind, a virtualized exchange cluster in the cloud can scale to meet the requirements of a large enterprise, or increase in capacity to meet growth demands of a mid-sized organization by either scaling up the resources available to individual servers as required, or by scaling out the cluster to include more virtual machines. This two dimensional scalability provides the enterprise with multiple paths for meeting demand and managing growth while maintaining budgets.

A vast improvement to the online abilities of Exchange 2010 in the form of Outlook Web App allows users to truly experience the benefits of a unified communications solution delivered from the cloud. Using a standard web browser, access to voicemail, email, instant messaging and SMS text can all be viewed and managed in one place. With Microsoft ActicveSync, these services become universally and securely accessible via Smartphone or Tablet. With these services hosted in the cloud, the corporate communications suite becomes transparent, and transforms itself into an enabler of the bottom line.

As businesses embrace the cloud, and as applications and services migrate out of the internal datacenter, the question becomes, where is all that data going?

In the past, data and IT services were kept in the corporate data center, however, organizations today seek these traditional in-house services out in the cloud. This is done by growing organizations to lower their costs by choosing “pay-to-play” solutions that can grow as they do. Without some forethought, issues such as payroll and accounting are sourced to a vendor, CRM to another, server and email hosting to a third, HR functions to a fourth, website hosting to a fifth, and so on, often causing drastic problems. In large organizations, efforts to consolidate and eliminate outdated and expensive legacy systems, to shed the weight of internal functional groups, and to lower the operational costs of IT infrastructure are now driving services into the cloud. By empowering managers within the enterprise to negotiate their own vendor contracts, the centralized knowledge-base that once resided in IT or MIS organizations becomes obsolete. This fracturing of the IT fortress that has traditionally surrounded strategic company data can quickly lead to a situation where no one person or group has a complete understanding of where all of the organization’s data is going.

Today, a myriad of vendors can provide a host of cloud-based services, from CRM to email, document processing to databases. Many do one of these, or perhaps a handful of related services, very well. Each of these has unique contract nuances, SLA’s, and security postures. In a rush to realize the cost savings gained by moving legacy applications to the virtual host, an unwise organization might find their data being scattered by the wind rather than consolidated in the cloud.

But there is a choice, and choosing a single-vendor cloud that places all of your applications and data in one place may be a better solution for your business; a sole point of contact that hosts your servers, email, office suite, databases, and website drives complexity out of contracting, billing, service changes, and support. A sole provider allows an organization to manage its servers and services in a traditional way, preserving the benefits of a centralized datacenter, while realizing all of the benefits of the cloud. Having a single cloud provider presents a common SLA for all applications across the enterprise. Risk of data loss or compromise is reduced by a common security profile, and a centralized location of data eases the pain of reporting and auditing. Consolidating in the cloud maximizes advantages while minimizing risks.

Cloud-based solutions are the top choice for today’s business needs. The flexibility and accessibility of online CRM and document applications allow staff to meet demands in the office, on the road, or at home. Virtualization of email services drives down costly hardware investment, and takes a huge burden off of IT staff. Hosted database solutions reduce risk through redundancy, consistency, and available expertise. Shedding the weight of in-house datacenter operations can free up resources, and help to drive the bottom line. These opportunities improve IT service delivery, while lowering operational and capital costs.

LOS ANGELES–June 16, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the development of InfiniteApp Business Edition. This remarkably user-friendly service will allow Infinitely Virtual clients to run Windows Applications from any PC, tablet, Android phone, Mac, Linux, or thin client.

InfiniteApp Business Edition is the perfect solution for organizations of all sizes, as it provides a private and secure location in which multiple users can store documents and data. With Business Edition, data can also be shared easily among different users within the same organization. Standard features include driverless printing, display acceleration, multimedia direction, support for scanner, Exchange server, and Sun Open Office.

Driverless printing allows PC’s, laptops, and handheld devices to print documents, emails, web contents and other files without installing and setting up a print driver; enabling faster printing, enhanced security, the capacity to print remotely, a minimization of bandwidth, and the ability to restrict printing access. Display Acceleration brings about faster screen updates, and seamless interaction across WAN and Internet or VPN connections; thus easing the transition from physical to virtual desktops and applications for users. Multimedia Redirection decreases bandwidth usage, saving crucial server resources.

“I’m excited to announce the development of InfiniteApp Business Edition. We’ve created a product unlike anything on the market. With our enhanced features, businesses can share data quickly and easily anywhere,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Microsoft Office is an optional feature for InfiniteApp Business Edition, and can be added onto a plan at any time.

The introduction of InfiniteApp Business Edition by Infinitely Virtual takes the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

When working via remote desktop, printing to a local printer connected to a windows machine can be accomplished, according to Microsoft, by the following simple procedure:

To make a local printer available in a Remote Desktop session:
1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to Communications, and then click Remote Desktop Connection.
2. Click Options in the Remote Desktop Connection dialog box.
3. Click the Local Resources tab.
4. Click Printers in the Local Devices box.
5. Click Connect.

After you establish the remote connection and log on to the remote computer, the local printer that is connected to the client becomes the default printer for any programs that are running on the remote desktop. If the client has more than one printer attached to it, the default printer for the computer becomes the default printer on the remote desktop; however, all local printers are available.

Sounds easy enough, but is it? Users working from home will rarely have the ‘Business Class’ printer found at the office. While the Universal Print Driver (UDP) that windows utilizes claims to handle a wide variety of hardware, it is almost certain that users will a printer on sale at the local shop and drive IT staff to distraction with incompatibility problems. Also, UDP may not include all of the advanced features that a native print driver might hold. UDP has weak support for compression, and could cause delays where bandwidth is constrained. Questions also arise if operating systems other than Windows are being run on the local host. And what about thin clients that are locked down and don’t allow users full control of the OS to add or install printers or drivers?

In these situations, third party print driver solutions can solve the problem. For bandwidth control, look for a vendor solution that offers configurable compression of print jobs. Some convert all jobs to PDF before transmission and others have support for features like font embedding and image de-duplication to reduce the overall size of each job sent. Options should be available that will set an upper-bound on the total amount of bandwidth that can be used to transmit print jobs, reserving the remaining for other data traffic. In some cases, the third party software can be configured to send the print data directly from the terminal server to the print server, bypassing the client side entirely, which will reduce print delay and minimize possible driver issues.

Advanced capability printers rely on the manufacturers drivers to provide their full range of services to the end-user. A third party service will allow these to run, with little chance of system crash. Printer naming conventions can cause issues across different operating systems, and features allowing granular control over printer names can solve these. Users at remote sites that are running thin clients may not be able to install a printer on the embedded OS (Linux or CE), and a third party solution can be configured to assign local network printers by policy.

Third party print drivers for Remote Desktop are not necessarily needed to facilitate printing in a distributed environment. Depending on the size and variety of the user and printer pool, built in solutions may foot the bill. However, if complete granular control over all aspects of printing is required, then a third party print driver solution will provide better management of the organization’s print resources. Where the scope of enterprise operations exceeds the functionality of the built in solution, third party solutions exist to solve the problem, and can help keep printing from consuming IT support cycles.

As businesses expand globally, they recognize that having a competitive advantage means supporting a mobile workforce from any location on any device. Using a Smartphone for remote access to a desktop is one alternative, but the small screen is hard to work from and although more conducive to working efficiently, laptops can be cumbersome, especially for workers that travel extensively. Tablets, such as the iPad, are smaller and more lightweight than a laptop and are easily portable. And with Apple reporting 15 million iPads sold since the device was released in April 2010, workers are no longer tethered to their desks to get work done.

Looking into Your Desktop Window
With tech companies now supporting remote access for the iPad, users can get to their desktop programs and files anytime, anywhere. If your company has sales and operations divisions you know how crucial it is for your staff to have real-time access to resources and information as well as cutting edge support and technology from your IT department. With the iPad, your employees can share company-stored information at conferences, presentations and events or show a new client a new design. The iPad coupled with remote access enables your sales staff to move their sales pitch into a conversation and eventually a sale; the tablet has the capability to serve as a portfolio, a presentation device, and even as a point of sale tool.
Another example of a type of company that would benefit from workers using the iPad and remote desktop would be an insurance company. Representatives can work on claim efficiently by using their iPads for damage assessment. The rep writes up a report and instantly transmits it to the home office for the next stage of processing. There’s no waiting until the employee returns to the home office to file a claim; this real-time processing eliminates reports that previously relied on recollected information, which can cost a business time and money if it is inaccurate. It also promotes positive experiences for customers as reports are filed in a timely manner.

Access Without the Aggravation
Efficiency is further enhanced with the iPad as workers can now multitask between their iPad apps and desktop without having to log off to generate files for a client meeting. The iPad allows you to remotely initiate intensive data processes using just a few bytes. The iPad also lets you stream live multimedia, music or videos or manage remote audio and web cams located on your desktop. Additionally, businesses could see substantive cost savings related to software. Employees have access to expensive applications on their iPads without a company investing in more copies or licenses.

The business office has changed; there’s no longer anything standard about where, when, how or on what devices employees work. Simply installing a remote access app (Remote Desktop Protocol or Virtual Network Computing) on an iPad lets employees boot up, access the desktop and immediately be productive.

LOS ANGELES–May 23, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce that Email Encryption will be offered as a stand-alone service, and as an option for all VON Standard, Premium, and Dedicated Exchange Hosting plans.

The email security offered by Infinitely Virtual is a crucial part of any business communication process. The simple to use, cloud-based email encryption guarantees the confidential and safe delivery of information.

With Infinitely Virtual’s Virtual Dedicated Server, the client is always protected. All Infinitely Virtual plans are executed on their revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), which includes features such as clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, High Performance HP BladeSystems, Redundant Power and Cooling, VMware HA clustering, and a 100% uptime guarantee. Around-the-clock, U.S. based support and 30 day satisfaction guarantee also come standard.

The offer of Email Encryption as a stand-alone service, and as an option to all VON Standard, Premium, and Dedicated Exchange Hosting plans take Infinitely Virtual further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

“We know how important security is to our customer; that’s why I am pleased to offer Email Encryption for VON Standard, Premium, and Dedicated Exchange Hosting plans, as well as a stand-alone service available to all our clients,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

One of the benefits of running a virtual machine (VM) environment on a Storage Area Network (SAN) is the ease and speed of backing up hundreds or thousands of VMs. A single click or scheduled task instantaneously backs up every VM in a datastore with a crash-consistent snapshot. In most cases this snapshot can be used to restore a VM to a functioning state, but it does not protect open files or databases well.

The difference between crash-consistent and application-consistent backups is stark. In a nutshell, a crash-consistent backup creates a snapshot that, when restored, creates a virtual machine that resembles one that has had the power abruptly turned off. The snapshot will return the virtual machine’s operating system to its pre-crash state, but do little to preserve the consistency of open files or transactional databases that reside on it. On the other hand, an application-consistent backup will ensure that all database transactions are committed and all disk transactions are completed prior to a snapshot. This ensures the data integrity of open files and databases on every backup. Because of this, recovery from a failure will happen without data loss, and can proceed instantly, as a data consistency check is not required.

Given the advantages that application-consistent backup’s offer, why would they not be the norm? Creating a crash-consistent snapshot is easy and free; every SAN vendor includes this feature with their hardware. Getting application-consistent snapshots requires additional software, and storage vendors charge a premium for this advanced solution. Implementation of this type of solution can be complex, depending on the SAN vendor. Many IT departments lack the skills to implement such a solution.

Another answer is lack of understanding; Either by IT staff, or a cloud services provider. It is critical that the differences between these two backup schemes be well understood by whoever is maintaining virtual machines for the enterprise, and the question of whether application-consistent backups are being provided should be asked up front, rather than after the fact. A cloud services provider should be aware of, and offer to provide application-consistent backups whenever they are required.

If a virtual machine is running services such as Active Directory, Exchange, Oracle, SQL, or SharePoint, it is imperative that an application-consistent backup be performed. This will ensure that a complete recovery without data loss will always be possible, and that it will take less time. The potential benefits arising from a fast response to a failure situation, coupled with the security of knowing that the data is intact, should make an application-consistent backup standard procedure in any organization.

LOS ANGELES–May 16, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the addition of Exchange 2010 to all VON Standard and Premium Plans, along with all Dedicated Exchange Hosting Plans. Free plan upgrades will be offered to all existing Infinitely Virtual clients.

Microsoft Exchange 2010 is a flexible and reliable messaging platform that alleviates administration, safeguards communications, and meets users’ demands for greater mobility. Messaging costs are lowered, while productivity levels are raised through the ability to access communications from anywhere at anytime.

With Infinitely Virtual’s Virtual Dedicated Server, the client is always protected. All Infinitely Virtual plans are executed on their revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), which includes features such as clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, High Performance HP BladeSystems, Redundant Power and Cooling, VMware HA clustering, and a 100% uptime guarantee. Around-the-clock, U.S. based support and 30 day satisfaction guarantee also come standard.

“We constantly strive to improve our customers’ experience. Exchange 2010 is flexible, safe, and gives our customers the mobility they require to run a successful business,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

The addition of Exchange 2010 to all VON Standard, Premium, and Dedicated Exchange Hosting plans take Infinitely Virtual further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

LOS ANGELES–May 12, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce plans to add driverless printing, scanner support, multimedia redirection and remote display protocol enhancement at no additional cost to all VON Premium Plans. The new features will be an available option for all VON Standard plans.

Driverless printing allows enabled PC’s, laptops, and handheld devices to print documents, emails, web contents and other files without installing and setting up a print driver. This feature enables faster printing, enhanced security, the capacity to print remotely, a minimization of bandwidth and the ability to restrict printing access. Multimedia Redirection decreases bandwidth usage, saving crucial server resources. Remote Display Protocol Enhancement brings about faster screen updates, and seamless interaction across WAN and Internet or VPN connections; thus easing the transition from physical to virtual desktops and applications for users.

Virtual Office Network plans are executed on Infinitely Virtual’s revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.). All VON servers have between 1 and 8 2.53 GHz virtual CPUs, shared on hosts operating on average, below 30% CPU utilization. VON features include Redundant Virtual Dedicated Terminal Servers, Redundant Active Directory Controllers, support for Sun Open Office, SPI Firewall & Perimeter Antivirus, Virtual Dedicated File Server, Virtual Dedicated Exchange Server, Server Load-Balancing, Private VLAN, and support for SharePoint Foundation 2010. Around-the-clock U.S. based support is provided standard, as is a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. The ability to install 3rd Party Applications is supported.

Optional plan features include Site-to-Site IPSec VPN, PPTP VPN, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Visio. These options may be added onto a plan at any time.

“I’m excited to add the new features to our VON Premium plans. We’ve upgraded our VON features to add driverless printing, Remote Display Protocol Enhancement, and Multimedia Redirection to extend the best service available to our customers,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

The new features available to VON Premium and Standard plans take Infinitely Virtual further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

Working with a MacBook Pro is the way to go, but let’s face it; corporate IT seems married to PC-based applications. Users need a way to access applications hosted on windows platforms as well as manage machines running Microsoft operating systems. Additionally, storage space hosted on remote file servers can come at a significant cost savings over peripherals, assuming that it can be accessed. Remote Desktop for Mac (RD), offered as part of Office 2011 for Mac and also available as a free stand-alone download from the Microsoft website, is a robust program for accessing and managing Microsoft based systems from the Mac platform. Published by Microsoft, RD is the preferred way to communicate with their current Operating System releases.

The latest version, 2.1, will run on all Intel-based Mac’s, and can connect to XP, Vista, Windows 7, as well as all flavors of Server 2003 and Server 2008, including R2. Remote connections must be enabled on the target host (a check box in the security settings), and Remote Desktop Connections must be added as an exception if the Windows Firewall is on. After installing RD on the Mac, access is gained to the remote host via the IP Address.

The straight-forward interface can be configured for a number of resolution options, and contains settings to improve graphical performance over slow links (disabling wallpaper, themes, etc). After a quick run through of the settings, a properly sized window will display the login screen of the remote host, or RD can be configured to log in automatically with stored user and password information. From this point, operation of the remote computer is identical to sitting in front of it with a monitor/keyboard/mouse directly connected. The software can even be configured to understand the standard keyboard shortcuts inherent to Windows operating systems (absent in Mac world), or user defined shortcuts. And with the ability to maintain multiple concurrent connections, it is possible to jump back and forth between several hosts quickly while troubleshooting an issue.

The main advantage to RD is that the sharing is a two way street. The remote host can access local resources on the Mac, and vice versa. This can come in handy when trying to upload files from a laptop to a host, or when capturing log files from a server, and then being able to email them from a laptop. Local printing is also supported, so that print jobs can be sent from the remote host to a local printer attached to the Mac, rather than a printer sitting at headquarters. Additionally, if the worker needs to create content with a “Windows Only” application, they can do so through a remote connection, while still using data stored on the local drive.

Remote Desktop for Mac has opened the door to both worlds. Remote workers get the advantage of using the hardware and programs that work best for each person, and still retain the ability to access Windows PC’s and servers as if they were sitting in front of one.

As it becomes increasingly harder for a company to function in today’s climate without electronic media and internet capabilities, more and more offices are becoming prone to spam. Spam is defined as the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately. Without a doubt, email-spam accounts for the largest number of spam threats, but there are many other mediums through which electronic spam can be sent as well. Operating a business without anti-spam protection can be extremely risky, and as such, any office manager will find owning, installing, and updating a company-wide anti-spam solution mandatory to maintain a safe business. Those looking to procure anti-spam software should consider cost-effectiveness, user friendliness, and performance when choosing an anti-spam that fits their business needs.

Cost Effectiveness:
The average price for anti-spam software runs about $39.95/computer, or every five computers depending on which software provider and company the product is purchased from. Many high end anti-spam software developers and distributors have bulk-packages for office settings, yet the pricing tends to fluctuate often. Prices can hover around $250.00, yet the total price could be far more expensive, or far less, depending on which developer is used, which distributor it is purchased from, and how many computers need initializations. There seems to be a competitive market targeted toward offices using cloud hosting technologies which give the buyer a discount for having the spam-ware installed on a cloud server, however this is a relatively new procedure and many developers and distributors still don’t have this option.

User Friendliness:
One of the key factors in choosing anti-spam software is user friendliness, i.e. the ease in which the user can choose the options in which the spam is filtered, blocked and discarded; the accessibility in the customizable options, if there are any; and the types of email platforms that are supported: POP3, MSN, Hotmail, MAPI, etc. While most anti-spam software is compatible with POP3, MSN, Hotmail, and MAPI, there are still many email types that are much harder to get anti-spam software for, such as Gmail. However, there are anti-spam programs that are compatible with cloud-based email types. When purchasing anti-spam software, one should invest some time into researching the user-friendliness and customizable options of the particular software being purchased.

With more and more inappropriate email forwards, viruses, and scams that could prove financially fatal, an office without anti-spam software installed, and regularly updated and monitored, will ultimately suffer. However, investigating the user-friendliness and cost effectiveness of a developer and distributor’s anti-spam software will help when choosing the right program for a functioning offices employees.

The rapid advancement in Smartphone technology has revolutionized the workplace, both inside and outside the office. At a conference and need a file from your office computer? Until recently, workers were at the mercy of someone printing that file and then faxing the hard copy to them. Or, if they had access to a PC they could get to the desktop via Citrix (GoToMyPC) and LogMeIn, which have provided this capability for years. Now, there’s an alternative in the palm of your hand: your cell phone. Simply tapping an app on an Android Smartphone gives remote workers access to their entire desktop and files.

The convenience of using a Smartphone for business is that the worker can view and manage almost everything on an Android as long as the home or office computer is logged in and the companion software has been installed. Once these two apps are downloaded on the respective devices, workers can, access features such as Adobe Photoshop to show a client a logo or brochure design or even make edits to a Word doc via the phone. And, the benefits don’t stop there. In addition to having unlimited anytime, anywhere access to a PC or Mac an Android Smartphone can:

• Access an entire computer with full video and audio support
• Use a preferred Web browser with Flash and all saved bookmarks
• Watch movies or play PC games
• Connect to multiple computers with the same app
• Interact with computer applications using intuitive touch controls

Mobility without the Worry
With the proliferation of new data and end-user packaged services and devices such as virtualization, cloud and remote access, there is, understandably, concern about security. Service providers offering cloud, virtualization, and remote access technology are under increased pressure to ensure that they have network architecture, systems and robust policies in place to safeguard against hacking, breaches, and malware. Whether users access remotely via their Android Smartphone, LAN or enterprise wireless network, the challenge is the same: guarantee security. Companies offering remote access apps realize that that they must not only address productivity, but also protect the applications while enabling secure access. Consequently, phone applications for remote access have features that address security SSL (TLS) and support Network Level Authentication.

The Smartphone has some additional advantages when using remote desktop. Data security is higher because the data resides on the cloud and not the actual Smartphone, lessening the risk of losing or compromising data. Also, in a remote or cloud setting, the end server does the work, which allows the worker to have phone applications that would have been too burdensome for the Smartphone’s CPU. Remote workers can also use their preferred business processes without overhauling the current systems, making business travel faster and easier.

Connecting with the Future
With the growing shift of using portable devices as the primary device in enterprise computing, end-users will demand more applications that enable remote access from their mobile devices, especially their phones. To support this growing trend, companies are adding features to phones that complement those on PCs, options such as local file storage, server address books, and secure password functions, RDP data compression and caching to save bandwidth, on-screen keyboard, and RDP performance tuning for network connection speed.

Ease of connection is probably one of the most understated benefits of using the Android Smartphone for remote access. Workers no longer need to tote a laptop or tablet and are not restricted to applications or environment. The entire desktop is instantly at their fingertips.

LOS ANGELES–April 25, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the availability of their enhanced and fully-customizable Dedicated Exchange Hosting – Basic Plan.

Infinitely Virtual’s Dedicated Exchange Hosting Plans start out with a minimum of three Virtual Dedicated Servers in a private VLAN. The Basic Plan comes with free user account management, allowing for easy modification and creation of new accounts. The plan also features administrator access to all Active Directory and Exchange System Manager applications. Each plan comes with a minimum of two dedicated Active Directory servers, and every Exchange Server is clustered, ensuring zero downtime from any hardware failures.

Data from email hosted with Infinitely Virtual is stored on Infinitely Virtual’s clustered Storage Area Network (SAN), which is set up to survive any single point of failure. New customers get a custom implementation plan at no additional, ensuring an effortless transition process. The ability to install and use any third party exchange applications is supported. And security is covered with Infinitely Virtual’s SPI Firewall, Perimeter Antivirus and Anti-Spam, which protect clients by allowing only known connections and scanning all downloads and uploads for viruses. Customers who later decide to host their own Exchange Server can easily migrate the entire system.

The Dedicated Exchange Hosting Basic Plan also contains optional features such as Single Active Directory/Single Sign-On, which allows a Privately Hosted Exchange environment to be integrated into an office network; and Site-to-Site IPSec VPN, which allows Infinitely Virtual to integrate network equipment at the customer site.

With Infinitely Virtual’s Virtual Dedicated servers, the client is always protected. Infinitely Virtual’s revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), includes features such as clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, and clustered enterprise firewalls, and a 100% uptime guarantee. Every Virtual Dedicated Server also provides Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD & Floppy, and Virtual Power Buttons, plus the choice of Windows 2003 or Windows 2008, preinstalled.

DEH Basic Plans Include
• Outlook licensing (Optional)
• 10 user licenses
• 2 GB of storage
• Basic anti-spam protection

“I am proud to offer my customers our unique Exchange Server hosting solution. With a Dedicated Exchange Hosting plan, organizations get the only no-compromise Exchange environment,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual’s Dedicated Exchange Hosting Basic Plan takes the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

LOS ANGELES–April 7, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the new fully-customizable Diamond and Diamond+ Virtual Terminal Server (VTS) – Premium packages.

Infinitely Virtual’s VTS – Premium, Diamond and Diamond+ plans are an excellent choice for expanding businesses. Both packages feature a Virtual Dedicated Terminal Server, Virtual Dedicated File Server with SharePoint Foundation, and redundant Active Directory Controllers. A Built-in Active Directory enables users to authenticate once, and access all network resources. All servers are placed in a private VLAN, enabling secure communication between the servers. Integrated SharePoint Foundation 2010 delivers a web-based collaboration platform.

VTS – Premium servers have between 1 and 8 2.53 GHz virtual CPUs, shared on hosts operating on average, below 30% CPU utilization. Virtual Dedicated Servers also provide Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD & Floppy, SNMP Monitoring, Remote Desktop for Management, VMware Fault-Tolerance, Virtual Power Buttons, Performance Charts, Dedicated OS, SPI Firewall and Perimeter Antivirus, around-the-clock U.S. based support, Dedicated OS, Administrator Login, and a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. The ability to install 3rd Party Applications is supported.

Optional Virtual Server features include Server Load-Balancing, Site-to-Site IPSec VPN, PPTP VPN, Microsoft Visio, and Microsoft Office. These options may be added onto a plan at any time.

Compare Plans
Diamond
• 6 VTS Cores (Max: 8 cores)
• 6 GB VTS RAM (Max: 16 GB)
• 50 GB Storage (Max: 2 TB)
• Unlimited Bandwidth (Max: 4 TB)
• 39/37 Max Users (2003/2008)
Diamond+
• 8 VTS Cores (Max: 8 cores)
• 8 GB VTS RAM (Max: 16 GB)
• 60 GB Storage (Max: 2 TB)
• Unlimited Bandwidth (Max: 4 TB)
• 52/51 Max Users (2003/2008)

“We’ve added more features and two new plans, Diamond and Diamond+, to our incredible Virtual Terminal Server – Premium lineup. These new larger plans enable customers of any size to embrace true cloud computing,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual’s Premium Diamond and Diamond+ plans for Virtual Terminal Server takes the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

LOS ANGELES–April 4, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the new fully-customizable Diamond Virtual Office Network – Premium+ Package.

The Diamond Virtual Office Network – Premium+ plan is executed on Infinitely Virtual’s revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.). The VON – Premium+ Diamond package provides clients with a six server system, including a Dedicated Exchange Hosting plan. The Virtual Terminal Server comes pre-installed with Windows 2003 or 2008, and is pre-configured as a remote desktop session host. Customers may access their applications with Remote Desktop Connection software, which comes with all versions of Windows, allows multiple simultaneous users to access Microsoft Exchange email, applications and data at anytime, from anywhere.

Virtual Office Network – Premium+ plans come with six Virtual Dedicated Serves, each with between 1 and 8 2.53 GHz virtual CPUs, shared on hosts operating on average, below 30% CPU utilization. Plan features include Redundant Virtual Dedicated Terminal Servers, Redundant Active Directory Controllers, support for Sun Open Office, SPI Firewall & Perimeter Antivirus, Virtual Dedicated File Server, Virtual Dedicated Exchange Server, Server Load-Balancing, Private VLAN, and support for SharePoint Foundation 2010. Around-the-clock U.S. based support is provided standard, as is a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. The ability to install 3rd party applications is also supported.

Optional plan features include Site-to-Site IPSec VPN, PPTP VPN, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Visio. These options may be added onto a plan at any time.

Plan Details
Diamond
• 250 VON Users
• 250 GB File Storage
• 250 GB Mail Storage

“Our VON Premium+ plans are the foundation of any company’s desire to get off the IT rollercoaster. We enable our customers to rid themselves of the purchase, integrate, consume and obsolete cycle. Our customers pay for the compute power and licensing they consume, and they never have to find an equipment lease or pay a consultant to build them a network,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

The Virtual Office Network – Premium+, Diamond plan takes Infinitely Virtual further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

LOS ANGELES–March 7, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the implementation of VMware’s vSphere 4.1 infrastructure, offering expanded power and cloud computing capabilities to Infinitely Virtual clients.

VMware vSphere is an award-winning global leader in virtualization and cloud computing software and services, trusted by a large percentage of Fortune 100, 500, and 1000 companies who use the platform to power their cloud computing solutions.

Key Improvements to vSphere 4.1

Scalability
• 64-bit requirement creates critical gains in capacity
• Ability to support a larger number of physical hosts/virtual machines per cluster
• Up to a three-fold increase in capacity over previous capabilities

Performance
• Accelerated memory compression expands Virtual Machine density up to 25%
• vMotion enhancements support virtual machine migrations up to 8 times faster
• Storage and network I/O controls allow for acute workload balancing
• OS with socket restrictions may use more host CPU cores

Customization and Control
• An improved Active Directory authentication maximizes security
• Advanced tools and metrics support storage performance and energy efficiency
• New monitoring tools keep applications and hosts running at top performance

“Infinitely Virtual is committed to staying on the cutting edge to provide the latest products and services to its customers. Adding vSphere 4.1 to our infrastructure will provide clients with the best solutions available,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual’s addition of VMware’s vSphere 4.1 infrastructure takes the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices. 

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet. 

LOS ANGELES–February 28, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the new fully-customizable for Virtual Terminal Server - Premium plan.

Infinitely Virtual's Virtual Terminal Server - Premium plan is an excellent choice for expanding businesses. The Premium package features a Virtual Dedicated Terminal Server, Virtual Dedicated File Server with SharePoint Foundation, and redundant Active Directory Controllers. Built-in Active Directory enables users to authenticate once and access all network resources. All servers are placed in a private VLAN, enabling secure communication between the servers. Integrated SharePoint Foundation 2010 delivers a web-based collaboration platform.

Virtual Terminal Server–Premium Plan servers have between 1 and 8 2.53 GHz virtual CPUs, shared on hosts operating on average, below 30% CPU utilization. Virtual Dedicated Servers also provide Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD & Floppy, SNMP Monitoring, Remote Desktop for Management, VMware Fault-Tolerance, Virtual Power Buttons, Performance Charts, Dedicated OS, SPI Firewall and Perimeter Antivirus, around-the-clock U.S. based support, Dedicated OS, Administrator Login, and a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. The ability to install 3^rd Party Applications is supported.

Optional Virtual Server features include Server Load-Balancing, Site-to-Site IPSec VPN, PPTP VPN, Microsoft Visio, and Microsoft Office. These options may be added onto a plan at any time.

Virtual Terminal Server-Premium Plan Options

Gold

• 2 VTS Cores (Max: 8)
• 1 GB VTS RAM (Max: 16 GB)
• 20 GB Storage (Max: 2 TB)
• 2 TB Bandwidth (Max: 4 TB)

Platinum

• 2 VTS Cores (Max: 8)
• 2 GB VTS RAM (Max: 16 GB)
• 30 GB Storage (Max: 2TB)
• 4 TB Bandwidth (Max: 4 TB)

Platinum+

• 4 VTS Cores (Max: 8)
• 4 GB VTS RAM (Max: 16 GB)
• 40 GB Storage (Max: 2 TB)
• Unlimited Bandwidth (Max: 4 TB)

Diamond

• 6 VTS Cores (Max: 8)
• 6 GB VTS RAM (Max: 16 GB)
• 50 GB Storage (Max: 2 TB)
• Unlimited Bandwidth (Max: 4 TB)

Diamond+

• 8 VTS Cores (Max: 8)
• 8 GB VTS RAM (Max: 16 GB)
• 60 GB Storage (Max: 2 TB)
• Unlimited Bandwidth (Max: 4 TB)

“We’ve added more features and two new Diamond and Diamond+ plans to our incredible Virtual Terminal Server product lineup. Our new plans are fully customizable with the latest upgrades available to give you the best service out there,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual's Premium Plan for Virtual Terminal Server takes the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24x7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

LOS ANGELES–February 22, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce  the addition of McAfee Anti-Spam, free with all Virtual Office Network (VON) and Dedicated Exchange Hosting plans.

McAfee SaaS Email Security & Archiving Suite is a cloud-based solution that blocks more than 99% of spam, viruses, and other malware threats, providing unparalleled protection for networks. McAfee Anti-Spam features include Perimeter IP Filtering, a Multi-Language Filter, and Zero-Hour Worm Protection. Email Attack Protection safeguards networks and critical messaging gateways from email attack, while Admin & Reporting Portals streamline email management. 24X7 Monitoring allows for the highest level of spam detection available today, and a minimization of false positives. Additional features include Advanced Spam Blocking, Outbound Filtering, Content & Attachment Filtering, Fraud Protection, Quarantine Management, and SMTP/TLS Encryption.

Optional Anti-Spam solutions include Triple Virus & Worm Scanning, Email Continuity and End-to-End Email Encryption. These options may be added onto a plan at any time.

“At Infinitely Virtual, we believe security shouldn’t be optional.  We’ve added free Anti-Spam to our VON and Dedicated Exchange Hosting plans to keep your business running smoothly at all times,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

With Infinitely Virtual’s Virtual Dedicated server, the client is always protected. All VON and Dedicated Exchange Hosting plans are run on Infinitely Virtual's revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), which includes features such as a clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, High Performance HP BladeSystems, VMware HA clustering, Clustered Enterprise Firewalls, 24x7x365 U.S. Based Support, and a 100% uptime guarantee.

Infinitely Virtual's addition of McAfee Anti-Spam to VON and Dedicated Exchange Hosting plans take the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices. 

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24x7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet. 

About Altay Corporation

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

With over 250,000 customers and 25,000 partners worldwide, VMware is a global leader in virtualization and cloud computing software and services. The company touts its ability to seamlessly transition customers to powerful and efficient cloud computing capabilities while preserving the organization’s IT assets and control over its IT operations. VMware and its partners help organizations of all shapes, sizes, and industries reduce costs while improving flexibility and efficiency.

VMware’s vSphere is an award-winning cloud operating system that has received high praise, including recent accolades such as “Best Virtualization Platform” and “Technology of the Year.” vSphere is the most trusted cloud operating platform on the market, with 100% of Fortune 100, 98% of Fortune 500, and 96% of Fortune 1000 companies using the platform to power their cloud computing solutions. The latest version, vSphere 4.1, brings significant gains and impressive functional improvements to the virtual table. Most critics focus on overall improvements in scalability, performance, customization, and control.

Increased Scalability

vCenter’s 64-bit OS requirement translates to significant gains in capacity. vSphere 4.1 requires that vCenter run on a system with a 64-bit operating system. As a result, vCenter can support a larger number of physical hosts and an increased number of Virtual Machines per cluster. VMware claims that each vCenter server can support 1,000 physical hosts and up to 15,000 registered Virtual Machines, with a limit of 10,000 VMs online concurrently and up to 3,000 VMs per cluster. These figures represent as much as a three-fold increase over previous capacity.

Improved Performance

Advanced memory compression boosts Virtual Machine density. Significant gains in memory compression enable vSphere 4.1 to get the most out of hardware. As technology has advanced and a typical server has included more CPU and faster cores, memory has become a performance bottleneck. vSphere 4.1 includes functionality that compresses over-committed memory and stores it in physical RAM instead of swapping it to disk. This method is an order of magnitude faster and enables a higher VM density per virtual host, meaning that each host can support up to 25% more VMs using the same amount of memory as a system running the previous version.

vMotion enhancements speed up VM migrations. In vSphere 4.1, improvements to vMotion translate to individual virtual machine migrations that are 8 times faster than the previous release. In addition, the new vMotion supports simultaneous migrations, a crucial capability when attempting to perform non-disruptive scheduled hardware maintenance. Depending on the vMotion network adapter, between 4 and 8 simultaneous migrations are possible.

Storage and network I/O control features aid workload balancing. Storage and network I/O controls foster performance improvement by providing granular control over how applications access shared storage and network resources. With vSphere 4.1, new controls allow intelligent workload balancing that can be used to prioritize traffic types, ensuring that high-priority virtual machines access the appropriate I/O resources. This prevents typical issues during periods of congestion.

Resolve socket restrictions. Multi-core virtual CPU support allows administrators to adjust the number of cores for each virtual CPU in a VM, which facilitates operating systems with socket restrictions to use more host CPU cores and increase performance.

Customization and Control

Enhanced Active Directory authentication tightens security. AD authentication extends to the individual hypervisor level to provide tighter security and additional capabilities such as policy enforcement and audit logging. A Lock Down Mode, when enabled, ensures that configuration changes can only be made from the vCenter server.

New metrics and tools help optimize storage performance and energy efficiency. vSphere 4.1 provides useful metrics and insight into storage throughput and latency of hosts or VMs to help administrators resolve storage performance problems. Administrators can also track and analyze VM energy consumption.

High Availability incorporates additional monitoring tools. A new Application Monitoring component allows vSphere to detect and restart applications that have stopped responding. Another new feature checks and reports Cluster Operational Status including each host’s status and any relevant errors.

LOS ANGELES–February 14, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the availability of the new fully-customizable Platinum+ Plan for Virtual Appliance Hosting.

Infinitely Virtual’s Virtual Appliance Hosting Plans allow users to choose one of 39 pre-configured Turnkey Linux Virtual Appliances, such as Drupal 6, Joomla, WordPress, and MySQL. Infinitely Virtual installs and configures the application and then places it on a Virtual Dedicated Server with a virtual CPU, virtual RAM, virtual system board and bios, virtual network interface card, and virtual drives.

All images to be installed are rigorously tested on Infinitely Virtual’s groundbreaking Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.) to guarantee flawless compatibility and performance. The installation of Linux is modified with the root login, any software can be installed, and the server is managed in the same manner as a dedicated server.

With an IV Virtual Appliance Hosting plan, the client is always protected. Infinitely Virtual’s servers are run on E.V.E., which includes features such as clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, and a 100% uptime guarantee.

Each server has between 1 and 8 2.53 GHz virtual CPUs, shared on hosts operating on average, below 30% CPU utilization. Virtual Dedicated Server plans also provide Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD & Floppy, Virtual Power Buttons, Dedicated OS, around-the-clock U.S. based support, and a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. The ability to install 3rd Party Applications is supported.

Optional virtual server features that can be added on to any plan include an SPI Firewall, Server Load-Balancing, Site-to-Site IPSec VPN, and VMware Fault-Tolerance.

Virtual Appliance Platinum+ Features
• 4 CPU Cores (Max: 8 cores)
• 4 GB RAM (Max: 4 GB)
• 50 GB of Storage (Max: 2 TB)
• Unlimited Bandwidth (Max: 4 TB)

“We are pleased to be partnered with Turnkeylinux.org to provide our customers the very best pre-configured virtual appliances in the market,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual’s new Platinum+ Plan for Virtual Appliance Hosting takes the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

About Altay Corporation

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

LOS ANGELES–February 3, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the availability of the new fully-customizable Diamond and Diamond+ plans for Upload Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting, allowing users to upload servers directly into Infinitely Virtual's Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.).

With an IV Upload Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting plan, the client is always protected. Infinitely Virtual's servers are run on their revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), which includes features such as clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, and a 100% uptime guarantee.

Each server has between 1 and 8 2.53 Ghz virtual CPUs, shared on hosts operating on average, below 30% CPU utilization. Virtual Dedicated Server plans also provide Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD & Floppy, Virtual Power Buttons, Dedicated OS, around-the-clock U.S. based support, and a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. The ability to install 3^rd Party Applications is supported.

With a Upload Virtual Dedicated Server plan, users can upload any supported virtual machine format to Infinitely Virtual's FTP site, which will then be imported into E.V.E. Virtual appliances can also be uploaded, including VMware Virtual Appliances, as well as servers with any VMware vSphere supported operating system.

Diamond Plan

• 6 CPU Cores (Max: 8 Cores)
• 6 GB RAM (Max: 16 GB)
• 60 GB of Storage (Max: 2 TB)
• Unlimited Bandwidth (Max: 4 TB)
• Monthly price of $179.99

Diamond+ Plan

• 8 CPU Cores (Max: 8 Cores)
• 8 GB RAM (Max: 16 GB)
• 70 GB of Storage (Max: 2TB)
• Unlimited Bandwidth (Max: 4 TB)
• Monthly price of $209.99

“Our Virtual Upload Diamond and Diamond+ plans give our customers individually customized servers by letting the client upload a new or existing server with applications they need, directly onto our groundbreaking E.V.E. platform, all without the high cost or hassle of physical hardware or starting from scratch,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual's new Diamond and Diamond+ plans for Upload Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting takes the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24x7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

About Altay Corporation

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

LOS ANGELES–February 1, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the availability of their Cloud Hosting–Standard Plan, which allows clients to purchase pools of resources, share them among servers, and then prioritize access to those resources.

With the Cloud Hosting–Standard Plan users may instantly create high performing and reliable servers from Infinitely Virtual's pre-configured templates for Windows Server, Linux, and Turnkey Linux Appliance and then upload them directly into a Cloud Plan. Customers may interact with their servers with Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD and Floppy features. Servers' access to physical resources are managed by their relative priority with the Manage Distributed Resource Scheduler. And by over-committing CPU and RAM customers can specify each server's relative priority, ensuring that high-priority applications always have the resources they need.

CPU, Ram, storage, and bandwidth can be purchased and then shared among numerous virtual dedicated servers with the ability to buy more resources as applications require them. And clients may use their own licensing, or purchase most Microsoft licensing on a subscription basis.

With Infinitely Virtual’s Virtual Dedicated server, the client is always protected. Infinitely Virtual servers are run on the revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), which includes features such as clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, and a 100% uptime guarantee. Each server has between 1 and 8 2.53 Ghz virtual CPUs, shared on hosts operating on average, below 30% CPU utilization. IV Virtual Dedicated Servers also provide Virtual KVM and Virtual Power Buttons.

“With our unique Cloud Hosting plans, our customers can purchase and allocate resources dynamically among their servers without having to invest in their own virtual infrastructure,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual's Cloud Hosting–Standard Plan takes the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices. 

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24x7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet. 

About Altay Corporation

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

Email has become the standard mode of business communication, and the ability to interact and share information through email is essential, particularly for travelers. Employees on the go may need contract information before their meeting with potential clients, or they may need updated sales reports and figures to present to senior management. Ensuring email data remains confidential when discussing vital company matters is critical. Data exposure through email has become such a problem that it now ranks behind only portable storage devices as the top avenue of data leakage. A single mis-click could expose secret company information, divulge confidential financial statements, or reveal sensitive negotiations. That is where McAfee® SaaS Email Encryption comes in.

McAfee’s® Security-as-a-Service (SaaS) Email Encryption Service provides a cloud-based solution to protect data and prevent data leakage through email. This service allows a company to encrypt confidential emails without placing additional burdens on the employees to secure the data. In addition, since the solution is cloud-based, the IT department will not have to manage the system on a daily basis and can focus on their other duties.

How It Works

After a company initiates the McAfee® SaaS Email Encryption Service, McAfee® encrypts emails in one of two ways.

With the first option, administrators set the company’s encryption policies through a web-based SaaS Control Console. Through the console, the administrator can set the company’s privacy policies and customize what data should be encrypted. The policies do not have to be “one-size-fits-all” as administrators can set up different policies for the entire company all the way down to the individual users. Once these policies are in place, email senders can just compose and send emails as they normally do. The Encryption Service automatically scans the content of each email and encrypts it if the contents match the policy set by the administrator. All of these actions occur behind the scenes without the employees having to take any extra steps.

With the second option, McAfee® provides on-demand email encryption. Email senders can tag their emails as needing encryption by typing [encrypt] in the subject line or within the email message body. Again, when they send the email, the Encryption Service scans the contents of the email and encrypt it when it sees the [encrypt] tag.

The email recipients can retrieve the messages from a web-based portal, or they can download the Secure Message Reader, which allows them to view the email directly in their email client. Also, when the recipient replies to the email, McAfee® will automatically encrypt that email, even if that person does not have the Encryption Service. This bidirectional protection ensures that the data remains secure.

Reliable Security

McAfee® is a leader in the computer security world and brings that expertise to communications security.  The McAfee® SaaS Email Encryption Service uses effective and proven encryption technologies to keep the company information safe.  Encryption technologies used include:

• Public Key Infrastructure (PKI),
• Secure / Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME),
• X.509 certificates,
• Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES),
• Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), and
• 1024 bit RSA keys (with MD5 and SHA-1 encryption algorithms).
• 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL).

LOS ANGELES–January 27, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the availability of the new fully-customizable Diamond and Diamond + plans for self-installed virtual dedicated server hosting.

With an Infinitely Virtual Self-Install Virtual Dedicated Server, the client is always protected. Infinitely Virtual's servers are run on their revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), which includes features such as clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, and a 100% uptime guarantee.

Each server has between 1 and 8 2.53 Ghz virtual CPUs, shared on hosts operating on average, below 30% CPU utilization. Virtual Dedicated Server plans also provide Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD & Floppy, Virtual Power Buttons, Dedicated OS, around-the-clock U.S. based support, and a 30 day satisfaction guarantee. The ability to install 3^rd Party Applications is supported.

Self-Install features include the ability to upload any ISO to Infinitely Virtual's ftp site, and boot directly from it. Users may also install an OS from any ISOs existing in Infinitely Virtual data-stores, or any OS that is currently supported by VMware vSphere.

Optional features which can be added-on to any plan include SPI Firewalls, Server Load-Balancing, Site-to-Site IPSec VPN and VMware Fault-Tolerance.

Diamond Plan

• 6 CPU Cores (Max: 8 Cores)
• 6 GB RAM (Max: 16 GB)
• 60 GB of Storage (Max: 2 TB)
• Unlimited Bandwidth (Max: 4 TB)
• Monthly price of $179.99

Diamond+ Plan

• 8 CPU Cores (Max: 8 Cores)
• 8 GB RAM (Max: 16 GB)
• 70 GB of Storage (Max: 2TB)
• Unlimited Bandwidth (Max: 4 TB)
• Monthly price of $209.99

“We’ve developed our new Diamond and Diamond + self-install plans to provide growing businesses with the support and features they need to take productivity to the next level.  Clients receive unlimited bandwidth, can install any VMware vSphere supported OS, and much more with our Diamond and Diamond + plans,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual's new Diamond and Diamond + plans for self-installed virtual dedicated servers takes the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices. 

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24x7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet. 

About Altay Corporation

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

At first glance, the concept of an in-house IT solution is alluring to most businesses. As technology has advanced and become more affordable, an increasing number of companies have invested the time, space, finances, and personnel necessary to maintain their own IT operations. Like an amusement park ride, these solutions look and sound powerful, fancy, and exciting. Unfortunately, many business leaders have experienced the downside to this IT “attraction.” Shortly after completing all of the planning, spending, hiring, and perhaps construction, the need to update, upgrade, expand, or repurchase equipment, software, and space becomes a nightmarish reality, a vicious three-to-five-year cycle that businesses find themselves repeatedly trapped in. Fortunately for today’s business leaders, the evolution of cloud computing offers a realistic solution to break the cycle and help businesses step off the IT roller coaster.

The Debate over Cost

Technology experts have long-debated cloud computing as a viable business solution. The debate often hinges on issues of cost savings and technological capability. Regardless of the exact figures, most studies show that cloud computing offers significant savings when compared to other business models. A typical cloud hosting provider offers a relatively inexpensive subscription-based service compared to the high costs of hardware and software purchases required for in-house setups.

Cost is only one of several important factors leaders evaluate when considering a shift to cloud computing. Many decision makers question their ability to control and scale their IT resources to meet their specific business needs. With the right provider, these concerns become non-issues.

Maintaining Control

Many business leaders incorrectly assume that a shift to the cloud means a loss of control over their equipment and software. Ironically, subscription-based cloud hosting can actually provide more control and flexibility.

Picture a decision maker with a traditional in-house setup. He walks into his own server room with the head of IT and the two create a list of necessary hardware and software changes. The difference with a cloud computing setup is that the manager accesses and makes changes online (many providers allow their customers to access virtual control panels to configure virtual servers to the desired specifications) instead of putting pen to paper, and instead of waiting a week to see updated, upgraded, or new equipment, his team could experience the benefits within hours with a cloud hosting plan. Those with security concerns can rest assured that the use of virtual dedicated servers ensures highly secured privacy and data protection. One would be hard-pressed to overstate the time, cost, and personnel savings experienced with a shift to the cloud.

Customization and Scalability in the Cloud

While the manager enjoys the same (or better) control over their resources, they can also appreciate the ability to develop a customized solution and multi-server configuration to handle shifting business needs. In addition, they can increase resources as necessary to accommodate additional users, increased web traffic or data transfer, new customers, and other business growth and changes. With a few mouse clicks, they could:

• Configure multiple servers to share excess RAM and CPU.
• Install third party applications.
• Upgrade a desired number of software licenses to a newer version.
• Setup additional Remote Desktop users.
• Increase software licenses.
• Add more memory, disk space, or CPU to a file server.
• Increase bandwidth.
• Add an Exchange server.
• Setup a customized Blackberry server.

Controlling, customizing, and scaling services is not only possible with cloud hosting; it’s simple and efficient. Eliminate the need to buy or upgrade expensive equipment. Reduce the staff time that is required to constantly research, install, update, upgrade, and troubleshoot. Minimize costs and headaches while staying on the cutting edge. Benefit from a subscription-based IT solution that is customized to meet your needs and budget.

A Painless Transition

As a subscription-based service, cloud computing can offer a welcomed exit off the IT roller coaster. The immediate cost savings and flexibility allow organizations to ease into a cloud hosting plan without requiring a major capital investment.

Companies today are gravitating towards virtualization and remote access to company assets. As personnel travel around the world to meet customers, attend shows or conferences, or confer with their colleagues, it is crucial that they have protected entry to necessary information from any place. Microsoft-developed Remote Desktop Services (RDS), previously known as Terminal Services, enable personnel to create a remote desktop connection to their company’s servers and access programs, information, and other resources from any web-connected computer system. This remote desktop connection allows employees to run software on the remote server, open vital files from a remote location, and display any needed presentation elements. A significant component of RDS that helps this connection is the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

What is RDP?

The Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a method created by Microsoft to control the input and output between a client and a server. When a worker creates a remote connection to the server, the RDP receives the user’s input (i.e., mouse clicks and key strokes) and returns the output from the server (i.e., opened files and typed words) to the user’s computer. The computer will need to have the RDP client or the ActiveX control installed prior to the user can make the remote connection over the RDS.

RDP Architecture

RDP draws on the Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) T.120 set of protocols. It is usually managed on the remote server, is capable of supporting multiple network topologies and LAN protocols, and exchanges data through multiple, separate channels - up to 64,000. RDP processes its output using its own virtual video driver on the server and sends that data to the client. Additionally, it processes the input from the client using its own virtual keyboard and mouse drivers.

The latest version, RDP 7.0, is provided with Windows Server 2008, Release 2, and Windows 7, but it is also backwards compatible with Windows XP, Service Pack 3, and Windows Vista. In addition to Windows, other systems, such as Linux, Unix, and Mac, have clients that employ this protocol.

RDP Features

Utilizing the Remote Desktop Protocol provides users with the following functions:

• Encryption - uses RC4 cipher that is created to protect data sent over a network.

• Bandwidth reduction - implements several techniques to reduce the amount of data that is sent through the network. Some of these techniques include data compression, consistent bitmap caching, and caching of glyphs and fragments in RAM.

• Clipboard support - allows users to copy and paste text between the client and the server and between different sessions.

• Print support - lets clients to print documents running in their remote session to a local printer.

• Shared control - permits numerous users to view and control a remote desktop session. This element is especially useful when collaborating with a colleague or when troubleshooting a problem with the Help Desk.

• Authentication - provides users with the ability to authenticate with a smart card.

• Sound redirection - broadcasts sounds from the remote desktop to the client desktop.

• Session disconnect - permits users to disconnect from a remote desktop session without logging off and enables them to reconnect to their disconnected session. This aspect is useful when a user's session is unexpectedly disconnected by a network or client issue.

In addition to these features, users with computers running Windows 7 Enterprise or Ultimate edition can take advantage of these extra benefits:

• Aero glass support.

• Redirection of Windows Media Player.

• Multiple monitor support.

LOS ANGELES–January 14, 2011—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the availability of their Dedicated Exchange Hosting Premium plan.

Infinitely Virtual's Dedicated Exchange Hosting Premium plan comes with redundant Active Directory controllers, a virtual dedicated Exchange server, and a virtual dedicated SharePoint Standard server protected by clustered firewalls with perimeter antivirus. Plans include free account management and implementation plans provided by our support team.

All servers and data hosted with Infinitely Virtual are stored on our clustered storage area network (SAN), which is configured to survive any single point of failure. Dedicated Exchange Hosting includes the ability to install and use any third party Exchange Server applications. Infinitely Virtual's Dedicated Exchange Hosting Premium plan also contains optional features such as Active Directory / Single Sign-On, which allows a Privately Hosted Exchange environment to be integrated into an office Active Directory or Microsoft Windows based network.

“Our new Dedicated Exchange Hosting Premium plan is designed to provide quick and easy management and integration into your office network. We ensure your business is secured and supported at all times, so you can focus on staying productive,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Every virtual dedicated server is hosted on Infinitely Virtual's Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), which includes features such as clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, and clustered enterprise firewalls, and a 100% uptime guarantee. They also provide Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD & Floppy, and Virtual Power Buttons, plus the choice of Windows 2003 or Windows 2008, preinstalled.

Infinitely Virtual's new Dedicated Exchange Hosting Premium plan takes the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices. Visit the new website, and learn more about the Dedicated Exchange Hosting plans on the Infinitely Virtual Website.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24x7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

About Altay Corporation

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

LOS ANGELES-January 13, 2011-Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider involving virtual server and also cloud computing products, is delighted to declare the availability of their Project Virtual Terminal Server-Standard plan.

Infinitely Virtual's Project Virtual Terminal Server-Standard package comes pre-loaded with Microsoft Project Standard (2003, 2007 or 2010), presenting users an easier approach to regulate solutions. This program also boasts the power to install any specific supported third-party applications. OpenOffice fits any word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, image and database preferences. Protection is covered with Infinitely Virtual's SPI Firewall along with perimeter antivirus, which shield buyers by way of allowing exclusively recognized connections and scanning all downloads and uploads for viruses.

The Project Virtual Terminal Server-Standard also offers recommended functions, including Site-to-Site IPSec VPN, PPTP VPN, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Visio, and Server Load-Balancing that may be incorporated on to the plan.

“Our Project Virtual Terminal Server-Standard system is developed to enable a staff to share Microsoft Project. We give you a adaptive platform to keep your business on track, without worrying about high-priced equipment or connection concerns,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

With Infinitely Virtual’s Virtual Dedicated server, the customer is always shielded. Infinitely Virtual's innovative Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), includes features including clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, and a 100% uptime guarantee. Each and every server offers between 1 and 8 2.53 Ghz virtual CPUs, shared on hosts operating on average, below 30% CPU utilization. IV Virtual Dedicated Servers also provide Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD & Floppy, and Virtual Power Buttons. All Infinitely Virtual VTS plans contain a Virtual Dedicated Terminal Server with Windows 2003 or 2008 configured as a Remote Desktop Session Host.

Infinitely Virtual's Project Virtual Terminal Server-Standard plan takes the company further in its dedication to produce the highest quality virtual products and services to customers at the industry’s most affordable rates.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading supplier of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of providing services to any type of company, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools-an economical technique for companies to use software as it’s desired, instead of licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this venture Infinitely Virtual delivers customers with expert 24x7 Technical Support. With a revolutionary tactic to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual offers aggressively priced choices that opponents simply cannot meet.

About Altay Corporation

Altay is an IT expert services organization that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that fulfill the highest standards of quality, developed for a client’s specific requirements, and delivered economically-with the ultimate objective of assisting clients reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of supplying excellent service to its customers.

LOS ANGELES-January 4, 2011-Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding supplier of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is thrilled to announce the availability of their Dedicated Exchange Hosting Premium Plan.

Infinitely Virtual’s Dedicated Exchange Hosting Premium plan consists of four Virtual Dedicated Servers in a private VLAN secured by Infinitely Virtual's clustered Juniper firewalls. Plans are loaded with free user account management, admission to all Active Directory and Exchange management utilities, and the exclusive ability to install third-party applications.

With Infinitely Virtual’s Virtual Dedicated server, the consumer is always secured. Infinitely Virtual's progressive Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.), includes functions such as clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, and clustered enterprise firewalls, and a 100% uptime guarantee. Every Virtual Dedicated Server also gives Virtual KVM, Virtual CD/DVD & Floppy, and Virtual Power Buttons, along with the selection of Windows 2003 or Windows 2008, preinstalled.

Infinitely Virtual Dedicated Exchange Hosting plans come with unequalled pliability. Users get all the advantages of running their own Exchange Server environment without any of the intricacy or cost. And with Infinitely Virtual's completely unique options like the Single Active Directory/Single Sign-on and Site-to-Site IPSec VPN, clients are able to integrate each solution more fully into their office network.

Premium Dedicated Exchange Hosting Plan Features:
• Outlook Licensing
• 10 Users
• Additional Users Cost: $16.99
• 20 GB of Storage
• Advanced Anti-Spam Protection
• Virtual Dedicated SharePoint Standard Server
• Monthly Cost of $249.99
• Fully custom features and payment options

“Our Dedicated Exchange Hosting Premium plan includes a full Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint hosting solution, giving our customers all of the features of self-hosting without any of the cost or intricacy of installing and maintaining it,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual's new Premium Dedicated Exchange Hosting plan takes the company further in its persistence for provide the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s most affordable rates.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a major service provider of top quality and cost-effective virtual terminal server technology, capable of supplying services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools-an affordable way for enterprises to use software as it’s needed, instead of licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this alliance Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24x7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that opponents just cannot meet.

About Altay Corporation

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s promise is to provide products and services that meet the best standards of quality, made for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically-with the ultimate objective of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has an established reputation providing excellent service to its customers.

A large number of hosting companies present business programs that tout the use of cutting-edge hardware and software, but the simple fact is that every top-notch hosting service provider should utilize the most up-to-date and greatest technology. Business leaders should expect this as a minimum requirement but, a much more important question is: Does my hosting provider utilize a smart backup technique to be certain that my data and information are safe from damage?

Are You Secured?

Ask your hosting carrier if a business continuity solution is offered with your hosting plan. Remarkably, many companies do not include standard data backup as a typical service. Offering high-quality, guaranteed data loss prevention is often difficult and expensive for the hosting company, but this is protection you should not afford to go without.

Already Safe? To What Degree?

If your hosting supplier offers backup services, do your homework to avoid unexpected hassles and potential aggravations. Confirm that you can rely on your provider to frequently and thoroughly backup important computer data. Consider the following:

How long it will take to restore from backup?

Your existing hosting service provider may deliver backup services, nevertheless , you should understand the technology they utilize to guard you. If they use tape backup, it may be hours before you get your data back when you need it. Your business may find itself at the bottom of a long list of customers waiting for restoration of servers, applications, and data if a issue takes place. Take the steps to recognise what you can expect of the hosting company if repairing from backup is needed to avoid a disruptive business disaster.

What does the backup plan include?

Check the type of data and information that is secured. Not all providers let you restore individual files or your whole server. If you need to recover immediately, you'll need a provider that offers you the option of restoring individual files or the full server. In addition, find out how far back the backup goes. There is a huge difference between 4 days and 4 weeks.

Is there an additional backup off-site?

Check with your provider if their business continuity solution involves an off-site component. True business continuity solutions include reproduction of all data and virtual servers to a production data center in a form that allows them to be booted up there in the instance of a long term outage.

Application-consistent or Crash-consistent?

If you are hosting virtual servers, this might be the most important question. Make sure your hosting company takes application-consistent snapshots of your server. If they don’t, you may get a perfectly unusable restore. Crash-consistent snapshots are a point-in-time backup of your server. All Exchange, SQL, and disk transactions are left incomplete, creating harmed databases and files. An application-consistent snapshot quiesces or closes all transactions to disk, enabling you to restore the server with zero corruption.

Quick Checklist for Acceptable Backup Provisions

If you’re overwhelmed with questions to ask and not sure of the solutions to look for, you can start using this quick reference guideline of minimum provisions:

• The provider should perform a daily backup of your entire server.
• Data needs to be retained for at least 4 weeks.
• You should have the option to restore anything from a single file to an entire server.
• Data should be replicated off-site.
• The provider should take application-consistent snapshots.

Today, cloud computing has grown to be an area of the business mainstream, yet many small businesses remain unclear what cloud computing is and, more to the point, exactly how will benefit their business. Cloud computing, or software as a service, is when IT software and services are delivered over the web and through a browser. This transfers the responsibility for IT maintenance, software upgrades, and any system issues onto the vendor, allowing enterprises to focus on their core business instead of their infrastructure. IT professionals have come up with the next 10 items to consider when getting started in the cloud:

1. Moving to the cloud is simple: The transport of business material into the cloud is incredibly simple. It is not necessary to set up new hardware or software as everything is run by the cloud provider.

2. Cost savings could be above what you anticipate: Companies that move to the cloud can conserve on many different levels - IT hardware and software spending is cut greatly and a lower number of staff or support resources are required for IT maintenance.

3. Improved productivity: Amongst the key primary advantages of cloud computing is that staff members can access documents and emails from anywhere. If your business demands mobility and flexibility or you have personnel working remotely, the cloud could be an effortless and affordable technique for addressing these needs.

4. A greater amount of security: Cloud computing can be more secure than traditional IT. Many established cloud suppliers utilize leading security specialists, invest vast amounts of money into securing their applications and develop technology beyond the means of any small enterprise. Additionally, the chance of losing confidential data on a laptop or a USB stick is likewise diminished, as things are all saved in the cloud and not on your devices.

5. Manage the cultural adjustment: Today's staff expect to have the same technology at work that they enjoy at home. Google designs its applications with users in mind and many employees will already be well-versed in Google Mail and Google Docs. However, internal communication regarding the change of service and in-house training sessions will help staff to feel more at ease when using the new technology.

6. A more collaborative way of working: Using cloud computing applications, individuals can access and operate in exactly the same documents instantly - without the need for hundreds of emails with attachments. Enhanced knowledge sharing and interaction boosts creativity and productivity amongst your employees.

7. Flexibility to scale up or scale down your organization: Cloud based "pay as you go" style services allow you to easily build up your use of cloud services as your business grows, or reduce your spending if you need to momentarily scale down.

8. Employees of tomorrow: Social media sites like Facebook or MySpace are all cloud environments. Most employees are now accustomed to collaborating online and obtaining their data from any portable device available, whenever they want.

9. Your business resiliency can be enhanced: Cloud computing providers deliver increased resiliency and redundancy afforded by numerous data centers to make certain your data is always obtainable. You experience less downtime than when managing IT in-house, and any issues can be solved far more quickly by being repaired centrally.

10. More choice: As opposed to traditional IT models which may involve high-priced software licenses and long lock-in contracts, the cloud model provides significantly more flexibility. You can switch providers conveniently and regularly in order to get the very best experience and value for your money. However, it is essential to consult your cloud provider as to how you retrieve information from their cloud should you choose to switch down the road.

LOS ANGELES–December 7, 2010—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of virtual server and cloud computing technology, is pleased to announce the availability of dedicated Microsoft SharePoint 2010 hosting through their Virtual SharePoint Hosting plans.

Every SharePoint Hosting plan, from Basic to Premium, includes a dedicated Virtual Dedicated SharePoint server pre-loaded with Windows 2008, SQL Server 2008, and SharePoint 2010. The Basic plan is a single server with SharePoint Foundation 2010. It comes with the option of SQL Server 2008, Express, Web or Standard Edition, and is protected by Infinitely Virtual’s clustered Juniper firewalls.

The Standard and Premium Plans include redundant Active Directory Controllers and a Virtual Dedicated Server running SharePoint 2010 Standard or Enterprise Edition. All servers are placed in a private VLAN, and are protected by Infinitely Virtual’s Juniper firewalls.

With Infinitely Virtual’s Virtual Dedicated server, the client is always protected. Infinitely Virtual’s revolutionary Enterprise Virtualization Environment (E.V.E.) includes features such as clustered NetApp SAN with RAID-DP, VMware HA clustering, and clustered enterprise firewalls, and a 100% uptime guarantee.

Additional SharePoint Hosting Benefits

• Servers have between 1 and 8 2.53 GHz virtual CPUs
• Every server is backed by 100% of RAM included in plan, up to 16 GB
• Virtual KVM
• Virtual CD/ DVD & Floppy
• Virtual Power Buttons

“At Infinitely Virtual, we know that SharePoint 2010 is an important tool in keeping your business organized. We are happy to offer our new SharePoint Hosting plans that let customers manage their business with the ease and flexibility of SharePoint 2010,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual’s SharePoint Hosting takes the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality virtual products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual terminal server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including cloud computing and hosting, virtual private hosting, virtual dedicated server, Exchange Email and Exchange Hosting. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

About Altay Corporation

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

LOS ANGELES–October 21, 2010—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, is pleased to announce the inclusion of anti-spam protection free with any VON Standard, VON Premium or PHE plans. The company plans to include free anti-spam standard with all plans in late 2010.

VON and VON Premium plans are ideal solutions for small businesses, businesses with mobile workers, and businesses with multiple offices. VON plans include everything business users need from Exchange Email with full Outlook support and Windows Server shared files, to Remote Access via Terminal Server, VPN, and complete security in a fully customizable plan.

Infinitely Virtual’s PHE plan enables organizations to obtain the benefits from Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 or 2007 without the cost of installation, maintenance or management that accompany hosting a private Exchange solution.

“Until now, our customers had a choice between installing their own anti-spam solution, using our advanced anti-spam solution, and not using any anti-spam at all. We decided that every customer with a dedicated exchange hosting plan should get some level of protection,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO Infinitely Virtual

The addition of free anti-spam protection, standard with any Infinitely Virtual VON, VON Premium or PHE plan takes the company further in its commitment to deliver the highest quality products and services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including file servers, e-mail servers or web servers. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

About Altay Corporation

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

LOS ANGELES–October 15, 2010—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, is pleased to announce that their Virtual Terminal Service (VTS) products now support Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) 7.0, which provides a competitive experience for low bandwidth (e.g. 56 Kbps) connections.

RDP 7.0 offers more features than its predecessors–enabling new remoting functionality such as accelerated bitmap rendering, multi-media redirection streaming, and network topology awareness while offering the best support available for the ever increasingly complex and rich multi-media environment.

Key Features:

• Improved user experience
• Color depth and font smoothing
• Lower network bandwidth usage while tolerating higher latency network conditions
• Redirection of Windows Media, allowing full frame rate remoting of high quality media on LANS on a par with playing multi-media locally

“Infinitely Virtual is committed to providing its customers the best upgrades available. Supporting RDP 7.0 allows us to save our clients energy, while boosting productivity,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO Infinitely Virtual

The update of Infinitely Virtual’s VTS products to support RDP 7.0 takes Infinitely Virtual further in its mission to seek and out and deliver practical, reliable and energy efficient virtual technology services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including file servers, e-mail servers or web servers. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

About Altay Corporation

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

LOS ANGELES–October 5, 2010—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, is pleased to announce an increase in the number of supported operating systems for all Self-Install Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting plans. The company’s self-install plans now offer the widest variety of operating system options available.

Operating System Options:

Windows Options
• Windows Server 2008
-32 or 64 Bit
-Release 1 or 2
-Web, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter or Small Business Edition

• Windows Server 2003
-32 or 64 Bit
-Release 1 or 2
-Web, Standard, Enterprise, Datacenter or Small Business Edition

• Windows 2000
-Advanced Server
-Server
-Professional

• Windows 7 Professional
-32 or 64 Bit

• Windows Vista Professional
-32 or 64 Bit

• Windows XP Professional
-32 or 64 Bit

Linux & Unix Options
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
-32 or 64 Bit
-4 or 5

• SUSE Linux Enterprise
-32 or 64 Bit
-10 or 11

• Debian GNU/Linux
-32 or 64 Bit
-4 or 5

• Ubuntu Linux
-32 or 64 Bit

• Other 2.6x or 2.4x Linux
-32 or 64 Bit

• FreeBSD
-32 or 64 Bit

“We know that the one-size-fits-all approach to cloud computing, in fact, does not fit, and increasing the number of Self-Install options enables our customers to select the most effective solution,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual’s increase in the number of supported operating systems for self-install plans takes the company further in its mission to seek and out and deliver practical, reliable and energy efficient virtual technology services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including file servers, e-mail servers or web servers. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

About Altay Corporation

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

LOS ANGELES–September 22, 2010—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, is developing a new product, Virtual Terminal Server – Premium, and will feature the combined benefits of their Virtual Terminal Server, Active Directory, and a dedicated file server.

About the Premium Plan

Infinitely Virtual’s Virtual Terminal Server – Premium plan features a four server system, including redundant Active Directory Controllers, a virtual dedicated file server, and a virtual dedicated terminal server in a private VLAN behind enterprise class, clustered Juniper firewalls.

Key Benefits:
• Virtual Dedicated Terminal Server
• Virtual Dedicated File Server
• Redundant Active Directory Controllers
• Private VLAN
• Sun Open Office
• Ability to Install Third Party Applications
• SPI Firewall and Perimeter Antivirus
• Optional Site-to-Site IPSec VPN
• Optional PPTP VPN
• Optional Microsoft Office
• Optional Microsoft Visio
• Optional Server Load-Balancing

“We listen to our customers; Infinitely Virtual has been providing this plan as a custom option for years, and soon customers will simply purchase it from our ecommerce site,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO Infinitely Virtual.

Infinitely Virtual’s Virtual Terminal Server – Premium plan is designed to meet the needs of small and medium firms looking to place their applications in the cloud; it takes Infinitely Virtual further in its mission to seek and out and deliver practical, reliable and energy efficient virtual technology services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including file servers, e-mail servers or web servers. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

About Altay Corporation

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

LOS ANGELES–September 16, 2010—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, is pleased to announce the development of a new product allowing customers to use Microsoft Office Communications Server. The creation of this new Infinitely Virtual product was brought about by the company’s accelerated growth, and desire to seek out the most advanced, cost-effective business solutions for their customers.

Microsoft Office Communication Server

Microsoft Office Communications Server delivers streamlined communications to users, letting all users in an organization communicate with the right person, instantly. This program maintains operational control without expensive infrastructure or network upgrades, delivers streamlined communications, including software-powered VoIP, Web and audio/video conferencing, and enterprise instant messaging.

Key Microsoft Office Communications Server Features

• Enterprise Voice
• Audio/Video/Web Conferencing
• Group Chat
• Instant Messaging and Presence
• Public Instant Messaging Connectivity
• Mobility
• Operations
• Platform Extensibility

“We are excited to be developing a product that will enhance communication for our customers. Infinitely Virtual continuously strives to deliver the latest technology and promote productivity, all at the industry’s lowest prices,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO Infinitely Virtual.

The development of this new product for the use of Microsoft Office Communications Server takes Infinitely Virtual further in its mission to seek and out and deliver reliable and energy efficient virtual technology services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual:

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including file servers, e-mail servers or web servers. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

About Altay Corporation:

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

LOS ANGELES–September 14, 2010—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, is pleased to announce the development of new, low-cost Virtual SharePoint Server with virtually unlimited storage capabilities, using Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Web Edition. The creation of the new server products was brought about by the company’s accelerated growth, and desire to seek out the most advanced, cost-effective business solutions for their customers.

SharePoint 2010 and SQL Web Edition

SharePoint 2010 allows companies to quickly respond to changing business needs. With SharePoint 2010, users can easily share ideas and expertise, create custom solutions for specific needs, and find the right business information to make better decisions. Equally, Microsoft SQL Web Edition delivers an optimal balance of scalability, manageability and cost for hosted Web sites and applications. SQL Web Edition also allows for maximum server utilization for low-cost operations, flexible platform operations, and efficient management of large groups of servers.

The software may be used only to support public and Internet accessible Web Pages, Web Sites, Web Applications, and Web services. It may not be used to support line of business applications (e.g., Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise Resource Management and other similar applications).

“I am excited that we will soon introduce our new Virtual Sharepoint Server, enabling customers the ability to share ideas quickly, all while saving capital,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO Infinitely Virtual.

The development of these new cost-effective server products takes Infinitely Virtual further in its mission to seek and out and deliver reliable and energy efficient virtual technology services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual:

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including file servers, e-mail servers or web servers. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

About Altay Corporation:

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

LOS ANGELES–September 7, 2010—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, is pleased to announce the development of two new products: Project Virtual Terminal Server-Standard and Project Virtual Terminal Server-Premium. These exciting new products allow customers to use Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft Project Server. The creation of these new Infinitely Virtual products was implemented to support the company’s accelerated growth, and desire to seek out the most advanced, cost-effective business solutions for their customers.

Microsoft Project 2010 and Project Server

Infinitely Virtual’s new Project Virtual Terminal Server-Standard enables users to share Microsoft Project 2010, while Project Virtual Terminal Server-Premium not only lets users share Project 2010, but enables them to also use Microsoft Project 2010 Server.

Microsoft Project 2010 Server provides the ability to effectively manage a wide range of projects and programs. From meeting crucial deadlines to empowering teams, Project 2010 Server offers easier and more intuitive experiences to help increase production and realize powerful results.

Microsoft Project 2010 Server brings together great business and collaboration platform services with structured execution capabilities to provide flexible work management solutions.

Key Microsoft Project 2010 Server Features:

• Unified project and portfolio management
• Drive accountability and control with governance workflow
• Standardize and streamline project initiation
• Easily build Web-based project schedules
• Intuitively submit time and task updates
• Gain visibility and control through reports and dashboards
• Simplified administration and flexibility
• Extensible and programmable platform

“We are excited to release these new products which allow our customers to leverage Microsoft’s powerful project management tools without having to purchase the licensing or infrastructure it requires,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO Infinitely Virtual.

The development of new Infinitely Virtual products for Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft Project 2010 Server takes Infinitely Virtual further in its mission to seek and out and deliver reliable and energy efficient virtual technology services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices.

About Infinitely Virtual:

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including file servers, e-mail servers or web servers. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

About Altay Corporation:

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

LOS ANGELES–July 7, 2010—Infinitely Virtual, a rapidly expanding provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, is pleased announce their installation of Microsoft Office 2010 to all of their virtual terminal server clients. Infinitely Virtual’s addition of Microsoft Office 2010 provides virtual server customers responsive and powerful new ways to deliver their best work.

Microsoft Office 2010 greatly improves upon the performance of Microsoft Office 2007. The Office 2010 updated menu system features a new home menu that provides detailed information on modifications, authors, file sizes and permissions. Improved multimedia editing bring options like in-video editing, screen captures and video cutting. Real-time collaboration and communications are enhanced, enabling multiple users to edit the same file at the same time from different locations. Security settings have been increased. And finally, Microsoft Office 2010 features Microsoft Office Web Apps, which allow users to store Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote files online and then access, edit and share content later from virtually anywhere.

“The addition of Microsoft Office 2010 for all virtual terminal server clients is just another stride forward in Infinitely Virtual’s constant mission to deliver reliable and energy-efficient virtual technology services to clients at the industry’s lowest prices,” says Adam Stern, President and CEO of Infinitely Virtual and Altay Corporation.

About Infinitely Virtual:

Infinitely Virtual is a leading provider of high quality and affordable virtual server technology, capable of delivering services to any type of business, including file servers, e-mail servers or web servers. As a virtual company, Infinitely Virtual is managed using Software as a Service or SaaS tools–an affordable way for businesses to use software as it’s needed, rather than licensing all devices with all applications. The company was established as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation, and through this partnership Infinitely Virtual provides customers with expert 24×7 Technical Support. With an innovative approach to virtualization, Infinitely Virtual provides aggressively priced options that competitors simply cannot meet.

About Altay Corporation:

Altay is an IT professional services company that designs, implements, and supports single- and multi-vendor data solutions. Altay’s pledge is to provide products and services that meet the highest standards of quality, designed for a client’s specific needs, and delivered economically—with the ultimate goal of helping customers reach their potential. Altay’s team is specialized in voice, video and data solutions, and it has a proven track record of providing excellent service to its customers.

Microsoft Office remains the favorite productivity suite of today’s companies. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, OneNote and Outlook are industry standards for business users. The software powerhouse has worked diligently to continually develop tools that help employees work efficiently and effectively. Microsoft has released 14 versions of its Office suite since October 1990. Office 2010 includes many new features and enhancements, such as:

• Enhanced design tools for managing visual content.
• New collaboration options such as simultaneous authoring.
• Built-in connections to social and business networking applications.
• Improved visualization capabilities to augment data analysis.
• Expanded libraries of templates and effects for customized videos and presentations.
• Email tools reducing time to complete common tasks and review long threads.
• Enriched interface allowing users to customize menu options, tabs, and commands to best-suit their workflows.

Adjusting to the Virtual Workplace

Companies are increasingly seeking mobile solutions for their IT needs, with many turning to virtual and cloud computing to support employees and reduce costs. Your company can maximize the power of Microsoft Office through the use of virtual terminal servers. You can utilize virtual email exchange, application, and web servers to allow employees to access applications and data at the office, their homes, or essentially anywhere they have access to the web. A virtual terminal server provides your company with the advantages of centrally deploying applications without the expense of building dedicated physical servers.

Foster Remote Collaboration in Word

Combine Word 2010’s advanced collaboration tools with the power, flexibility, and scalability of a virtual terminal server to allow employees in different locations to work on the same document concurrently.

Consolidate Multimedia Assets for PowerPoint

Use a virtual server to store video and graphic assets in a central location. Traveling employees can easily access important company materials to make last-minute revisions to business proposals and presentations, all from any web-enabled device.

Aggregate Excel Workbooks

Use a virtual private server to store company data and spreadsheets. Host all of your proposal budgets and company financials in one location. Provide targeted access to finance employees and consultants.

Centralize OneNote Resources

Use OneNote with virtual server hosting to promote online storage of informal meeting notes, useful for retrospectives, and brainstorming sessions. Use OneNote’s content management features to quickly organize and access relevant emails, notes, pictures, and text for upcoming planning meetings.

Access Email without a Hiccup

Connect to your Exchange server while at home or away on business without the need for additional VPN clients, multi-step logon processes, or less-than-appealing webmail alternatives. Enjoy the benefits of top-of-the-line Exchange Email Hosting without the cost to install, maintain, or manage your own Exchange Email server.

Reduce In-House IT Costs

• Lower Equipment Costs. With Terminal Server Hosting, you no longer need to purchase expensive, beefed-up computers with additional memory and disk space. With terminal server hosting, the costs associated with purchasing, installing, and updating hardware and software decrease significantly.
• Worry-Free Software Updates. Updates are installed automatically and in minutes rather than hours.
• Enjoy Flexibility and Scalability. Customize the configuration of your virtual terminal server as needed. Add additional Microsoft Office users and licenses in hours, not days, and at a fraction of the normal cost.
• Recycle the Savings. Reallocate space and human resources to other areas of your business, or use the savings to train employees to benefit most from the software you use.

The new Microsoft Project 2010 make projects easier. The Project family builds on critical changes made in Microsoft Office Project 2007 and provides pathways for more complex project portfolios as your company’s expertise evolves. New interfaces and menus make Microsoft Project 2010 easier to use. The new navigation adopts the Ribbon in Microsoft Office 2010 applications, which allows discovery of new features. If users have learned Ribbon in other Office applications, they will be more familiar with Project.

There are three applications in the Project Office family: Project Standard 2010, Project Professional 2010 and Project Server 2010.

Project Standard 2010

• Use Excel-like features to create and manipulate the schedules and data. Office features such as auto-complete, add or delete columns, or rows and text wrap make it simple to learn and use Project Office.
• Timelines are visually enhanced with better graphics and expanded colors.

Project Professional 2010

• Create customized timelines. Timeline details are quick and easy to visualize and drill into with the enhanced graphical timelines.
• Scheduling projects is straightforward. User alerts warn you of potential problems so they can be dealt with immediately. You can also create “What-if?” scenarios using the active and inactive task feature.
• Complete reporting time by enabling Single Entry Mode. A consolidated approval center simplifies approval of timesheets and task status.
• Outlook and Exchange integrate with the software, no add-ins required. Microsoft Outlook Web allows you to immediately send updates to mobile devices.
• Enhanced resource planning lets you use a drag-and-drop to visually find a balance of resources.

The web interface carries over to the entire Project family. With built-in web access, teams in different geographic locations and time zones can instantly and effortlessly collaborate and monitor a project’s progress.

Project Server and SharePoint

Project Server expands the functionality and features of Project 2010 to include project portfolio management. This allows multiple projects to be accessed, resources reviewed, and tasks updated to maintain organizational control throughout the portfolio.

Project Server 2010 has built-in integration with SharePoint 2010. SharePoint houses all project documents in one location like a company intranet, letting users access the server via local networks or with Virtual Private Networks (VPN). SharePoint Services tasks lists can be converted to Project Professional 2010 to help with scheduling.

With SharePoint’s document control, procedures can be established for review and approval of documents required for the project. User access is controlled with permissions to limit document access and access control also prevents users from changing the wrong documents, or the wrong projects.
The content management system (CMS) controls in SharePoint can store multiple versions of documents for regulatory or compliance requirements.
With the latest edition of the Project family has:

• No support of Internet Explorer 6
• No support for ActiveX controls
• Project tasks in Outlook no longer requires a plug-in to work with Project Server

OpenOffice.org is the leading open-source office software for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. Recently acquired by Oracle, OpenOffice.org Productivity Suite is available for Linux, Windows, Unix, Sun Solaris, Apple Mac operating systems, and is completely free of charge for any use. While it shines as a productivity suite, it is probably best known for its compatibility with other applications, the ability to read files created by software such as Microsoft, WordPerfect, and Lotus 1-2-3, and save to those same formats.

One Download, One Product, Five Applications

OpenOffice.org was designed, developed, and implemented as a single piece of software with applications that work together as one product. OpenOffice.org is actively developed (with several releases every year) by a worldwide group who agree to make a tool that serves its purpose as efficiently and smoothly as possible. This means that the interface and user experience are consistent and easy to use, with the tools, such as menus, formulas, and context-sensitive help being usable in every application. You can even open any type of document—whether it’s a spreadsheet, html page, text document, database, presentation or drawing—from any one of OpenOffice.org’s applications.

With OpenOffice.org 3, you download a single installation package that provides Writer, Calc, Impress, Base, and Draw applications and includes .pdf file creation and the ability to add a growing variety of extensions.

The Applications Inside

Writer is a fully equipped word processor and desktop publisher with features like AutoCorrect, AutoComplete, AutoFormat, Styles and Formatting (a feature shared by all of the OpenOffice.org applications), Text Frames and Linking, Tables of Contents, Indexing, Bibliographical References, Illustrations, and Tables. While Writer maintains simplicity, so tasks like creating a list isn’t a chore, it is also powerful and stable enough to assemble image-heavy and complex books and brochures.

Calc is intuitive and easy to learn for beginners, but experts will also appreciate features that include Advanced DataPilot technology, Natural language formulas, an Intelligent Sum Button, a range of advanced functions, Styles and Formatting, and a Scenario Manager.

Impress uses 2D and 3D clip art, special effects, animation, drawing tools, and a multi-pane view to offer a creative palette for your high-impact presentations. With Impress, you can even share your presentation in .pdf, HTML, and Flash.

Base is the database tool that enables you to create and modify tables, forms, queries, and reports, either using your own database or Base’s own built-in HSQL database engine. Base offers Wizards, Design Views, or SQL Views for beginning to advanced users.

Draw gives you the tools to make graphics, freehand drawings, flowcharts, and network diagrams. With Draw, you can manipulate objects, rotate in two or three dimensions, use rendering to create photorealistic images, and use Smart connectors.

Compatibility Equals Capability without Licensing Worries

Your business can work with OpenOffice.org. Not only does it compare favorably to the most competitive commercial software on the market, it interacts easily with all of them, giving you the ability to open, modify, and save in the formats used by all the major office productivity suites.

Free and open source software means that you can offer your employees and your customers professional-grade applications at no cost, and with no licensing fees or time-consuming relicensing. This gives you the opportunity to pre-install it on your system, offer it in your marketing literature, and even ship it with your own materials, without mentioning OpenOffice.org at all.

OpenOffice.org Plus Virtual Terminal Server from Infinitely Virtual Means Business

When you purchase a Virtual Terminal Server from Infinitely Virtual, OpenOffice.org is pre-installed. With Virtual Terminal Server and OpenOffice.org, you get a system ready to work, combining a built-in productivity suite with the benefits of Terminal Server and virtualization—no hardware, no server administration—and get RAID-DP storage, six daily backups, a firewall, and antivirus protection.

Microsoft released SharePoint 2010 in May. The software provides better integration with products such as Microsoft Office and supplies flexible deployment and centralized administration, giving you the efficient and secure working environment you need.

SharePoint 2007 offered site production and management, document sharing, and basic collaboration through alerts and document protection. In addition to many improvements in these applications, the new version expands SharePoint significantly in two categories: Community, which provides an array of social networking tools, and Insights, which allows you access to information in databases, reports, and business applications for business intelligence and analysis.

Staying Connected

When members of a team work in different offices, cities, or even countries, keeping in touch with co-workers and employees is critical. SharePoint 2010 supports that with profiles that show what users are working on, particular competencies, and who they work with, blogs and wikis to share and exchange information and experience, and SharePoint 2010 Communities where information of interest is the focus. Content tagging and personal sites offer even more ways of sharing information, and integration with Outlook enables users to see when this information is updated from one always-on application.

Managing Websites

Whether your company uses SharePoint only for document sharing, for running your entire intranet, or even for your public website, the improved Web CMS features in SharePoint 2010 Sites will help you do it better and easier. Microsoft’s goal is to make SharePoint more like other Office applications, and to that end, they have updated the user interface to function more like Word and Excel, including adding the Ribbon and the new Backstage View. Other updates include cross-browser support, improved search capabilities, and the addition of web analytics.

Generating Custom Applications

With SharePoint 2010 Composites, you can work with data from external systems and databases as if it was in SharePoint, creating custom sites and no-programming application solutions. You can even centralize Access databases and Excel workbooks and deploy safe sandboxes where new ideas can be tested without risk to the platform.

Offering Business Intelligence

Analysis, web-based reports, and dashboards are available for the SharePoint 2010 Insights user. These tools produce graphical reports and heads-up displays that employees and managers can use to stay up to date on key performance indicators and make good business decisions.

Managing Content

In SharePoint 2010 Content, Microsoft offers the ability to designate a stored item as a record. This freezes the information for compliance or regulatory purposes, preventing any change. Document management also directly integrates with MS Office, allowing you to work on your documents in a familiar environment, improving document access control mechanisms and categorizing them for easier searches.

Increasing Operational Insight

SharePoint 2010 gives you deeper insight into operations with an easy-to-use central administration web site, PowerShell support, and extensible architecture to add third-party services. SharePoint Health Analyzer allows you to locate potential problems and automatically fix common configuration and performance problems automatically. Plus, Visual Upgrade enables you to upgrade to SharePoint 2010 but keep the SharePoint 2007 interface until you’re ready to change.

The new Microsoft Office 2010 productivity suite, released in June, includes a broad selection of new and upgraded features. Primarily targeted at the business market, the updated version includes new ways to create, enhance, and co-author documents in PowerPoint, Word, Excel, and OneNote, connect with contacts and keep track of events in Outlook, and deliver presentations using the Web. Improvements to the core environment, such as the new Backstage View and additional file format support, round out the suite’s new features.

The important additions for virtual hosting customers are the revised user interface and improvements to Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Professional Plus users will benefit from improved SharePoint integration and additional Outlook features.

Become Social Media Savvy with Outlook and the Social Connector

Integration with social networks, including LinkedIn and SharePoint, are included in the new version of Outlook, with Facebook coming soon. The Outlook Social Connector imports social network data into your contact list, displaying the online activity of business associates and friends. If e-mail recipients or meeting attendees have recently blogged on a subject or posted a link that’s important to users on Facebook or SharePoint, users will be able to access that information right away. In addition, advanced e-mail management and calendar features make planning easier than ever.

Create and Collaborate with Word 2010

Word offers an array of improved editing and picture tools, including picture correction, background removal, picture layout options, and artistic effects.
Word 2010 also supports concurrent editing by multiple users for .docx files located on SharePoint Server 2010 or a cobalt-enabled server. Collaboration features include automatic highlighting of new material, color-coded author bar with initials, version support, and near real-time synchronization speeds.

PowerPoint Broadcast Slideshow, Co-authoring, Brings New Portability.

An Interesting new feature to PowerPoint is its remote slideshow capability. This enables users to present a slideshow over the Web or a network connection to virtual and live attendees simultaneously. Broadcast Slideshow allows users to present sales material one-on-one to a potential client, or offer an educational seminar to employees located remotely.

Simultaneous editing enables users to create presentations in collaboration with a team, or from a home or office without closing the document. Features include automatically highlighted new content; color-coded author bar with initials; version support; and faster synchronization, enabling changes to be displayed in near real-time.

New features in PowerPoint also include video and audio editing, new photo effects, and help and translation tools.

Excel Power Users Get Macro, HPC and Business Intelligence Support

Many of the improvements to Excel will apply to business intelligence users. The new Excel features are as follows. Sparklines: cell-sized, information-dense graphics used to increase reader comprehension by showing trends in a series of values. Slicers: visual controls that allow users to quickly and easily filter data in an interactive way, floating above the grid and acting as report filters, hooking to PivotTables, PivotCharts, or CUBE functions. PowerPivot: a data analysis add-in that allows users to quickly model and analyze large amounts of data.

Excel also offers additional macro support. This includes recording support for chart elements and the ability to complete migration of Excel macros to VBA, while retaining the ability to create, edit, and execute Excel 4 macros.

In addition, Excel can now solve computationally intensive problems using multiple computers by offloading the evaluation of certain user-defined functions to a compatible High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster.

OneNote Provides Improved Access to Your Information

OneNote, Microsoft Office’s notebook application, allows users to create notebook files at work, home, or on the road. OneNote changes include the ability to create Outlook tasks, add links to create wiki-style notebooks, support for math equations, translation support, the ability to dock the application, and an improved search.

OneNote can sync to Windows Live, providing instant access from any location. Using the new Web app, users can update notebooks using a limited version of OneNote from a Web browser. A compact version of OneNote is also available on a Windows Mobile-based smartphone.

Additionally, OneNote supports simultaneous editing, versioning, and collaboration features.

Flexibility and Usability Get a Lift from Additional File Formats

Microsoft Office 2010 includes new and updated file format support, containing Office Open XML (OOXML), ISO/IEC 29500:2008; support for ECMA-376, ISO/IEC 29500, and OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.1.

Web Apps Extend Functionality to Casual Users

The online companions to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote enable users to perform lightweight editing of Office documents when away from the desktop. Web apps preserve the look and feel of Office documents, but provide limited functionality. An appropriate device and supported browser are required. Some functions may require Office Mobile 2010.

Get Office Standard or Office Professional with Your Virtual Server

With a Virtual Terminal Server, Infinitely Virtual provides a choice of Microsoft Office 2010 Standard or Professional Plus. Both services offer Word, Excel, Publisher, OneNote, PowerPoint and Excel, and Outlook. Professional Plus users also get SharePoint Workspace, Communicator, Access, and InfoPath, in addition to full access to information management and policy capabilities, business and social networking, unified instant messaging, presence and voice, integrated enterprise content management, and managed e-mail folders.

Terminal Services have been greatly enhanced in Windows 2008 from Windows 2003, adding functionality for single sign-on, better remote display options, reduced administrative complexity, web access, and plug-n-play device redirection. These services allow both hosting companies and their clients to more easily regulate remote services and offer remote users a smoother experience by increasing speed, reducing the need for multiple sign-ons, and providing a cleaner display.

Remote Access from Anywhere

Windows 2008 allows Windows users better access to standard Windows-based programs from virtually anywhere using RemoteApp and the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC). RemoteApp allows users to work with applications just as if they were operating in person on the remote computer, while maintaining a presence on the computer they access from–they can minimize and maximize the remote window. RemoteApp reduces complexity and administrative overhead. Branch offices, hoteling employees, support personnel, and multiple version application deployments can all benefit from this functionality.

A Better Display

Windows 2008 Terminal Services adds support for higher resolution ratios, up to 4096 x 2048, providing support for the latest displays. It also provides the ability to use multiple monitors, spanning one display over multiple monitors using a remote connection. Font smoothing is another aspect of the improved display. Windows 2008 supports ClearType, a technology that creates a more seamless experience for the remote user, allowing fonts to appear more clearly, especially on an LCD monitor. Most importantly, Windows 2008 Terminal Server has implemented display data prioritization, which automatically gives priority to the remote user’s display, keyboard and mouse controls over other traffic, such as printing and files transfers, which do not require continuous bandwidth to provide a good user experience.

Reducing Log-in Time

Instead of logging on multiple times with multiple log-ins, as previously required, Windows 2008 offers an authentication method that allows a remote user with a domain account to log on once using one password.

Web Access to the Remote Desktop

Terminal Services Web Access enables users to connect from a Web browser to the remote desktop of any server or client, rather than by first starting the Remote Desktop Connection (RDC) client. With Web Access, users can visit an Internet or intranet Web site to access a list of RemoteApp programs. The benefits of Web Access include reduced administrative overhead, centralized program deployment, minimal configuration, and easier maintenance because programs run on the terminal server and not on the remote client computer.

Remote Access to Plug-N-Play Devices

Windows Server 2008 has expanded redirection, enhancing remote access to plug and play devices, specifically media players based on the Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) and digital cameras based on the Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP), providing rich remote experiences. Using Windows 2008 Terminal Services, applications can access PnP devices seamlessly, whether they run locally or remotely.

Your office network needs to provide access to mission critical applications and data, enable users to share information and work together, and be available 24 hours a day to users both local and remote. When working properly, the network should operate transparently.

Unfortunately, maintaining an office network requires up-to-date hardware and software, security, space and power, installation, deployment, and support from IT personnel available 24 hours a day. All this means that even the most well-designed network is far from invisible.

The Virtual Office

A virtual office network (VON) is a computing environment that can be accessed any time and from any place through an Internet connection. Taking your office network virtual offers many benefits, which includes giving users complete access to compute resources regardless of their location. A VON un-tethers workers from the office, enabling you to space and time shift your personnel; your users can work from homes or offices literally around the globe, whether the office is open or closed. This leads to both increased flexibility and lower fixed costs. Close down or reduce office space. Add a surge capacity by hiring consultants. Or utilize experts from anywhere in the world.

Creating a virtual office can unleash your company’s potential, but installing and managing a virtual network will compound your infrastructure and personnel requirements. The costs could outweigh the benefits.

Hosted VON

A hosted VON service allows you to eliminate the costs associated with going virtual, and in many cases, of having an office network in the first place. Hosted VON offers all of your users, regardless of location, connectivity to your organization’s applications and data without the burden of maintaining your own IT infrastructure. With the service provider taking care of installation, upgrades, maintenance, security, and resource management, your network can operate at peak efficiency 24 hours a day, 7 days a week—giving all your employees, remote and local, the ability to work efficiently.

With hosted VON, you can increase your company’s scheduling and hiring flexibility, eliminate downtime due to network issues, and eliminate the cost of obsolete equipment and software.

Looking for a Solid Deal in the Virtual World

Small and medium businesses need all the compute resources that a Fortune 500 company does, but they do not have the financial resources or in-house talent required to install and maintain them. A company may have a seasoned IT department, but the advent of remote and mobile workers increases the burden on those resources unduly. Businesses with multiple offices, including those whose offices move regularly, like construction firms, may have issues with continual network setup and breakdown and a lack of standardization.

If any of these describe your company, a hosted VON from Infinitely Virtual could be your answer.

Hosting companies are famous for offering rock bottom deals—loads of space for next to nothing. But often, those “deals” come at a high price, requiring a cookie-cutter approach that doesn’t work for today’s high energy, fast-reaction time companies.

With VMware’s vSphere, virtual hosting companies can offer additional operating systems, more than any other hypervisor, and the opportunity to use the latest cloud computing concepts like chargeback applications and Open Virtualization Format vApp to make your environments as versatile as your company needs to be.

Operating System Choices and vSphere

By using vSphere as your virtualization platform, you get fewer restrictions on host and client operating systems. The latest VMware-supported operating systems include Asianux, Debian, CentOS, FreeBSD, OS/2 Warp, Windows 7, Open Enterprise Server, and Solaris 10, adding to others that have been supported by VMware for years, such as Ubuntu, Red Hat, SuSE and NetWare.

À la Carte Billing with Chargeback Applications

A true cloud computing platform, vSphere supports the use of chargeback applications. Using a chargeback, a customer can pay just for the processing power, RAM, storage space, and networking they consume. That means that as the customer, you can slice the pie a little bit thinner when it comes to operating expenses, adding to the capital expenditure savings realized through virtualization. And if you are hosting applications for your customers, you have a new way to evaluate, measure and charge your customers for exactly what they use—no more choked applications during a sudden spike or punitive after-the-fact billing. You and your customers can both see exactly how much was used and when, reducing billing hassles. Conversely, your customers will be pleased to be charged less when their demand goes down.

And chargeback can help allocate resources and promote visibility into the costs of doing business within your own company, as well, by showing who’s using virtualization resources.

Maintain Policies and Service Levels with vApp

Run your applications securely with vApp, which enables the control of multiple virtual machine interactions, and even virtual machine creation at your own site, using the industry-standard Open Virtualization Format. OVF specifies and encapsulates all components of a multi-tier application, maintaining operational policies and service levels across the application. In the same way that a UPC bar code signifies all the information about a product, vApp contains all the policy standards defined by application owners, which the cloud operating system can automatically interpret and execute.