Version One has produced the findings of a survey showing that 41% of Senior IT Professionals admit that they “don’t know” what cloud computing is.  However, this is by no means an aggregate of the findings of what could have been a much larger survey.  The findings are based on the responses of only 60 senior IT professionals all of whom are from the UK, in various private and public sector organizations.  They had released a prior study that showed that two-thirds of UK’s senior finance professionals were confused about cloud computing.

However, there are some small signs of life in cloud computing in the UK.  5% of respondents say they use cloud computing “a lot” and 19% say they use it “sparingly.”  Their definition of cloud computing may be a little blurred though, making those responses somewhat inaccurate.  59% said they know what it is:  17% say its internet-based computing, 11% believe it’s a combination of internet, software as a service, software on demand, outsourced or managed service and a hosted software service, and the remaining respondents say it’s a mixture of the above.   The definitions are loose, although in some manner they’re all cloud-related. 

Assuming the 41% that don’t know the definition of cloud computing didn’t claim to use the technology, we’ve still got about 25% of these UK IT professionals using cloud technology.  Now to me, that sounds like the technology is catching on.  The other 75% will just have to play some catch-up once their companies begin to see the value in SaaS, PaaS and/or IaaS.  As for the 41% who don’t even know what cloud computing is, well they’ll wake up one of these days and actually read something regarding their industry.

I couldn’t’ find the actual report, but to read VersionOne’s summary, click here.

Want to see a short video that explains virtualization and cloud technology...with LEGOs? We like to make things easy here at BlueLock, Click here.

Want to know why cloud computing will succeed?  Click here.

Brian Wolff's definition of cloud computing.

Interested in a job in cloud computing?  BlueLock is hiring!  We're looking for a System Engineer and System Administrator.  Think you've got the technical skills and experience to join the BlueLock team as we continue to grow?  Click here and view more details regarding the openings. You just might find yourself in a cloud computing job soon!

Both positions are for our Indianapolis facility.

Rob England recently wrote an article on cloud computing entitled, “Cloud Computing Outlook Far From Sunny.”  He adamantly argues that cloud computing is a good fit for “high risk/low-capital applications like startups or small business or websites” but has a “more jaundiced view” towards the cloud for enterprise computing and existing core applications.

Yes, everyone has jumped on the cloud bandwagon and is touting “cloud” on every offering possible in hopes of grabbing a small piece of a very large pie that being eaten up as we speak, but that doesn’t mean it’s a worthless technology for the enterprise.  England says, “Quite simply, the idea is impractical for legacy enterprise applications.”  He claims that this “technical solution” doesn’t really solve the non-technical business problems, but actually presents more problems, introducing greater complexities to manage.  He doesn’t have software as a service in mind in this article, which is good because neither do I.  He is talking about the “internal grids or hosted computing or the myriad of other things that seem to get lumped into ‘The Cloud.’”  Great, because I’m assuming by that, he’s including what we call “infrastructure as a service.” 

The number one problem, he argues, is migrating legacy applications.  It is true that some applications simply weren’t built for the cloud, which is probably why he is so skeptical of legacy migration.  But many others would argue that it won't be impossible forever.  Bernard Golden, author of The Case Against Cloud Computing, believes that at some point someone will develop a physical-to-cloud migration tool that can alleviate those technical migration pains.  I’m with him.  It’s going to happen. 

But more importantly, I don’t believe that there is any reason why enterprise clients should stay away from cloud computing.  There are many enterprise-level cloud options out there.  And if the worry is that there will be too many pains associated with a large enterprise moving into the cloud, why don’t they opt for a full-service cloud, like those offered by managed service companies (such as BlueLock)?  Then they don’t have to worry about the resources, people and time it takes to migrate everything to the cloud, their service provider will do that for them. 

Interested in cloud computing Security?  Watch our newest online video featuring our client, Projetech as they share their perspective on the benefits of cloud computing as a way of insuring data security for them and their clients.  Projetech relies on BlueLocks VMware Hosted Environment to manage, monitor and secure their infrastructure .

Jaikumar Vijayan wrote an article yesterday in ComputerWorld on why IT security managers should be enabling cloud computing by learning how to manage risk rather than simply saying “no.”  The report that he refers to specifically was released by RSA, the security division of EMC Corp. 

The report says that the traditional enterprise network models are vanishing which means that many IT managers will need to understand the associated risks with cloud computing and learn how to manage them and help their companies realize the advantages of virtualization technologies that are continually proliferating. 

In my opinion, those professionals will be the people who will ultimately help provide a competitive advantage for their organization.  Understanding cloud computing risks will enable IT professionals to better decide which tasks should be sent to a public cloud or private cloud.  Cloud environments don’t have to be all or nothing, and I believe that many companies will find that a hybrid cloud approach will work best for them, putting their dollars to work for them most appropriately.  This means that an intricate knowledge (or an expert partner) in the cloud technologies will prove very vital in terms of understanding the specific risks involved with internal clouds and external clouds, what should go where and why. 

Will you be able to explain to your boss why your test-dev should go offsite and why you feel your production environment shouldn’t, or vice versa?  Those will be some of the many decisions that will need to be made, and security will play a huge role.  What type of security protocols does your provider follow?  What type of software and technology are they using to protect your data and environment?  Your knowledge on the internal side will also help you to better choose a qualified provider and will allow you to have more knowledgeable conversations proving for a better stronger relationship.

To read Vijayan’s summary of the report, including recommendations for what companies should do to enable cloud computing and other security-related cloud information click here.

I'm sure many of you have read about Verizon's new cloud computing offering that allows businesses to outsource their IT infrastructure (what some are now calling computing as a service 'CaaS') - what are your thoughts?  Will more telecom companies begin to offer cloud hosting and what kind of an impact will they make on the cloud market? 

Verizon is yet another telecom to jump on the cloud bandwagon - AT&T recently joined (last month) as well.

Verizon partnered with VMware for its data center virtualization services.  VMware is a BlueLock partner as well, and is a very reputable virtualization provider in the cloud space.

The Dow Jones, 30 stocks which represent a cross section of American business has a few new players this week.  Managed by the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, it is considered one of the best metrics for the US Stock Market., and it now includes Cisco Systems.  In what is clearly a changing of the guard, they are replacing General Motors, which was dropped after filing for bankruptcy this morning. Travelers Insurance also replaced struggling Citigroup.

Will this be the last of the changes?  I doubt it.   Although it takes a long time to earn a spot on this prestigious list, it is only natural that as more of our economy becomes based on technology and the internet, I expect we will see more changes more in the make up of the Dow Jones.  In the not to distant future, it is possible we will see software-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service based companies joining the Dow as well.

In many communities, “outsourcing" brings up images of American jobs being sent overseas, but according to a recent study by KPMG, Indianapolis is one of two American cities well positioned to profit from outsourcing.  The report outlines several key drivers, which give Indianapolis a competitive advantage in a global marketplace including:

• A number of reputed universities located around Indianapolis offer courses in information technology, creating a ready talent pool for the IT-BPO industry
• The city offers a variety of incentives to the IT-BPO industry. In a 2008 study, KPMG has ranked it the city with the third most cost effective tax structure
• Most  centrally located among the top 100 markets in the US, giving it access to talent from other cities
• Well developed infrastructure including power, telecom, roads and a good quality of life for its residents
• The city is suited to leverage the outsourcing potential in the life sciences industry, due to presence of a large number of life sciences companies in the region
• Companies locating in Indianapolis have the benefit of onshore operations combined with lower costs compared with other IT centers in the US, especially the Silicon Valley area.

While the results of the report may have surprised some people, those of us in the technology community here in Indianapolis are simply pleased to finally begin getting the recognition we deserve. 

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A recent article by Paul Korzeniowski called "Cloud Computing Needs Time to Establish Order" addresses his thoughts on the infancy of cloud computing and how that impacts the growing market, specifically the SMB market.

Korzeniowski argues that while several groups are emerging to set standards in the cloud industry and help to bring it to maturity, SMBs face options of limited functionality in the short term.  (This post argues otherwise)

He states, “One irony with new information technologies is that vendors focus first on deploying them and only later on figuring out how to manage them. That’s the scenario unfolding with cloud computing.”

Yes, many startup vendors are jumping on the cloud bandwagon trying to figure out how they can get a piece of the pie, but not all of them are having trouble figuring out how to manage the technologies.  At BlueLock, we’ve been using virtualization technology for over two years to create solutions for our SMB clients – those same clients that Korzeniowski feels have limited options.  Over 25% of our clients fit into the SMB profile, and each and every one of them find value in BlueLock’s virtual cloud environment – they’ve cut IT costs almost in half while no longer having to worry about managing and monitoring their IT environments -- because BlueLock’s experts take care of all of that for them.  This frees up the companys’ valuable time to focus on their core business – driving growth and innovation. 

Korzeniowski believes that the management factor for cloud computing lies in the hands of these ad hoc “standards making groups” such as the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) and the Cloud Security Alliance. I would argue that while these groups are doing all they can to set standards in this youthful market, they are by no means the only people worried about cloud computing “management.”  These groups will take a couple years to come to any standards agreements, and more time will be taken for vendors to get up to speed with them, so in the meantime cloud computing providers such as BlueLock are working their butts off to solve the biggest management issue: making the clients happy. 

So far, I must say we’ve done a good job.  Our clients are saving time and money – in the cloud. Those SMB clients are among the clients who most benefit from a managed cloud computing solution.  They face rapid growth, have tight budgets to work with and normally need things done yesterday.  Well, we know the feeling and we also know that those clients are the ones we like because we can make them happy.  They have control, high availability, support and a partner that manages and monitors their IT infrastructure for them while they go do important things with their talented people.

I don’t see the “limited functionality” for SMBs that is spoken of in the article…maybe in Amazon’s cloud, but not in BlueLock’s.

In the last few months we have been working on a series of cloud computing case studies, documenting projects with clients like Wooden McLaughlin Law, WebLink and Marian College move some or their entire infrastructure to an environment comprised of virtual servers.  While each business and their applications presented unique challenges, there are several consistent themes which run through the cases studies: When they turn to BlueLock we worry about their infrastructure, so they don’t have to.  We manage the equipment, insure there is enough capacity available when they need it, configure the software, balance loads, and free them to work on their core product or service.

 In a recent post, Bob Warfield includes many of these same elements in his list of "10 Things You Don’t Need to Do In the Clouds."   His list includes:

1.    De-duping and backup;
2.    Server power consumption;
3.    Little iron vs. big iron ( what size server)
4.    MIPs ( how to make your system run faster)
5.    Bandwidth costs
6.    Load balancing;
7.    Hardware monitoring;
8.    Creating redundant data center;
9.    Configuring complex software;
10.  Engineering time spent on keeping the lights on.

While I am not sure I agree with his assessment that the cloud will completely replace traditional servers the way word processors and laser printers killed typewriters, liquid paper, and Linotype machines I do agree this business model will significantly reduce headaches for more and more companies in the years to come.

Over the last year, I have read a number of discussions about the advantages of cloud computing. While many of the discussions center on the ability to scale, manage costs, and the intrinsic disaster recovery aspects as the primary advantages of virtualization there are other benefits as well. 

One of the benefits often overlooked is the data portability and remote access.   Here are links to two articles with good overviews of the portability topic: 

• In January 2008 Benn Konsynski, a chaired professor of business administration for information systems and operations management at Emory University said:
  • One of the biggest advantages is that a user may no longer have to be tethered to a traditional computer to use an application, or have to buy a version that’s specifically configured for a phone, PDA [personal digital assistant] or other device. It’s likely that at some point any device that can access the Internet will be able to run a cloud-based application. Application services are available, independent of the user devices and network interfaces.
• In October of 2008, Brandon Wybenga argued the key advantage of cloud computing was not scalability, but portability.

As the discussion continues, how important is portability to your decision?

In a recent post by Jason Hiner on zdnet, Hiner examines the keynote at EMC World in Orlando by CEO Joe Tucci.  Here’s an overview of the virtual data center and cloud computing from “The Next Big Things in IT” according to EMC, with some BlueLock commentary.



Virtual Data center:
EMC believes in the future all servers will be virtualized servers – whether in the cloud or in a private virtual data center.  This is highly likely, although it’s going to be a long process.  While EMC believes 80 percent of workloads will remain in private corporate data centers, that doesn’t leave the cloud entirely out of the mix. 

Our VP of Sales and Marketing here at BlueLock talks a lot about the fact that people are going to become more knowledgeable about what data and workloads should go where – which will entail choosing different clouds for different purposes.  Some of those clouds will be internal and others will be external.  Good IT executives will do what makes the most business sense with their data and operations.  The economy is driving executives to make these decisions now we just have to enable them with the right technology.

Cloud Computing:
EMC is right, “cloud computing means different things to almost everyone who talks about it.”  When EMC talks about the cloud they’re referring to the backend infrastructure that runs the applications, but I love the definition they provide in regards to where they think cloud is going:

“…a future in which cloud computing represents the service providers’ data centers – completely virtualized and available to serve a variety of specialized applications on-demand.  It sees cloud computing data centers connected to private data centers via VMware so that virtualized server workloads can go back and forth between the two.”

Yep, we totally agree.  That’s what we’ve been experiencing (hint: Marian College video and case study).  BlueLock’s fully virtualized data center is a prime example of how this can work.  We build a “packaged data center” called the BlueLock Box that works as a mini private cloud for our clients, and use VMware to allow the BlueLock Box to talk to our BlueLock Cloud when clients need spillover or want to exchange workloads.  It’s the perfect solution for companies who want at least some of their stuff on premise.  In the future you’ll see a lot more of this with more clouds talking to each other and more options for clients.  They have their test-dev in Amazon, production at BlueLock and in-house data at their on-premise virtual data center.  It’s all about leveraging technology to make the most out of IT dollars.

 

In a recent article in InfoWorld, Zia Khan examines the hype on cloud computing.  He argues that while there may be more hype than reality for the enterprise sector, it’s not that way for smaller organizations (SMEs/SMBs).  Khan states:

“…but the SME and the organizations that are already strapped for cash, they really have no option other than the cloud.”

I think they have other options, but not if they want to stay competitive or even sometimes stay afloat in this economic climate.  Enterprises many times have the economies of scale to handle a DIY virtualization process…they’ve got the people and the bandwidth.  But startups, such as new software-as-a-service companies, don’t have the manpower to build their own infrastructure, manage it and have time to focus on their own core business processes, like updating their code and optimizing their products for the people who matter, their clients.  That’s when Infrastructure as a Service companies like BlueLock make perfect business sense.

The advantages of virtualization are endless, and for many small companies the route to virtualization is through a trusted hosting partner.  Rather than investing tons of capital in hardware, software and infrastructure people, SMBs can move their infrastructure to a virtual cloud, enabling them to focus on improving the features and functionality of their software to beat out the competition. For those companies who like the idea of having their own private cloud, we’ve got a solution for you too and we can link it up to spill over to our cloud if necessary to give you even more bandwidth to work with.

I’ll wrap this up with one more quote from Mr. Zia Khan:

“One thing is for certain – in times of an economic downturn, cloud computing is ideal – it will just take a while for companies to get there.”

Let’s just hope your competition doesn’t get there first.

As the need for consistent interoperability continues to grow, BlueLock is committed to adding resources, and investigating products and services which will offer our clients secure, reliable, scalable and flexible environments. 

One of our newest employees Terry Stutzman, joins BlueLock as a Certified Project Manager and will direct his attention to refining BlueLock’s processes and systems with particular emphasis on expanding the vital interoperability between sales, client services and operations.  As Technical Operations Manager he will also work to optimize security processes and offerings. With significant IT experience in the banking industry, he is well-positioned to handle the high security requirements of our clients and our own internal systems. 

More about Terry

Last fall, the majority of conversations in the cloud computing space centered on security, as CIO’s wondered if this emerging platform would really provide enough security for their needs. This spring the conversation seems to have shifted to interoperability and portability. It seems more and more business leaders are becoming comfortable with the idea that some or all of their data will be "in the clouds".  The questions now center on insuring that various clouds can be connected, allowing managers to move data from cloud to cloud.

In the third of a four part series on the subject of interoperability of cloud computing environments, James Urguat lists a number of groups who have sprung up that are all interested in addressing questions around interoperability and portability of cloud computing environments:

• Management of Virtualized Resources - DMTF
• Open Cloud Standards Incubator - DMTF
• SLAs at SOI 
• Compliance - Industry organizations (e.g. HIPAA, PCI)

As the various branches of the Federal government have begun investigating and adopting different “cloud computing” and cloud-like applications, they like the private sector have struggle with the definition of ‘what is cloud computing’.  To provide clarity and a common platform for discussion, a draft definition by Peter Mell and Tim Grance at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) was presented at a federal CIO summit last week. 


Cloud computing is a pay-per-use model for enabling available, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is comprised of five key characteristics, three delivery models, and four deployment models.

Key Characteristics:
On-demand self-service. A consumer can unilaterally provision computing capabilities, such as server time and network storage, as needed without requiring human interaction with each service’s provider.

Ubiquitous network access. Capabilities are available over the network and accessed through standard mechanisms that promote use by heterogeneous thin or thick client platforms (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, and PDAs).

Location independent resource pooling. The provider’s computing resources are pooled to serve all consumers using a multi-tenant model, with different physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to consumer demand. The customer generally has no control or knowledge over the exact location of the provided resources. Examples of resources include storage, processing, memory, network bandwidth, and virtual machines.

Rapid elasticity. Capabilities can be rapidly and elastically provisioned to quickly scale up and rapidly released to quickly scale down. To the consumer, the capabilities available for rent often appear to be infinite and can be purchased in any quantity at any time.

Pay per use. Capabilities are charged using a metered, fee-for-service, or advertising based billing model to promote optimization of resource use. Examples are measuring the storage, bandwidth, and computing resources consumed and charging for the number of active user accounts per month. Clouds within an organization accrue cost between business units and may or may not use actual currency.

Note: Cloud software takes full advantage of the cloud paradigm by being service oriented with a focus on statelessness, low coupling, modularity, and semantic interoperability.

Delivery Models:
Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure and accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a Web browser (e.g., web-based email). The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure, network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific application configuration settings.

Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created applications using programming languages and tools supported by the provider (e.g., java, python, .Net). The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure, network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but the consumer has control over the deployed applications and possibly application hosting environment configurations.

Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to rent processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, deployed applications, and possibly select networking components (e.g., firewalls, load balancers).

Deployment Models:
Private cloud. The cloud infrastructure is owned or leased by a single organization and is operated solely for that organization.

Community cloud. The cloud infrastructure is shared by several organizations and supports a specific community that has shared concerns (e.g., mission, security requirements, policy, and compliance considerations).

Public cloud. The cloud infrastructure is owned by an organization selling cloud services to the general public or to a large industry group.

Hybrid cloud. The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more clouds (internal, community, or public) that remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting).

Each deployment model instance has one of two types: internal or external. Internal clouds reside within an organizations network security perimeter and external clouds reside outside the same perimeter.

SearchSecurity.com just released an article about a recent Forrester report.  The report advises a cautious approach to cloud computing or cloud-based services.  The study found that early adopters ran into some roadblocks such as not knowing where their data is located or what happens to the data if they want to change services and even not knowing specifically how the service provider protects customer privacy.

Forrester advises that companies who are considering cloud-based services gain a clear understanding of security, privacy and legal consequences of contracting with a service provider.  At BlueLock, we like to make it as easy for you as possible to learn about our practices and procedures and match those up against other cloud computing providers.  In our opinion, the last thing we want is to have clients come in and sign on unaware of how their security, privacy and data will be handled.

In regards to security, Forrester recommends that organizations create a checklist of data security and compliance priorities.  This is great advice.  The more you can elaborate on your needs, the better able BlueLock is to provide you exactly what you need.

We’ve had lots of requests for highly compliant IT environments.  The beauty of cloud computing is that BlueLock is able to build your company a compliant environment at a fraction of the cost of building an entire IT system and infrastructure on your own.  Right On Interactive chose BlueLock as their SaaS hosting provider for that precise reason.  Their 5Buckets solution (integrated marketing automation software) needed to be highly compliant in order to be able to integrate with companies such as ExactTarget (email marketing) and SalesForce.com. 

They turned to BlueLock, laid out their needs and wants in regards to security and compliance, decided where they wanted their data stored (Indianapolis facility) and off BlueLock went designing a VMware virtualized IT environment.  They now pay for IT infrastructure as a monthly operational expense; their compliant and secure environment can scale on demand and its environment if fully managed by virtualization experts 24/7/365.  What more could a growing software company ask for?

In recent studies Gartner identified two trends which on the surface might seem at odds:

Gartner: IT spending in 2009 will be worse than 2001's decline

Business spending on cloud computing rises to $9.6 billion in 2009, up 22%

While overall spending is declining, as IT managers adjust their budgets in light of the current recession, cloud computing continues to grow.  Why?  I think there are several key drivers behind this trend. The first is the convergence of a maturing technology with a correlating market need.  Cloud computing offers significant cost savings at a time when IT managers are looking to reduce costs.   With major players like VMware continually improving their VMware Cloud (vCloud) with increased functionality, responsiveness and reliability makes the transition to infrastructure as a service a natural choice.  

The second factor is the dramatic increase of companies developing Software-as-a-Service products which require SaaS hosting solutions. While Salesforce.com led the way, we are seeing many other companies moving to the cloud.  For example, 5Buckets by Right On Interactive which integrates marketing applications and systems clients already have in place such as ExactTarget and Salesforce.com and WebLink connect a membership management software program (link to client sites or case studies) have chosen the BlueLock Cloud for their infrastructure so they are free to focus their time and resources on product development, not infrastructure management.   

And even as the economy continues to recover I believe smart IT managers, having seen the benefits of cloud computing, will continue to make this transition to fuel their growth and manager their costs.

A recent post by EDL Consulting comments on what kind of an edge the first movers in the web-based hosted software solutions will have in regards to the cloud computing market.  Will they have an edge or will they be swept up by larger companies with large existing client bases like Microsoft?

With the advantages of virtualization becoming more and more widely known, companies are jumping on the cloud bandwagon quickly.  Reuters has suggested that even those cloud companies that got on the bus early will still face fierce competition from larger companies that will come in later with huge databases of trusting customers.

While the post is focused on the Software as a Service aspect of cloud computing, I think that the discussion rings true among cloud computing hosting providers as well.  BlueLock has been doing infrastructure-as-a-service for two years now, before the big cloud boom hit.  Suffice it to say, we definitely feel that we were one of the first movers and shakers when it comes to managed cloud hosting, especially considering the fact that when we first started talking about the value of virtualization our prospects looked at us like we were crazy.  Crazy or not, BlueLock was built around the value of virtualizing IT infrastructure to shift capital expenses to a monthly operating expense that's a fraction of the cost (plus we could throw in virtual disaster recovery for almost a 3rd of what it would cost in a traditional model).  So maybe we were crazy, but the idea has caught on.

In terms of advantages and disadvantages of being a beginning mover and shaker in the cloud computing arena, we'd have to say that BlueLock has definitely found some advantages.  We've seen our competition try to add on cloud services to their traditional hosting services, and in many cases its a difficult transition.  How do you know what to tell your salespeople?  Sell cloud or sell traditional colocation?  The companies had worked for years building a business on traditional hosting services and then virtualization comes along and shakes everything up - its less expensive, there's more space and compute to work with at a fraction of the cost, etc etc.  Your margins and MRC start to decrease, but you need to keep up with the cloud competition.  Not only that, but you don't really specialize in virtualization, the traditional way was your thing.

Well at BlueLock, we started with virtualization and that's what our engineers specialize in so its a no brainer for us what we should sell and its a no brainer for us on how to provide the biggest bang for our prospect's buck.  As for the bigger companies cramping our style - the Rackspaces and GoGrid's of the world aren't really our direct competition anyway. 

We surely feel we've got an edge.