Over the past two years, BlueLock and Apparatus have built a strong and dynamic partnership with their complimentary virtualization and data center expertise.  By joining forces, the teams are able to work together to wrap services around BlueLock's cloud hosting solutions to better serve clients.

Due to our great success together, VMware asked BlueLock (a VMware Hosting Provider) and Apparatus, to take the stage during the keynote session at this year's VMware Partner Exchange to share our story in front of 2500 conference attendees. The VMware Partner Exchange is an annual partner conference dedicated to educating and enabling partners for success with VMware. 

Brian Wolff, VP of Sales at BlueLock and Casey Watson, Chief Evangelist at Apparatus went on stage and showed the virtualization community at the Las Vegas conference what Indiana's technology Community is all about - innovation, trust and execution.  That's right, Indianapolis is a virtualization hot-bed.

In my last post, I tackled tips 1-5.  This week I’d like to take a look at the next five tips Adam Stone referred to in regards to "Making sense of the cloud: 15 tips for software CEOs" and provide you with the BlueLock perspective on what companies looking to migrate to cloud computing should be thinking about.

Tip #6:  To Avoid vendor Lock-in, stick to open standards. 
This one makes a lot of sense to me – in the end, you need to make sure that whatever you put in the cloud you can get back easily and intact.  While some may argue that deploying VMware technology locks you into VMware’s virtualization platform, I would argue that VMware is the defacto standard for virtualization technology for the enterprise, by virtue of their large market share.  Deploying VMware gives clients a lot of flexibility to move that server to another VMware host if they wish to move.  We even have cases where companies wish to protect themselves from something happening to BlueLock as a cloud provider.  In that instance, we’re replicating the entire virtual machines to a neutral third party, Iron Mountain.  If a triggering event were to occur, the company simply contacts Iron Mountain and receives immediate access to the virtual machines, which can immediately be loaded on servers running VMware.  That’s just one straight-forward example of how “portable” the environment is as a result of running in a VM ware-based virtualization platform.

Tip #7:  Location, Location, Location. 
Yes, indeed, it’s difficult to bend the laws of physics and the speed of light.  This tip talks about two real issues – the first is latency and the second deals with the laws that govern the location where the data center sits, in both cases, BlueLock has engineered solutions to address our client’s specific challenges.   We have clients that need to have the data closer to them than our data centers in Indianapolis, IN or in Salt Lake City, UT for speed or data privacy issues.  For these clients, we introduced our version of a private data center called The BlueLock Box in October 2007.  This private cloud solution entails installing an HP C3000 blade chassis with redundant SAN shelves behind the client’s firewall.  This solution provides them with the same benefits of BlueLock’s public cloud such as fault tolerance and scalability, but puts the data closer to them for speed and/or privacy issues. 

Tip #8:  Consider using a middleman. 
I agree with Adam – there is a huge opportunity for cloud brokers or companies that have expertise in helping clients make thoughtful decisions about what can and/or should go into the cloud and then to actually help architect and deliver the cloud solution.  We’ve worked closely with several partners who have trusted advisor relationships with large fortune 1000 clients that have chosen BlueLock as their cloud solution.  In fact, we’ve been asked to present next week in VMware’s Partner Exchange keynote on the topic of how partners can work with a cloud providers to deliver real value to their clients.  I will be sharing the stage with Carl Eschenbach, EVP of Worldwide Field Operations and Casey Watson, VP Business Development for Apparatus to talk about how BlueLock and Apparatus have built a sizable business delivering cloud integration services for large clients.

Tip #9:  Monitoring uptime isn’t enough, you need an action plan. 
We couldn’t agree more with Adam on this point.  From day one, we’ve had a resolution-based 99.99% uptime SLA in place for our clients.  This means that not only will we respond quickly to the issue, but we’ll promise resolution of that issue.  On top of that, we’ve also patented a portal that we call “the VITAL signs portal” that provides our clients with an overall view of the health of their environment, as well as an ability to drill into each aspect of their environment, to see what’s actually happening.  Finally, we have also built capabilities in the portal to send alerts and alarms when something goes wrong or when the environment has reached a pre-determined limit on things like CPU, RAM and storage.   If those measures aren’t enough, we’ve also built tailored metrics for some clients that wish to monitor additional key metrics in their environment.

Tip #10:  A clause may look good in the contract, but be useless in the real World.  Adam’s tip in this area covered a “useless” escrow agreement.  In tip number six, I shared how we’ve put an escrow agreement in place that can be tested and actually works.  Having said that, I agree that empty legal promises are not the way to make sure you’re protected.  Testing the system is the best way to insure what’s being set aside actually works.  In addition to the escrow agreement, we also have numerous disaster recovery clients that have performed successful tests of our geographic failover disaster recovery service.  In the end, you want the “promise” in writing, but then you want to do a test to make sure it performs as expected.  Reminds me of an old Reaganism – “trust but verify”.

Next week, I’ll take us down the homestretch and walk through the final five tips for migrating successfully to the cloud. 

Tip #11:  Set financial penalties for downtime
Tip #12:  It takes time to see ROI on SaaS development
Tip #13:  Savings are not in the cloud, but in headcount
Tip #14:  Follow the cloud into new markets
Tip #15:  Let the cloud lead you to new innovations

If you'd like to read the original post by Adam Stone, go here.

  Support - Done Well

The word 'support' has become cringe-worthy, much like 'Vista' or 'Millennium Edition.' Opinions seem to fall on one side or the other of a distinct dividing line - no vendor's 'support' is merely adequate these days. It's either phenomenal or terrible.

It's crazy to think that vendors strive for an utter lack of excellence. Still, many end users report just such an attitude in their communications with support personnel. Too often, customer support calls are considered unavoidable nuisances in an otherwise productive day. Of course, no one would ever admit they feel that way. But the attitude is pervasive, and it is all too easy for customers to detect, whether in voice inflection during phone calls or while reading hastily prepared e-mail responses. Worse still is getting no response at all.

BlueLock works very diligently to avoid falling into that trap. Working the front lines for a VMware hosting provider is a unique opportunity. Customers can contact us via e-mail or by telephone and all sorts of queries come in which keeps things interesting. Much of our work is generated automatically by our monitoring system. It's important for BlueLock Support personnel to be able to juggle several roles each day and we employ several tools that make it easier to provide top-level service. 

Don't Hesitate, Educate!

We understand that Cloud Computing is a fairly new concept, so one of the primary roles that we perform on the support desk is education. It takes time to become familiar with virtual servers, online disk expansions, and balloon drivers. At BlueLock, we can help make such concepts more clear - and it's as easy as calling the Support Desk.

The most popular topic for education at the BlueLock Support Desk is snapshots. Proper use of snapshots can make an administrator's job much easier. In a nutshell, each virtual machine on our environment is comprised of a file - that's right, the entire server is essentially a file running on a host system. Snapshots serve basically as restore points for those files. This is useful mainly when making major configuration changes or installing new software. When a snapshot is created, what really happens is that a 'change file' is generated. All subsequents changes to the virtual server are written to the change file. When testing is complete, the snapshot must be either committed or reverted. Committing the snapshot merges it with the original server file. This happens on the fly with no interruptions to service. Reverting essentially destroys the change file and returns the server to its state before the snapshot was taken.

The primary drawback of snapshots is that they tend to grow very quickly. Thus, BlueLock has a retention policy of 24-48 hours during which the snapshot must be committed or reverted.

VMware virtual servers are unique entities, especially when backing them up. Backups at BlueLock work much differently than with standard, physical hardware. We perform a combination of snapshots, disk-to-disk and tape backups to protect customer data. The current system is complex enough for its own blog posting, so I'll cover that in more detail at a later date.

So what is enterprise cloud computing?  How is it so different from (regular) cloud computing?

Jill Tummler Singer explains that enterprise cloud computing is "a behind-the-firewalls use of commercial, Internet-based cloud technologies specifically focused on one company’s or one business environment’s computing needs." 

It's a "a controlled, internal place that offers the rapid and flexible provisioning of compute power, storage, software, and security services to meet your mission’s demands.  It combines the processes of a best in class ITIL organization with the agility of managed, global infrastructure to make your IT faster, better, cheaper, and safer. Enterprise cloud computing gives your business agility, survivability, sustainability, and security."

Many enterprises with highly secure data and strict up-time and performance needs feel that cloud computing is out of the question.  Most of these companies questioning the abilities of cloud computing services are companies in the government, life sciences and financial services industries.  Enterprise cloud computing is the answer for them.  They need tailored, dedicated high performance environments to provide the benefits of cloud computing with the security and assurance of enterprise-class platforms.

BlueLock is a top VMware hosting provider - we use proven enterprise-class VMware virtualization technology to serve our clients no matter what industry or need level, but we are able to tailor and architect high performance, secure and compliant cloud computing environments specifically for our enterprise-level clients.  BlueLock has been extremely successful serving clients in the government, life sciences and financial services, helping them to realize the advantages of cloud computing.

To learn more about BlueLock's enterprise cloud computing services contact us here.

I love my job. As a client specialist at BlueLock, I get to spend the majority of my time working with the innovative companies that are producing the products and services of the future and, at the same time, pushing the limits of cloud computing hosting.

In all of my conversations with BlueLock clients, one thing is clear:

There is massive demand for a cloud computing platform, specifically for testing and development, that is cost-effective and integrates well with production environments.

Many businesses have data and processing that doesn't require a fully-managed cloud hosting service at four nines (99.99%) uptime.

Some companies offer services that seem like they could be a good answer for this problem. IBM recently released Smart Business Development and Test on the IBM Cloud, which seems like it might be a competitor of Amazon's EC2 cloud computing platform.

The problem with some of these test/dev clouds is that they can't support VMware hosted environments. This means that, with test/dev clouds like EC2 and IBM's new offering, a company that is running their production environment on VMware can't necessarily integrate their test and production environments seamlessly -- an important consideration when doing a cloud computing comparison.

Enter vCloud Express...

One of the cool tools that the BlueLock engineers are tinkering with is a VMware-based, pay-as-you-go option that will be ideal for companies that need an environment that is dedicated to test and development. We announced vCloud Express back at the start of September, and since then, have received an overwhelming number of signups for the beta-version. In fact, we acually completely filled up all of the beta test slots!

I'm excited for the public launch of BlueLock's vCloud Express, because we'll be able to offer clients the perfect solution for their test/dev needs. Until then, I'll keep you posted as we continue to progress. 

In order to continue the conversation about getting started in the cloud, let’s move on to step number two: comparing cloud computing vendors (to determine which best fits your needs based on the infrastructure and expertise inventory you took).

Getting Ready to Compare Cloud Computing Providers:
After looking into the amount of IT infrastructure you currently house and run as well as the people and expertise you need to manage it you should have a pretty good idea of what it takes to keep your company up and running.  From there you need to decide what kind of cloud computing solution you’re looking to use.  Is it something simple like an additional software-as-a-service account?  Or are you hoping to use PaaS to access some infrastructure?  Or better yet, does your company want to outsource its entire infrastructure to the cloud?

There are many options when it comes to “moving to the cloud.”  For this post we’ll focus on the migration to an infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud.  One easy first step is test and development.  This is a low-risk way to test out cloud providers and their capabilities while also making a decision around the type of infrastructure you prefer.  Do you want enterprise-level VMware hosting or is Amazon EC2 for you?  Do you want to be able to migrate between clouds and providers and if so, what might that look like and what additional platforms would that require?

While engaging in a test/dev environment, developers should focus on testing their application’s functions, performance and scalability.  Keep in mind that most applications can be tested in a public cloud, but that some for technical or cultural reasons should be kept in-house, unless you are able to secure the type of SLA that would allow you to migrate those “special” applications.

Now let’s say that you’re ready to make that infrastructure move to the cloud (sometimes this may mean you skip the whole test/dev show).  There are four main items to consider when comparing cloud computing vendors.


The SLA is the most important item you need to compare vendors against.  If you have sensitive data or applications that require high uptime capabilities, you would be wasting your time to look at any vendor with and SLA below 99.99%. But if you just need a test and development environment it wouldn’t make sense to pay the premium for such high availability (higher availability = higher price).  Find out your uptime needs and then locate the vendors who offer the SLA you need.

Technical offerings are the next determining factor.  Depending on which kind of infrastructure you prefer (if you have a preference) you would need to figure out which providers use which technologies.  For instance, do you need enterprise-level VMware hosting technology or does your organization want to use something more along the lines of Microsoft Hyper-V?  If you have a preference work around that, and if not, let’s move straight to #3 – Control.

How much control do you want of the infrastructure?  Do you have your own people to manage your infrastructure or are you on a hiring freeze and need your cloud provider to manage the infrastructure.  There are a number of options in the cloud – some vendors provide managed cloud hosting services (like BlueLock) and others just provide the infrastructure while you manage it.  Whatever your preference, there is a vendor for you.

Lastly, and most obviously – once you’ve compiled a list of vendors who provide the SLA, technical specs, and right amount of control, you’re left to look at pricing.  By now, you may only have a couple cloud vendors left, but you should be in a great place to compare and make the right choice.

While at VMworld 2009, we took some time to talk with some of our cloud computing partners such as Intel, F5 and Shavlik.  As a VMware hosting provider, it was great to attend such an amazing conference focused on VMware virtualization technology and the advancements VMware and their partners are making in the virtualization and cloud computing realm.  Watch this video to hear some words from our partners at the event.

Rick Vanover ran a very interesting post on TechRepublic regarding the key differences between Amazon EC2 and VMware’s vCloud Express, which BlueLock, a VMware hosting provider, is participating in.  vCloud Express was publicly launched at VMworld 2009 in San Francisco.  BlueLock and four other cloud computing providers where chosen as launch partners to provide the new cloud computing platform.

Amazon EC2 is based on Citrix XenServer technology and VMware’s cloud offering is targeted directly at Amazon.  vCloud Express is obviously based on VMware virtualization technology as well as their vCloud API.

Snapshot of the differences between pricing and offerings:

I’m a little confused why he closes his post by saying that AWS is currently the winner.  Based on what he’s stated above about the offerings, I would say it seems as though VMware’s vCloud Express is the winner.  Ah, because its beta and there are still a few limitations here and there.  Watch out Amazon, vCloud Express could give you a run for your money when it graduates from beta status.

To learn more about vCloud Express, click here.

To read Vanover’s full post, click here.

North Carolina based Consonus announced a cloud computing solution designed for businesses that have rigorous uptime requirements but don’t have the capital or time to build additional capacity themselves.  The Consonus Virtual Infrastructure Service (VIS) is hosted and managed in a fully-redundant and secure SAS 70 Type II data center and features an integrated disaster recovery solution.  Data center and managed service provider Consonus has partnered with Infrastructure-as-a-service provider BlueLock to offer the new VIS program.


BlueLock has been providing infrastructure as a service as a VMware hosting partner since 2006.  We're very excited to work with Consonus and help them add on to their service portfolio.

Sourcefire, Inc., a leader in Cybersecurity, recently announced its Virtual 3D Partner Program, providing cloud computing companies and OEMs the ability to leverage the new Sourcefire Virtual 3D Sensor™ and Sourcefire Virtual Defense Center™ to efficiently and effectively increase customer protection.

The Sourcefire® Virtual 3D Partner Program is designed to provide hardware, software and services companies with virtual security solutions to address their customer’s critical requirements. The company is currently forging relationships with:

• Cloud computing companies – Providing these companies with the ability to easily add a virtual security sensor into their existing cloud, allowing the vendor to monitor and manage the appliance to protect customer information residing in the cloud.
• Virtual OEMs – Enabling companies that are already delivering virtual solutions or hardware with additional processing ability to add Sourcefire’s complementary security capabilities.
• Traditional channel partners – Allowing them to easily add a Sourcefire virtual security appliance, pre-loaded onto an existing server from other vendors.

“We’re very excited about the capabilities of Sourcefire’s new Virtual 3D Sensor and their Virtual 3D Partner Program,” said Pat O'Day, Chief Technology Officer at BlueLock. “Sourcefire is making it very easy to integrate their security technology into our cloud-based offerings and provide our clients with an additional level of protection for their hosted VMware applications.”

The Sourcefire Virtual 3D Partners can utilize the recently announced Virtual 3D Sensor and Virtual Defense Center, which provide users with the flexibility to deploy the company’s leading security solutions within their virtual environments for increased protection of both physical and virtual assets. These new virtual appliances can inspect traffic between virtual machines, while also making it easier to deploy and manage sensors at remote sites where resource may be limited. They also enable partners to easily implement Sourcefire’s leading security solutions on existing customer hardware or within a cloud infrastructure for increased protection.

“While security is a top concern for every organization, many require solutions that can be placed on existing hardware or in the cloud,” said Matt McCormick, Vice President of Business Development at Sourcefire. “With the launch of Sourcefire’s new Virtual 3D Sensor and Virtual Defense Center, we are enabling partners to easily provide customers with value-added protection without requiring new hardware investments.”

To read other BlueLock posts on cloud security click here.

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 .

Some organizations will never be comfortable moving their data centers “outside”. That does not mean they will be unable to leverage the benefits of Cloud Computing. For large companies with significant computing power, a transition to a private Cloud, which is hosted in house is an extremely viable alternative. As described here, Seimens made just that decision by integrating VMware into their internal system. As a VMware partner, we think they made a good choice.

As experienced Cloud Computing experts, the team at BlueLock work with companies, helping them select the best alternative; internal, external or hybrid Cloud. If they choose to create an internal or private Cloud, we will advise them on how to construct and manage their Cloud.