We rolled out v1.5 of FlexiScale earlier this year, and we’ve since quietly rolled out 1.6 & 1.7 with more improvements.  We will shortly be rolling out FlexiScale v2.0, which has a number of significant improvements to the existing system.  This will also be the first version of our software that we will be preparing as an option for people to license for people to build their own cloud platforms, and lets just say, watch this space in that respect!

We are really excited about it, and look forward to getting peoples opinions.

Some of the new features finally coming out in 2.0:

Image Uploading: Upload your own Xen images directly to the platform

Golden Images: One click conversion of any existing server of yours into a golden image which you can then deploy multiple times.

Image Cloning: Similar to Golden Images, but the ability to very easily clone an existing server on an ad-hoc basis.

API Calls: Significant additions to the API in terms of a lot of new calls you would need to integrate your own services into the platform.

New UI: Now this is something we are really excited about, the new UI is finally nearing completion, a clickable but non-live demo is available now at www.flexiscale.com/cpdemo.  No username or password required, just click on login and take a look!  Not only that but as the new UI is built on the public API, we will also be allowing you to download the sourcecode for the UI, so if you want to adapt it/build your own, it will give you a great head start.

VNC Console Access: That’s right, no more wondering why your machine won’t boot when all you did was reconfigure the network….  You will have direct VNC access into the console of the server, and be able to diagnose any problems with it remotely.

All of these are in the final stages of testing so will be coming out very soon.  We’re already busy planning more features as well, so if there is anything you would like to see us add, please let us know!

v2.0 is also an important step towards a number of new features, which I will write separate articles on very soon.

Until next time…

Tony

It’s that busy time of year again when all the holidays are over and its time to get stuck in again before Rudolph is biting at your bum!

Cloud Camp Scotland is shaping up to be another amazing “unconference” around Cloud Computing, its impact, benefits and future.

Register on line at http://cloudcamp-scotland2-09.eventbrite.com to join in, share ideas and hear some interesting points of view.

The venue allows great networking so come along and meet some FlexiScale staff, amongst many others,  whilst you drink some beer and scoff some pizza, (soft drinks will also be provided for those, poor soles like me,  who need to drive home or indeed chose not to imbibe!).

Please find below a detailed account of the issues experienced today.

• 12:32 we experienced a partial outage with our Flexiscale platform due to power issues at the Data centre, our automated recovery process kicked in and migrated all servers on the affected nodes to backup nodes and production for the affected servers was compromised for a few short minutes.
• 12:49 we experienced a complete outage of the Flexiscale platform, this was due to a double power failure at the Data centre.
• 13:05 Power was restored and by 13:15 the platform was recovered.

We have automatically recovered all servers that were running on Flexiscale prior to the outage.

Work has already begun on building multiple virtual platforms across geographically separated data centres, allowing us to automatically migrate server instances from data centre to data centre thus negating the risk of power outages.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused.

The only problem being Arnie though, is we are meant to be destroying Skynet, and from where I’m sitting, we’re building something almost as clever! (Better make sure we don’t let it start ordering it’s own hardware though)

FlexiScale v1.5 is a massive leap forward in scale, performance and speed compared to v1. We suffered from a number of scaling issues as we grew last year, so took the decision to replace a key part of the system that we had licensed in, with our own internally developed code.

As a result of this the new platform can scale significantly better, and faster. You can literally provision a server from scratch, start it, and be using it, in less than one minute. You can start server after server every few seconds, and in the future with the improvements we have planned, you will be able to start multiple servers every second!

As we have been concentrating on rebuilding the underlying software, we haven’t released any new features for a while, but now that the big upgrade is done, some of the things coming in the next few months:

A brand new shiny web interface (as we know how much you all hate love the current one.)

Integrated layer 4 & 7 load balancing using the ZXTM software from the very clever guys at Zeus.

Custom Image uploading (so you can upload your own server images)

Image Cloning & Templating (clone existing machines at the touch of a button, or API Call)

and….

Our second site, that’s right, in the next few months, we will be launching FlexiScale in our second datacentre, with plans afoot for more after that as we grow.

In summary, it’s been a tough ride dealing with the growing pains we experienced last year, and we are eternally greatful to our customers for the support we recieved. We ploughed on through it and accomplished what we wanted to, and we look forward to welcoming both old and new customers onto the new platform.

If anyone wants any more information, please do drop us an e-mail or give us a ring. We will also be at a variety of events in the next few months as well, generally with the word ‘Cloud’ in them, starting with the FoWA Tour in Cambridge and the Hosting Transformation Summit (both tomorrow).

See you soon!

Tony Lucas

The latest version of the FlexiScale platform sees a more stable, faster system with new servers starting up in seconds allowing you to create multiple servers within minutes. The new pricing structure introduced a 50% reduction in server running fees – so now you can create your servers quickly and run them cheaply when you need them.
The website has been redesigned to reflect these changes and now includes an online demo to allow you to see just how easy it is to create and start a server on FlexiScale.
Watch this space for the release of Managed FlexiScale – coming soon.

The team are currently working on releasing the newly designed and updated site for launch mid May 2009.  The launch of the new site will coincide with new pricing for FlexiScale, and promote the newly architectured FlexiScale platform v1.5.

FlexiScale continues to support and sponsor CoudCamp events in the UK & Europe – www.cloudcamp.com

Jacqui Petrie

FlexiScale Sales Manager

MARCH

The actions kicks off this month  on 11th March with a Cloud Computing webinar from ZSL & Canonical closely followed by  CloudCamp London on 12th March.  In Scotland things start to warm up with BarCamp 09 in Edinburgh on 14th March.  Then we pop over to Cloudcamp Cologne on 19th March, before then heading back for CloudCamp NE in Newcastle on 24th March and our first Scottish CloudCamp in Edinburgh on 25th March.  Also on 24th March Edinburgh e-Science Institute  have a a seminar on Cloud Based Services as part of their week long snappily entitled  – The Influence and Impact of Web 2.0 on e-Research, Infrastructure, Applications and Users! (feels like I should  write a 2000 word essay response to that!)

APRIL

We then jump across the pond for Cloud Computing Expo and CCIF in NYC in early April before CloudCamp is back in  Europe with CloudCamp Amsterdam on 2nd April and CloudCamp Antwerp on 9th April.

April 28th – 30th sees us back in London for the IET Cloud Computing Conference and then there’s a gap after that of a full two weeks … have we missed something?? Let us know.

MAY

After that short breather it’s off to WebTech Exchange in London on 14th & 15th May and for Cloud Expo Europe on 20th & 21st May,

JUNE

Its then a whole month before we hit Velocity in San Jose, California on 22nd  – 24th June.  Still in US we head for San Francisco and Structure 09 on 25th June.

JULY looks like everyone has gone on holiday – nothing in the calendar?

AUGUST

It all gets going again from 10th – 12th  August with HostingCon 2009 in Washington, DC.

So, that’s where we will be, where will you be and do you know of an event we should be talking at?  Let us know.

]]> http://blog.flexiscale.com/2009/03/03/cloud-computing-events-2009/feed/ 4 flexiscale http://blog.flexiscale.com/2008/10/16/flexiscale-is-hosting-myspace-uk-competition/ http://blog.flexiscale.com/2008/10/16/flexiscale-is-hosting-myspace-uk-competition/#comments Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:23:57 +0000 flexiscale http://flexiscale.wordpress.com/?p=57 ]]> MySpace UK has chosen FlexiScale to host the apps for developers who enter its competition to design what it calls ‘the next big idea in sustainable sociability’. What it means by that is the next app that lasts months rather than minutes with the fickle audiences (myself included) who populate social sites like MySpace and Facebook. Sun Startup Essentials are also part of this ‘ecosystem’ for application development, so we’re in good company.

The competition is a call to developers, whether budding or established, to create the ultimate MySpace application and an expert judging panel will rate the entries by how well they enhance user-to-user interaction on social networks. Using the MySpace Developer Platform the developer community will have the chance to put their ideas into practice (the wilder the better) using the new tools and services available on the site. FlexiScale has been chosen to host this as a way of lowering the barrier to entry for those wanting to get involved, so we’ll be hosting these apps for free.

In addition to the competition MySpace will be hosting regional developer conferences where programmers can network and learn from each other, hopefully getting a bit of inspiration along the way. There will also be some local events like a London Code and Coffee Club.

If you want to enter the competition you can do so from 1 November 2008 – full details here.

CloudCamp Brussels – Thursday 30 October 2008 - info at www.cloudcamp.com/brussels

The event consists of three main parts:

• Keynotes & lightning talks: this is mainly the visionary and technology part of the event. Cloud evangelists and technology/visionary representatives give their view on Cloud Computing.
• Unconference: attendees split up in smaller groups to discuss topics of their specific interest.
• Networking

This is a community event. Please propose talks you would like to give, talks you would like to hear, discussions you would like to lead, or would like to participate in. You can email your suggestions to tom.leyden – at – q-layer.com.

Place to be:

Given its international character, its central location and the ease of access, we thought Brussels would be a nice location to host the first mainland European CloudCamp. The Event will be on a boat: Biouel has been converted into a  most flexible location for seminars like CloudCamp. For the event we will have the entire boat at our disposal, meaning that we have the upper deck for the networking part of the event and the lower deck for the presentations. The latter is fully equipped with 120 seats, a large screen & projector, and sound equipment.

The Biouel boat is moored at the “Quai des Matériaux – Materialenkaai” in Brussels, near Sainctelette. For more information on how to access the location, click here.

Program:

(subject to changes, depending on sponsors)

4.00 pm    Welcome & drink
4.30 pm    Keynote: The Shi(f)t is Happening! (Tarry Singh, Technology Evangelist)
5.00 pm    Keynote “Visionary” panel (Q-layer – Salesforce.com – Flexiscale – iTricity)
5:30 pm    Sponsor Lightning Talk 1: Aserver – Cloud Computing for Service Providers
5:35 pm    Sponsor Lightning Talk 2: TBD
5:40 pm    Sponsor Lightning Talk 3: TBD
5.45 pm    Round up Part 1 & Powerbreak

6.00 pm    Unconference:

Attendees split up in smaller groups to discuss topics of their specific interest, moderated by volunteers.

Discussion Groups:

Cloud Computing opportunities for XSP’s    Moderated by Aserver
Cloud Computing & Open Source                Moderated by Profoss

More to be added …

7.00 pm    Closing Evangelist Talk (Tarry Singh, Technology Evangelist)

Networking

Organization & contact:
Media
Christine Gupta (cgupta(at)xcalibre.co.uk)

Program
Tarry Singh (tarry.singh(at)gmail.com)

Logistics, sponsorship
Tom Leyden (tom.leyden(at)q-layer.com)

A show like FOWA is hard work, but those people at Carsonified also ensure that you play hard and we certainly did our best at the Fox parties and Sun’s late night shenanigans. Certain of our party didn’t get back to the hotel until after 4.00am and one was even woken by the chambermaid next morning. Still, it can’t be all work and no play.

DaGoaty took some good snaps before things got pear-shaped, so you can check them out here. 

Mrsboogie