On Thursday, a report from tech site GigaOM signaled that both Microsoft and Google were readying cloud services similar to Amazon’s Elastic Compute, a solution that provides web-scaling to application developers.

Both companies have long held cloud investments, but the addition of new services related to web development could signal larger competition with Amazon Web Services.

GigaOM’s report pointed out that Microsoft would announce the specifics of its service in San Francisco early next month when introducing its cloud-based Windows Azure offering. Meanwhile, the same article indicated that Google’s was slated for introduction sometime later this year.

While it’s not quite the space race, it does show a larger push to cater to developers in the area of cloud infrastructure. Google currently offers a cloud-based service that lets developers deploy their applications while Microsoft’s Sky Drive allows for personal cloud storage across a number of devices.

Currently, Amazon Web Services appears to dominate the cloud as in terms of the developer market. Earlier this month, the company announced its first annual conference for AWS titled “AWS re: Invent.” Set to be held in late November, the event will bring together developers to discuss the company’s initiatives with AWS engineers and other employees

Report: Google & Microsoft Ready Cloud Services for Developers

Genious launched in 2003 and is the only ICANN accredited hosting provider in North Africa. Like many hosts, Genious chose OnApp Cloud to evolve from traditional dedicated servers and bring more flexible, scalable cloud services to its customers, with lower costs. With OnApp, Genious has already reduced customer costs by 30% while improving its own margins.

In a video and article released today by OnApp, Hamza Aboulfeth, founder and CEO of Genious, describes his experience of moving to the cloud with OnApp, and the particular challenges of the Moroccan hosting market.

“OnApp definitely answered our needs, because we had a large number of dedicated customers, and we were making a small margin on every client,” he says. “The margins for our dedicated server business were just too tight for the price points expected in our market.”

“Moving to OnApp meant we could immediately decommission 60 or 70 dedicated servers,” he explains. “The thing that makes our clients willing to give it a try is they are actually paying less… they have high availability, high scalability, and the most important thing is they pay less.”

Genious hosts numerous high-profile websites including www.hespress.com, one of Moroccos’s largest newspapers, and www.hmizate.ma, Morocco’s leading coupons site. With new cloud and CDN services in French, Arabic and English, Genious aims to expand into Beirut, Algeria, Tunisia, and to become the leading Arabic cloud provider.

WHAT: Video – Genious brings the cloud to Morocco with OnApp

WHO: Hamza Aboulfeth, CEO of Genious Communications

WHEN: 17 May 2012

VIDEO: http://vimeo.com/41915740

ARTICLE: http://onapp.com/files/case-studies/onapp-genious-case-study.pdf

About OnApp

OnApp software powers cloud, CDN and storage services for companies all over the world. OnApp products include OnApp Cloud, the leading cloud platform for hosts and service providers; OnApp CDN, a unique federated CDN platform for service providers; and OnApp Storage, a low-cost, high performance distributed SAN for cloud environments.

OnApp launched in July 2010, has more than 110 staff across the EU, U.S. and Asia-Pacific, and can be found online at www.onapp.com.

Genious Brings the Cloud to Morocco with OnApp

Key Highlights:

• QTS announces the upcoming construction of solar power installation at its Richmond and Atlanta Data Centers.
• Anticipated solar power improvements will provide a full megawatt of power generation capacity, in line with QTS’ environmental initiatives.
• QTS pledges another year of participation with the Environmental Defense Fund Climate Corps Program.

QTS (Quality Technology Services), one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing providers of data center facilities and managed services, announced the construction of new solar power installations at its Richmond and Atlanta Metro Data Centers. When fully operational, the two projects will provide a total of one megawatt of power generation capacity to the sites, increasing energy efficiency and reducing environmental impact. QTS’ commitment to solar technology comes on the heels of its recent efforts to reduce the company’s carbon footprint through its Green Program.

The developments were announced yesterday by QTS’ chief technology officer Brian Johnston at Uptime Institute Symposium in Santa Clara, Calif., where he participated in an Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) panel discussion alongside executives from Yahoo! and Cisco Systems. At the event, Johnston also shared the news of QTS’ $10 million, multi-year energy efficiency investment.

“QTS is an enthusiastic proponent of solar energy’s ability to provide supplemental power to data centers,” said Johnston. “These developments are yet another step that the company is taking in furthering our multi-faceted QTS Green Program, an ongoing quest be an industry leader in reducing data center carbon footprints. Additionally, we will continue to strive for Leadership in Energy Efficiency and Design (LEED) certification across our data center portfolio to achieve greater efficiencies and reduce the company’s environmental impact.”

QTS also announced its commitment to another year of participation in the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Climate Corps Program, a summer fellowship program that places specially-trained MBA and MPA students in organizations to help drive energy efficiency.

About QTS

QTS (Quality Technology Services) is a leading national provider of data center solutions and fully managed services for enterprise businesses. The company offers a complete, unique portfolio of core data center services, including custom data center, colocation and cloud services, providing the flexibility, scale and security needed to support the rapidly evolving infrastructure demands of web and IT applications. QTS owns, operates and manages more than 3 million square feet of secure, state-of-the-art data center infrastructure and supports more than 700 customers. For more information about QTS, please visit http://www.qualitytech.com or call toll-free 877.QTS.DATA or follow us on Twitter @DataCenters_QTS.

QTS Commits to Data Center Solar Power

TechCrunch Disrupt product sponsor Domain.com challenges event attendees to take their next great idea and name it, build it, and host it at Domain.com. Event attendees should stop by the Startup 411 section to learn how Domain.com’s name generation and powerful website tools make it simple to create their website and execute their vision.

Also celebrating the launches of companies participating in the Disrupt Battlefield startup competition, Domain.com will be giving away free and discounted domain names, fresh Domain.com t-shirts for weary coders, and pounds of candy for sustenance.

“People think there are only a few choices when it comes to domain names and web hosting. The fact is Domain.com has been around since 2000, and we’re one of the largest domain and web hosting companies in the world,” said David Andrews, Marketing Director for Domain.com. “We don’t act like a big company though. Contact us on Twitter @domaindotcom and you’ll see how we love helping people launch their great ideas.”

This weekend’s Hackathon is followed by the three day TechCrunch Disrupt event which pins the world’s best new startups against each other for the opportunity to win the Disrupt Cup and a $50,000 prize. Tech luminaries including rapper turned investor MC Hammer will select the winner.

For those who won’t be in New York to visit TechCrunch firsthand, it’s still possible to participate. On Twitter, tell @domaindotcom using hashtag #TCDisrupt why you deserve a TechCrunch shout-out. Tweets will show up on Domain.com’s custom Twitter decoder bracelet, and every hour during the event, Domain.com will randomly select a winner and feature their tweet.

To get a head start on launching a new business or creating a website for an existing one, visit Domain.com to name, build, and host your next great idea.

To learn more about Domain.com, visit http://www.domain.com

About Domain.com

Helping businesses become successful online since 2000, Domain.com delivers high quality, reliable web hosting and domain name registration services at the most affordable prices in the industry. Domain.com, an ICANN-accredited registrar, offers a full range of solutions to create and market websites includes web hosting, VPS hosting, Email, SSL certificates, website design, and email marketing. For more information visit:http://www.domain.com.

Domain.com Issues “Next Great Idea”

Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com) took home the award for Best Business Blog at last night’s second annual Irish Social Media Awards (http://www.socialmediaawards.com) ceremony. This is Blacknight’s second win, having received the award for Best Business Twitter Account for Sales and Marketing at the inaugural Irish Social Media Awards in 2011.

The Irish Social Media Awards honour businesses in Ireland that raise the bar for Social Media use. Longtime champions of the medium, Blacknight are always looking for a way to set that bar higher.

Michele Neylon of Blacknight states: “We are proud to be the recipients of the Best Business Blog award because our blog is the most important component of our social media campaign. It allows us to have a conversation with our customers about a variety of things that would be helpful to them, from new services to Internet security issues.”

At a time when businesses are catching a lot of heat due to improper use of social media, abandoned twitter accounts and obtuse Facebook accounts, Blacknight is one of the few companies getting it absolutely right. Neylon attributes this to the company’s unrelenting efforts to be themselves.

“We hope that what we do inspires other businesses to loosen up a bit and have fun with their customers and what they are doing,” Neylon continues. “So many companies believe that the only way to conduct themselves professionally is to project a traditional business image. We are showing that we can be professional, excel at what we do and that a successful company can look a lot like us.”

The Blacknight blog focuses on domains, hosting, new Internet technology, Internet security issues, and Blacknight news. Visit Blacknight’s award winning blog at http://blog.blacknight.com

About Blacknight:

Blacknight are an Irish based, ICANN accredited domain registrar and hosting company. Recipients of several awards for their revolutionary use of social media, Blacknight are one of Europe’s most cutting edge Internet companies. Blacknight constantly seek to lead the way by introducing innovative solutions for its client base and provide dedicated servers and colocation as well as a comprehensive range of Microsoft Windows and Linux based hosting plans and domain name registration services to business globally.”

Blacknight Receives Irish Social Media Award

The following are a few possible answers to the above questions:

1. Cloud platform – If you are particularly concerned about not being in control of your backups, you might work better with a cloud platform as a service (PaaS) rather than software as a service (SaaS). That way, you control your own applications and data and can send backups wherever you want.
2. Open Source – You can eliminate your concerns of vendor lock-in by opting for a cloud service provider that uses open source technology. If you ever need to move to a new provider, your data will transfer nicely to a local or alternate cloud location. Examples of open source cloud platforms include Open Stack and Xen Cloud Platform.
3. Third-party cloud backup – Many cloud hosts recognize the risk of keeping all of your data backups in the same location as your live data. They may offer offsite backups or provide you with access to a third-party backup host.

Keeping your cloud data backed up and safe does not have to be difficult. With a little investigation and careful planning, you can have safe and secure data along with the flexibility that comes with using cloud hosting.

Backing up Your Cloud Data

Open source cloud software available through OpenStack’s platform allows for a variety of cloud storage features. According to openstack.org, the platform is specifically suited to assist in the management of VM networks.

So why back away now? Since its initial introduction to the market in 2010, the platform has experienced steady commercial adoption. That factor was cited as a reason for NASA to now transition away, according to Karen Petraska, a senior executive in the agency’s CIO department. Petraska discussed NASA’s reasoning when speaking during the Uptime Institute’s symposium earlier this week.

Within the recent past, Open Stack’s technology has received support from top tech innovators including HP, Dell and CISCO, according to an article last month from Wired.

According to the DatacenterDynamics report, Petraska also emphasized that it was not the agency’s role to be involved in pushing commercial technology. OpenStack is not the only project NASA is cutting its involvement with. The same DatacenterDynamics report indicated that the agency would also halt its developmental involvement with Nebula, another cloud infrastructure solution.

In March, NASA provided unique insight regarding critical data breaches it faced via a report prepared for a U.S. House of Representatives committee. According to NASA Inspector General Paul K. Martin, the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory was breached, leaking data pertaining to more than 150 employees.

NASA Transitions Away from OpenStack

“Yahoo Serious, LLC has greatly benefited from Phoenix NAP’s infrastructure flexibility and versatility to expand its operations with zero downtime,” said Ian C. Park, Yahoo Serious, LLC owner.

Yahoo Serious, LLC will offer back-end IT operations for small to medium-sized companies seeking to outsource their server infrastructure out of Phoenix NAP. This enables the clients to get away from a consistently changing and unpredictable IT operations into a flat-fee and predictable IT operation. Yahoo Serious, LLC, recently started up Firebird Broadband, a DBA, with the intention of providing affordable high speed wireless business internet services out of Phoenix NAP to the Sky Harbor Airpark area.

“We are thrilled to welcome Yahoo Serious, LLC to Phoenix NAP,” said Ian McClarty, president of Phoenix NAP. “Its focus on maximizing business performance through strong support and service is similar to Phoenix NAP’s and we couldn’t be more pleased to be able to assist them to further grow and expand.”

Phoenix NAP is a PCI DSS Validated Service Provider and a SOC Type 2 audited facility.

About Phoenix NAP

Phoenix NAP, a full service data center, premier infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) provider and primary network access point (NAP) for the Phoenix, AZ, metro region leads the path for technology systems and solutions through its innovation and vastly redundant data center systems. Our highly personalized approach ensures that all of your requirements are met. Whether it’s high-density colocation, flexible storage, physical servers or Phoenix NAP Secured Cloud services, our enterprise-grade facility and certified NOC technicians supply IT solutions to fit your every need. For more information, visit the company’s website at http://www.phoenixnap.com.

About Yahoo Serious, LLC

Yahoo Serious, LLC is a start-up, established in 2010 in Tempe, Arizona, with the business concept of helping small to medium-sized businesses acquire all-around enterprise caliber back end IT services and support without the budget-breaking cost. Contact Yahoo Serious, LLC for more information and details, contact@yahooseriousllc.com.

Yahoo Serious, LLC Selects Phoenix NAP

Cirrus Microsoft® Windows VM hosting offers a greater amount of control and OS access than other options, allowing users to modify and update the OS as needed, whether installing patches or performing updates. Unlike other Virtuozzo based VM solutions, the Cirrus offering allows any Windows update to be installed by an administrator. The VMs are fully customizable with either full remote desktop access for Windows or SSH/Root Access for those on Linux. With the easy to use, award winning Parallels® Plesk® Control Panel deployed on every Cirrus VM hosting plan, management is intuitive and user friendly, allowing the automation of web hosting activities. All plans include an FTP server, mail server, web server, MySQL database, phpMyAdmin, firewall with GUI and more.

“Parallels virtualization technology enables partners such as Cirrus Tech to meet the growing SMB demand for cloud services in the easiest, most comprehensive way possible,” said John Zanni, Vice President, Service Provider Alliances and Marketing, Parallels. “This powerful combination of Parallels Plesk Panel with Parallels virtualization provides Cirrus Tech with the ability to deliver Windows Server virtual machines, with all of the features and functionality that SMBs are seeking. Cirrus Tech customers will now enjoy streamlined management and control of their virtual servers from anywhere and anytime, and with simplified, self-service management features such as back-ups, resource monitoring and upgrade capabilities.”

Cirrus Virtual Machine hosting plans come with a variety of options and features. Choose from Windows Server 2003 or 2008 Web, Standard and Enterprise Editions, enterprise Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and 2012 and a variety of other web and workgroup servers. Each VM plan offers guaranteed dedicated resources for RAM, HDD, CPU and bandwidth as well as a fully redundant infrastructure including redundant power supply, HDDs and storage. The redundant storage included in all Cirrus VM plans is unlike the default offerings of most cloud providers – two entirely separate copies of all data are kept on two storage units. VM hosting also offers full scalability, accommodating spikes in resource demand and allowing for easy upgrades. In addition to instant provisioning for the VM set-up, upgrades are also provisioned in just minutes from the time of the request.

“Almost anything you can think of doing with a dedicated server, you can also handle with a Virtual Machine,” shares Cirrus CEO Ehsan Mirdamadi. “We’ve built our VM hosting services from the ground up to offer a reliable, flexible and cost effective solution that can meet the hosting needs of any business, whether simple or complex.”

Cirrus VM hosting plans start from $15.99/month. Visit http://www.cirrushosting.com/ or call 1.877.624.7787 for more details.

About Cirrus Hosting

Cirrus Tech Ltd. has been a leader in providing affordable, dependable VHS and VPS hosting services in Canada since 1999. They have hosted and supported hundreds of thousands of websites and applications for Canadian businesses and clients around the world. As a BBB member with an A+ rating, Cirrus Tech is a top-notch Canadian web hosting company with professional support, rigorous reliability and easily upgradable VPS solutions that grow right alongside your business. Their Canadian data center is at 151 Front Street in Toronto.

All company names and products mentioned in this release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

Cirrus Tech Launches Windows VM Hosting

Businesses can purchase enterprise cloud infrastructure from dozens of service providers in the marketplace today. While many providers classify their cloud platforms as “enterprise ready”, no two enterprise cloud providers are exactly alike. Businesses need to take a reasoned approach to evaluating the capabilities of potential enterprise cloud vendors.

Jason Baker, VISI’s Chief Technology Officer, will cover a recommended three step approach when contracting services from an enterprise cloud provider including on how to identify the business IT stakeholder requirements, map the business requirements to the enterprise cloud provider’s capabilities, and create a cloud service agreement.

Jason has over 17 years of experience working with technology organizations and businesses across Minnesota. As Chief Technology Officer, Jason serves as a technology guide helping businesses understand the impact of future technologies. He is a frequent speaker at regional and national technology conferences, and has written articles for many different business publications. In 2008, Jason led the technology team at VISI which created the first public cloud computing service in Minnesota.

“IT leaders recognize the opportunities created by cloud computing today, yet they struggle to translate that opportunity into meaningful action within their organizations,“ said Jason Baker, chief technology officer at VISI. “It’s time to have a conversation about which applications make the most sense to run in the cloud, and how to go about making that cloud transition.”

The seminar includes a complimentary breakfast and white paper on enterprise cloud computing. The seminar is free, but pre-registration is required and can be completed at http://www.visi.com/events.

About VISI:

VISI Incorporated (VISI) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc., a Fortune 500® company. VISI provides a full range of data center services including colocation, managed services, hosting services and first-rate cloud computing infrastructure. VISI has the only commercially available Uptime Institute Design Certified Tier III data center in the Minnesota. VISI facilities are SSAE 16 Type II audited and staffed 24×7. To learn more about VISI, follow us on Twitter or Facebook, call 612-395-9000 or visit http://www.visi.com.

VISI to Host Cloud Seminar in May