Virtual private data centers, or VPDCs, are a new paradigm for data centers that we've been hearing quite a bit about in North America through companies like Layered Technologies and 3Tera.
In Europe, Q-layer has been offering a fully virtual private data center since 2005, enabling service providers to compete with next generation hosting offerings such as Amazon S3 and EC2, using the private virtual datacenter concept: utility-based provisioning and billing based on actual usage.
WHIRtv recently spoke to Niko Nelissen, VP of business development and co-founder of Q-layer, and gained some insight into his company's vision with VPDCs.
So I've been reading and trying to keep up with what's going on with Sun and MySQL these last couple of months. Seems like this has the potential to become another fantastic open source project that is moving towards closing some of it's source (some of the most wonderful parts of it's source). While this has ovbious consequences, it also shows potential for much needed growth. While we may loose some of the most wonderful things about MySQL availabe to us now as an open-source project, we very well may see some fantastic developments in how databases work and what we can do with them.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of closing the source on a project like this, but I'm also a fan of progress (a term used very loosely in mixed company such as this ;-) ), however there are a number of good things we may see. Remember many of the applications (email, shopping carts, groupware colaboration and most anything with advanced dynamic content) rely heavily on a relational database for the backend to work. While we have a couple of other open source projects to use for this, none are as popular as MySQL.
Just some stuff off of the top of my head for now.
jb
The folks at Peer 1 are at it again and as noted earlier this week in theWHIR News they have added a $10,000 contest to make things even more interesting.
Episode 2 of the "Growing Pains" video series is also humorous although not as funny as the first episode I must say. What I would have loved to see is a quick recap of the first episode at the beginning to refresh my memory.
To win the $10,000 grand prize which consists of 12 months of managed hosting at PEER 1 ($6,500 value), an Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch 2.5 GHz Laptop (approximate value $2,500) and a Sony HD Camcorder HDRSR10 (approximate value $1,000) you would need to upload your short video and share your web hosting growing pains, funny dealings in running your online business or troubles in getting it off the ground. If you video is selected you could be a winner.
I have noticed that folks in the Web hosting industry tend to be a little shy so I do hope to see some interesting and laugh out loud funny video entries. Good Luck to one and all and let us know if you submit a video, theWHIR readers would love to give you a preliminary review.
What do you think of this "Growing Pains" episode?
Candice Rodriguez Web Host Industry Review
Not quite "just in time for Earth Day," as far as this blog is concerned, but April 22 (Earth Day) was actually the day we shipped the files for the latest issue of WHIR magazine off to the printer.
The date is fitting because May's issue is our "green issue," in which we look at one of the most notable issues in hosting from a variety of angles.
It's possible, I suppose that you're reading this blog for some reason other than the fact that you follow web hosting news, but if we accept my general "you, dear reader, are at least interested enough in web hosting to pay attention to the general industry news" assumption to be true, then it is probably also safe to assume that you've noticed the overall increase in "green" hosting news, not just in the last few weeks, but over the last few months.
Last year, not long after we settled on the notion of putting together a "green" issue, I began receiving the green issues of just about every magazine I regularly receive - I've got everything from Toronto Life to PC Magazine to Vanity Fair piled up around my desk.
Eco friendly living and business practices are a big issue across the board, and they've become a serious concern in the hosting business, which has an interesting relationship with environmentalism.
Hosting's biggest impact on the environment is through the consumption of electrical energy. Data centers, and the servers they contain, are an enormous draw on electrical power and, consequently, a significant producer of greenhouse gasses. But energy is also becoming one of the biggest expenses for hosting providers, making it possible for companies in this business to serve their bottom lines even as they pursue more environmentally responsible business practices.
This isn't the case in every industry. A lot of business are struggling to figure out ways to dispose of harmful waste, or to curb other destructive practices without the cost putting them out of business. For hosts, the path is clear.
There isn't yet a specific model for building a green hosting business. But it's on its way. What we set out to do with our green issue was describe the atmosphere in the industry relating to green initiatives, and we approached it form three angles.
The first was the movement itself, where, driven by the motives of conservation for its own sake and conservation for the sake of the bottom line, a culture is building among organizations and outfits working to build the standards by which we measure our "green" efforts.
Second is the practical implementation of green procedures in the data center. We examine the real-world limits most hosting companies face, and map out strategies for building efficiency into the data center.
Third is the message. Hosts pursuing green projects face a decision about the message they bring to customers. And those customers are not always receptive to marketing efforts tied inextricably to an ethical question.
Chances are, your experience with green hosting isn't going to begin, or end, with our green issue. But I'm hopeful that it will be helpful to you in mapping out your business's relationship with environmental issues.
