Softlayer Hosting

Services Matched With Unparallel Advantages with Softlayer

There are several names to reckon with when it comes to a matter of web hosting services for the launch of your company or business website. These are all dependable names in the industry that have been engaged in their area of expertise for several years now. You will find these companies are equipped with professionals to carry out extensive level of services along with expert advices and guidance to client companies; among the various names that you will be commonly referred to, the name of Softlayer hosting services will feature among the top few. This company which is based out of Dallas in Texas, USA had been founded in the year 2005. It is a pioneer in providing services such as cloud hosting, dedicated servers for client companies and managed hosting services. It is one of the largest of private companies in the country as well as in the world. Within a short span of time the company and the brand name has been successful in creating a niche for itself with satisfied customers and smooth technical operations aided with some of the latest technologies. There is a global network of services provided across geographical locations and boundaries. You can refer to their services for on-demand data centres and hosting services for their clients; hosting centres are located in a variety of geographical locations like Amsterdam, San Hose, Santiago, Houston, Seattle, Washington DC and Singapore to name a few. Within these premises there is an assimilation of the latest advances made in the realm of technology; these centres that are fully equipped to provide a quick and round the clock access of your website for its visitors. Within the United States Softlayer has multiple points of presence for its clients situated in every state of the country.

Softlayer hosting provides you with an assurance for the best and the latest in technology. You will be able to enjoy the services of a fully automated platform along with innovative advancements in connectivity; among other aspects there is a complete access and control especially in the sphere of security and scalability. This is extremely significant as websites often encounter problems and issues threatening the basic and personal information registered with them by users and clients accessing through the internet; also included will be valuable data pertaining to payment processing like credit card details and information. Among other advantages that you stand to gain with Softlayer services is the Network within a Network; this topology of operations enable out of band access along with convenient API and Customer Portal facilities. Additionally there is a complete remote access that you gain for all the available products and services.

The system of operations and functions of Softlayer have several advantages inbuilt in them that allows you to function with ease and comfort; there is a complete backup created for your website along with round the clock availability and services. To start with the company gives you an automated platform. There is a complete automated process of management and handling of the platform in the form of Cloud, Dedicated and managed hosting services; apart from these the other facets of the functions of the company like networking, security, storage and other relevant software services are all automated. This ensures an error free system where you have no scope of encountering any form of operational hindrances; and at the end the users get an uninterrupted and smooth services that is important for their business growth. The second important advantage is that of a customised portal and an open API. With the aid of this there are close to 200 backend applications and services are available for client companies. Primary among these there are functions like server reboots operating system reloading and load balancing among several others. Next comes the proprietary network architecture. In this there are three layers of networks which are integrated in one; these are private, public along with the out of band management network of the industry. This will facilitate access and data transfer through the VPN; there are dedicated carriers used in this segment which are separated from public network systems. Another important advantage that comes with the services of this company is an integrated geographical diversity. Softlayer has located more than 13 data centers in different geographical locations. These are all connected to one another through a private and 10G point to point connectivity system network. Also used in this system are several automatic tools and applications many of which are proprietary developments.

The next advantage that works in the favour of your company is an on demand dedicated servers and cloud computing instances. This is also referred to as CCIs. If you are availing dedicate servers for the hosting of your website by Softlayer the company assures a quick and efficient system of service which will take around 2 hours; CCIs will take approximately 5 minutes to a maximum of 15 minutes for deployment. You will also get similar services for various aspects of operations like hardware firewall installations and load balancing applications. This can be asked for at the time of initial deployment of server facilities or even later as and when your company operations require the same. Here you will find one of the largest options of services and applications that will initiate one of the finest operational management for your website. The servers offered by Softlayer are structured on the lines of latest technological advances and features. These services are all a part of a comprehensive budget plan that is charged from and there are no hidden costs and expenses. These features and options of applications are selected with care and caution depending on the nature of your sphere of activity and business. They enhance the server operations functionality for optimal results. The professionals at Softlayer will take care of all configurations and settings that will ensure results.

If you were to understand the sphere of services provided by Softlayer it would enable a better understanding of all the aspects in which you can depend on their expertise. They will provide you services in the spheres of software services, networking and monitoring services, security and storage layer services and email delivery services to name a few. There are many of you who may have less to no knowledge of technical complications which makes a detailed elaboration of these services imperative; in this case a clear understanding will enable you to make accurate decisions to availing appropriate services from the company. The foremost area of service is in the realm of software. There are partnerships the company shares with Microsoft, Red Hat, Parallels and cPanel by which they enable you with these services; there is a monthly rental that is charged for the same for either 32 bit or 64 bit compatible software. There is maximum effort made at providing the best services in alliance with each of these companies that would make for convenient client servicing. It also ensures optimal levels of excellence in the kind of services provided. In software services one of the most important segment will always be that of the database. In this Softlayer provides ample support for its clients. Along with the operating system the company provides database options like MySQL and Microsoft SQL from the time of initializing services. While MySQL is an opensource database available for Red Hat and Windows servers alike the latter which is Microsoft SQL will be only compatible with Windows servers ranging from the 32 bit to the 64 bit versions.

The next stage of software services comes in the form of the Control Panel. The software for this segment of operations is installed within the dedicated servers from the time of initialization of services. The team at Softlayer will ensure that you have the entire package ready by the time of the start of operations for the website. The software applications and product packages enable a GUI interface; it is of great help and useful assistance for those who have technical knowhow and ideas for server management. With this you can now initiate the entire process of setup and subsequent administration of the server. Also advantageous will be the availability of multiple options that will be compatible with different operating systems. Following this you can also avail Utility Software applications. There are several options available which act as a support system for your server management. There are several functions like patch management, statistical traffic management, hardware testing and recovery that are carried out with ease and convenience. The next software on offer from Softlayer is for virtualization technology. This is one of the highlights among all the software products on offer from the company; it is innovative and skilful that enables a wide range of technological solutions. You will find samples of this technology in products like Citrix XenServer and Essential, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers and Bare Metal, VMware ESX and Microsoft Hyper-V. for all of these services of software solutions you can choose from various monthly rentals too along with the product offers; choose one the basis of your requirements.

The next area of services that Softlayer provides its clients is in the sphere of Networking. You can avail the services that results from the deployment of the Cisco 7600, the 6500 and the 3560E controls within all locations of datacenters that it has. There is a multiple 10G available for upstream network ports and 40G of connectivity for every rack. For internet services available for public usage there are two 10G connections and another couple of 10G connections for the private network of the company itself. The first important consideration here is the port speed available from this company of hosting services. The servers have a standardised 10Mbps network ports for both Public and the Private network services of their internet systems. In case of those servers that have a higher bandwidth speed offers come with 10Gbps. This is also applicable for servers that offer private networking services. The next important aspect of this service is the bandwidth. Companies and websites need a higher speed of accessibility among web surfers and internet users which can be significant for their success and growth; thus bandwidth options are an important part of hosting services. Here in this company there are several options available for client companies with multiple public network bandwidths. There are those that come with a meter and those without one with the server; this helps in viewing the actual speed of the services. Besides you can also make a setup with customised configurations that are needed for specific and individual servers. The next vital part of networking services includes the creation of an IP address. Each server will provide a single primary IP address. In addition to this there are 4 secondary addresses that will be routed to the server; and this is a default feature. Thus client companies can ask for more IP addresses that will be routed to their server or even the VLAN in case of necessity. In some cases there are optional IPv6 addresses too that are included within the server.

An important part of the networking services available from Softlayer is its load balancing technology. The solutions offered by the company are some of its best uses of the latest technology that is put together with standard techniques used by the industry. These include lowest latency, round-robin, least connections, IP persistence and shortest response. The applications attempt to balance the web traffic of a website between multiple servers. This is especially useful for websites that witness a lot of web traffic and prevents interrupted or disturbances in access by users. The installation and activation can be done almost instantly within a very short span of time; you can also set the configuration settings accordingly. In case of load there are servers that can be attached instantly or even removed when the same is less. The time required for both these actions are usually minimal. You can personally configure the settings locally within one datacenter location or even across datacenters in different location of Softlayer sites around the world. There is a specific web application that’s known as Citrix NetScaler – this is based on a deliverance model aimed at making any application improved in its relevant performances. This enhancement is almost by 5 times which makes the same worth its inclusion and even protects it as well. All of this is also available at a cost-effective price. This application is available in editions and the selection of its version will have to be made on the basis of its requirements. Each is designed to assist in the functionality of other applications incorporated within the hardware platform. It brings about better and focused results. Next in line is the facility for private network VPN in which you can avail a true out of band management with the help of a separate third carrier; this is a standalone carrier available through the company’s SSL, PPTP or even IPSEC VPN gateway systems.

There is nothing better than a team of professional experts who are constantly monitoring the work and operations of your website; this is needed to ensure that a server is not only delivering its best for your website and online exposure but also enhancing the performance of your organization. With the help of the Nimsoft Advanced Monitoring Solution there is a constant support extended from the Softlayer portal for both Windows and Linux based servers. It enables a perfect base for client companies to manage the available statistics on their operating systems and application racks. There are two specific reporting features within this service – graphing and alarms. Every time there is a service carried out of an expected range there are notifications that come up and these are stated as alarms. They can be customized with settings that will also send email alerts to you. On the other hand graphing is a visual representation of the details of usage within a specific span of time. You may wonder about the basic advantages that come with monitoring. It allows availability of complete details and reports of the website and portal. All aspects of the operations starting from the range of services to the infrastructure and the several levels of customer-oriented services are all visible. The application stack is clearly visible which leaves no room for any confusion or ambiguity. In this way you will also be insured with the highest levels of security and scalability; the levels of operations are distributed within several levels which makes them suited to different kinds of business requirements and goals. The technical architecture and structure is not only scalable but lightweight too. There is a ‘zero touch’ initializing process which is convenient as well as appropriate for cloud computing environments. You will find the need for specific hardware equipments for this aspect of your server hosting operations; these are the CPU and the memory monitoring agent along with a process monitoring agent; a remote system monitoring agent and a Windows services monitoring agent is also important. The best advantage that clients can gather for their operations from Softlayer is the presence of different levels of standard and advanced monitoring options that are available. You can choose services that are available in the various packages with different rentals per month.

Security is an important aspect of consideration that is held by Softlayer. There is a comprehensive layer of security and protective environment created by the company for its clients regardless of the sphere of their business and commercial endeavor. They strongly believe that there is a need for several levels of security checks and systems within the IT setup and architecture of a company. This alone will be able to enhance appropriate security measures for them. The multiple levels of security covers that are setup by the company are a specific and goal oriented security strategy that has been developed at Softlayer for its clients. All forms of physical and electronic threats to the system can be adequately countered with the SecurityLayer services. For this there are structured and certified operational procedures that is duly supported by the presence of a wide range of software and hardware security applications. The company also collaborates with several leading companies in the industry that would give them better solutions in this area of operations. The main aim and objective here is to protect classified and vital information to prevent any form of setbacks to business establishments. At Softlayer client companies have a basic advantage of this facility among a host of other services; a wide array of technologies and applications are used that are instrumental in providing security and several other options in course of their usage. The system is fully automated and has been designed to allow maximum convenience to the customer. Apart from the several applications that are on offer and you can also choose from a range of monthly packages designed for optimal use and budget expense planning. For many companies this kind of prior planning of resources is important.

For any company engaged as a services provider for web hosting there is an important service of storage and backup for data which forms an important part of their work. One of the chief aspects of hosting services from Softlayer is the range of options that you get. There is a wide range of applications available for choice in every segment of services that they offer. This is the same when we talk of a service like StorageLayer services. Features like an automated backup and data replication along with substantial storage are all available through an easily accessible means. You can choose from a wide range of applications available with which such a professional environment can be built for your company. The first means is Cloudlayer storage. It is a cloud application in which a safe and pprotected environment is created for all your data; not only storage but these are also available for easy and quick access whenever you need them. Sharing of data is also easily carried out with the help of these applications. There are different kinds of applications suited for different environments like WebDAV is available for Mac, Windows and Linux while Native Blackberry and iPhone applications are ones that are suited for your range of Smartphone and portable devices. There is also Native Windows applications and Web based access; each of these tools are easy to use thus making their presence utilized to maximum benefits. You can avail Quanta Stor storage servers where a combination is available from QuantaStor operating system from OS Nexus along with 12 or 24 mass storage servers from Softlayer. Not only is a higher standard of storage available from SAN and NAS application environments but a greater security as well. You will also have the advantage of scalability and greater control over the applications. It makes operations from desktops or even virtual servers more convenient and accessible. With QuantaStor mass storage application you can also enjoy facilities like snapshots, compression and remote application.

The next important service that is provided by Softlayer hosting is email delivery. Now you will no longer need to create your own email delivery solution; this saves both time and money. You don’t even require allowing third party services on your system as well. With the delivery service that you get from the company there are scalable email solutions available in compatibility with applications available on the Softlayer dedicated or Cloudlayer computing systems. There is a SendGrid email platform on which these applications are developed and puts it for optimal benefits in a cloud based architecture. The service is suitably packaged in various ways to bring you the best of rates and advantage. It is useful in a commercial segment where large volumes of email is constantly generated.

The above are some of the main areas of services provided by Softlayer. There are several other spheres of services like digital transcoding available from the company. You will find some of the best and latest range of technology applications available here for the benefits of usage and business growth of all Softlayer clients. Moreover in every segment of services provided there are suitable packages designed for easy choices depending on the nature of requirements and usage. The prices for the same are also different based on their capacity. It is helpful for all ranges of companies.