Putting cloud services to the test

This PDF pulls together Network World's seminal testing on emerging cloud services

Cloud computing is the hottest topic in networking today so we conducted a series of groundbreaking tests to see just how real this stuff is. In our first test (the first of its kind that we know of) we signed up for compute services from Rackspace, Terremark and Blue-Lock, acquiring from each 20 CPUs that would be used for five instances of Windows 2008 Server and five instances of Red Hat Enterprise Linux – two CPUs per instance. We also asked for a 40GB internal or SAN/iSCSI disk, and 1Mbps of bandwidth from our test site to the cloud provider. We report on our experiences with deployment, security, performance, management and cost.

In our second test, we looked at automation tools that help IT execs manage cloud-based jobs from start to finish. Our test subjects were RightScale, Appistry and TapIn Systems. We followed that up with an analysis of tools that help manage cloud-based resources. And finally, we tested cloud-based storage from Amazon, Rackspace, Nirvanix, Egnyte and Nasuni.

Click here to download this PDF, which pulls together Network World's seminal tests on cloud services in one handy reference.

Cloud computing is the hottest topic in networking today so we conducted a series of groundbreaking tests to see just how real this stuff is. In our first test (the first of its kind that we know of) we signed up for compute services from Rackspace, Terremark and Blue-Lock, acquiring from each 20 CPUs that would be used for five instances of Windows 2008 Server and five instances of Red Hat Enterprise Linux – two CPUs per instance. We also asked for a 40GB internal or SAN/iSCSI disk, and 1Mbps of bandwidth from our test site to the cloud provider. We report on our experiences with deployment, security, performance, management and cost.

In our second test, we looked at automation tools that help IT execs manage cloud-based jobs from start to finish. Our test subjects were RightScale, Appistry and TapIn Systems. We followed that up with an analysis of tools that help manage cloud-based resources. And finally, we tested cloud-based storage from Amazon, Rackspace, Nirvanix, Egnyte and Nasuni.

Click here to download this PDF, which pulls together Network World's seminal tests on cloud services in one handy reference.

Read more about cloud computing in Network World's Cloud Computing section.