Logicworks Launches Private Cloud Service

By VSM News Staff
published: Wednesday, June 17 2009

Fulfills all the promises of cloud computing without any of the contingent liabilities of a shared environment.

NEW YORK, NY - June 17, 2009 - Logicworks today announced its Private Cloud service that delivers a more efficient way to manage, allocate and deploy enterprise IT assets, and is the next evolution in the company's mission to be the industry leader in keeping large, complex, and diverse applications up and running 100% of the time.

Today, as cloud computing continues to proliferate larger and larger enterprises, CXOs will need to find technology solutions that address their most critical applications without requiring high capital cost or an increase in operating expense. The same benefits that are found in managed hosting, such as vendor consolidation, reduced CAPEX, and operating efficiency are realized with Logicworks Private Cloud solutions.

Logicworks Private Cloud, which leverages VMware's Virtual Infrastructure, fulfills all the promises of cloud computing without any of the contingent liabilities of a shared environment, making it an attractive option for fast-growing enterprises, media sites, ecommerce sites and financial services portals to name a few.

"Cloud computing marries the benefits of grid computing, where many computers are acting as one, with the benefits of virtualization, where one computer is acting as many," noted Carter Burden, Logicworks chairman and CEO. "Logicworks Private Clouds allow clients to realize those benefits without sacrificing security, performance, and support typically associated with consumer or public cloud services."

Logicworks incorporates all of the significant recent advancements in hardware, including Intel Nehalem Processors, Infiniband 40Gbps interconnect technologies, and high-performance solid-state drives.  For applications that don't fit into the Cloud, Logicworks continues to support solutions on bare metal, just as the firm has been doing for over a decade.

Logicworks Private Clouds are fully dedicated and customized based on individual customer requirement.  Clients can realize the flexibility, performance, security, and support they've come to expect with Logicworks existing complex hosting services, with the added benefit of improved redundancy, scalability, and manageability delivered through VMware's Virtual Infrastructure.

"Our diverse clients are all similar in one very critical way: they have complex system requirements and zero tolerance for downtime," said Kenneth Ziegler, Logicworks president and COO. "For this reason we've designed our Private Cloud solutions with full redundancy and maximum performance and manageability. Whether our clients choose ‘cloud' or bare metal solutions, they will expect a certain level of uptime and support that is unattainable with consumer-oriented IT solutions."

Logicworks Private Cloud includes a minimum of two front-end ESX servers and two iSCSI servers that provide redundant protection and virtually guarantee against service interruption. iSCSI servers are configured with DRBD, thus any data written to one is simultaneously written to the second. If the primary fails, the secondary automatically steps in and takes its place.

The Logicworks approach of deploying hardware exclusively on a private basis also protects against security exploits and is ideal for companies with sensitive data, HIPAA or other regulatory compliance requirements. This extends to its Private Cloud offerings, which are fully-dedicated and customized based on individual customer requirements.

High-performance Storage

Access to high-performance storage has been one of the principal limitations of virtualized environments, where multiple virtual machines trying to access shared storage introduces a performance-limiting bottleneck.

Logicworks has been in the forefront of introducing Infiniband, a technology developed in supercomputing applications, to VMware, which provides a 40Gbps path between hosts and storage systems. As a leading provider of Management Database Services, Logicworks is now able to offer maximum I/O for the most demanding database applications.

VM Management

Cloud solutions in general do not alleviate the challenges of managing Windows- and Linux-based systems running in virtual machines. Logicworks brings to bear its more than a decade of experience in managed hosting and supporting complex environments to what's running inside its clients' Private Clouds -- from Web and application servers, to file services and transaction-intensive databases.

Access to Rarified Engineering Expertise

Clients who choose Logicworks have the most stringent support expectations in the industry. The Logicworks support model has been designed to ensure immediate responsiveness from experts in networking, load-balancing, Linux or Windows administration, backups, storage, and database high-availability.

There are no long, bureaucratic escalation paths, and these same benefits will continue to be available for clients taking advantage of Logicworks Private Clouds, all included for a predictable monthly fee.

Logicworks senior engineers are certified by applicable vendors, typically have several years of experience in their associated disciplines, and are available 24/7; its NOC consists of certified DBA's whose expertise is specifically tailored to managing high-availability environments.

Clients are able to manage their private clouds via vCenter and Logicworks proprietary customer portal, LogicOps, which allows clients to track and resolve service issues quickly and seamlessly. Logicworks will soon deploy VMware's vSphere 4, which allows use of up to eight processor cores per VM among other benefits.

For more comprehensive product information please visit http://www.logicworks.com/managed-services/enterprise-cloud-computing.

About Logicworks

Logicworks exclusively delivers multi-server enterprise hosting and private cloud solutions to high-growth customers in need of high-availability for their most critical applications and content. Logicworks is known for its combination of dedicated client teams, customized solutions, performance/SLA emphasis and focus on database management and complex systems. Clients are able to reduce capital expenses, operating overhead and multi-vendor management by relying on Logicworks to be an extension of their technical operations. Logicworks customers, including NBC, Factiva, Major League Baseball, and Starwood Hotels, span a wide range of industries including online retail, media, and financial services. For more information, visit www.logicworks.net, write to info@logicworks.net or call 866-FOR-LOGIC (5644).