GigeNET Cloud

1) What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is internet-based computing, whereby "instances", computing environments that have the full functionality of a normal hardware and software stack, are controlled over the internet. These instances look and operate as traditional computing systems, however resources are out-sourced. This allows for computing resources to be scaled, adding or resizing, on demand. With the ability to scale on demand computing resources are purchased as they are consumed.

2) What are cloud services?

Cloud services give users the ability to take advantage of IT resources over the internet instead of having them on board, or attached to them from storage systems, to physical and virtual servers, and applications. These services can work in conjunction with one another to create robust computing solutions which require nothing more than a single computer with internet access.

3) What are the benefits of cloud computing?

There are many benefits of using cloud-computing solutions, including:

■ power of renting computing resources, which helps users avoid the costs of owning, maintaing, and upgrading their own hardware and software. This is particularly good in situations that require higher levels of computing resources because it reduces the overhead, lowers the risk of technology investment, and gives the user access to a larger selection of tools and technologies.


■ Provides the disaster recovery and backup benefits of goegraphically distributing computing resources and data.
■ Offers the ability for users to access resources regardless of geographic location, operating system, or device.
■ Cloud computing allows for resources to be added on demand so that companies or individuals can scale their "instances" based on their needs vs. budget ■ Allows for increased data security and integrity by centralizing storage and offering high-level security solutions at lower costs.

4) When should I use a Gigenetcloud Cloud Server rather than a Dedicated Server?

Gigenet offers dedicated servers that are easy to access, remotely manage, and control. Although Gigenet has the ability to deploy such servers cloud-based solutions can be deployed much quicker, and offer scalability that is ideal for companies or individuals that don't have "regular" computing needs, as resources are purchased as they are used. Cloud-computing solutions can be a better option, both cost wise and performance wise, than dedicated servers depending on the needs of the user.

5) When should I use a Dedicated Server rather than a Gigenetcloud Cloud Server?

While Cloud Servers are ideal for a wide array of situations there are times that Dedicated Servers are a better fit. Such times are databases and applications that have consistent performance and demand can benefit more from running on a dedicated server than on a Cloud Server. Other applications require very specific hardware, in which case a Dedicated Server is a better option.

6) What is Gigenetcloud?

Gigenetcloud is Gigenet.s cloud product that provides Virtual Machines (Cloud Servers) in a Cloud environment. Cloud Servers are automatically provisioned with enterprise-grade and open source operating systems, delivered MUCH faster than our competitors equivalant product. Cloud Servers would be worthless without a good network backbone supporting it. At Gigenet we provide the same level of care to our Cloud Server customers as we do our Dedicated Server customers. A Gigenetcloud Server acts just like a dedicated server except for the fact that it is much easier to manage and maintain. Backups are a breeze and bringing up new Cloud Servers for a cluster is very simple and straightforward.

7) What are the advantages of Gigenetcloud Cloud Servers?

Gigenetcloud offers several distinct advantages, bringing individuals and enterprises powerful options for dynamically scaling their IT resources, maximizing data accessibility, and optimizing their total cost of IT.

■ Pay as you Play pricing. With no long-term commitments you are able to optimize your cost/performance balance and return on technology investments.
■ Dedicated + Virtual + Cloud Integration: Dedicated, virtual, and cloud systems and services can be seamlessly integrated via Gigenet's Private Network into a single computing environment controlled through our Customer Portal.
■ Rapid Deployment: Turn services on and off on the fly to massively scale up or down to exactly the amount of computing power you need, exactly when you need it. Ease of Use and Control: Full access and control via Customer Portal Customer Portal provides streamlined, simplified management of your solution and a direct connection to all Gigenet services and tools.
■ Image Library: Capture, template, and store system images for accelerated provisioning and simplified management.
■ Virtualization Beyond the Box: Virtualized networking, security, storage, and management lets you create fully virtual environments, optimizing your solution well past just the server.

8) Who should use Gigenetcloud Cloud Servers?

The on-demand scalability and ability to integrate instances into the rest of an IT environment make Gigenetcloud Cloud Servers an ideal solution for a range of applications, including:

- Companies with irregular or unpredictable computing requirements.
- Processing .batch. oriented applications (e.g. image rendering).
- Running programs that browse the internet for information (Web Crawler).
- Online Applications and services with variable users demand, levels (e.g. Twitter).

9) What is my Gigenetcloud Cloud Server running on?

Gigenetcloud Cloud Servers use the industry-leading Citrix Xenserver platform, Super Micro servers, and Gigenet's industry leading data center and networking infrastructure.

10) Can you get Gigenetcloud Cloud Servers without a Gigenet dedicated server?

Yes. Gigenetcloud Cloud Servers are available with or without the purchase of any other Gigenet products or services.

11) How much CPU do I get?

Cloud Server host machines have dual quad core processors. Each Cloud Server is assigned four virtual cores and the amount of CPU cycles allocated to these cores is weighted based on the size of the Cloud Server. For example a 8GB Cloud Server will have twice the weight of a 4GB Cloud Server. In addition to these guaranteed minimum CPU cycles all Cloud Servers are capable of CPU bursting which allows them to utilize excess CPU cycles that are available on the host machine.

12) Are Gigenetcloud Cloud Servers behind a Firewall?

Yes. Everything lies behind a very powerful Juniper SRX which is capable of IDS. Gigenetcloud's Firewall provides your server security isolation from threats on the global Internet. Gigenetcloud's firewall operates outside of your server environment and provides the same benefits of a dedicated hardware firewall which include: eliminating threats before they reach your server and processing threats without consuming the resources of your server. You are also given the capablity of adding Firewall rules on the fly so that if you want to block all access except for 1 IP on a particular port you can do that.

13) Please Explain Gigenet's Monitoring and Graphing of Important Server Health Statistics and Alerts?

Although some of the Alerts are not fully setup yet we have planned for the VERY near future the following:

Gigenetcloud Proactive Alerts: We will send you alerts based on thresholds you (the customer) sets. You can also have Billing Alerts to let you know when you need to pay your bill.

Gigenetcloud Monitoring: We monitor CPU, Memory, Disk Space and Bandwidth. We have plans to monitor everything and anything that is worth monitoring.

14) How are Public IP Addresses Allocated?

IP's are issued in blocks and each account is issued there own private VLAN. You must purchase atleast one block for your cloud servers public IP. All cloud servers include one free private IP address on its own private VLAN. New accounts are currently limited to a total of sixteen public IP addresses. If you require additional IP addresses, simply contact Gigenetcloud Sales and they will enable additional IP addresses for your account for use on your cloud server. IP's are elastic so they can be moved from one cloud server to another when ever you want, for example setting up a High Availability heartbeat cluster.

15) How do Gigenetcloud Cloud Server Backups Work?

We utilize R1soft's CDP Server to give the user ultimate control of your backups as far as:

■ When they take place.
■ How often they take place.
■ What is backed up
■ How long you want to keep images.
■ Where to restore the files.
■ Which files you want to restore.
■ If you want to restore the ENTIRE system from scratch (bare-metal restore).


We will soon have the ability to take snapshots and restore the snapshots instantly to another VM or base a new server off a template (lets say you have a webserver template and you have a Load Balancer setup).

16) Are Cloud Servers just a fancy way of saying VPS?

No, Gigenetcloud servers are not VPS. Cloud Servers are able to be easily resized at the clients disgression, where as VPS cannot be resized in such a short period of time. Also, when you use a VPS your machine can run more than one VPS and its not guarenteed that you are getting every bit of the resources you are paying for. With Cloud Servers however, you only pay for what you use when you use it. Also, we offer centralized storage which allows for Live Migrations, High Availability, Data Security and High Performance.

17) Is bandwidth free between Cloud Servers?

Yes, you will get a private IP for each Cloud Server that offers free bandwidth between them.

18) Does using cloud services sacrifice my control or put my data at risk?

Advancements in virtualization, automation, and network security have drastically mitigated previous concerns that cloud computing does not allow individualized control over solutions, or exposes you to risk by entrusting data and operations to a third party. You and your end users can have direct access and control over cloud-enabled infrastructure, or enjoy highly customizable computing experiences. Competition within the Cloud Server market has created a range of industry-standard choices between which enterprises and individuals can easily migrate and cloud services typically can improve your IT security and control by providing access to higher-level security tools and strategies at lower costs.

19) I want to scale my plan, what do I need to do?

You can login to the control panel and modify the amount of resources to any given Cloud Server. It usually takes a few minutes, depending on the amount of data you have stored. If the resources you need are not available in that server, it will migrate all your data, including operating system and IP address, to another server in our environment seemlessly.

20) How is Gigenetcloud Pricing Calculated and Charged?

All services are charged hourly, but you will receive a bill only once per month. Any terminated services are charged only for the time they were active. Monthly prices listed are estimates based on a 30.4 day month, and for convenience only. They should not be considered accurate predictions of your monthly bill. You will be charged an initial payment for service from time of deployment until the next regular billing date, followed by monthly payments based on number of hours of usage for each option you have selected. We also use the Credit System so that you can add Credits to your account at any time and apply them to any and everything. You can setup Billing to automatically replenish your credits when they reach a certain level.

21) Why do you bill hourly?

Since resources are purchased on demand users range from a full time server clients to clients that only need to utilize the instances for a couple of days. The latter of which is only charged from the time the server is deployed, based on the total number of hours it was in use.

22) Is there any way to bill only once a month with your service?

If you want to be billed only once a month please talk to our billing department and we can suggest how to set that up. The whole idea about hourly service is to break people of the habit of being billed monthly. With our automated billing you don't have to worry about bills .. ever!

23) Do you support Windows Cloud Servers?

Yes. We are one of the few Cloud Servers providers that offers Windows Cloud Servers. We offer 100 percent Full Support of Windows Servers on all of our Cloud Servers.

24) I don't see Pricing for Windows Cloud Servers Licenses?

We offer 100 percent FREE Windows Licenses on all Windows Cloud Servers. Because of the volume we do we are able to extend FREE Windows Licenses to all Cloud Server Customers!

25) How fast can a Windows Cloud Server be deployed?

We are the industry leader in Cloud Server Deployment times. Once you are done selecting your resources for your Windows Cloud Server it should take no more than 1 minute to have a fully operational Windows install ready to use with RDP enabled.

26) Is your staff able to handle Windows issues?

We are fully trained in Windows with certifications to back it up. Our Windows team is strong and willing to assist on any issue. Over the years we have been able to grow our expertise in this field.