OpSource Rolls Out Managed Services for Public Cloud App Deployments

OpSource's new Managed Services for the Cloud is offering a helping hand to organizations interested in moving to the cloud but are unsure about dealing with the technical aspects of cloud management. 

OpSource's Managed Services for the Cloud is a suite of application and system management services available to customers on the OpSource cloud infrastructure. 

The two core packages, Tech Ops and App Ops, are for customers interested in migrating mission-critical applications to the public cloud. Tech Ops focuses on managing server resources while App Ops handles cloud application management as well, according to Keao Caindec, OpSource's chief marketing officer. 

While businesses of all sizes are moving critical applications to the cloud, many organizations don't want to "self-manage" or don't have the in-house expertise to do so, said Lydia Leong, the research vice president at Gartner. "A menu of managed services on top of cloud infrastructure allows businesses to select the solutions that best fit their needs," Leong said. 

With Tech Ops, organizations get server resources with complete access to systems monitoring, server provisioning, operating system support and server administration, said Caindec. With App Ops, organizations get help with change management, data management, performance management and optimization management, he said. 

Tech Ops benefits the small enterprise that has staff well-versed in Windows Server administration and network management but does not have in-house expertise with the cloud or doesn't want to be distracted with low-level CPU and network administration, Caindec told eWEEK. 

App Ops is for businesses focused on scaling applications to the cloud and generally benefits midsize and large enterprises that need help managing the application without worrying about what is happening on the operating system and server level, said Caindec. App Ops also offers application deployment and compliance services, he said. 

An example of App Ops support is when the customer has to update the application. The App Ops team will handle the process of deploying the latest version, patching or updating the application on the cloud production server, Caindec said.  

OpSource offers a "pay as you go" pricing structure on the basis of actual usage, making it affordable for organizations that might be scared away by the potential costs of moving to cloud computing. Managed Services for the Cloud are priced between $0.05 and $0.60 per CPU hour, based on volume and term commitments, according to OpSource. 

OpSource wants to extend the benefits of the public cloud to customers already on OpSource's Managed Hosting environment. The company also recently unveiled HybridConnect, a secure Ethernet VLAN connection that links the Managed Hosting environment with the public Cloud Hosting environment. With HybridConnect, businesses can have the best of both worlds—the performance boost from dedicated physical servers in a managed hosting environment and the scalability and flexibility of a public cloud, said OpSource. 

The company considers the public cloud "an extension of the enterprise IT data center," said Caindec. 

HybridConnect is very similar to Rackspace's CloudConnect service announced earlier this month. Like Cloud Connect, the goal is to allow customers who chose managed hosting because of compliance or security concerns to still take advantage of the cost benefits of being in the cloud. 

The market for cloud computing services is expected to grow, reaching $150 billion by 2013, according to Gartner estimates.