A-Server launches DAAS.com; First Cloud Infrastructure to include Sun Microsystems Platform

Three year development program provides Cloud Computing for Service Providers built around technology acquired by Sun Microsystems earlier this year

Lochristi, Belgium – March 19, 2009- A-Server, a specialist in datacenter virtualization, has become the first company to offer a fully productised Cloud Computing platform in DAAS.com including Sun Microsystems technology. On March 18th, A-Server unveiled its fully configured and installed cloud rack solution to service providers offering rapid deployment of reliable, flexible and cost effective cloud computing.

“When Sun acquired Q-layer in January, we were immediately concerned as we had just finished the final beta test of our Datacenter-as-a-Service product,” comments Arvid Fossen, Director of Product Management and DAAS.com, “We have had a good relationship with Q-layer over the last few years prior to its acquisition and we were assured that our agreement would be honored. In fact, the acquisition has been beneficial as it has allowed us to expand our relationship with Sun and has helped speed up the qualifying of Sun Hardware for our DAAS.com offering.”

DAAS.com will be delivered on Sun hardware including all the technology items that build up the DAAS.com infrastructure cloud: 100% redundant storage technology, High Performance Computing Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Software, S3 Compatible Storage web services, InfiniBand, Xen and Virtual Box. “We believe that many service providers and even end customers will be pleased that DAAS.com is built on Sun – this provides a level of reliability and quality that will help to establish our solution as credible and viable for the long term.” Fossen comments.

DAAS.com has begun the process of migrating its European data centre to Sun hardware and the first deployments of its DAAS.com platform to external service provider partners is due to commence in mid March based on Sun hardware.

“The Sun Platform is an important element to DAAS.com and is the heart of the provisioning and management system,” explains Fossen, “Where we have built added functionality is in how to implement the theory and toolset into a real data centre environment that requires 100% availability, low management overheads and scalability – this is not an easy process but from day one, our partners will launch with a real world solution and not a ‘beta’ product.”

Using the DAAS.com interface, service providers allow end clients to buy capacity of three basic commodities: compute power, storage and connectivity. Alongside these “raw” materials, are a selection of pre-built services or soft appliances such as firewalls, network management services, VoIP servers, QoS engines, load balancers and a growing number of third party add-ons.

Using a browser based “canvas” application either the service provider or end user can create diagrams of how they want the different raw materials to be defined and linked together which the service engine can build instantly or, with help from technicians at the data centre, within the hour.
DAAS.com uses Intel architecture to provision Windows, Linux and Sun Solaris servers with the built-in Xen and Virtual Box hypervisors. It also includes integrated KVM technology to streamline the installation and configurations of applications and operating systems. There are no restrictions on the type of applications installed within DAAS.com and each server can be assigned both primary and secondary storage plus a range of add on features such as replication and recovery services.

At the network layer, DAAS.com users can create and implement virtual firewalls, encryption devices, network bandwidth and quality of service schemes; with complete control over internal IP addresses and signaling. All private data centre structures can scale as required, with DAAS.com providing 24/7 hardware maintenance and support.

Service providers using DAAS.com will be charged a monthly fixed fee based on the size of the infrastructure they have either built within their own private datacenter or hosted within the A-Server’s datacenter.

On March the 18th, Sun announced its strategy and roadmap for its public cloud computing service. With cloud computing, IT is shifting towards a whole new computing model and Sun aims to be a thought leader and provider of technologies, products and services for open clouds,” comments Paul De Decker, Managing Director of Sun Belgium & Luxembourg.

“Sun has a proven track record fostering communities of partners and is creating a robust community supporting cloud computing - including cloud management solution providers, SaaS providers, PaaS providers, Service Providers and cloud consulting companies. We're very pleased to have taken these first steps with A-Server as a cloud partner and are looking forward to building out the relationship towards the future.” he adds.

Detailed pricing on either full or half rack DAAS.com on/offsite installations utilising Sun hardware is available to service providers on request. DAAS.com also has remote test accounts available to qualifying service provider partners for evaluation purposes. For more information, please visit www.DAAS.com

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About A-Server NV
DAAS.com .com is a brand of A-Server, a specialist in datacenter optimized solutions. Today's datacenter vendors do not build solutions tailored to the needs of a datacenter. They deliver hardware per piece where services to obtain a higher service model are often missing. More than any other company, A-Server focuses on providing the right services, not at the level of the individual hardware, but for the total of a datacenter. Thanks to our Datacenter in a Rack based solutions we can answer better to the needs of our customers and we will provide our services in a transparent way.

Alongside its innovations within cloud computing, A-Server is also active in providing Backup and Disaster Recovery Appliances for channel partners across Europe. The A-Server Backup Appliance is installed at an end user site and includes virtualization to bring live backup servers instantly.  The Backup & Disaster Recovery Appliance uses a monthly cost model for channel partners, including 24/7 support, monitoring and NOC. For more information, visit www.aserver.com or www.daas.com

About Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems develops the technologies that power the global marketplace. Guided by a singular vision -- "The Network is the Computer" -- Sun drives network participation through shared innovation, community development and open source leadership. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.

Press contact A-Server:

Anne Harding
The Message Machine

Marketing Director
Tel: +44 1895 631448
E-mail: anne@themessagemachine.com

Arvid Fossen
A-Server NV

Tel: +32 9 324 25 76
E-mail: afossen@aserver.com

Press Contact Sun Microsystems: Inge Van Eycken
Sun Microsystems Belgium
PR/Marcom Specialist
Tel.: +32 2 704 81 45
e-mail: Inge.Vaneycken@sun.com

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