COVID-19 Contingency Plan

To All iNode Cloud Customers, Given the ever-changing situation surrounding COVID-19, we at iNode Cloud are committed to providing continued support to our customers as usual. We would like to reassure you that we have scheduled our contingency plan to commence on the 16th March (AEST). iNode Cloud support staff are able to remotely and securely access the hosted environments globally to handle maintenance and support A designated redundant oncall person will be working in isolation from their homes in each region. iNode Cloud staff are requested to work from home unless absolutely required in any of our Global Offices and follow proper hygiene practices as recommended by the World Health Organization. iNode Cloud’s Monitoring and Support services will remain available 24/7 x 365 days To further reduce the risk to our people and to you, we have directed staff to restrict all travel for meetings, with exceptions to be made only for critical circumstances with approval. We absolutely want to continue our work with you and not to cause any delays, and so our expectation is that all planned meetings can still proceed virtually rather than in person. We hope you will understand that any inconvenience this may cause is driven by our desire to protect you, as well as our staff. iNode Cloud’s Hosting platform is architectured to be highly available by design leveraging Amazon’s AWS Networks to ensure services will continue in the event that the availability of any datacenter is impacted it will automatically failover to other global regions. Any updates will be posted on the iNode Cloud Support Portal as well as our twitter page on @inodecloud We are committed to providing you with...
What Is Platform As A Service (PaaS)?

What Is Platform As A Service (PaaS)?

Platform as a service (PaaS) is one of the most popular types of cloud computing services. When an individual or a company purchases PaaS, they are essentially purchasing a custom-built cloud environment that is developed to support application development, scaling, and operations. Developers can essentially construct applications and test them intensively before deployment. Any PaaS solution needs to be integrated seamlessly with the underlying IaaS environment so that web developers have regular access to the type of hardware resources they need. The developer normally has complete control over how applications are deployed and can even configure the settings of the cloud environment. It is generally seperated from the basic computing infrastructure, the operation and management of which is normally left to the service provider. PaaS is an excellent way of developing comprehensive applications on the cheap without needing to invest in a substantial amount of underlying infrastructure. How much responsibility do you have in a PaaS environment? In a PaaS environment, the developers essentially can focus their entire energy and resources on the rapid development, deployment, and scalability of applications. PaaS works on top of IaaS and it removes the mundane operations of manually running and managing clungy physical servers. In essence, developers can focus on all the back-end stuff that goes on behind the function of a website or an application without worrying about infrastructure. PaaS can be public, private and hybrid It basically boils down to what you want. Amazon, Micrsoft, and the rest have dozens of PaaS services, many of which are perfect for either the public cloud, the private cloud, or a combination of the...
Application Certification for PaaS

Application Certification for PaaS

Cloud foundry announced its new position today as the industry standard in cloud computing services.  Several major software providers like IBM and Hewlett Packard have come together to declare Cloud Foundry as a reliable open source standard for application development.  This is good news for developers that design with cross platform capability in mind and for businesses that need to integrate services provided different vendors. Open source certification also protects developers from having to integrate code for proprietary software that a given platform was designed for so it serves as a clean slate for application developers and platform developers like IBM which used Cloud Foundry to build its own platform Bluemix which is also open source. The best part about open source software are the benefits of its use by private organizations.  Bluemix is free and incorporates open services for promotion of your product and your services. The vendors who have become certified (Century Link, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Huawei, IBM, Pivotal, SAP HANA, and Swisscom) dominate the market and independent developers who are looking for a competitive edge can become certified as well although it is costly, so costly that I will let you see the price on your own here although you can save an arm and a leg (60%) by becoming a member.  If you dare to look at the price, remember that you are joining the likes of IBM and Hewlet-Packard and if you don’t take pride in the fact that your applications are running on a trusted and secure base. Open source services are always a solid base for developers thanks to the wide collaboration...
Greener Hosting With iNode

Greener Hosting With iNode

In the world of hosting, “Green Hosting” seems to have a variety of definitions that sometimes include using renewable energy sources but in general means being more environmentally friendly. iNode Cloud servers are hosted at the Equinix datacenter in Sydney which has been designed by green in mind. Here are three reasons iNode Cloud hosting equates to Greener Hosting: 1. Less physical space = smaller data centers = less industrial building. Because of the higher densities of cloud server models, the overall data center structure can be smaller, requiring less land space taken up and less building materials to be used in construction. 2. Fewer physical servers. Allocating a physical server for every project need obviously requires quite a few resources to be consumed during the manufacturing process of the hardware. Some of these materials are recyclable, but not all, and even then just because something is recyclable doesn’t mean it’s ideal to consume those resources in the first place. iNode Cloud servers greatly reduces the need for hardware production, as multiple projects can exist on a single cloud server. 3. Lower power use. Data centers use a lot of power. I’ve read criticism of data centers by environmentalists – and that’s justified to an extent – especially with older data centers that haven’t been updated and are less efficient. iNode Cloud servers consume only a small portion of the power that a physical dedicated hosting server requires. Utilization of our cloud server hosting is a much more efficient model for power consumption, whether utility provided or renewable. More information can be found at the Equinix Website If you want a greener...
Australian accountants head for the Cloud

Australian accountants head for the Cloud

Just as other countries have embraced the cloud for computer storage, Australia has shifted over to use the modern storage concept. In fact, as many as 69% of accountants in Australia have now started using cloud software, and the probability of that figure growing is high. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the younger accountants in the survey were more likely to embrace the cloud, while their older counterparts were a shade more reluctant. A recent survey of small and medium sized accounting firms showed that they really love and embrace using SaaS programs (software as a service).  Overall, as many as 27% of small and medium companies use cloud-based accounting programs and storage.  However, 60% haven’t even tried it yet, so the future for expansion is bright.  Even for those who didn’t use SaaS apps, they still liked the idea of the cloud, and are finding it to be revolutionary to the industry. There are two main programs that Australian accountants love – Xero and MYOB.  Accounting companies use 1.9 cloud-based apps on average, but 59% use two or more apps, so clearly this is a popular technology among those who have embraced it. Topping it all off, 96% of those surveyed who currently use the cloud plan to expand their use of it.  It helps make reporting much easier to store and share, leading to the increased use, as well as being able to access the SaaS software, saving money in the process.  Instead of each company having to purchase a full software suite, they can access what they need, usually for a small fee, on the Internet. Those who...
Why choose an Australian web hosting company?

Why choose an Australian web hosting company?

If you run an Australian based company and the majority of your clients are from Australia there are some very good reasons to choose an Australian Web Hosting company. Speed – Even though broadband has made huge progress these last few years, hosting overseas means that extra 3,000 kilometres of cable adds at least an additional 1/2 a second on your download time. One of the largest web design blogs in the world, Noupe, takes a full 2 seconds to fully view their page in its entirety. And if one of the largest web design companies can’t compete on speed how on Earth are you going to? SEO Factor – Hosting your website overseas means that you will probably have a shared IP address in the US. This often means that Google will bundle you together as a US based business. This is especially the case if you have a www.yourdomain.com address. If you want targeted searches from Australians you really need an IP address from Australia. Support – Being in the same time zone as your webhost means that when most issues arise, they arise during business hours and can be sorted out before close of business Australian time. If your website goes down at 2pm and its midnight where your webhost is, don’t expect a response until 9pm. Fluctuating Currency – Buying from an Australian Web Host means that your monthly bill does not fluctuate with the irregularities of the short term money market. The Aussie Dollar might be at parity at the moment but 3 years ago it was 60 cents in the dollar. Can your web budget handle a blow out like that?...