Managed services provider, Loudcloud Inc., , today announced additional support for a range of Microsoft Corp.
products for its managed Web hosting services.
The announcement strengthens Loudcloud’s commitment to providing enterprise customers with a variety of Microsoft products. The added products and support aims to provide Loudcloud customers with flexibility when integrating their applications, and their partners’ applications, through XML Web services. Conversely, the newly supported Microsoft products will be able to leverage Loudcloud’s proprietary Opsware automation technology, the foundation of Loudcloud’s services.
According to Bill Martorelli, vice president of e-Sourcing and Strategies at Hurwitz Group, Loudcloud’s broadened support of the Microsoft platform is the company’s latest step to make its services more attractive to a wider range of customers: “Managed hosting solutions need to be flexible so that customers with diversity in platforms can make better use of them,” he says.
Loudcloud will support Microsoft’s .NET Enterprise Servers which together with Windows 2000 Server family make up the Microsoft .NET’s server infrastructure for deploying, managing, and orchestrating XML Web services. Loudcloud is supporting the following .Net Servers:
— Application Center 2000 – Deploys and monitors highly-available and scalable Web applications
— BizTalk Server 2000 – Builds XML-based business processes across applications and organizations
— Commerce Server 2000 – Designed to quickly build scalable e-commerce solutions
— Exchange 2000 Server – Enables messaging and collaboration
— SQL Server 2000 – Stores, retrieves, and analyzes structured XML data
Loudcloud says that in incorporating support for the new Microsoft technologies into its Opsware technology, the firm will be able to quickly provision, scale, and manage Microsoft’s .NET Enterprise Servers on behalf of customers.
“By extending our support for Microsoft .Net technologies, our growing enterprise customers base will benefit as Opsware is designed to automatically deploy the latest Microsoft applications, upgrades, and security patches,” says Ray Suorsa, vice president and chief architect at Loudcloud. He believes it will result in higher quality, consistent managed hosting service for enterprises to outsource the management of their Web sites at reduced costs.
