New version of OnApp Federation launches

OnApp has released v4.0 of the OnApp cloud platform, which gives cloud providers an instant way to offer more locations for application deployment than the Amazon, Microsoft and Google clouds combined.

Using OnApp 4.0, cloud providers can host customer applications anywhere in the OnApp Federation - a global network of OnApp clouds sharing compute and storage infrastructure through a single wholesale marketplace - and do so on demand, on a pay-for-use basis. This means any OnApp-based cloud provider can offer a truly global cloud service to meet customer needs for scale, performance and compliance, without having to own physical infrastructure in every location their customers are likely to need.

Access to multiple locations is critical for all businesses hosting applications in the cloud. For example, enterprise sales teams need fast access to their CRM system, wherever they are. Online retailers need to provide low-latency websites and shopping carts to their customers. Gaming companies need to ensure low ping times and rapid content downloads. Social networks need to provide fast access to photo sharing and other in-network applications. Until now this has only been possible by managing a patchwork of disconnected cloud providers. Now, cloud users can go to any OnApp-based cloud provider and get instant access to a rich array of premium and value clouds in cities all over the world – all through a single user interface and one API.

“Sharing economy giants like Uber and Airbnb totally changed the game in their industries, and proved that access, not ownership, is the key to providing choice and scale. We’re taking that principle to the service provider market," said OnApp CEO, Ditlev Bredahl. "Using OnApp v4.0, cloud providers can browse the OnApp Federation marketplace and make a huge range of clouds available to their customers, on demand, to suit each application - using premium cloud infrastructure with high-performance and resilience for enterprise clients, and locations with more modest price and performance for development sandboxes, consumer websites and blogs."

Compliance is also growing in importance for businesses hosting applications in the cloud. Having very granular control of where data is stored is essential to comply with data protection regimes in different countries and regions. By pooling global cloud infrastructure into a single Federation, OnApp v4.0 offers a way for businesses to take advantage of cloud scale and flexibility while controlling which cities and countries their applications and data reside in.

"When a cloud provider uses the Federation to source compute infrastructure, they get independent metadata about the historic CPU performance, storage performance and uptime of each location, where it is, who provides it, and the price - and we'll soon be adding other compliance-related metadata too," said Ditlev Bredahl. "That's incredibly valuable to cloud users in a market where privacy and compliance are becoming as important as price and performance. There are big opportunities for providers who use this transparency to create services optimized for performance in specific regions, or specific applications, or compliance with different legislation, or services that are sensitive to privacy, emissions, or any other quality that's important to the market."

The new federated compute features of OnApp v4.0 have been in extensive internal beta testing at OnApp since early 2014, and in private testing with OnApp clients for more than six months.
"Using the OnApp compute federation lets us serve global brands as a local player," said Marijn Willems at Stone.IS, a Belgian cloud provider that has already enjoyed considerable success hosting web applications for global events like Tomorrowland, using the OnApp Federation. "With the OnApp Federation, we can take our deep understanding of our customers’ businesses and deliver tailor-made technical solutions on a global basis."

"The OnApp Federation is a huge step forward in hosting, especially for customers like gaming companies, VPN services, other web hosts and web agencies, who host latency-sensitive applications with us," said Matteo Berlonghi, CTO of SeFlow.net, a leading Italian service provider that works with enterprise and government clients. "When they need to deploy applications outside Italy, we can use the Federation to find high quality cloud infrastructure and build it into our service, on demand. With the OnApp Federation, we help our customers get closer to their users, and we can extend our cloud anywhere without building or buying new infrastructure."

"The value of the OnApp Federation, for cloud providers, is simple and unique: it makes you an instant global player,” added Ben Westfall, CEO, at US-based TelosHost. “It means our clients can deploy applications wherever they need them, through the same UI and with the same service package they expect from TelosHost. We can offer cloud locations we would not otherwise have access to, and sell compute cloud from around the world."

OnApp v4.0 also introduces a new provisioning process for virtual servers, that reflects the increasing importance of location for applications and content hosted in the cloud; new ‘trust tokens’ for private cloud federations; new High Availability options for the OnApp control panel; 'Bring Your Own ISO'; and a sleek new user interface for cloud administrators and users.