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The Appica Solution

Other Clouds
1a. Persistent Storage

Appica uses three storage layers to protect your critical data. Primary storage is powered by an N+1 Intelligent Clustered Storage (ICS) SAN that protects against multiple drive or storage node failures. Appica uses a secondary storage SAN to store server instance snapshots and ISO images. Appica backup uses a third storage pool to store continuous backup images or recovery points of your server.In simple terms, even in the unlikely event the primary SAN fails, your server image is available on a secondary SAN and recovery points are available in a third storage pool.
1b. Persistent Storage

All local data is lost at Amazon EC2 if there is a host failure that causes your instance to terminate. Rackspace Cloud Servers use local Raid 10 disk storage which is an improvement over Amazon, but fails to protect you from multiple drive failures or loss of a node. In addition, onboard storage is not as reliable as the SAN technology used by Appica.
2a. Management Tools

Appica has a free compliance portal to help you manage, backup, and secure your cloud servers. You can add DNS records using Appica DNS servers, take snapshots as a standard feature, and schedule backups to provide you with point in time recovery measured in minutes or hours.
2b. Management Tools

Amazon EC2 does not offer server level backups, web console access or DNS capability.Rackspace Cloud Servers offer a web-based console and backup services, but snapshots are an option.
3a. Transparency

Appica is upfront about the amount of CPU and memory guaranteed for your use. This is possible because of Appica’s investment in all new heterogeneous cloud equipment that is custom designed for the cloud.  Contact Appica for a free benchmark trial if you are an existing Rackspace Cloud Servers or Amazon EC2 user and are unhappy with the performance or features.
3b. Transparency

Amazon EC2 uses Compute Units which according to their FAQ provides the equivalent CPU capacity of a 1 to 1.2 GHz 2007 Opteron or early-2006 1.7 GHz Xeon processor.Rackspace Cloud Servers uses a 2.4 GHz Quad core processor and allocates a percentage of the processor per instance. For example, a 1GB RAM instance is allocated 6.3% of the CPU for the box.
Both providers are using smaller legacy processors which makes potential clients dig into the FAQ to identify how much performance is actually being provided
4a. Public IP addresses

Appica creates a private network for each cloud customer to utilize and configure. Users can create security groups and map one or more persistent public IP addresses to cloud servers. Appica’s network configuration tools are similar to existing configurations and don’t require you to change your network configuration best practices.
4b. Public IP addresses

Amazon EC2 limits customers to five Elastic IP addresses per region. Amazon EC2 private IP’s are not persistent and limit the use of multiple public IP’s.Rackspace Cloud Servers require a dedicated and persistent public IP address for every server and includes a second private IP address framework as well.
5a. Support

The Appica support team is available 24×7 via phone, email, ticketing system, knowledge base, or forums. Appica’s cloud ecosystem is proactively monitored 24×7 and is built using high availability standards. All equipment includes dual power supplies and redundant disk architecture as necessary to ensure the greatest uptime for your business applications.One-on-one support comes standard with Appica.
5b. Support

Rackspace Cloud Servers support is included at no additional cost and comparable to Appica’s cloud support. Like Appica, Rackspace uses an account team approach to ensure customers obtain support when they need it most.Amazon EC2 charges the greater of $400 per month or 20% of your monthly costs ($.20 for every $1.00 in server cost). The Amazon support model is expensive and burdensome compared to Rackspace or Appica.
6a. Backup

Appica provides two different backup options for customers that utilize physically separate SAN storage than the compute nodes.

Customers can utilize snapshot technology on demand to store a full server image on a secondary Intelligent Clustered Storage SAN. Users can setup a snapshot schedule to safeguard data or changes within their infrastructure during patch cycles.

Appica’s Continuous Data Protection (CDP) or secondary backup solution provides customers with continuous data protection software managed via a web interface. Appica CDP enables customers to store a full image plus schedule as many recovery points as necessary to achieve backup compliance. Setup is simple, and a small agent is included in each Appica server image. All recoveries are completed via a secure web management portal.
6b. Backup

Rackspace Cloud Servers include limited backup options for small Linux servers and their availability for windows servers is listed as “coming soon”. Rackspace currently limits Linux server full image backups to those with 2048 MB of memory or 80GB of storage. The service only includes three stored backups (1 daily, 1 weekly, and 1 variable). The backup is also attached to a server and can only provide full restore or server cloning.Amazon EC2 does not offer a backup service and requires users to custom design scripts for a data dump to take advantage of S3.
7a. Private Cloud

Appica can provide enterprise customers with a private cloud environment that is custom engineered to meet the compute, storage I/O, and capacity requirements of your applications. In addition, you can access separate availability zones or data centers. Private cloud is available in Appica’s data center or in your in-house data center. In addition, customers can also purchase colocation or dedicated servers to mix and match an environment that is scalable and meet corporate requirements.
7b. Private Cloud

Amazon EC2 only offers cloud servers and storage that often require rewrites to your applications.Rackspace can provide a mix of cloud or dedicated servers and is in this way more flexible than Amazon EC2.  Amazon does not offer colocation as an option to support your hybrid environment.
8a. Persistence and Recovery

Appica is designed for the enterprise, but priced to be affordable for the SMB market. All of Appica’s servers are completely persistent and highly available. If the computing node that hosts your server fails, it will restart your instance on another node within minutes and all your data will be intact. Want to resize your server? Appica simplifies this to a restart and a few minute process.
8b. Persistence and Recovery

If Amazon EC2 experiences a host failure your data and virtual instance disappears and will not restart. You can’t afford to operate anything but test applications in such an environment.Rackspace Cloud Servers offer persistence, but with local data storage a node failure will require a multi-hour restore and recovery process from the most recent image or backup resulting in potential data loss.
9a. Security Scanning baked in

Appica provides a free vulnerability scanner that is available from the customer compliance portal. Security is a big deal at Appica from the logical (security scanners, firewalls) to the physical (electronically locked and monitored cabinets in an enterprise data center)
9b. Security Scanning baked in

Amazon EC2 does not offer a vulnerability scanner service.Rackspace Cloud Servers does not offer a vulnerability scanner as a standard offering.
10a. Load your own image

Appica supports a wide range of Windows and Linux operating systems as well as the ability for customers to create private templates from a snapshot or customer ISO library. Users can attach ISO files to virtual machines as a CD or DVD ROM for added flexibility. Appica also offers an expansive software-for-rent library and supports customer provided software.
10b. Load your own image

Amazon EC2 customers are limited to a 10 Gigabyte Amazon Machine Image which is enough for a web server but not much else. Amazon also offers a 30 Gigabyte Elastic Storage Block instance on EC2 at additional costs.Rackspace Cloud servers do not support importing or exporting of ISO images. Users must select from a predefined OS list.

Sound Simple?

It is. As a service of Profitability.net, you also gain access to an enterprise data center team who is trusted to provide colocation and hosted application services for emerging to Fortune 1000 companies.

Call 800.556.1369 to discuss your business needs and whether a public or private cloud is the right choice for your applications.