EarthLink Launches vCloud-Based Private Cloud Service

Remember when EarthLink was the Internet service provider many people used if they didn't want to rely on AOL for their dial-up access?

EarthLink, which has a formidable communications backbone these days, is also looking to make its mark as a cloud infrastructure service provider. 

The company this week launched a private cloud hosting service, targeted at those who require dedicated clouds rather than shared multitenant services. The company says its new Private Cloud Hosting is intended for workloads that require high availability. It's available with four service levels that can deliver N+1 redundancy with its self-healing platform, which offers automated server failover and SSAE 16 SOC2 certified datacenters and a domestic MPLS network and a SAN.

EarthLink's cloud infrastructure is based on VMware's vCenter cloud management platform, which supports customizable dashboards and real-time performance monitoring and analytics. Users can specify most builds of Windows Server from Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2012, as well as popular Linux server distributions.

The service is targeted at implementations that require 10 virtual machines or more. The company doesn't publish its pricing; rather, it issues quotes based on configuration requirements. While building up its communications backbone over the years -- most recently with its OC-192 10 Gbps fiber backbone, voice over IP portfolio, IP-based MPLS and EVDO wireless service -- EarthLink has also assembled cloud hosting assets.

Over two years ago, the company acquired LogicalSolutions.net, an enterprise cloud service provider. Also that year, EarthLink acquired Business Vitals, a managed IT security and professional services company; xDefenders, which also provides managed IT security services; and Synergy Global Solutions' cloud-based applications business. EarthLink this year also picked up CenterBeam, which provides remote IT services and has added four datacenters for its cloud hosting platform.

The only question that remains is will IT decision-makers be able to shake off their image of EarthLink as that provider of dial-up services (and, later, ISDN and DSL communications) when considering it for cloud hosting services?

Posted by Jeffrey Schwartz on 10/24/2013 at 10:13 AM