Enterprise cloud put to the test

“In this first-of-its-kind test, we invited cloud vendors to
provide us with 20 CPUs that would be used for five instances of
Windows 2008 Server and five instances of Red Hat Enterprise Linux
– two CPUs per instance. We also asked for a 40GB internal or
SAN/iSCSI disk connection, and 1Mbps of bandwidth from our test
site to the cloud provider. And we required a secure VPN
connection.

“Rackspace, Terremark and BlueLock accepted our invitation.
Amazon did, then did not and refused to communicate further. The
services we tested were comparable in many respects. Rackspace
Managed Private Cloud scored points for cost transparency, a solid
administrative portal and good overall performance. Rackspace was
the slowest in many portions of the tasks we needed them to
complete, although, to be fair, we were making requests that were
outside of their traditional sales channels. Terremark Enterprise
Cloud delivered speed and the best administrative portal, and also
offered the lowest cost. The BlueLock Virtual Cloud offered strong
processes and good administrative support, but was the most
expensive.

“Over the course of conducting this test, we learned several
things. First, a customer can expect to have an enterprise cloud
deployed and up and running within a week after the selection
process is complete. Second, all of the vendors delivered strong
security and comparable performance, albeit with vastly contrasting
management components.”

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