Introducing Zeus – Rebooting Cloud Computing
Cloud computing, as we currently know it, is broken. Data isn’t always persistent, instances are unstable, pricing is confusing, and professional management is nowhere to be found. Although we will tip our hats to bringing cloud computing to the masses, the cloud model needs a reboot. It often seems like each month another company releases a cloud computing offering, but nobody ever takes the next step in maturing the delivery mechanisms, stability, or business model. It is for these reasons that Contegix is proud to introduce Zeus, a managed cloud computing platform aimed at providing consumers with the power and flexibility of virtual systems coupled with the management support that only fully-managed data centers can provide.
Zeus is a unique cloud service that will provide persistent storage, reliable uptime, and managed support. Based on VMWare ESX, fronted by high-end network gear and physical level 4-7 load balancers, and backed by true SAN storage and advanced monitoring, customers of the Zeus platform will be able to build powerful architectures that scale reliably. Furthermore, with a 100% network and 100% power uptime SLA, security and compliance audits available for viewing, and the option of including Contegix’s world-class management support, cloud computing is now ready for the enterprise.
Another feature of Zeus that we’re excited about is the use of templates. Zeus will come with virtual machine templates for several different common configurations. If you want an Apache box, spin one up. If you want a MySQL box, spin one up. And it all happens in about 5 minutes. If our templates aren’t meeting your needs, or you need to replicate the same instance over and over, simply upload your own template. Better yet, convert your physical boxes with P2V and upload your enterprise.
Stay tuned for more information on Zeus. Private beta is targeted for availability at the end of June, with full production availability at the end of July.

June 12th, 2009 at 8:39 pm
Cool! Is it targeted mainly at handling peak loads for web servers, like the applications you mention above, or will it also handle compute jobs? Is there support for MPI, intel compiler, matlab, etc?
June 19th, 2009 at 7:16 am
Can’t wait for more details…
Hope there will be a Grails template containing MySQL, Apache and Tomcat. Maybe Dave Klein can help
?
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:49 am
Yes, we do plan on having a Grails stack template to make it easy to deploy Grails apps.
Yes, it will be able to handle compute jobs as well.
As for MPI, Intel Complier, Matlab, etc, one of the great features of Zeus is that users will be able to upload their own templates/configurations. This way, even if a pre-existing MPI template doesn’t exist right away you can upload your own and deploy as many new instances as you need using the user-defined template.
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Hey Jim, will there be a public (REST) API for starting new VMs?
July 2nd, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Yes, there is a full REST API. We will also be releasing a Ruby gem with the initial release!!