Service provider launches VM hosting

29.08.2006
Bulletproof Networks will this week launch a dedicated virtual machine (VM) hosting service.

The service, which will be operational on September 1, 2006, includes standard and enterprise-level offerings with access to IT engineers, additional performance and memory capacity and continuous support.

Initially, Lorenzo Modesto, Bulletproof Networks general manager, said he expects most uptake in the SMB sector, particularly those that use top-end shared hosting.

"They may need a dedicated environment for customized hosting, [because] shared hosting can't support this," he said.

A shared Web hosting service is where more than one instance of the same Web service is hosted on a single physical server. It allows users to share the overall cost of server maintenance. However, a dedicated hosting service is where the client leases an entire server. This allows an organization full control over the server including choice of operating system and hardware.

"No other competitor offers a truly virtualized service," Modesto said. "We have seen a few working on Linux virtualization in the last 18 months; however, everything but VMware has a reliance on matching drivers to operating system hardware, or the host operating systems to the underlying operating systems," he said. "The hardware and the VMs running on top should have nothing to do with each other."