Horizontal scalability refers to the ability to spread a workload over multiple servers, rather than increasing the capacity of a single server.  This results in the ability to utilize more, less expensive pieces of hardware, rather than endlessly upgrading a single server at great cost.  Think of the Borg from Star Trek, or the concept [...]

Determining whether to migrate to cloud infrastructure (IaaS) or to a cloud platform (PaaS) requires a thorough understanding of the various recurring costs associated with one’s existing infrastructure (not to the mention the one-time cost of auditing the footprint of any existing setup).  Now, for anyone still in the planning stages of a start-up, the [...]

In our post last year, Rackspace Cloud & FreeBSD, we discussed all the benefits of Rackspace Cloud less FreeBSD support.  As avid Rackspace Cloud users both internally and across our client base, we access the control panel and API quite often, and noticed that as of today a FreeBSD 9.0 base image is now available. [...]

As we mention in Ten Technical Tips Your Startup Can’t Ignore, in the time crunch of pushing a new product to market, many early-stage projects launch utilizing a single physical server or cloud instance.  The convenience of having the web, database, and caching services all in one place is sometimes too tempting to pass up.  [...]

So you’ve made the decision to dive into “the cloud” head first. One question: Why? Don’t misinterpret our curiosity: there are many benefits to using cloud technology over more traditional hosting methods. However, it’s important to remember that “the cloud” isn’t all magic behind the curtain, and great caution must be taken when making new [...]