CloudSwitch has updated its Enterprise software. The company launched the initial version of CloudSwitch Enterprise six months ago and the company has quickly brought out an ungraded version.
The company uses bridge technology to connect the enterprise data centrewith cloud computing providers, claiming that this offers improved security for cloud computing. The aim is to ensure that applications running in the cloud are managed as if they were running locally.
The latest version offers a variety of new features: the ability to provision Windows and Linux applications in the cloud through point-and-click functionality; improved management for on-demand scaling and the ability to extend internal networks into the cloud to allow secure IP access over public networks.
Ellen Rubin, CloudSwitch's VP of products, said that the software had attracted a lot of interest from major companies but there had been concerned about how it would handle traffic spikes as customers moved from trials to full production. "Customers wanted to use cloud without having to provision for peak period. The people we were talking to had installations of thousands of servers that they had to spin up for peak periods. They wanted to use cloud as an extension for what they already had," she said.
She said that it ability to allow customers to provision new features from scratch was also very important. "Customers were having to rely on services from cloud providers. For example, Amazon would give you a certain set of resources and give you an available infrastructure based on what you're using but there would have to be a certain amount of engineering work to get what you wanted."
Rubin added that the company had been testing the new software with customers but it had now been officially released. Pricing of the software begins at $25,000 for an annual licence supporting up to 20 concurrent virtual machines.