Infrastructure To Go

Well-funded, powerfully partnered, and staffed by legions of experts, Loudcloud is redefining the way online operations are put together. Just pick your platform; they do the rest.

Lisa Phifer
VP Core Competence, Inc .
[October 18, 2000]

Since September 1999, Loudcloud has been making a name for itself as an expert eServices infrastructure provider. Loudcloud focuses on high-growth companies that need to get connected easily, quickly, and reliably—primarily, dot-coms and ASPs. In industries where time-to-market will make you, and inability to scale will break you, getting the most out of every resource is essential. Loudcloud's value proposition is simple: Focus in-house talent on building your business, and leave the driving to us.

Pedigreed staff, best-of-breed platforms
For ASPs, establishing a robust on-line presence is not a sideline—it is the foundation on which the entire business rests. Choosing an ASP infrastructure provider is a huge decision with tremendous consequences. So, why trust a third party like Loudcloud?

Start with Loudcloud's impeccable pedigree. Founded by top talent from Netscape and AOL, Loudcloud is lead by Chairman Marc Andreesen and CEO Ben Horowitz. Board members include Intuit Chairman Bill Campbell and former Disney President Michael Ovitz. With deep-pocket equity funding by Benchmark Capital and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Loudcloud hired nearly 400 staffers with "deep expertise", including those responsible for high-volume sites like InfoSeek and Netscape. Its research group alone is said to possess 100 years of collective industry experience.

Expert staff is critically important, but an infrastructure is ultimately the sum of its parts. Loudcloud assembles best-of-breed platforms by leveraging strategic alliances with Akamai, EMC, Exodus, GlobalCenter, HP, iPlanet, Microsoft, Network Appliance, Sun, and others. For example, the platform Loudcloud created for SkillsVillage.com is based on three redundant pairs of Sun 4xx servers. These web, application, and database servers run Netscape Enterprise Server, Netscape Application Server, and Oracle8i, respectively. This site is hosted at GlobalCenter for robust network connectivity, front-ended by Cisco PIX firewalls and Alteon load balancers.

Loudcloud supports a variety of platforms, as required to meet diverse customer needs. During its first year of operation, Loudcloud evaluated the performance, stability, security, and interoperability of nearly 200 infrastructure technologies. "[Our] mission is to constantly evaluate advancements across the stack of networks, systems, and applications with an eye towards helping build out Loudcloud's environment," said Loudcloud VP David Posey. "This helps a customer more quickly build its custom application that runs on top of Loudcloud's software infrastructure services."

Tiered infrastructure
Loudcloud is a soup-to-nuts infrastructure provider. They supply the floorspace, high-availability hardware and software, and load-balanced network facilities, all backed by a 100% scheduled uptime guarantee. Loudcloud's operational environment includes 24x7 multi-level monitoring, storage management, and network and host security.

Managing a complex infrastructure can be incredibly resource-intensive. Even when this burden is outsourced, it can be tough to add services and capacity quickly. Loudcloud addresses this challenge with OpsWare, a proprietary technology that automates capacity management, configuration, provisioning, and versioning. Customers can also monitor and tune their own sites through my.Loudcloud, a self-service management interface. Loudcloud provides capacity on demand; each customer's monthly fee is based on usage.

Smart Cloud services
These core technologies support a suite of "Smart Cloud" services, assembled to meet each customer's needs. Start with Web Cloud and/or Application Server Cloud. These services provide a ready foundation for Internet business applications that operate in Linux, Solaris, or Windows NT/2000 AS environments. Web Cloud supports Apache, Microsoft IIS, and iPlanet Enterprise servers. Application Cloud alternatives include Allaire JRUN, ATG Dynamo, BEA WebLogic, Microsoft COM+, Netscape Application Server, and Vignette Story Server. Need another web or application server? Loudcloud claims to support nearly any application architecture, including custom systems.

Sites that require back-end systems integration can add Database Cloud: managed, high-availability database solutions based on Oracle8i or Microsoft SQL Server. Those that need inbound/outbound messaging or an open information repository can subscribe to Mail Cloud or Directory Cloud. All of these services are architected to avoid single-point-of-failure, and are accompanied by storage and backup management. Loudcloud lets you deploy applications that require these services without having to worry about platform design or administration.

Facilitating growth
For global load balancing and disaster recovery through rapid site redeployment, add GlobalConnect. To further increase delivery speed, add Content Distribution Cloud, a service that pushes content to the network edge using Akamai FreeFlow. Using Loudcloud's a la carte approach, a dot-com or ASP can deploy a basic site at first, then add premium services as the business grows. Because Loudcloud's infrastructure is designed for scalability from the get-go, capacity can be added quickly, with minimal fuss.

Making the most of this platform requires careful deployment, on-going monitoring, and quality control. Staging Cloud permits site verification with a small-scale replica before production deployment, complemented by integrity testing and rollback. Stress Cloud uses Mercury Interactive's LoadRunner to simulate as many as 100K concurrent users. Transaction Monitoring Cloud uses Mercury Interactive's Topaz to continuously measure, alert, and report on site performance, as perceived by end users.

Smart Cloud is intended to help customers to move quickly to market. Indeed, the SkillsVillage.com site was deployed in just three weeks. "By not having to figure out all the pieces that make up the infrastructure of their eBusiness, Loudcloud customers have the time and resources to focus on developing new features that will generate revenue or differentiate their business from the competition," said CEO Horowitz.

Instant ASP
Loudcloud's core platforms and Smart Cloud services satisfy many common Internet application needs. But how do customers know what they need? Loudcloud assigns a dedicated Project Engineer and a Consulting Engineer to assist each customer during platform design, test, and deployment phases. Some customers build their own applications. Others work with Loudcloud partners like Lante, Proxicom, Viant, and Zefer. These consultants and system integrators can help customers create the Internet applications that ride over Loudcloud's platform.

While deploying sites for ASPs like Catapulse, Mercury Interactive, and StatementOne.com, Loudcloud saw a common thread emerge. Many ASPs require further application services like billing, configuration management, customer monitoring, and log management. Loudcloud has announced that it will bundle these higher-level services into an "Instant ASP" package, available in 4Q00.

According to Loudcloud CEO Horowitz, "For companies to flourish on the Internet, the process of adding new services and global growth needs to be dramatically simplified." Next generation services like Instant ASP "reflect the evolution and learning from working with our customers."

A promising start
Loudcloud appears to have hit the deck running during its first year. In addition to those already mentioned, Loudcloud's ASP roster also includes BlackHog, eDeploy.com, Interelate, and MetaTV. Dot-coms and ASPs dominate the two dozen customers identified on Loudcloud's site today, joined by brick-and-mortar companies like Nike and Britannica.

Testimonials echo a common theme that make it clear why these customers have signed with Loudcloud. "For Work.com to have the trust of its customers, it has to be up and running all the time—period," said Work.com CEO Don Hutchinson. "The commitment to quality that Loudcloud's service level agreement represents, and the fact that we can leverage Loudcloud's vast technical knowledge are key reasons Work.com chose Loudcloud."

Satisfied early adopters stand as evidence that Loudcloud has been able to meet expectations thus far. But remember that Loudcloud is a very well-funded start-up. Pouring considerable expertise and resources into a high-quality infrastructure has gotten Loudcloud off to a promising start. Time will tell whether Loudcloud can sustain this momentum over the long haul.

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