Softwareguru.cloud

Virtual World Solutions

Rent-A-Cloud

Software Guru takes a unique approach to Cloud Servers.
We do not simply rent you a Virtual Machine, we rent you your own "Virtual Cloud" or vCloud. Each vCloud automatically comes with a host of features that other providers charge extra for.  We rent you an entire cloud environment with associated resources that you can deploy however you want.
 Each vCloud Suite includes:
  • Fully manageable virtual firewall appliance.
    • You control the port mappings, the redirects and the policies using our simple and intuitive web interface.
    • Control IPSec Tunnels, OpenVPN Clients and other features.
    • Unlimited IPSec Branch Office (permanent) VPN Tunnels.  Our web interface provides a default, easy to use Phase I, II proposal set that makes it simple to setup a default tunnel.  We can also unlock the configuration to give you full control of the IPSec Proposals.
    • Unlimited VPN Clients using our provided OpenVPN client or any OpenVPN compliant client.
    • Free server load balancing between VM's in the same vLAN or other vLAN's you have with us.
    • Class C Private vLAN with auto IP assignment for servers.  (x.y.z.2->x.y.z.249 available.  1 is FW, 250-254 are reserved for VM and cloud management.)
    • 1 Public IP Address included, additional available for a small fee per month.
    • FREE/UNLIMITED INBOUND DATA TRANSFERS
    • 125 GB Outbound transfer included.  Overage will be charged at competitive rate; Additional bandwidth can also be pre-purchased at a discounted rate.
Implement a Disaster Recovery Cloud!
Run your CloudProtected backup servers in your own vCloud with preconfigured VPN tunnels ready to go in a DR scenario.  
  • Simply take your CloudProtect VM Server "Live" by adding additional resources (CloudProtect VM's are 1 vCPU/4 GB by default; most production servers will want more resources) and activating the server.  
  • If you have available resources in your vCloud, there is no additional cost to spin up your CloudProtect; otherwise you simply add the resources you need to your cloud at our standard rates before bringing your server up. 
Slice & Dice Your Resources Your Way!

It's your vCloud so you are free to slice and dice your resources however you please. All resources are reserved/dedicated for you on our server cluster.

Create as many VMs as you want using your vCloud Resources, it's all included.  Assume you rent 12 vCPUs and 48 GB of RAM, 1 TB of HDD

  • Want 1 Server with 12 vCPU and 48 RAM GB and a 1 TB Drive?  Cool!
  • Prefer 3 Servers with 4 vCPU's and 16 GB  RAM, 333 GB HDD each?  Cool! 
  • Want to change it tomorrow?  Cool!
  • Want to save your machines as a template and swap between them as needed?  Cool!  Just make sure you have the storage capacity, you can always add more simply by submitting a ticket.

Examples & Pricing 

  
   

Templates

  What's the advantage of having your own vCloud if you can't have templates?   
 
  • We provide the following templates automatically (x64)
    • Windows 2008 R2 Standard
    • Windows 2008 R2 Desktop Experience
    • Windows 2012 R2 Standard
    • Windows 2012 R2 Desktop Experiences
    • Webuzo 2.4.4
    • Cent OS 6.4
    • Cent OS 6.5
    • Cent OS 6.6 (Minimal)
    • RHEL 6.4
    • RHEL 6.5
    • Ubuntu Server 13.10 (includes MySQL)
    • Ubuntu Desktop 13.10
    • Ubuntu 13.10 LAMP (all standard Ubunut LAMP packages)
  • Customize our templates and save them as your own personal template
  • Our platform is ESXi Compatible
    • Most VMWare Appliances can be uploaded as OVF/OVA Files
    • Turnkey Linux, Bitnami, Webuzo compatible.
  • We can import any standard Windows VHD image/template
  • We can Live Migrate your existing servers to your vCloud
  
     
     

Microsoft Licensing

 
Proper Licensing of Microsoft Products is critical; but complicated.  We can help!
  • Windows Licensing Simplified
    • We have built the cost of Windows Server licensing into the cost or your resources.  You have no additional costs.
      • All Windows Servers built using our templates are properly licensed for Windows 2K8R2 and  2K12R2.  The cost of this license, along with hosting fees are included in the price of your resources.
      • Upon a live migration of an existing server or DR activation of a CloudProtect server we will re-activate Windows on that VM with the proper license key to ensure your VM is properly licensed.
  • Licensing Other MS Products
    • We can provide licenses for other MS Products (Server applications and Client Applications) on a monthly basis.  All such licensing is per Calendar Month
    • Office 365.  
      • SGC Highly recommends the use of Office 365.  We believe that the bundled software options represent the best value for Exchange and Office applications.
      • As a MS Business Partner we can set you up with Office 365 if you do not yet have it.  Migration assistance is available at our SGC Client Discounted Rate.
      • We provide "Managed Office 365" for $10.00/user/month with a minimum fee of $50/month. Volume discounts apply.
    • Private Exchange Hosting and non-365 Office
      • We can also provide you with Exchange and/or Sharepoint  licensing for your own VM the cost is per user/month.
      • If you manage the product, there are no service fees.
      • We can install and configure the servers at the hourly rate for our clients.  
      • Monthly management is $10.00 per user.

Snapshots, Clones, File Restore

 
 Redundancy! Redundancy!
When it comes to a disaster, it is very hard to be too safe.   They key is to have  multiple redundancies.

If you are using our CloudProtect Service to backup your server to SGC then you understand how important this is.  But what if your SGC vCloud is the primary location for your server?

We've got you covered on multiple fronts:

  • Snapshots
    • With every virtual machine in your vCloud you have the option to enable automatic snapshots of your VM's disks.  And you can set the retention length you need.
    • Snapshot Storage is treated as normal storage against your vCloud's resources.  
      • We do incremental snapshots to a master image and typically calculate that a few days retention can be handled with 1.5 times the amount of data you are preserving.  
      • Add more for longer snapshots.
      • Thus if your VM has 100 Gb of disk, we recommend having another 150 Gb for snapshots.  So total resources would be 250 Gb.
    • On-Demand Snapshots.  About to do something risky? crazy? potentially stupid? with your VM?  Take a snapshot of it right before your semi-planned mistake.  Things go south, restore to the point in time of the snapshot.
    • Snapshot File Recovery
      • Need to get some critical files back?  From the web console you can create a cloned image of your VM disks using any of your stored snapshots and mount them on a Recovery Server (which is a special/different server in your vCloud that knows it's not the original server) and then simply copy the files you need from the recovery server.
  • CloudProtect
    • You can CloudProtect your sever, with snapshots to another Hyper-visor for extra redundancy.  It works exactly the same as a CloudProtect server at another site.
    • CloudProtect also allows point and time file restores as a second chain of backups not linked to your snapshot storage.  (e.g. a record of the original timeline and state after you do a snapshot rollback of your VM) 
  • Clone and Template Servers
    • You can clone your server and their disks; template and clone storage counts as normal storage in your vCloud.
    • You can create custom templates of your server, whether Linux or Windows. 
    • For Windows Servers we recommend using Sysprep to ensure you do not end up with two running VMs  that both think they are the same machine (albeit with different IPs)

Multiple vLANs

Need to segregate your virtual Servers into muliple vLANs?
  • Every client must purchase a first vCloud Suite with a Firewall, Public IP and Private vLAN.
  • If you want additional vLANs you can purchase additional child vClouds which include an additional Firewall, Public IP and Private vLAN
  • Link them via IPSec Tunnels
  • All resources, vCPU, Memory, Storage, Bandwidth are shared among the vLANs.

Remote Access

 
Accessing Your Servers
 In your vCloud you have multiple options
  • From your vCloud Portal each server is accessible via the portal via an Apache Guacamole  console.
    • We recommend using this simply to install VMWare tools on a Windows machine that was not built with our template (or with VMTools installed).
  • All servers in a vCloud are protected by your Firewall.  
    • You can define an OpenVPN User for yourself and connect with any OpenVPN Client, including the one we provide you.
    • If you have a firewall at your location that supports IPSec tunnels, create an IPSec tunnel to your vCloud.  
    • With either of these options you will be on your vCloud LAN.
  • For Windows Servers:  All Windows Severs allow up to two RDP Administrator Sessions.  Simply open TCP/UDP ports 3389 in your firewall mapped to your server.
    • Using this mode, unless you have multiple IP address on your firewall, you would need to use alternate ports for second and later servers.
  • For Linux Servers, open the NAT ports on the firewall for your preferred access mechanism.
  • On any server in your vCloud you can install our SparkView host application (Java based) 
    • Open/map web/ssl ports from your firewall to the vCloud Server.
    • On the server, follow our instruction manual for the simple configuration of the SparkView host application to add the servers in your vCloud.
    • SparkView requires no software on the remote servers or on any client.  Clients simply need and HTML 5 compliant browser.  See below for cost.
  • If your organization has available MS RDS Licenses for the type of Windows Servers you have in your vCloud, subject to your license agreement with MS, you can bring your own RDS licenses.
SparkView and Remote Desktop Services Access License
Microsoft requires a RDS-SAL license for every user accessing a Windows Server (other than via RDP for Administrative purposes only).   Software Guru packages an RDS (Terminal Services) license and a SparkView license together for one low monthly cost per named user.

For Linux and Webuzo users you can simply purchase SparkView client licenses and use SparkViews HTML5 VNC and SSH interface.
 Item  Description  Price
1 User HTML 5 RDS/VNC/SSH License SparkView Client License, MS RDS SAL User License  $ 6.00
1 User HTML 5 VNC/SSH License SparkView Client License  $ 1.00

When using your own SparkView server, SparkView is purchased in license packs starting with 10 users.  If you have fewer than 10 users you can use our shared SparkView Gateway for single users.

 

vCloud Resources

Resource Description Price/Month 
vCloud Suite
  • vLAN
    • Public IP
    • Class C Private LAN
  • Firewall
    • Unlimited IPSec Tunnels
    • Unlimited OpenVPN Clients
    • Load Balancer
    • Full FW Port and Policy Control Web Interface
    • VPN Tunnel/User Management Web Interface
  • Bandwidth
    • Unlimited INBOUND
    • Unlimited vLAN to vLAN
    • 125 GB OUTBOUND
  $25.00
Additional vLAN
  • vLAN
    • Public IP
    • Class C Private LAN
  • Firewall
    • Unlimited IPSec Tunnels
    • Unlimited OpenVPN Clients
    • Load Balancer
    • Full FW Port and Policy Control Web Interface
    • VPN Tunnel/User Management Web Interface
  • Bandwidth
    • Unlimited INBOUND
    • Unlimited vLAN to vLAN
    • Shared Outbound bandwidth with vCloud Suite
  $15.00
1 vCPU 1 Virtual CPU $10.00
1 GB RAM 1 GB RAM
Includes W2K8R2 or W2K12R12 Licenses
 $10.00
1 GB RAM Per GB used for Webuzo VPS  (Credit) ($1.00)
1 GB RAM Per GB used for Linux VM  (Credit) ($2.00)
100 GB HDD 100 GB SSD Cached RAIN Storage
Can be used for disks or snapshot storage		 $10.00
Public IP Address Additional Public IP $ 5.00
OUTBOUND
Traffic		 100 GB Additional Traffic-Monthly added to vLAN $ 4.00
Bandwidth Overage Per GB OUTBOUND Over contracted amount.  Per GB $ 0.05 
Managed FW Service Per FW/Per Month (For VPN Tunnel & Open VPN)
Basic Port forwarding to VM is included in vCloud Suite		 $25.00
End User Remote
Desktop Services		 Includes SparkView HTML5 Remote Desktop Client
(Not required for Admin access to Windows Server, or Linux)

 $ 6.00 
SQL Express 2014 SQL Express 2014 $ 0.00
SQL Web 2014 SQL Web 2014 Per 2 vCPU
(4 vCPU minimum)		 $20.00
SQL Std 2014 SQL Standard 2014 Per 2 vCPU
(4 vCPU minimum)		 $150.00
MS Servers Other MS Servers: Exchange, Sharepoint Quote
Offce 365 Management Manage Office 365.  Per user, $50/month Min. $5.00
Cloud Office Management Manage Cloud Office w/Office 365 Mgmt included. (See Cloud Office example) Per User $100 Min. $20.00
Basic Email Basic Email:  Web/IMAP/POP3 5 GB, A/V, A/S (Per User/Per Month) $2.00
Domain Registration Includes DNS Management.  All TLDs available Varies 
Consulting Software Guru Cloud Customer Discounted Hourly Rate $100.00
      

No Contracts, Just Discounts

  • All services are available on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual basis.
  • No contract other than for the duration of the service.  At the end of each paid term you are under no obligation to renew.
  • All services available for subscription/automatic payments.
  • Purchasing longer terms provides discounts.
  • For vCloud Resources.
    • Paying Quarterly saves 5%
    • Paying Semi-annually (6 months) saves 10%
    • Paying Annually saves 15%

Migrate Existing Servers

  Moving to the Cloud has never been so easy!
 
   Using our CloudProtect Technology we can migrate your existing physical or virtual servers!   
   
  • Simply create a CloudProtect VM in your vCloud
  • Install the CloudProtect Agent on your existing Windows 2008 or later server and initiate replication.
  • Once complete, establish a cut over window and bring the CloudProtect Server live and adjust DNS settings.
  • Optionally (and preferably) notify us and we can be there to assist you and ensure things go smoothly. 
  • Use your existing Windows Licensing Key or we can transition you to one of ours.
  
     

IOPS

 
 It's all about the speed!
SoftwareGuru.Cloud rests on a highly tuned RAIN system optimized for maximum disk performance.

For this reason we understand that our clients want to be able to optimize their VM's performance by setting different IOPS thresholds for their VMs.
  • In a RAIN environment the total available bandwidth for storage is based on the total data bus width of the Hyper-visor.  I.e. how much can that physical server perform per second.  Not on the storage devices themselves, which are highly scalable.
  • In s shared environment, e.g. a hyper-visor, data bandwidth is ideally apportioned between all clients on the hyper-visor.
  • Thus we need to apportion data bandwidth in IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) based on some measure of how the server has been divided up.
  • We have selected vCPU's as the measure of what proportion each client has.
  • In our cloud environment, each vCPU is allocated 330 IOPS.  (Yes, it's rather arbitrary, but there this is pretty complex, and we have to do something that is close to fair)
  • Clients receive an IOPS pool that they may distribute across all their VM's and the disks on those servers.  That pool is 330 IOPS x Number of vCPU.
 Typical IOPS Allocation
  • Our CloudProtect Servers which receive continuous replication from remote servers are typically set with about 200 IOPs per disk.  This is fine for a boot disk which gets quite a few changes due the page file.  Storage disks can drop to 100 IOPs.or less.  (This is pretty heavy)
  • Exchange Server Data Store with 150 Users, with about 500 messages in/out per user per day.  90 IOPS
  • File Server with 150 Users.  Typically such servers average 0.05 IOPS per user but can spike to 0.10 per user.  So 150 IOPS on the high end, and could be less than 100 IOPS.
  • Remote Desktop Server 150 Users using the server as their desktop would be between 500-800 IOPS.  (You will want quite a few vCPU's for that man users just for processing)
  • Average Windows Server Usage with a mix of functionality.  The industry typically quotes 10-40 IOPS per server We recommend about 100 Per Server (per disk)