New Amazon EC2 Micro Instances Proposes Option for Low-Throughput Applications
Amazon Web Services, a cloud computing provider has introduced “Micro Instances,” which offer a low priced option for running lower throughput applications and websites that consume significant compute cycles periodically.
As stated by AWS evangelist Jeff Barr, Micro Instances (also known in AWS jargon as “t1.micro”) are now available in all regions, and start at two cents per hour for Linux/Unix and three cents per hour for Windows instances. The main aim of designing them is to provide a small amount of consistent CPU resources, with the ability to burst CPU capacity when additional cycles are available. They are available in both 32 and 64 bit varieties, both with 613 MB of RAM.
Announcing it happily he said “I can’t tell you how many of you have told me you’d like to run smaller applications at lower cost on EC2. These applications are typically low traffic/low throughput—web applications, web site hosting, various types of periodic cron jobs and the like,” Barr wrote in a blog post. “I’m happy to say we have now built an instance type exactly for these purposes.”
One more interesting option is “Reserved Micro Instances”. It pairs Micro Instances with the Reserved Instances option that was introduced last year which gives users the option to make a one-time payment to reserve an instance giving them in turn a significant hourly discount on using that instance. Micro Instances on the instance marketplace Spot Market can also be bought by the users, but market conditions would be determinant of the price of these instances.
With respect to the tracking of the Instances, AMS stated that they can be tracked with Amazon’s CloudWatch utility. And if CPU utilization approaches 100 percent, the user can decide to scale to additional Micro instances or to a larger instance type.
Email Platform for Accountants by Apptix, CPA2Biz
CPA2Biz, a Web-solutions provider for CPAs, and business hosted services provider Apptix declared their partnership in order to offer CPA firms a secure and reliable email platform to communicate with their colleagues and clients.
As part of the agreement, Apptix joins CPA2Biz’s suite of online solutions offered through its Trusted Business Advisor platform, thereby expanding on the scope of the services offered to CPAs.
The Apptix-powered CPA2Biz Email Solutions provide CPA firms with many benefits over basic email services as provided by Gmail and Hotmail, including access email via Outlook, Entourage and Outlook Web Access, back up and secure email data, use built-in anti-spam and anti-virus protection, manage contact lists, and simplify scheduling with shared calendars.
The solution will gain an upper hand over many of the basic email services which tend to lack full integration with Microsoft Office, which is widely used throughout the accounting profession and links the firm’s tax, audit, accounting and administrative applications.
Focusing on the importance of emails in business, David Ehrhardt, CEO of Apptix said “As a CPA, I know how essential email has become for doing business and communicating with clients. Our solution offers firms more reliable and secure email and collaboration capabilities than a free Webmail service, and eliminates the hassle and expense of maintaining in-house hardware and software.”
It also includes live 24-hour US-based customer support, a simplified management portal where users can be added or deleted, the ability to receive email on mobile devices, and the use of SharePoint, Secure Instant Messenger and online data backup.
Apptix joins Bill.com, Capital Confirmation, Copanion, Intacct, Paychex and XCM Solutions as part of CPA2Biz’s Trusted Business Advisor Solutions platform.
Web Host Go Daddy Up for Sale
In accordance with the report by The Wall Street Journal, Go Daddy, a web hosting provider and domain registrar has put itself up for sale in an auction that could potentially earn more than $1 billion.
A boutique firm Qatalyst Partners has been hired to shop around the Go Daddy Group. It is expected that private-equity companies will bid for the Scottsdale, Arizona Company, drawn to its steady cash flow which stems from its monthly fee-based hosting packages and add-on features.
The reported revenue of 2009 of Go Daddy was between $750 million and $800 million. This company has gained a household name with its advertising strategy.