The GoPC.net Blog

Cloud computing is all about efficient IT infrastructure utilisation.

In traditional IT environments, we see a lot of isolated systems that are fairly similiar – ie a shared file (or data) server, a network, and some desktop clients. If you stand back from this, its actually inefficient. Those machines are often left running 24/7 – it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that there is a lot of idle computers (1E and Gartner hinted at a global cost in the billions in this report).

Another flaw in traditional IT environments is the lag time inherent in not having resources immediately available – a business has to balance maintaining a “buffer” of IT resources (staff, time and hardware) against the cost of those resources. Bernard Golden (Cloud computing will cause three IT revolutions [CIO.net]) talks about the frustration that users can feel when trying to get resources allocated (in addition to the culture shock that cloud computing is causing in the IT industry!).

A larger pool of resources is, in general, going to be easier to manage then a smaller pool. This is a basic resource management principle – matching resources to demands. The more efficiently that you can utilise those resources, the better off you will be (or so the theory goes!).

This leads to a natural “next step” of moving to shared physical resources. This is where cloud computing comes in – directly addressing the pain of matching IT resources availability to demand.

Gartner predicts that by 2012, 20 percent of businesses will own no IT assets.

For any business, there is a significant capital expenditure required to establish and maintain a minimum of IT infrastructure.

In a cloud based environment, much of this requirement can be pushed out to third parties (such as GoPC.net), who provide a complete desktop environment.

For a new business, this means that those vital early funds (and time) can be focused on establishing the core business.

As your business grows, you simply consume more of the cloud. If you need to expand overnight, your cloud provider should be able to support this – if they can’t, find a new cloud provider. Better yet, the inverse also applies – if that team of external contractors finishes a project, then your cloud provider should let you switch to a lower level of usage. You should only be paying for what you use.

Compare that to a traditional “in-house” IT system – servers, management and maintenance – the real question becomes “Will I get a return on this investment?”.

IT infrastructure should be supporting your business – not getting in the way!

A report by industry analysts Nemertes Research this week discussed GoPC.net as an example of how leading edge cloud providers are now deploying “desktop services”, in our case provisioning cloud-hosted Linux virtual desktops. It said this highlights the growing enterprise interest in both virtualized PCs and cloud provisioning”. It went on to say that, ” Half of enterprises expect to use virtual desktops before 2011“.

This succinct report from John Burke, Principal Research Analyst at Nemertes Research assesses the technology and market quite accurately. That they predict 50% of enterprise will adopt virtual desktops in the next 12 months is more rapid than we are budgeting on, but the growth rate will certainly be logarithmic and we are planning for explosive growth. This is not just another technology trend but a seismic shift for the IT industry as it is fundamentally changing everything.

We will also announce the release of some very heavy weight advances in the enterprise domain in the next couple of weeks which will add much more substance to this.

John’s report went on to reference GoPC.net further, citing strong investor interest in this sector:

“Investors: IBM (NYSE:IBM), Sun (NASDAQ:JAVA) and others offer desktop-as-a-service models; smaller vendors, including GoPC.net and Moka5 (privately held) are also building the market, and are take-over prospects for large service providers including Global Crossing (NASDAQ:GLBC) and Tata Communications (NYSE:TCL).” — John Burke, Principal Research Analyst, Nemertes Research

We have been presenting this picture to our investors over the last few years and 2010 is looking to see a part of this prediction come to fruition.

A quote I read in The Economist a couple of years ago predicted “As computing moves online, the sources of power and money will increasingly be enormous ‘computing clouds’”. For investors this will likely start to provide handsome returns in the very near future. Referencing power and money sounds evil but it’s just a statement of fact as the shift is occurring because of the compelling benefits for end users. Everybody wins.

Graeme Speak
CEO/Founder

GoPC.net uses NX to create a new generation of cloud computing, deploying virtualized PC desktop and server networks from within a supercomputer and reducing costs up to 90%

Rome, Italy, Jan. 4th, 2010 – NoMachine, creator of NX , the secure remote access, desktop and application delivery software announced that GoPC.net, a world pioneer and innovator of cloud computing technology, is now offering virtualized PCs and server networks in the cloud via NoMachine’s NX technology.

The GoPC cloud platform operates on a large grid of servers and uses NX technology with a backend server network to deliver the full functionality of PC workstations. Each user has a virtualized Linux desktop bundled with dozens of pre-configured desktop apps, ultra-fast online storage, group collaboration tools and security, all delivered via the Internet onto almost any computer screen. Using NX Advanced Server with NX Advanced Server Nodes, a grid computer array can be scaled to support hundreds of thousands of concurrent users.

NX Advanced products reduce downtime and guarantee fast provisioning, making them perfect for companies to scale out computing resources on-demand. The result is a new generation of cloud technology which can replace a traditional PC or server networks with equivalent functionality and save as much as 90% of the costs, support and logistics.

GoPC.net offers a much more functional solution to alternatives currently available in the cloud computing arena. Its adoption of NX has allowed it to fully embrace the growing demand by organizations to use virtualization technologies to deploy, maintain and access business desktops and applications in more flexible and efficient ways through the Internet.

CEO/Founder of GoPC.net, Graeme Speak said, “We’ve been developing cloud technology for over a decade and for us cloud means vastly more than just web apps and online storage. Integrating NX technology with GoPC has enabled us to create some amazing solutions that compete directly with traditional PC workstations and server networks and at a small fraction of the cost”.

With NX, GoPC.net delivers a sophisticated Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) with nearly 100 integrated desktop applications equivalent to a normal PC workstation. The fully managed solution is targeted at business, education and consumers who can create a single user account in seconds or deploy a sophisticated network of 1,000 users – all from a simple dashboard.

“NX extends the boundaries of any datacenter, and allows you to take advantage of external computing resources efficiently and seamlessly. The combination of NX and GoPC.net can empower users to run their enterprise applications at the location that best meets their business needs.” says Sarah Dryell, Business Development Manager at NoMachine.

“NoMachine NX is an essential element of our cloud solution, removing dependence on physical machines and eliminating most software license costs. It’s the core of our flagship consumer product and allows us to deliver the equivalent functionality of traditional PC desktops and servers via the cloud,” said Speak.

About NoMachine
Based in Rome, Italy, NoMachine is the creator of award-winning NX software, an enterprise-class solution for secure remote access, application delivery, and hosted desktop deployment. Since 2001, NoMachine’s mission has been to revolutionize the way users access their computing resources across the Internet to make seamless desktop access as easy and widespread as Web browsing. NoMachine provides a comprehensive software infrastructure stack, core development, and support services built around the self-designed and self-developed NX suite of advanced components. For more information about NoMachine NX technology, please visit http://www.nomachine.com.

About GoPC.net
Based in Perth, Australia and Silicon Valley, USA, GoPC Pty Ltd is a pioneer and early innovator of cloud computing technology. Originally founded as an Application Service Provider in 1995 by Central Data Pty Ltd, the technology was spun off into the GoPC entity in 2005. GoPC.net is a disruptive cloud enabling platform that delivers full desktop applications, web apps, storage and security via the Internet displacing traditional PCs and server networks. For more information about GoPC, please visit the company’s website at http://www.gopc.net.

Finally, after months and months of testing and data migration, we are ready to cut over all users to the new GoPC supercomputer infrastructure.

The change over will occur progressively over the next 24 hours.  There will be a couple of brief periods where all users will need to be logged off. This will be the first complete outage of the system affecting all users since we migrated the data centre in June 2006. It’s a record we’ve become very proud of but we’ve got to move forward. There are so many improvements on the new system, not the least of which is the time to create a new user account which drops from the current 4 minutes down to about 10-30 seconds.  Login times should also halve.  The next stages which will follow from this upgrade will be the rollout of new supercomputing nodes into North America and Europe and this will see a huge improvement in screen responsiveness for users closer to those regions (particularly Europe and Africa).

We have done our utmost to minimise the impact of this outage.  There are some areas which we have not been able to test until the live cut over is complete and there is the potential that we will encounter teething problems in some areas.  We will rectify any issues as soon as they arrise.  If you do experience any teething issues after the next 24 hours please contact us through the contact from on the website or email (support [at] gopc.net).

Once the new infrastructure is running we will start announcing a lot of rolling improvements to the system.  There will be a lot more choice available to customers, and a lot more freedom within some of the account types which we will have available.  Many thanks to those customers who have been answering our surveys and offering constructive feedback.

Graeme Speak
CEO / Founder