Similar to what happened in the early 2000's with shared web hosting, in 2011 we’ve seen many companies rush to market their Cloud service offerings. We are also seeing companies that don't have a core competency in hosting services entering the market. And we believe, just like in the early 2000's, in the years to come we will see several companies exiting the Cloud Services market because of inability to scale and poor quality of service.

Offering Cloud services is not as simple as buying the hardware and installing 3rd party Cloud management software. This might get the service up and running, but in the end without the experience and expertise of running large scale hosting operations this rush to market approach will lead to serious problems with scale, uptime, security and quality of service. And the poor experience that comes with this failed approach will tragically move the ball backward for companies looking to reap the many benefits of the Cloud.

In 2011, with an approach focused on quality of service, Brinkster made great strides in the development of our Cloud services. Brinkster is a member of the OpenStack Community, a global collaboration of companies working to produce the best available Cloud computing platform. We are researching the best available components and architecture, selecting only the highest quality to be a part of our Brinkster Premier Cloud Platform and Service offering.

Brinkster's approach to the Cloud is from the bottom up. Any company, as I mentioned before, can buy hardware and install Cloud platform software, but there are few companies out there that have the experience and expertise to build a truly scalable, high quality Cloud service from the ground up. In 2012 Brinkster will offer Cloud Hosting, Cloud File Storage, Cloud Computing (Cloud Virtual Machines), Cloud Hosted Email, Cloud Virtual Desktops and Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

In an effort to guide and educate our small to medium business customers on the Cloud, we are producing Cloud Magazine to debut in late January 2012 with the February issue. Click on the subscribe button to the right to sign up for a free subscription (a $49.90 a year value). Cloud Magazine will be available in the App Store and Android Marketplace).

What can you do right now? First, choose a hosting service provider that has experience and depth of knowledge. Second, begin to move your servers and infrastucture to a service provider and out of that closet in your office. Customers who take these steps will be best positioned to experience the productivity and economic gains that Cloud Computing affords.

Brinkster's dedicated servers are Cloud Compatible. When you sign up for any dedicated server at Brinkster you are positioning yourself and your company to be ready to migrate to the Cloud. See our Managed Dedicated Servers or UnManaged Dedicated Servers.