Got Questions?
Great, we got answers!
[01] — WHAT IS CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE?
At its core, you might think of Cloud Infrastructure as using someone else's computer, but there's a bit more complexity involved. Let's dive deeper.
These aren't just any computers we are talking about; when they're powerful enterprise-grade machines built for 24/7/365 operations and dedicated to business tasks, we call them Servers. When we connect these servers together so that various systems (or applications) can share resources, we've created what's known as a Compute Cluster.
Take several of these clusters, set them up with high redundancy to ensure that any failure in servers, storage, or the network components connecting them doesn't impact the systems and applications relying on them, and you have what's commonly known as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), or simply Cloud Infrastructure.
[02] — ARE ALL CLOUDS THE SAME?
According to the standard definitions provided by most Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), the infrastructure we've described above is often considered the entirety of the Cloud.
However, at Cloud Propeller we hold a different viewpoint. For an environment to be genuinely considered a Cloud, redundancy should extend beyond a single physical location. Should any issues arise with the base infrastructure, your systems and applications need the capability to seamlessly continue operations — either instantly or after minimal downtime, ideally 15 minutes or less — at an alternate physical site.
It's only when your systems and applications can autonomously withstand the complete failure of an entire physical data center that they truly merit being described as Running in the Cloud.
[03] — IS CLOUD PROPELLER INFRASTRUCTURE FULLY REDUNDANT?
Yes, indeed. Many of our clients are satisfied with operating from a single data center. However, we also serve clients with such stringent Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) that any downtime, even briefly, is unacceptable. These clients maintain operations in two data centers simultaneously, in what's known as an active-active (or hot-hot) setup.
Additionally, we cater to another group of clients who don't require dual active sites but need to ensure their downtime doesn't exceed 15-30 minutes. For them, we offer the Zerto Disaster Recovery solution.
At Cloud Propeller, we provide a genuine Cloud Infrastructure tailored to meet the specific needs of each business, ensuring our clients receive the precise level of service their operations demand.
[04] — WHAT IS THE UPTIME SLA OF YOUR CLOUD?
Our Cloud Infrastructure comes with a guaranteed uptime of 99.99% — commonly referred to as "Four Nines."
This guarantee in our Service Level Agreement (SLA) means that, in the worst-case scenario, your systems may experience a maximum of 4m 21s of downtime per month.
However, our track record over the last ten years has exceeded this promise, achieving an uptime of 99.9995% or "Five Nines Plus," translating to less than 2 minutes and 36 seconds of downtime annually.
Clients who opt for Hot-Hot/Cross-Data-Center deployments benefit from a 100% uptime SLA by design.
This level of reliability also extends to our Disaster Recovery (DR) customers, excluding the intentionally designed 15-minute failover period.
Essentially, Cloud Propeller has proven over the last 10 years to deliver exceptionally reliable, industry-leading uptime that surpasses what many hyper-scale cloud providers are able to achieve.
[05] — DO YOU OFFER SUPPORT?
US-based engineers who built, own and operate Cloud Propeller are available for assistance 24/7/365.
Since we run an enterprise Cloud we offer one tier only: Mission Critical SLA.
When you reach out to us, 100% of the time you will be talking to a person who is intimately familiar with your environment and who will solve the issue at hand. It’s a promise!
[06] — WHAT IS A VIRTUAL DATA CENTER (vDC)?
A Virtual Data Center (vDC) acts as a dedicated resource pool for compute, storage, and network capabilities, reserved exclusively for a single client or tenant.
These resources are not only guaranteed and never over-provisioned but also securely isolated from other tenants, ensuring 100% privacy. They are readily available to your virtual machines, which host systems and applications on the Cloud Propeller Infrastructure.
For instance, a typical vDC setup might include 64 virtual CPUs (vCPUs), 768GB of RAM, 2048 GB of All-Flash Storage, a Palo Alto virtual appliance serving as router/firewall, /29 worth of Public IP Addresses, and connectivity across 9 internal/private networks (VLANs).
You may utilize these resources as you see fit, knowing they are guaranteed, and secure.
[07] — DO YOU OFFER VM TEMPLATES FOR SPEEDING UP DEPLOYMENTS?
Absolutely, we regularly update our systems with monthly patches, allowing you to swiftly deploy a variety of operating systems in just a few minutes.
Our lineup includes different flavors of Linux: Debian Linux (versions 10, 11 and 12), Ubuntu LTS Server (versions 20 and 22), RedHat (8 and 9), ArchLinux, and various editions of Microsoft Windows Server (2019, 2022), among others.
Additionally, we provide install ISO images for all these operating systems, enabling you to set up a "blank" VM, mount an ISO, and install your preferred OS.
Moreover, we offer Pre-Made Virtual Appliances for your convenience, including the VyOS Open Source Router, Palo Alto VM-200 Virtual Appliance, pfSense, and several others, to further streamline your virtual environment setup.
[08] — DO YOU OFFER LICENSING?
Indeed, we are equipped to support you with a variety of needs. As a Microsoft SPLA (Service Provider License Agreement) Signer, we can supply you with a range of Microsoft products, including Windows Server, MS SQL Server, Exchange, among others.
Additionally, as a RedHat Certified Cloud Solutions Provider, we offer licensing for any RedHat product you may require (from RedHat Linux, to OpenStack, OpenShift and more).
Our partnership with VMware/Broadcom enables us to procure licenses for most VMware products, provided we oversee the product's post-installation management.
Lastly, as a Palo Alto Networks Partner, we are authorized to provide licenses for all Palo Alto Networks Firewalls, whether virtual or physical, along with subscriptions to WildFire, Global Protect, and other services they provide.
[09] — HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE YOU TO SET UP MY vDC?
About an hour!
You can begin your journey by Signing Up for a Custom-sized vDC in just 2 minutes, and we’ll reach back out to you shortly thereafter with some questions as to how you wish to set up your network, firewall and more, as well as to discuss contract terms (if you wish to go month-to-month, or benefit from deeper discounts by choosing a longer term).
[10] — HOW DO I GET MY EXISTING SERVERS INTO YOUR CLOUD?
There are indeed numerous methods to achieve this transition.
For physical servers, we can employ the P2V (Physical to Virtual) conversion process, transforming your servers into Virtual Machines (VMs) for seamless migration.
On the other hand, if your setup is already virtualized (using platforms like VMware or Hyper-V), the process to migrate your machines to your Virtual Data Center at Cloud Propeller becomes significantly easier. We can utilize Veeam to backup and restore your machines, or leverage our Zerto Disaster Recovery solution, which is particularly effective for cloud migrations. This involves protecting your VMs on-premise or in another cloud, and then replicating them into your vDC at Cloud Propeller.
Honestly, it all depends on how you wish to proceed. In some instances we can offer free migration as well! Ask us!
Cloud Propeller offers custom-fit, highly-secure, VMware-based infrastructure solutions using the newest, best-in-class hardware (across multiple data center locations) built to exceed client needs and expectations.
With us there is no risk of vendor lock-in. Only performance and flexibility everyone deserves.
When it comes to our infrastructure it’s enterprise-grade top-to-bottom. In our current iteration (Gen3) we use fastest Intel-CPUs (currently: 6246 @ 3.3GHz), rely on HPE Alletra 6000 Series Storage Arrays (NVMe-based), and interconnect everything with 100Gbit-based network backbone.
In 2024 we are going to be deploying our Gen4 infrastructure, so stay tuned for the new compute specs!
[11] — WHAT HARDWARE DOES YOUR CLOUD RUN ON?
[12] — WHAT IS A GUARANTEED 3-YEAR REFRESH CYCLE?
Our infrastructure is always evolving. We continuously upgrade our infrastructure to the most cutting-edge hardware available, replacing our entire stack, on average, about every 3 years.
This includes compute, storage as well as network infrastructure and upgrades are free of charge to all our clients.
This approach offers our clients a significant competitive advantage by ensuring their business applications are powered by the latest and greatest hardware, all without any additional costs. Equally crucial for many, this upgrade does not necessitate migrating to a "next-gen" platform. We achieve these upgrades seamlessly, without causing any downtime to our clients' systems and applications.
With Cloud Propeller, your business perpetually operates on the next-gen hardware, year after year!
[13] — WHAT HYPERVISOR DO YOU RUN ON?
Like our hardware, our software as well is enterprise-grade.
We rely on VMware Cloud Foundation at the core of our Cloud platform. This means vMware vSphere Enterprise Plus, vCenter, ESXi. Client’s Virtual Data Center (vDC) is fully accessible via self-service portal running on VMware Cloud Director.
For the Network Stack, we’ve moved away from Software Defined Networking (like NSX) and instead we now use traditional VLANs. Clients are welcome to bring their own (virtual) firewall if they please and we support just about any provider (from Palo Alto, to Cisco, Juniper, Fortigate, and even VyOS).
NSX SDN should make a comeback sometime in late 2024, after Broadcom/VMware acquisition dust settles a bit.
[14] — DO YOU OFFER A BACKUP SOLUTION FOR CLOUD CLIENTS?
Absolutely. All of our Cloud Infrastructure clients have access to one of the best Enterprise Backup Solutions on the market today; Veeam.
Backup schedules (as well as restores) can be managed right from VMware Cloud Director portal.
[15] — DO YOU VEEAM CLOUD CONNECT?
Certainly. Leveraging our existing Veeam Enterprise Backup Platform, which supports our current Cloud Infrastructure clients, we extend Veeam Cloud Connect services to any clients using Veeam for their on-prem protection (VMware, Hyper-V or even physical servers).
We're confident our pricing is highly competitive. Additionally, we provide data seeding services, alongside options for restoration to a hard drive, to a storage array, or directly into the our cloud infrastructure.
For more detailed information, please visit our VEEAM BACKUP page.
[16] — WHAT DISASTER RECOVERY SOLUTIONS DO YOU OFFER?
Zerto stands out as the premier Disaster Recovery solution for VMware (and Hyper-V) environments, surpassing even VMware's Service Recovery Manager (SRM) in all key performance indicators.
For our existing Cloud Infrastructure clients, we provide a Disaster Recovery solution that enables the migration of their entire Virtual Data Center (vDC), or select virtual machines if preferred, to one of our alternative data centers.
For clients already utilizing VMware (or Hyper-V) on-premise, we can protect those environments by replicating them into our Cloud Infrastructure.
Our Zerto DR Solution has an RTO (Recovery Time Objective) of under 15 minutes. Find out more on our Zerto DR page.
[17] — I HAVE MORE QUESTIONS?
Not a problem. If you made it all the way here - we must have missed something and would love to know what it is.
Please CONTACT US at your convenience, or call us at (614) 699-0909, and we’ll gladly assist you further.