Overview

A cloud server is like a regular server, only it is a virtual machine located in a cloud infrastructure. A cloud server offers advantages such as infinite scalability, as well as unbeatable availability, performance and price.

The cloud server model is a leading server solution for a broad a diversity of computing resources. From startup development to enterprise IT, cloud server models provide computing power that is immediate, requires no upfront investment, and carries no long-term commitment. A cloud server’s other main benefits are:

• Server set-up in less than 1 minute
• Instant scaling up or down as required
• 99.95% uptime guaranteed
• No hardware maintenance
• Low total cost of ownership (TCO)
• Simple backup and monitoring
• Unbeatable pricing

The AVL cloud infrastructure is distributed across several global, state-of-the-art, purpose-built data centers; located in North America (Toronto, Canada. New York, NY, Dallas, TX, Santa Clara, CA), Europe (Amsterdam,Frankfurt, London), Asia (Hong Kong) and the Middle East (Israel). You can launch a new server from any of these locations instantly, running Windows or Linux (we support any version and any edition available in the market – please see our marketplace for more details).

Instant Scaling

Our cloud servers can be self-provisioned and self-configured, using a simple management portal or API, to suit your changing requirements. With AVL, server capacity can be increased or decreased in minutes. Hardware components such as CPU, RAM, disk storage, load balancers, firewalls and much more, can be added or taken away instantly, simply by logging into the cloud management console and clicking on the desired option. You can even launch a brand new cloud server from a copy of your existing server, effectively cloning your original server – to the same data center, or to another location.

We charge only according to what you use, which means that you don’t have to increase your whole server package as you grow and pay for resources you don’t need. You simply pay for the extra features you add, by the minute. Inversely, if you no longer need a product or wish to decrease your server capacity, you merely log in to your management console and make the required changes, which will be instantly reflected in your invoicing.

99.95% Uptime Guaranteed

Cloud servers offer extraordinarily high reliability and availability compared to traditional computing infrastructures. Thanks to AVL’s purpose-built, globally distributed data centers incorporating the latest technologies, servers are kept stable and available at all times, under virtually any conditions.

Every component has at least N+1 redundancy resilience, which is a parallel backup device that will automatically be deployed in the event of a component failure. This means that any hardware failure in any power supply unit, hard disk drive, power phase, UPS, memory or CPU will automatically switch to an alternative device, without you having to worry about the configuration required to make it all work. Resiliency of the mains power supply is similarly maintained with backup generators.

No Hardware Worries

A cloud server releases you from having to worry about the management and maintenance of computing hardware. It gives you complete control over your hardware configuration, with the ability to add servers or communications hardware (such as load balancers and firewalls) and achieve immediate and unlimited scaling. You can view and manage your cloud server just like any other bare metal server, minus the headaches.

Low Total Cost of Ownership

One of the main advantages of using a cloud infrastructure is its affordability. Several factors combine to make AVL’s cloud infrastructure the most inexpensive server solution available.

1. Scale: The size and sophistication of our data centers allows us to maximize resource efficiency such as monitoring and administration personnel, electrical power for the servers and air conditioning, and maintaining fast broadband communication channels. Improving efficiency translates to operating our servers at a lower cost, and this advantage can then be passed on to our customers.
2. Modularity: The virtual nature of the cloud server means that you don’t have to pay for any resources you don’t need. Your package is totally modular and self defined so that you are not stuck with any unwanted resources, just the exact hardware and software components that you require as and when you need them.
3. Pay by the minute: AVL believes that it is wrong to charge by the day or month for something that takes a few minutes, such as a system check. At AVL, we charge by the minute to ensure we deliver the best value service to our customers.

AVL – You are in Control

AVL cloud servers give you absolute freedom to configure, scale up or down and add new components as required:

• Assign roles to administrators or users
• Root/administrator access to your servers
• Instant server configuration changes
• Add servers as and when required
• Remove servers without paying a penalty
• Through our proprietary API, you can setup servers and all other resources on-the-fly without being present
• Stop and restart your servers at any time
• Add databases of your choice (as many as you want)
• Choose your IP allocation
• Complete control over subnet and private VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network)
• Unlimited storage

Or if you prefer, you can opt for our fully Managed Cloud Service and let our cloud experts look after all your cloud computing needs.

Use Cases

AVL’s fully virtualized cloud servers are a low-cost, versatile and comprehensive solution to a variety of computing requirements. Below are some cloud server use cases, outlining the main advantages of using AVL’s cloud server hosting services.

Enterprise

Enterprise organizations can benefit from space-saving and labor reductions by switching to a cloud server infrastructure. With a cloud server system, a server room is not required, and server maintenance is reduced significantly. Time-consuming tasks such as managing, scaling and ordering new servers are easily replaced with a few simple clicks of a mouse.

A cloud computing infrastructure provides enterprises with a robust operating environment for client server applications, with virtually zero downtime. In fact, AVL guarantees 99.95% uptime!

AVL’s global network of data centers allows for enterprise companies to easily and quickly set up regionally located servers, providing a faster response time to users in that region. This in turn creates a superior user experience for your clients, and allows you to upgrade your online services to modern, browser-based alternatives.

SaaS Products

SaaS applications are often subject to rapidly changing server infrastructure requirements. AVL’s cloud server services allow SaaS companies to adapt and scale their computing systems easily and instantly, adopting a cost-effective model whereby you pay only for what you use.

Your initial server set-up can be designed as a modest infrastructure consisting of a single server providing simple processing, storage and database capabilities – and as your users grow, this infrastructure can be gradually increased, to keep performance at a maximum and costs to a minimum.

Websites and Applications

Content management systems, web services and business apps all require a high level of dedicated memory, processing power and database resources to deliver the performance expected of them. AVL’s leading technology ensures unbeatable performance and server speed at all times. AVL’s multi-server, multi-geolocation distribution ensures maximum performance.

With AVL’s cloud servers, you have constant access to cutting-edge computing power and tools, adopting a flexible scaling model to ensure you do not waste money on resources you don’t need, and our customer support services are available 24hours a day.

Development Environments

Development environments are highly suited to cloud server infrastructures, due to their sophisticated processing and often increasing resource requirements. Opting for a cloud server system offers the advantage of being able to scale, increase and add servers as required, at the touch of a button. These can be easily configured to suit your needs; for development, testing, version control, UAT, custom versions etc.

AVL’s cloud server solutions allow developers to choose from a variety of components with a simple, instant ordering process, no upfront hardware expense and just a modest monthly fee. If you no longer need any element of your cloud server infrastructure, you can simply remove it at any time and stop paying for it instantly.

Transaction Processing

A Cloud Computing infrastructure allows you to enjoy on-demand scaling when transaction processing increase and more computing power is required. Cloud servers allow you to increase resources as required by your particular business for example for seasonal events such as holidays, end of the month, end of the year etc. At all other times, you can decrease server power once more, and keep operating expenses down.

The same system can be adopted for other components that are often utilized by transaction processing systems, such a disk storage. With AVL’s virtual cloud servers, increases can be made in gradual, cost-effective increments – controlled by you in real time, or set to happen automatically.

On the Trading Floor

Online trading is a highly time-sensitive business environment that requires the fastest possible response time and cannot afford to be offline.

AVL’s cloud server infrastructure meets both of these requirements by guaranteeing 99.95% uptime, with the added advantage of being able to add resources at peak times, both manually or automatically.

Run any App

In addition to the examples listed above, AVL’s cloud servers can provide an effective solution for any business computing needs. Our cloud servers can run any software that you can run on your local servers, PCs or workstations. AVL brings that power – effectively and transparently – to the desktop of every administrator, manager and user.

How it Works

1.  Sign up for a 30 day free trial: The first step is to open a free, no-commitment account on AVL. 

A new account comes with a service credit for a small cloud server of up to 100$/month (according to the configuration you choose), 1000GB Storage and 1000GB Traffic.

2.  Set up a cloud server: In order to set up a server, you must access the Cloud Web Management Portal. This is a user-friendly management console that controls all your cloud server infrastructure components. Use the portal to launch a new cloud server according to your choice of: data center, operating system, CPU, RAM, storage and other system preferences. It’s that easy. If you want another server, just repeat the process.

3.  Make configuration changes as desired: Once you have launched your server, you can make configuration changes at any time.

More products and services are available in the Cloud Web management Portal and are available to be launched instantly with the free trial account.

Tech Details

AVL’s global data centers are located in New York, Texas, California, Amsterdam, London, Hong Kong, and Israel. The US data centers handles all of North American region and conveniently located in the heart of the financial and technological center, the Europran data centers are strategically situated to handle the European market, the Hong Kong center serving the Asian region, and the Israeli center handles the entire Middle East region.

The purpose-built facilities are designed to deliver the highest standards in technology, security, surveillance and disaster prevention, to guarantee 24 hour uptime for our clients. AVL employs only certified and qualified network engineers to ensure the highest telecommunication standards and provide customers with the best service and security.

Security Details

All our data centers are secured and guard with surveillance, and constant monitoring. Only authorized staff are allowed access, and third party contractors or visitors require security clearance to enter, and are escorted whilst on the premises.

All Data Centers are power failure proof, and every server connected to a conditioned UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) and is N+1 redundant and instantaneous failover to ensure continuity. In the unlikely event of system wide power utility failure, our centers are backed up with independent generator power ability to run the entire system without interruptions.

More over our backbone network infrastructure is based on multiple networks that is backed up by solid and tier-1 providers worldwide.

AVL Core Routing Equipment policy is kept at the highest level with full redundancy and enterprise class equipment. We use the latest technology equipped with hardware that is housed in a secured core routing room using only fiber carriers, and our network technicians are experienced in managing and monitoring enterprise level networks.

Technical Details

Our data centers are cutting edge, purpose-built facilities, spreading over thousands of square-feet. The following characteristics help them operate to the highest global standards:

• Maintained under a fully climate controlled environment, to keep temperature and humidity at optimal levels for electronic equipment.
• Ergonomically designed for quick and easy access for technicians, including wide aisles, raised floors, excellent lighting and underfloor cabling.
• High level security including multi-stage physical access control into and through the building, CCTV, security personnel, monitoring sensors and alarms.
• Infrastructure redundancy including power supplies, cooling systems and alarms.
• Electronic monitoring of device failures.
• Continual upgrading of equipment to ensure reliability and performance – every item is replaced after 3 years of service
• Advanced building structure to provide resilience against earthquakes
• Centers are maintained to a high standard; all VHAC systems are N+1 redundant to ensure a backup system will kick in instantly in case of power failure
• The cloud backbone is a fully redundant data channel with no bandwidth restrictions
• Multi peering can be applied on all routes to freely transmit and receive data from other networks through a fast network uplink

Geolocation:

We operate 18 global data centers, located in:

• North America: United States, Illinois,Chicago
• North America: United States, New York, New York
• North America: United States, Texas, Dallas
• North America: United States, California, Santa Clara
• North America: United States, Florida, Miami
• North America: Canada, Toronto
• Europe: The Netherlands, Amsterdam
• Europe: Germany, Frankfurt
• Europe: United Kingdom, London
• Europe: Italy, Milan
• Europe: Sweden, Stockholm
• Europe: Spain, Madrid
• Asia: China, Hong Kong
• Middle East: Israel, Petach Tikva
• Middle East: Israel, Haifa
• Middle East: Israel, Rosh Haayin
• Middle East: Israel, Rosh Haayin (2)
• Middle East: Israel, Tel Aviv

Compare To Other Solutions

Please take a brief look at the server service descriptions below to understand the various types of server architecture and how they compare to each other.

Traditional Dedicated Servers

This is a server setup in which the company, individual or organization owns and maintains their own infrastructure with little external support and input. The purchase of all required server hardware, installation and connection are up to the user. The equipment is traditionally either located in a data center, or in the organization’s own offices. The organization is responsible for server maintenance, security and upgrade activities, and often allocates a systems administrator to perform these tasks.

Hosted Dedicated Servers

A hosted dedicated server is where an organization leases a specific hardware combination from a hosting company. The servers and associated hardware remain the property of the hosting company and are located in the hosting company’s data centers, but are allocated exclusively to a specific client for a fee. Hardware maintenance and associated services are the responsibility of the hosting company, whilst features and preferences are managed by the client.

Self Owned Private Cloud

A private cloud entails a more elaborate setup than traditional dedicated servers. In this scenario, a more expansive range of servers and related hardware are purchased by the organization. As with traditional dedicated servers, these are physically located and maintained in the organization’s own data room. The infrastructure is run like any other cloud computing infrastructure, providing cloud servers to the organization itself, who is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of a relatively complex and costly cloud server infrastructure.

Hosted Private Cloud

This is similar to the self owned private cloud, but rather than purchasing the hardware an organization merely leases it in the same way as with hosted dedicated servers.

AVL Cloud Servers

That’s us! Cloud Servers based in an enterprise-class cloud infrastructure offer the best of all worlds. With AVL cloud servers, there are no upfront investments in hardware, no management fees, instant scaling, instant hardware upgrades and more… please see the comparison table below.

The above table compares typical server features. However, there may be significant differences between providers with similar technological approaches and the table is designed to represent a general market overview only.