Virtualization allows a single physical server to be partitioned into multiple "virtual servers", each given specific allocations of the servers memory, processing power and disk space. Because the resources are virtualized, it's possible to increase and decrease them on the fly - meaning you can scale up from a small virtualized environment to a larger one as your needs increase, or scale down should they decrease.

Cloud hosting takes this concept one step further. Multiple servers are connected together over a private gigabit speed network, and a grid operating system is installed on each of them which essentially binds them together. Not only do you now have the same ability to scale resources on demand, but you also have an in-built redundancy. Any data uploaded to a virtualized environment is 1:1 mirrored on a different physical server. Furthermore, the grid operating system reserves enough spare resources to withstand the failure of a physical server. In the event that a physical server fails, the data on it remains available and the resources are simply restarted elsewhere in the cloud. Best of all, this happens automatically, and takes just 3-5 minutes to complete.

FloridaNOC cloud hosting platform is powered by 3Tera's AppLogic technology. AppLogic adds yet another string to the cloud's already powerful bow, as it takes it beyond just a highly redundant scalable environment. It allows us to design and build complex distributed hosting infrastructures that would once have taken weeks, in just a matter of hours. Environments with multiple load balanced web servers, replicated database servers, firewalls and more, can all be tested, monitored and perfected at a fraction of the cost of doing so with physical hardware.