The Planet, the global hosting leader, today introduced its new Server Cloud, leveraging the power of virtualization and backed by a rich technology platform. With fast and easy provisioning, Server Cloud combines the simplicity and security of dedicated servers with the elasticity of a cloud platform. The initial offering is designed expressly for hosting companies with critical web assets and applications, and hosting resellers looking to complement their dedicated server profile. The production-ready Server Cloud instances provide completely automated provisioning, with login in as little as five minutes. The Planet also provides its highly regarded around-the-clock service to support the Server Cloud offering.

The new Server Cloud provides the consistent high-performance and dedicated resources missing in other virtual server offerings, backed by its powerful infrastructure: Sun Storage Area Networks, Intel Nehalem processors, a Cisco- and Juniper-powered network, and Dell servers.

Using KVM – Kernel-based Virtual Machine – for virtualization, the recommended platform from The Linux Foundation, customers gain access to next-generation cloud capabilities. KVM is rapidly becoming the open-source community standard for virtualization and the agreed-upon platform for future development. The Planet Server Cloud uses the Canonical Ubuntu Server for its KVM platform.

“We’ve conducted extensive surveys with our customers about the features that are most important to them, and accordingly we’ve spared no expense in developing a platform that’s purpose-built for web-based businesses,” said Carl Meadows, senior product manager for Cloud Services with The Planet. “The industry is rife with cloud services hindered by inconsistency and a lack of redundancy. By contrast, our customers count on us for high availability, rapid provisioning, seamless scalability and generous bandwidth, which they’ll find in our new Server Cloud. Customers are able to fully manage all aspects of their virtual servers, as well as include managed services for the platform, which provides the best value in the business.”

“We have a broad range of customers from vastly different industries who count on us to deliver the finest quality content management systems and applications for their websites,” said Wes Byrd, CIO with Dynapp, Inc. (http://www.dynapp.com). “The Planet Server Cloud provides us with the highly available and scalable environment we require to respond to the expanding demands of our customers who want a cloud option.”

“As The Planet comes to market with its new Server Cloud, they are offering their customers very transparent information on the architecture and performance of the platform, with a clear understanding of the SLAs for cloud services,” said Michelle Bailey, IDC Vice President of Enterprise Platforms and Datacenter Trends. “Cloud products continue to proliferate in the market, and customers will look for this clarity to evaluate and compare offerings so they choose the right supplier for their business requirements.”