The Basics – What is SoftLayer?
The platform built to perform.
No two clouds are built the same way. SoftLayer gives you the highest performing cloud infrastructure available. One platform that takes data centers around the world that are full of the widest range of cloud computing options, and then integrates and automates everything.
High performance gear. All services in all locations.
SoftLayer has filled global data centers with first class computing, storage, and networking gear. Each location is built, outfitted, and operated the same, so you get the exact same capabilities and availability anywhere in the SoftLayer footprint.
Fast, resilient, and seamless
network around the world.
The data centers are connected by the industry’s most advanced network within a network, which integrates distinct public, private, and internal management networks to deliver lower total networking costs, better access, and higher speed. 2TBps between locations. Less than 40ms of latency into the private network from locations around the world.
India China Hong Kong Singapore Melbourne Sydney Tokyo Seattle San Jose Los Angeles Mexico City Houston Denver Dallas Miami Atlanta Washington D.C. Montreal Toronto Chicago London Frankfurt Paris Amsterdam Brazil New York City
India China Hong Kong Singapore Melbourne Sydney Tokyo Seattle San Jose Los Angeles Mexico City Houston Denver Dallas Miami Atlanta Washington D.C. Montreal Toronto Chicago London Frankfurt Paris Amsterdam Brazil New York City
All services in a single management system. All API-driven.
The data centers and network share a single, proprietary management system. One tool that ties together and lets you control everything—every bare metal server, virtual server, storage device, you name it—in a single pane of glass. All accessible by API, portal, and mobile applications..
How does SoftLayer work?
Building and operating a data center involves more than filling a room with servers. Every aspect of a SoftLayer data center—from location and accessibility to power density
and redundancy—is designed to guarantee its security, resiliency, and efficiency. We build each center to the same spec and equip it to provide the full SoftLayer catalog of services. And each is staffed 24x7 with experts to troubleshoot and address the rare issues that can’t be directly resolved through our automated management system.
Each data center facility features one or more pods, each built to the same specifications with best-in-class methodologies to support up to 5,000 servers. Leveraging this
standardization across all geographic locations, we optimize key data center performance variables including: space, power, network, personnel, and internal infrastructure.
The data centers maintain multiple power feeds, fiber links, dedicated generators, and battery backup. They are built from industry-leading hardware and equipment, ensuring the highest level of performance, reliability, and interoperability.
Every location is hardened against physical intrusion, and server room access is limited to certified employees. All of our controls are vetted by third-party auditors, and we
provide detailed reports for our customers’ own security certifications. The most sensitive financial, healthcare, and government workloads require the unparalleled protection
SoftLayer provides.
With data centers across the world, customers can provision cloud resources where (and when) they need them. SoftLayer delivers unmatched scalability and control because we built a different kind of network—a network of networks. Public, private, and management traffic travel across separate network interfaces, segregating and securing traffic while streamlining management.
Public Network
Every data center and network PoP has multiple 10Gbps connections to top-tier transit and peering network carriers. Network traffic from anywhere in the world will connect to the closest network PoP, and it will travel directly across our network to its data center, minimizing the number of network hops and handoffs between providers. Inside the data center, we offer up to ten gigabits per second of bandwidth to individual servers to meet even the most demanding network-intensive workloads.
Private Network
All SoftLayer data centers and PoPs are connected by our private network backbone. This private network is separate from the public network, and it enables you to seamlessly connect your services in SoftLayer data centers around the world. Move data between servers at no cost, and take advantage of our update and patch servers, software repositories, backend services, and more without interfering with public network traffic.
Management Network
In addition to the public and private networks, each SoftLayer server is connected to an out-of-band management network. This management network, accessible via VPN, allows access to your server independently of its CPU, firmware and operating system for maintenance and administration purposes. Perform OS reloads, power-cycle your server, or simply use the IPMI connection to watch your server boot up as though you were standing in the data center with a keyboard, monitor, and mouse physically connected.
Automation
Every offering on our platform—from servers and storage to firewalls, load
balancers, and even our accounting system—is controlled by a single management system with its own API. We’ve automated the deployment and management of everything. And we extend total access and control to customers through the same API, as well as through an easy-to-use Web portal and mobile applications.
Open API
The SoftLayer API controls everything we offer with more than 3,000 documented methods and 180 distinct services. It’s the foundation of our own internal
management systems, customer portal, and mobile apps. We give you complete access, so you can automate your SoftLayer solution to fit your unique needs.
Deployment Tools
With bare metal and virtual servers in a unified platform, we can do more with server images than you can imagine. Our Flex Images technology lets you move or scale between bare metal and virtual servers as your resource needs change. Our Image Import & Export tools let you bring your own image to SoftLayer, so you can migrate to SoftLayer with ease. And Auto Scale lets you automate adding and removing virtual servers with simple, flexible triggers that you create.
Web Portal and Mobile Apps
The beauty of our robust API is that it lets us provide easy-to-use management tools that streamline server administration. Manage any part of your environment through our Web-based customer portal. Or control your services on the go through powerful mobile apps.
SoftLayer Products and Services
Cloud Servers
Complex cloud environments can have multiple, widely-ranging workloads. That’s why SoftLayer provides powerful bare metal servers and flexible virtual servers in a single, seamless platform. As you expect with virtual cloud servers (but rarely with bare metal), it’s all on demand and billed on monthly or hourly terms.
Bare Metal
SoftLayer bare metal servers provide the raw horsepower you demand for your processor-intensive and disk I/O-intensive workloads. These servers come with the most complete package of standard features and services. Configure your server to your exact specifications via our portal or API and deploy in real time to any SoftLayer data center.
Virtual Servers
Virtual servers aren’t the same wherever you go. You expect any virtual cloud server to have speed of deployment, flexible scalability, and pay-as-you-go billing. SoftLayer virtual servers exceed those expectations. Our virtual servers deliver a higher degree of customization, transparency, predictability, and automation, and they integrate seamlessly with SoftLayer bare metal servers.
Cloud Storage
Whether you’re looking for standalone or secondary storage for a server, an out-of-the-box storage solution, or the components to create your own storage solution,
SoftLayer has the cloud storage resources you need. Big storage. Fast storage. Attached storage. Geographically-dispersed storage. Choose the cloud storage option that meets your needs for security, redundancy, reliability, and flexibility.
Object Storage
Easily archive, manage, and serve large amounts of unstructured data such as virtual machine images, media, and email archives with SoftLayer object storage—a robust, highly scalable object-based storage solution based on OpenStack Swift. Object storage includes pay-as-you-go pricing, built-in SFTP, full integration with our content delivery network, and the ability to store, retrieve, and leverage data the way you want to. Add the capacity you need when you need it, and access it however you’d like.
Networked Storage
Supplement your cloud server’s primary storage with powerful, networked storage solutions deployed on demand via API or customer portal, and billed month-to-month. SoftLayer provides multiple storage area network (SAN) and network attached storage (NAS) options, for file-based and block-level storage and FTP access.
Mass Storage Servers
You know your mission-critical workloads and their storage needs better than anyone else. So you should be able to customize and have total control over a SAN or NAS solution that fits your requirements. SoftLayer bare metal servers allow you to design and manage your own mass storage device with your choice of operating system or deploy OS NEXUS QuantaStor to create a turnkey storage appliance.
Backup your SoftLayer systems and content
Keep identical copies of your most valuable asset—your data. No one expects data corruption or loss, but it is far less expensive to maintain a backup than to have to recreate it from scratch. SoftLayer provides turnkey EVault and Idera automatic backup solutions, as well as the ability to create your own using our virtual or bare metal server running your own backup application.
Content Delivery Network
When delivering content and rich media, having the least latency and the highest speed is key to an exceptional end user experience. We’ve partnered with EdgeCast to offer one of the world’s fastest and most reliable content delivery networks. Distribute your content in 24 geographically diverse nodes and shorten the distance it has to travel to get to your end user. Avoid network traffic jams, decrease latency, and optimize the performance of your overall cloud solution.
Networking
Built on the foundation of SoftLayer’s
revolutionary network architecture, we offer an extensive catalog of network-related services to control traffic to and from your infrastructure. Customize network capabilities with uplink upgrades, load balancing within or between data centers, and software-defined networking appliances that protect and optimize performance.
Load Balancing
Distribute traffic loads so that no single device gets overwhelmed. SoftLayer load balancing solutions allow configurability and flexibility to manage the traffic and resource usage of server nodes in your environment. Local, global, and high availability options can be activated, changed, and deactivated at any time. And
if you have questions about which load balancing solution is a best fit for your application, our experts have answers.
Network Appliances
Save the hassle of provisioning multiple hardware and software solutions to serve as routers, firewalls, and load balancers. Use software-defined networking
solutions to create all-in-one network appliances. Deploy on SoftLayer bare metal servers, and with a few quick clicks, set and tweak complex network settings in an easy-to-use interface, and your infrastructure’s traffic management is updated in real time.
Direct Link
Simplify, secure, and speed up data transfer between your private infrastructure and your SoftLayer services. Or create a new hybrid solution that leverages the best of your in-house resources and the Softlayer platform. Plug into SoftLayer’s private network with a Direct Link in any of our network points of presence (PoPs), and enjoy unparalleled network performance to and from your servers in any of our data centers around the world.
Domain Services
SoftLayer offers domain registration services complete with dedicated support staff, knowledgeable customer service, and reasonable prices, all delivered over a secure network. We provide you the option of registering for a selection of top-level domains, including: .COM, .NET, .ORG, .US, .INFO, and .BIZ with our comprehensive and easy-to-use interface.
Cloud Security
Contrary to the name, the cloud isn’t always a soft and fluffy place. Hackers and phishers are capable of malicious activity that can cause damage reaching well beyond a single event. And they actively seek out vulnerable targets. Even small, seemingly innocuous gaps in security coverage can put everything at risk including data, customer information, uptime, and potentially your company’s reputation. Protect your data with security services.
Security Software
When it comes to security in the cloud, securing a data center environment and its physical server hardware is only half the battle—it’s important to protect your infrastructure from the software side as well. To help you keep your data safe, we offer a complete array of Intrusion Protection Systems (IPS) and Intrusion Detection and Prevention Systems (IDPS) software for both the network and server/host level.
Firewalls
Firewalls are an important step in securing your SoftLayer environment (and all the information stored there) as well as preventing malicious activity from ever reaching your servers or end users. When added to your security strategy, hardware and software firewall options will help ensure uptime, protect your servers and network, and give you greater control of your infrastructure’s protection settings.
SSL Certificates
Get peace of mind by securing your website against unauthorized interception of data. Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates provide a secure, encrypted connection between your site or application and your end user. Whether a customer is
providing their contact information or credit card information into a form, an SSL Certificate lets them know they can trust that their data will end up in your hands alone.
Compliance
Our compliance department works with independent auditors and third-party
organizations to meet the industry’s most stringent guidelines to provide you reports and information for your own compliance needs. The physical and virtual controls of our facilities, network, and customer portal are an extension of your own, and we make it easy for you to get the information you need for your own audits.
Find more information about SoftLayer compliance at this link: http://www. softlayer.com/compliance
Intel® Trusted Execution
Technology
Add Intel® Trusted Execution Technology (Intel® TXT) to enhance your security portfolio. SoftLayer is the first cloud company to offer the solution as an additional method to secure your infrastructure. As the cloud industry evolves, so does the volume, complexity, and sophistication of attacks on IT
infrastructure. Intel TXT provides
hardware-assisted security technologies to build a secure foundation.
Find out more about building a chain of trust and enhancing your security with Intel Trusted Execution Technology at this link: http://www.softlayer.com/intel-txt
Management
With our fully automated platform, you can directly manage your own infrastructure and do anything that a SoftLayer team member can do ... except for going into the data center yourself. Or if you would rather focus your time and resources on your core competencies and let us focus on managing your infrastructure, we have a team of managed hosting experts ready to help.
Controls
Use our homegrown resources to access, monitor, and manage your cloud infrastructure and your SoftLayer account. Our full-featured customer portal and mobile applications are built on the SoftLayer API, providing you direct access to your environment.
Management Tools
Repetitive and time-consuming management tasks like server replication, testing, and recovery are simplified and automated with our toolbox of server utilities
Monitoring & Reporting
Keep an eye on your servers without having to watch them. We provide monitoring and reporting resources that alert you to possible problems and can trigger support or system response.
IBM Managed Security Services
Ingram Micro offers IBM Managed Security Services (MSS) for the SoftLayer environment to help users with their security requirements. IBM MSS is an integrated solution that includes threat mitigation and has the following benefits:
• Fully integrated into SoftLayer
• Covers both virtual and bare metal environments
• Provides managed security and proactive threat monitoring and mitigation for cloud workloads
• Helps meet compliance log storage needs
• Fully managed vulnerability scanning and application testing services • Access to SME expertise – help remediate infrastructure and application vulnerabilities in the cloud
IBM Managed Security Services offered on SoftLayer today include:
• Managed Firewall
• Intrusion detection and prevention services (IDPS) • Unified Threat Management (UTM)
• Event and log management services • Vulnerability management services
• Hosted Application Security Management
For the latest security information please visit http://securityintelligence.com. These and other IBM Technology services are available from Ingram Micro.
Competitive Differentiation
Cloud without Compromise
SoftLayer defines cloud as on-demand compute with consumptive billing, not simply virtual machines running in a multi-tenant environment. The truth is that many clients erroneously believe that cloud is a commodity. SoftLayer stands apart from cloud providers who make core assumptions and mandate that all
resources are virtualized, and that all resources are shared. With SoftLayer, neither is mandated, giving clients more flexibility and opening up cloud computing to new applications and use cases. Clients have the ultimate choice – virtualization is a choice with a set of options and resources to be shared, dedicated or mixed.
Listen to Lance Crosby, founder of SoftLayer…
CLOUD WITHOUT COMPROMISE: SOFTLAYER PRESENTED BY LANCE CROSBY (27 MINUTES)
Cloud Built to Perform
Legacy workload enabler: SoftLayer supports a variety of deployment options, including bare metal, to address application performance requirements, allowing legacy applications to achieve identical or better performance than on premise.
Core infrastructure difference: SoftLayer’s
infrastructure is designed from the ground up for performance Its support for private virtual instances, dedicated and bare metal over a 3-tier network is the performance differentiator for clients.
As a Service or directly controlled
resources: SoftLayer supports “aaS” and
self-managed resources to allow clients to select their flexibility and performance.
Control
Embedded IaaS control: The Infrastructure Management System (IMS) provides
orchestration, visibility and automation capability of the platform. Keeping clients connected from a GUI-API-IMS infrastructure while providing increased resiliency.
Hybrid support: The network design and
fully automated platform allows physical and virtual servers to be intermixed and integrated on one network, controlled by one API, unified management system, ticketing system, etc. All resources can be deployed and managed on demand, and connected between SoftLayer data centers world wide.
Backend service endpoints (180+): Each element of the SoftLayer platform is
accessible by clients for control and a variety of views into the platform via over 2000 APIs.
Network
Global Integration: SoftLayer
seamlessly integrated three distinct and redundant network architectures – private, public and management network – into a “network-within-a-network” topology that by design inherently provides for maximum accessibility, security, control and high through put bandwidth usage on a global scale.
Network bandwidth: SoftLayer’s network spans all data center locations offering
un-metered, high throughput bandwidth usage between bare metal and virtualized instances regardless of physical location. Most network related operations are executed at no additional charge (I/O activity, inter-continental and inter-date center traffic).
Network differentiators
• Unmetered inbound bandwidth
• Multiple internet backbone connections • Automated IP routing and management
• Servers available with port speeds up to 10Gbps • Geographically redundant DNS
Reseller Hosting Solution
Create a hosting business on a platform that is fully automated via API and provides total transparency and control. Your customers demand peak
performance, and we help you deliver. We provide the unique opportunity to build on and resell any or all SoftLayer services as though they are your own.
Control Panel & Billing
Turnkey Web hosting solutions give customers complete server control and access to professional hosting and billing services.
Virtual Servers
Scale virtual cloud servers on demand to meet customer requirements during traffic spikes.
Object Storage
Tag, store, and find data in a robust, infinitely scalable storage solution with built-in search and CDN integration.
Virtualization
Private Clouds
Deploy and scale a complete stand-alone cloud environment at the push of a button.
Content Delivery Network
Put content on 24 nodes throughout the cloud, keeping it closer to end users to minimize the distance the data has to travel.
Additional Services
Enhance service offerings with features such as enterprise-grade firewalls and load balancers on demand.
By developers. For developers.
We were geeks long before we were cloud service providers. On day one, our developers set out to create the modular, scalable infrastructure services they wanted in order to develop the cloud solution of their dreams. So we started with an API that provides precision control. We wrap it around everything we offer. And we constantly find ways to put more tools at developers’ fingertips. We built the platform so you can build whatever you want.
Secure Platform
Our unique network architecture segregates public, private, and management traffic for you. Offering you all the access and control you need, SoftLayer was built by developers, for developers.
SoftLayer API
The Industry’s Most Comprehensive Open API
Message Queue
Cost-effective Messaging and Notification For Higher Scalability
Digital Transcoding
Audio and Video Conversion for Optimizing Content Delivery
Email Delivery Service
Highly Scalable Email Relay Solution
IBM SoftLayer Reseller Programs
through Ingram Micro
Ingram Micro has two SoftLayer programs to better fit your business model and needs. Please review the programs below, chose which SoftLayer program is best for you, and fill out this form to get started: http://www.ingrammicrocloud.com/softlayer-programs
SoftLayer Partner Program
Become an Ingram Micro SoftLayer partner today. The strength and flexibility of SoftLayer infrastructure offerings, together with Ingram Micro Cloud’s platform and white glove support makes this a winning combination for you. As an Ingram Micro SoftLayer Partner, you can get up to $100* in credit for a demo unit for SoftLayer! To learn more, fill out the form below.
SoftLayer Sky Program
Would you like exclusive access to resources and training designed to help you sell more SoftLayer services? Ingram Micro has developed a program to help stimulate your SoftLayer business by creating and executing a go-to-market strategy with one of our dedicated cloud experts. Partners with receive the following services:
• Financial Planning Session • Sales and Technical Training
• Joint Sales and Technical Engagement • Marketing Services
• Business Planning
• Level 2 Help Desk Support • Access to Migration Services
As a member of the SoftLayer Sky Program, here is what is required from you:
• Provide at least 10 end-customer with immediate opportunities for engagement with the Ingram Micro team
• Work with an Ingram Micro cloud expert to design and execute and internal sales incentive plan to drive SoftLayer opportunities
• Facilitate onsite or remote sales and technical training sessions with the Ingram Micro team
• Schedule regular Quarterly Business Review’s to build and measure a financial plan • Work with Ingram Micro to develop a joint marketing plan to get in front of more end-customers
For more information
WINNING WITH SOFTLAYER: BUSINESS PARTNER PERSPECTIVES (3.5 MINUTES) Video will load shortly...
Product information:
http://knowledgelayer.softlayer.com
Articles from the SoftLayer team
Additional information can be found on www.ingrammicrocloud.com
