*Business owners and IT managers are continuously faced with the challenges of having enough budget and IT staff available to meet the businesss demands for supporting and expanding IT systems and applications.

Most businesses would like to reduce the complexity of their IT infrastructure, and be able to scale their IT capabilities to accommodate the changing business requirements. They want to be able to get new IT services rolled out faster to support customers and employees.

They want to keep IT Staff focused on strategic revenue generating initiatives, and less time on routine maintenance.

Many businesses are now developing or considering strategies to utilize the Cloud to help meet these objectives, but they want to do so while maintaining complete control, improving security and reducing costs.*Virtualization and Cloud Computing is a technology that has become a viable solution to these types of challenges.

Specifically a Cloud Hosting solution represents a very attractive solution for businesses of all sizes? Outsourcing the routine maintenance of IT infrastructure and platforms is an ideal way to refocus skilled IT resources and scarce IT budgets to more strategic business building projects.*So the cloud is a big part of ITs future. But cloud computing isnt just a long-term future trend. Even if you dont depend on mobile users, hardware, and apps, cloud capabilities are available right now to deliver real value and they deserve a close look. Cloud computing can help you:

Reduce complexity by moving infrastructure components and management processes from a multi-silo infrastructure to resource pools that can be managed as units instead of one machine at a time.Dramatically reduce costs , maximizing resource utilization by pooling, automating operations processes, and using public cloud services where appropriate.Deliver and scale IT services regardless of where they are sourced or delivered flexibly using policy-driven automation and self-service.

*The cloud also helps your business keep things simple again, so you can move quickly without incurring a lot of unnecessary cost:

With less IT infrastructure to maintain on-site, software licensing and all your fixed operational costs decline

Since your on-site capacity is more fully utilized, so you get more value for every dollar of investment

It also keeps your people productive:

When you use cloud infrastructure thats compatible with your on-premise environment, your IT teams can organize according to specialty, instead of splitting up by resource location so you get more value from their skills and experience

You also get a compliance benefit, because consistent infrastructure means one set of policies, no matter where your computing capacity is located. That means lower compliance costs, and more consistent enforcement and reporting.

*Cloud scenarios for business focus on agility keeping on-premise resources lean and efficient, but with plenty of spare capacity available in the cloud when the business environment changes.

Using virtualization to consolidate on-premise resources improves efficiency and cost-effectiveness, maintaining quality of service and keeping IT focused on value-add innovations

And when customer demand, competitor initiatives, or growth requires a change in capacity, cloud infrastructure allows instant adaptation. And it works in both directions when the capacity is no longer required, scaling down doesnt require a lot of time and effort to decommission infrastructure, and theres no investment wasted on idle capacity

Most important, cloud infrastructure allows your business to innovate quickly, at much lower levels of risk

*IT is all about meeting urgent demands:

Users need new applications on tight deadlinesBusiness requirements change to capture new opportunitiesEmployee usage and customer traffic varies seasonally, or spikes unpredictably

Meeting those demands by building new hardware capacity is costly and time-consuming, even if youre already highly virtualized. When you use the cloud as spare capacity, youll always have the resources you need fully configured, secure, and scalable to meet any level of demand. And you can scale down instantly, without idling expensive resources.

Using cloud infrastructure accelerates every process that stands between an urgent priority and a completed project.

*Next Generation Cloud has been deployed in the Pittsford NY data center and is being deployed in the new Data Centers.

Customers are able to access their virtual clouds through their private networks and secure remote access. They may also us the public internet to connect in the same way that users of the cloud are most likely o connect.

Incoming traffic first hits the High Availability Routing and switching layer which is powered by Cisco.

Traffic that is routed toward the VMware virtualized infrastructure, first passes through a newly deployed Intrusion Detection and Intrusion Protection Firewall. This is a Fortinet Firewall and EarthLink is the first and only Cloud Hosting provider to offer this layer of security without charge. Customers can choose higher levels of Firewall protection at this level. vSphere also provides basic levels of security at this level with no extra charges.

The heart of the Next Generation Cloud is the Cisco UCS platform which supports the VMware virtualization environment. This is built on VMware 5.1 which is the industry leading virtualization software in the world. The Cisco platform in conjunction with the NetApp storage equipment is also know as the FlexPod, so this Next Generation Cloud is comparable to a FlexPod. So if a customer asks for a FlexPod solution Earthlink is providing that technology.

The storage layer is powered by NetApp, and this layer provides improved data protection and is now linked to the virtual servers by 10Gb connections for faster storage networking.

EarthLink data centers are staffed by engineers that provision and manage the operating systems and operate through security systems to protect client data. Likewise the data center security staff supports all security service through a firewall.

Customers may chose from a variety of managed service options supporting their Cloud Hosting deployments including backup, patch management, advanced security services, and monitoring. These are provided by EarthLink's Managed Services teams, and again there are security protocols to protect the Cloud.

*The Earthlink Next Generation Cloud is a state-of-the-art, integrated computing and storage cloud architecture platform designed to support current and future demands of the IT Services business. EarthLink is using industry leading technology platforms to provide comprehensive IT solutions.

Customer Benefits:Faster processing speeds 23% faster improved performance with new Intel processor (increasing from 2.2 Ghz to 2.7 Ghz)Improved storage networking: (10Gb) between virtual servers and storage unitsImproved off-site replication with new storage platformsGreater scalability for faster provisioningImproved performance and reliability with new platformNew High Availability firewall platform: more robust security, better reporting, less expensiveNew secure remote VPN access platform fully integrated with Cloud platformImproved MS Exchange capabilities active directory synchronization, new control portal

*EarthLink recently upgraded the Rochester NY data center to Next Generation Cloud platform. and Dallas and San Jose are on-line and now ready for service. Chicago and Miami will soon be ready for service.

Business nationwide can now leverage the Earthlink private MPLS network to connect their locations to their business applications and systems located in these data centers.

Regional Data Centers provide better performance for latency sensitive applications and improved diversity for business continuity purposes.

**EarthLinks team of IT Solution Consultants are engaged in the design of every Cloud Hosting solution, and every customers Cloud Hosting solution is custom designed to meet your unique requirements. You purchase only what you need and can quickly scale as the business requirements grow.

You select the OS (operating system) that you want, Windows, Linus or Solaris.

You specify the number of CPUs required, the amount of RAM disk space desired, and the amount SAN storage and backup. (example configurations shown in later slide).

EarthLink Cloud Hosting provides redundant high availability firewall protection, N+1 architecture and automatic failovers to keep your Cloud up and running.

You maintain complete control over your Cloud with a Control Panel that lets you scale real-time to meet rapidly changing business needs.

EarthLink Data Centers are highly secure and staffed with certified security professionals 7/24/365. (CISSP & CISA)

EarthLink is a VMware vCloud Powered service provider, and that means seamless interoperability with any other VMware cloud. VMware is the leader in virtualization and cloud infrastructure serving more than 450,000 business worldwide.

Businesses running VMware typically save 50-70% on overall IT costs.

EarthLink Cloud Hosting Earned the 2012 Cloud Computing Excellence Award from Cloud Computing magazine.

*Every customer has online access to their own unique Control panel to mange their own cloud hosting environment. Build your own server on-line and establish your administrator permissions. Connect your applications to internal and external networks.

Scale in real time as required, enjoy the flexibility of adding infrastructure and bandwidth without capital expenditures or delay.

*Another feature of our virtualization services is the ability to vCloud Connector to build VMware-based hybrid clouds. vCloud Connector lets a business copy, view, and work with their virtual machines across private and public cloud environments, while maintaining their security policies and protecting their privacy.

*So how much CPU, RAM and SAN do you need? Easy to answer if youre an IT expert, and well build a hosting solution that you specify.

Need help sizing the solution? Our team of IT Solution Consultants provides FREE consulting to help you design the right sized solution for your business.

By right sizing your solution, you pay for only what you need. And its easy to scale your initial design up or down with the on-line Control Panel as your needs change.

Shown here are just 3 example configurations to give you an idea on how you might size your Cloud Hosting solution based on the applications you want to support.

*NOTE: Dedicated Server is a First Generation Service, and will not be available on the Next Generation Cloud, and therefore not available in the new Data centers.

For businesses that require a Virtualized solution that is NOT shared, we offer a Dedicated Server Hosting service. This provides a business the benefit of owning a private server without the cost of purchasing a server of the hassle of dealing with the hardware maintenance.. Customers rent an entire server that is not shared with any other organization. Dedicated Server hosting is more flexible than a virtual private server as customers have full control over their server including the operating system, hardware, RAM, hard disks, RAID, backup, etc.

Dedicated Server Hosting is ideal for customers needing to run a high availability website or custom software. The customer does not share the hardware with any other customer. Customers have complete freedom as to what software and applications are installed. Customers may host as many domains as their hardware allows and have full access to the core functions of the server.

*There are three standard levels of Dedicated Hosting Server. There is also the fourth level option to completely customize the package you need.

An EarthLink Dedicated Server hosting solution offers complete control, increased flexibility, and high levels of performance, reliability and security. Customers can easily install, customize and scale any applications needed in a private, secure, dedicated server environment.

Customers can also start small and scale up at any time. EarthLink Dedicated Server Hosting plans have fixed monthly pricing with no guess work on how much our solutionCosts, and pricing plans includes hardware, bandwidth and monitoring.

*Network security and reliability is our top priority within our highly secure Data Centers. That's why our Bronze level of management is automatically included in our EarthLink Cloud Hosting and Dedicated Server services plans. You can gain increased levels of support by choosing to upgrade your services to the Silver, Gold or Platinum support packages. Opt for Silver to get 24x7x35 emergency assistance and basic monitoring or opt for Gold or Platinum to rely on our team for more advanced tasks like OS installations, systems patches and reloads.

The four levels of managed support increasingly offloads the burden from your IT team in running your servers and operating systems - giving you greater security and reliability. Let our certified server engineers manage your hardware, OS and IT infrastructure, so you can reduce costs and focus on optimizing your core business

*We appreciate your interest and hope this has been useful to you.

Well just quickly summarize a few of the reasons were excited about cloud hosting, and anxious to help you on your journey:

The EarthLink Bossiness approach to cloud hosting offers you an infrastructure that:

Works with your current infrastructure, policies, and management practices

Remains flexible and secure across your own resources and your new cloud infrastructure

Can be implemented incrementally, at modest cost

Stays aligned to your business and IT practices as they grow and change

Meets your business requirements, and doesnt impose constraints and practices that arent compatible with your goals

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