Vigabyte goes virtual with new data suite

Shared hosting provider, Vigabyte, has launched a virtual infrastructure data suite that can provision and deliver virtual and dedicated servers in real-time.

Based on open source software, the service allows customers to deploy and scale their memory, storage and networking resources through a virtual machine connection. Founder and managing director, Anoosh Manzoori, said he spotted a need in the corporate and reseller market for this type of offering. Vigabyte is a part of domain name registrar, Smartyhost.

"We are finding corporate companies are running out of capacity with existing infrastructure, data centres are filling up, and there is greater need for storage and computing power," he said. "They want flexibility and scalability. Unlike your typical dedicated server, where you have to wait for it to be delivered and configured, our technology allows users to go to a Web-based console, fill in and submit a form and a virtual dedicated server is created for them."

Customers can purchase 256MB-1GB of RAM starting from $49 per month. Vigabyte servers come with 40GB of high-end fibre channel storage. The company's infrastructure is based on Sun Microsystems SAN hardware and VMware virtualisation software.

"There's no hardware requirement for the end-user. There is no locked-in contract either, so they can pay per month, as required," Manzoori said.

He said Vigabyte followed a two-fold sales strategy, with majority of its business being direct.

"We launched a pilot program for Vigabyte a few months ago where we secured more than 100 clients and there was a lot of interest there, which inspired us to ramp up," he said.