CloudSigma launched Version 2.0 of its signature infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) on June 20, offering features that are decidedly non-Amazon-like. For one thing, you provision the server you want, setting your desired memory, CPU and networking, rather than being given a pre-bundled server. For another, you’re billed for five-minute cycles, not by the hour, saving you money if the minute hand tips over the hour mark shortly before the server shuts down.
“We offer unbundled resources … With big data, you need a lot of memory but not necessarily a lot of CPU. Our approach is, you should be able to buy what you need and pay for what you use,” said COO Bernino Lind, a graduate of Copenhagen Business School. CloudSigma operates two data centers at its headquarters location in Zurich, Switzerland, and another in Las Vegas. It is planning to soon establish a second U.S. location.
Through CloudSigma, a user can order a large 300-GB chunk of storage and apportion it among a set of servers as he sees fit, rather than having to purchase enough pre-packaged virtual instances for the attached storage to add up to 300 GB.
For another, CloudSigma focuses on high performance and private operations. A user can specify a preference for solid-state disk, and get the resulting performance enhancement, if he chooses, he said.