Cybernet Launches Pakistan's First Cloud Solution

By Aamir Attaa | 30, May 2012 | 121 Comments

2012 05 29 18.06.55 Cybernet Launches Pakistans First Cloud Solution Cybernet, an enterprise network and data service provider, has launched Pakistan’s first commercial cloud infrastructure, Pakistan’s very own, in a ceremony held in Islamabad yesterday.

Cybernet’s cloud solution, dubbed as RapidCompute, is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) cloud platform that is said to be deployed and maintained by in-house expertise and support structure of Cybernet.

Shahid Ahmed Khan, CEO Cybernet, said that RapidCompute will enable businesses across Pakistan to avail important benefits of cloud services that were previously not available in the country. Mr. Khan claimed that locally deployed RapidCompute will reduce network latency by 90 percent for those accessing the cloud network with-in Pakistan.

Cybernet said that it took them an year or so to build the infrastructure from scratch to eventually launch the cloud solution that they are aiming to sell to small to large sized organizations in Pakistan and abroad.

Cybernet said that RapidCompute is built on Cybernet’s datacenter facility in Karachi, while they are planning to establish more datacenters in Islamabad, Lahore and another in Karachi too. Mr. Shahid revealed that Cybernet has plans to invest in cloud computing beyond Pakistan as well.

Company said that its aim is to provide the local businesses and organizations with an opportunity to experience high performing, flexible, robust and cost-effective computing infrastructure with zero capital to start with. While they will have to only pay for the resources they will use.

You can access official website of RapidCompute by clicking this link: http://www.rapidcompute.com/

Pricing:

RapidCompute’s pricing seems to be fair. Given the network is deployed in Pakistan, this is probably the best they could offer. Understandably, network bandwidth is pricier than any foreign competition.

You can click on this link to have an idea of cost for a cloud server based on your requirements.

A detailed service review on RapidCompute with comments on after sale support is likely to come in soon. Meanwhile, you can sign-up for the service and start configuring and running cloud instances.

Cybernet said that payment options include bank deposit, cash deposit at banks and CyberNet offices. Payments through Credit Card will be made available soon.

http://linguisticslearner.blogspot.com/ Muhammad Shakir Aziz

I have just one questions. How are they going to power this infrastructure? :O
- Saeed
  
  Dudu. they have all backup solution regarding power.
  
  Don’t worry.
- Khan Abdullah
  
  Following are the “powering” muscles of this infrastructure:
  + mid-low level hyperviser (xenserver)
  + unknown compute hardware (not RISC or blade or enterprise class servers, thats for sure)
  + vague network design (as far as I know, they are not using any kind of load-balancers or such stuff)
  + security is a big question mark (un-addressed)
  + DR is not addressed
Collegejeans

what is cloud solution?
Khan Abdullah

Initiative is good. Cybernet has followed the hot trend of jumping into the cloud that is prevailing for last couple of years. Although Cybernet has choosen simplest service to offer (virtual hosted server); design and implementation are weak. Serious business can’t afford to run their applications on less reliable and free-ware/open-source platforms. Just ask Cybernet about their hardware/software platform (and most impotantly the design), before you decide to give it a consideration. Evaluate the information if Cybernet can share with you and tell whether it can be called a “Cloud Solution”. – Khan
- Saeed
  
  You are correct.
  
  Technically speaking this is not cloud solution, cloud is something different solution.
  
  You can say this solution is: VPS – Virtual Private Server/virtual hosted server.
  
  On cloud solution, you really don’t know where are you connected from – means you can connect your application from different data centers if suppose one data center down then you automatically switch to other DC.
  
  You can check cloud solution by amazon, rackspace, Microsoft companies.
  - AtEvent
    
    I was at the event and went into great detail with Cybernet engineers. And they demoed me the solution to us who run our ERP application on Rackspace Cloud.
    
    This is not a VPS solution. It is the real thing very similar to Rackpace. The cloud solution is run on Onapp I think which is well known cloud solution. But I think Rackspace is run on OpenStack.
    
    As regard to elastic, I think people commenting have not used clouds. For these clouds like Rackspace you can add cpu and memory in lock step which is the same as RapidCompute
    
    They have basic DR now. They have server level redundancy so that if the entire server with all cloud instances goes down they will be booted on other server.
    
    Amazon and Rackspace clouds do not automatically switch you to other DC. This is a new feature that they have added. RapidCompute said they are adding this. I know from some sources that they are looking possibly to have a small installation outside of Pakistan (in Middle east) but I don’t know for certain because bandwidth prices there are too high. Perhaps they are partnering with Etisalat or Qatar Tel or some other Middle Eastern operator.
    
    Maybe RapidCompute is sometime away from reaching Amazon and Rackspace but it is captures some of the most important features.
    
    Great effort and I just hope they sustain this.
    - Khan Abdullah
      
      I do appreciate the initiative but want to point out the areas on which cybernet needs to work in order to declare it a cloud solution. Take it +ve.
      In first place cybernet had to decide whether they want to follow a cloud solution provider’s path OR come up with their own model? If Cybernet wants to do it their own way; the have to prove and qualify it to be a cloud solution. As we all know three basic attributes of a cloud are (1) Agility (2)Elasticity (3) Availability.
      +On agility, we as a customer can only evaluate provisiong, booting and migration time lags. Rest only cybernet can tell how agile is it at back-end from cloud admin’s perspective.
      +On elasticity, I doubt that cybernet has elastic stateful memory handling which is the heart of elasticity. (I want to make a correction here that at back-end, amazon has this capability on distributed storage. Pls dont deduce result from what you see on end-user self-service interface)
      +On availabality: Can you call some level of redundancy within a rack a “Basic DR”?.
      A customer can ask that what is the load-bearing capacity of the solution? (What are the security features and performance limits? How much IOPs can it handle, what load of ddos attack can it sustan etc.?)
      If its a matter of a couple of physical servers running a hypervisor with a central provisioning interface and providing online migration of VMs between hosts, secured by redundant firewalls with redundant uplinks-> I already have this cloud in my current enterprise environment. Would you allow me to call this internal environment of mine a “Cloud”? I’ll be more then happy and will never give appointment to EMC and Microsoft to waiste my time again.
      (Ex. Distributed Solution Engineer, Bell – Canada)
      - Jahanzaib Quraishi
        
        I am not sure what you mean by ‘declare it a cloud solution’. I am reading the posts here and it looks like they are using Openstack or whatever have you as their main cloud controller, server nodes and storage (centralized? or decentralized I’m not sure). For openstack they have to be implementing fast decentralized storage. I’d be very impressed if they are doing this. In my experience with developing scalable apps to run on clouds this a huge undertaking.
        
        My friend heads up TAC at a cloud solution provider in Colorado and we were talking when this cybernet cloud was launched. There are many variants to a cloud with different types of hypervisor, base Operating System, storage architecture and cloud definition is quite broad. Today pretty much anything above a VPS type service that provides an abstraction of processor, memory and storage and the ability to select varying amounts of each and on the fly can be called a cloud. Cybernet looks like it.
        
        Having had said this openstack hypervisor takes care of the elasticity, availability and agility. This is not rocket science. Really. Its not. It just takes a lot of investment.
        
        Where I agree with you Khan Abdullah is that the key to a good cloud is IOPS not DDOS but IOPS. For openstack this is solved by having a lot of local disks connected on the fast SATA bus. It will be good to get Cybernet’s numbers before we should form an opinion.
        
        Regarding your EMC and Microsoft comment, I think these are used for private clouds mostly. It would be a disaster if this Cybernet Rapidcompute cloud actually used such expensive components for a public cloud. Some cloud companies targeting very specialized applications and distinguished clients are offering this. But it is VERY VERY expensive let me tell you. Not the prices Cybernet is offering.
        
        Oh and good to hear you are an ex Distributed Solution Engineer at Bell Canada. I think the cloud you had there was mostly for private cloud or for high enterprise private cloud. Your private environment can be made a cloud by adding a cloud controller and implementing architecture around it. Facebook and Rackspace I think use the openstack cloud controller.
        
        Khan Abdullah
        
        Doesnt a service provider need more horsepower and technology maturity to support a public cloud? I guess a service provider cant put its reputation at stake with less mature and not so strong building blocks. Regarding financial sustainablity from cyber’s business plan perspective, yes it comes down to what your target market is. If its targeted for non-critical consumption then the cheaper ther better. Had cybernet has a strong business plan for corporate market target, then ROI should not be a problem while going with mature solution. (Pls dont say that such and such components are mature in this offering while others arent)
        Well NO, popular commercial products are not meant for private cloud only. Apple cloud with EMC and salesforce with NetApp are just a couple of examples. Infact if an organization already has a private cloud then it is very easy to justify it for hybrid cloud, (plugging parts of your service to public cloud which have greater operational cost if you keep them private). It is much simpler to plug into a public cloud in this case for such an organization (given that service provider can inspire confidence). Unfortunately today we have only a couple of such enterprises in Pakistan, but awareness is bieng spreaded very fast so look forward for a paradigm shift in months to come.
        Nevertheless as I said, if target is non-critical and low workload machine hosting – cybernet’s product can get a chance in market.
        
        Grudge 2
        
        How do you know they don’t have the horsepower? Looking at their website, they claim to be using Intel & AMD processors which seem to be the same for Rackspace and Amazon. Do you actually know what they are running? If yes, please share with us. Otherwise, stop assuming and bashing without a shred of evidence.
        
        Also, from an IOPS perspective, they seem to be offering 2 different kind of storages which is a different route compared to other providers. They actually seem to be segmenting storage into performance and capacity.
        
        For an enterprise which has an IOPS intensive application, I think they’d question Cybernet before moving to them which is pretty easy since they are sitting in Karachi.
        
        Khan Abdullah
        
        Cool down friend. I am really amazed by your great deal of understanding about what “horsepower” is for an IT environment. I didnt assume, I did a serious evaluation with all available information cuz I wanted to give it a try for my requirement. Not to mention that I was a little disappointed, looking forward for basic improvements.
        Dont get too emotional.
        Cheers
        
        Tech Talk
        
        With all due respect sir, i am not usually an active commenter but have a fair bit of experience in the storage and processors domain, I have yet to see you mention anything on the specs shared by cybernet on their cloud. You have simply stated that they are not good enough and cant support high end apps without even shedding a bit of light on the reasons why. While i do not doubt your knowledge one bit , but since this is a technical forum , you owe it to all of us to give us inciteful reasons why you feel so. If you cannot, then brother GRUDGE 2 is right in feeling offended for the needless putting down of a local effort which may very well be a decent offering. Since i am also a copywriter on some local websites , i did go through the entire literature and could find nothing to imply low workloads. I think the right thing would be for us to request cybernet via ProPakistani to post some benchmarks so that we can clearly determine if they can host high end apps.
        
        Salaam
        
        Khan Abdullah
        
        Brother I am not belittl’ing the effort. But neither storage and processor are all about IT workhorse. It is totally inappropriate to share detailed technical information that I manage to gather on this public platform, contact cybernet for this and they will share whatever they can classify as “public”.
        If you are really interested in giving it a shot instead of just shouting “zindabad” (reminded me of a socio-political group who prepared a wooden misile and displayed it on a truck around the city); you should rather be confirming from cybernet that “are there some changes expected in final release? Would network loop-holes be plugged by the time?”
        Or its just the word “beta” since cybernet management is not fairly confident in technical team and wanted to have a reason for excuse in case any unaddressed major flaws are highlighted on public launch.
        I wish cybernet all the best with future releases of this service.
        
        Google Beta
        
        @Khan sb Abdullah,
        Gmail was in beta for 5 years but nobody doubted the capabilities of Google and said their product was crap or unhatched.
        http://techie-buzz.com/featured/gmail-leaves-beta.html
        
        I don’t think that Cybernet engineers are of that standard yet but we need to give them benefit of doubt. Gmail added features over 5 years and so are we saying they shouldn’t have launched gmail or Cybernet shouldnt have introduced this service because it doesn’t have all the features of American cloud services?
        
        I think it is amazing that Cybernet has done this launch at this time. It is very timely. A lot of companies have been talking about it for years but this is the first decent implementation. I used the 2gb instance of Windows Server 2008 and it was blazing fast. I must admit I have yet to put greater load on it and Im going to put high amount of transactional data to check if the IOPS hold in actual data on their performance storage. So far on sample data it looks good.
        
        Will report back. Just dropped in to say that calling a product beta is not a big deal.
Jamil M

Does cybernet have appropriate technical experts to deploy and run this thing :p
“Cloud” seems to be too big an undertaking for them. I have been a user of cybernet for years and came to know that whole technical team has left a couple of years back. Support standard is not satisfactory.
- Patriot
  
  “Cloud” seems to be too big an undertaking for them.
  
  Have faith in your Pakistani brethren. That’s the same thing they said for Pakistan Nuclear bomb. But the Pakistani engineers proved to the world.
  
  Pakistan Zindabad.
  - Jamil M
    
    But for that project we had Dr. AQ Khan.
    Come on man… dont be fooled by term “cloud”. We should have courage to evaluate our efforts on right scale. We expect more mature efforts from our brethern rather then advertising meagre solutions with false pride. This “cloud” doesn’t even match university students cloud projects.
    
    Pakistan Paindabad
    - Jahanzaib Quraishi
      
      Interesting. Can you point to which university students are doing a cloud project. This would be very interesting to highlight. And we as Pakistanis should honor them.
- Grudge
  
  Seems like you have a personal grudge against them. Their support as far as I know is pretty good. One of the best in the industry. But don’t take my word for it, I work closely with Cyber.
  As regards to too much of an undertaking for them, I don’t know what you’re on about, who is not too much of an undertaking for? The people at PTCL? No wait as per your message below, some students who The company could have hired (hint hint) or then only Dr AQ Khan.
  - Jamil M
    
    Well I am a victim of their support.
    Kindly check SSUET 2010 BS computer guys cloud project if you get a chance. Also check NEDUET students 2009 project of cloudware. I had a chance to be external coordinator for SSUET guys.
    Dont take PTCL light, they are getting fresh blood to solve their only big problem of HR.
    Besides I believe that even if we dont have any now, many AQ Khan’s are on the way.
    - AtEvent
      
      Please Mr Jamil M, I think you are kindly unaware of the standard of education in universities in Pakistan. First, cloud computing is not taught here and second even if taught, it is done so superficially without any practise labs (otherwise they’d all have clouds).
      
      Finally, trust me I am not saying there is no talent in Pakistan. There is, and it is because of the students and entrepreneurs own initiative to go far far beyond what the schools teach here.
      
      Kindly send the link of NEDUET and SSUET 2010 project so that we can evaluate.
      - Jamil M
        
        I intentionally chose to mention local universities. Leave aside western universities where you can find much better quality projects. BTW does a university need to have a course with the title “Cloud Computing” so that their students can do a project? Come on man … :) Please visit university department of copmuters and get a copy. At NEDUNET you can get an appointment from Prof. Hasina Khatoon.
        Yes I agree that its students own intitative usually when we talk about Pakistani universities.
http://blog.mustu.info Mustafa Qasim

I’m evaluating it these days. It’s true that RapidCompute isn’t yet a “Cloud Computing” infrastructure because it lacks the very essential ingredients of cloud which is elastic instances which can be scaled up or down via APIs depending upon resource consumption; neither they have multiple location to overcome geographical disaster.

However It’s an Awesome effort to be done in Pakistan. Hope it will keep getting mature in coming days. We should all support such efforts.

We need more efforts to grow our expertise in HPC and Cloud Computing.

InshahAllah Pakistan will be strengthen by such efforts.
- AtEvent
  
  It’s true that RapidCompute isn’t yet a “Cloud Computing” infrastructure because it lacks the very essential ingredients of cloud which is elastic instances which can be scaled up or down via APIs depending upon resource consumption; neither they have multiple location to overcome geographical disaster.
  -
  See my post up. They are using Onapp or maybe some other stack like Openstack which Rackspace uses.
  
  They have ability to upgrade CPU resources on fly but it is a manual process. Automatic elasticity was added by Rackspace and Amazon also just 1 year ago after they were big in cloud business. We actually have instance on Rackspace but chose to turn this ‘new feature’ off because of fear that a DDOS attack etc would blow our resource consumption and bankrupt us.
  
  Also see about DR up. Nobody provided automatic DR till this year and that also within same zone not across zone or countries. We wanted this features at Rackspace but IP address cannot be mapped across country.
  
  I hope ProPakistani will do a follow story of this service with Cybernet.
  - Jahanzaib Quraishi
    
    What elasticity are you gentlemen discussing here? It is safe practise in clouds to have an upper lock on instance bandwidth and cpu unless you are like CNN and dont have limit on the number of people contacting you at the time of huge breaking news story – and in which case your ISP is probably going to cop out before anything. DDOS is completely different and your cloud provider like it or not will blackhole ur IP before you know it in case you get hit with ddos.
Shahid Saleem

Why isn’t propakistani.pk switching to it?
http://www.ghumfree.pk Pakistan Classified Ads

Great effort indeed. Congrats on it.
Salman Abbas

Just putting their infrastructure to some goooood use :) Excited to launch a Pakistan targeted site and host it there. =)
AK

No SLAs? No mention of data security and breach prevention. Seems like lot of cloud stuff is missing here.
- http://paksharez.com Adnan
  
  Right +1
  At least SLA
- Answer
  
  So much for SLA. We were hosted on Amazon cloud and lost all our data in this outage
  
  http://www.webhostingsearch.com/blog/amazon-ec2-outage-resulted-in-permanent-data-loss-0996
  
  http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-lost-data-2011-4
  
  So much for SLA of the worlds best cloud service.
  After failure we were able to negotiate some usage credits but that’s about it. Thanks to Allah we had backed up part of our data upto last day on local machine and re-created the rest through re-doing some transactions.
  
  I agree that RapidC guys should provide SLA. They have on their website. But more important than giving hundreds of pages of SLAs like we have for
  
  Amazon http://aws.amazon.com/serviceterms/
  
  they should just be telling truth
Ghazanfar Ali Khan

Well Cybernet certainly has a good reputation when it comes to services & support in corporate sector.
Almost 75% of the banking sector is running through Cybernet’s infrastructure specially banks having their Head Offices in Karachi.

Jumping on to Cloud is really a bold initiative considering that its a hefty investment.

As for security concerns, Cybernet recently installed Fortinets Firewall. Not sure how much it can help in securing the Cloud Infrastructure.

http://propakistani.pk/2011/05/11/cybernet-hardens-its-network-with-fortinet-utm-solution/

Good luck Cybernet!!
Answer

We signed up for RapidCompute test instance today. The SLA is on the website:

http://www.rapidcompute.com/?page_id=838

http://www.rapidcompute.com/wp-content/uploads/RapidCompute-SLA.pdf
http://www.startupsandfinance.com Fahad

Thats good to hear that finally we also have cloud computing available.
AK

I am wondering how are they going to sustain this business with current power crisis in Pakistan. Power tariff is getting higher every other day.
- Jahanzaib Quraishi
  
  Good question. I would also be interested to know what type of hardware and they are using and power consumption. But I think this information may be very proprietary or should be!
Kaleem Abbasi

I doubt that someone can run an Oracle, Exchenge SAP kind of applications on the solution that cybernet is offering as cloud. The only feasible thing to run over this infrastructure is a webserver. But for this, Cybernet has a much cheaper shared hosting solution. So what is the business case?
- Shahid Saleem
  
  Companies like Facebook, Twitter, etc. do not use Oracle or SAP or anything like that, and yet succeed in their markets. Do not think enterprise is the only use case.
  
  For two examples:
  - remote database server, with replicated data. for Disaster Recovery.
  - web hosting where you need more than shared hosting can give you.
  - Kaleem Abbasi
    
    Facebook and twitter have even bigger applications.
    can this virtual server hosting solution manage serious DB replication to it? (dataguard or veritas??). Please share if you have more details. Reading above comments, i dont think it can serve any business critical purpose. DR is a serious use case, i dont want to be in false sense of security or have time to troubleshoot replication issues all the time. Also can anyone tell what SAN are they using so that we can capitalize on the value. Is it IBM SAN?
    - Shahid Saleem
      
      – Facebook and twitter have even bigger applications.
      
      Yet when they started, they did not need all the infrastructure and software they need now. Facebook was php, now it is php using hiphop (compiler to c++). Twitter was ruby on rails, now scala.
      
      Things evolve as they grow.
      
      – Can this virtual server hosting solution manage serious DB replication to it? (dataguard or veritas??).
      
      i think you are still stuck in “enterprise” mindset. Most people don’t need that kind of replication. I’m serious. 99% of the world is okay with replication of the type provided by MySQL or Postgresql (streaming or hot standy replication). Look at the notes at http://instagram-engineering.tumblr.com/ for what a real service with millions of users was able to do with just six engineers in all (including developers). Or see reddit: http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/january-2012-state-of-servers.html Even Facebook does not use veritas or anything like that.
- Jahanzaib Quraishi
  
  Cloud services are used for a multitude of applications. I am not sure what applications customers are running yet but such infrastructure with scalability shown would be an overkill for a basic webserver. We run Oracle on similar set up but at a niche provider based out California which is more like a private cloud.
  
  I wouldn’t be so quick to judge the product as only worthy for a webserver just so quickly. Whereas we use Oracle on a private cloud type set up we run small DR for our payroll software on Amazon which we can increase capacity at month end, process payroll and scale down. This is very common. Data is all text based but workload can be intensive.By the way, a lot of great apps have an Apache Webserver back end by the way including Facebook.
Kaleem Abbasi

Cant understand why you need to scale-up your DR while all processing takes place at your production end. I guess only DB replication traffic should rise at month end, nothing more. For only this you scale-up?
Apache is not the back-end its front end for apps and DB :)
BTW my sister concern use to run apache application on cybernet’s shared hosting. Cybernet only offerx my-sql which is a limitation but its cost effective so they migrated to my-sql.
- Shahid Saleem
  
  – For only this you scale-up?
  
  My guess is they start the payroll software on EC2 instances also, and shut down the extra instances after the work is done.
Jugnoo

Cybersites is a separate package which is shared hosting. You will see that in future Rapidcompute package will become a Cloud when it is upgrade.
http://nicefun.net Maria

Its amazing. nice efforts thanks for sharing great post.
http://www.pakdestiny.com www.pakdestiny.com

A bit over-priced i think.
- AtEvent
  
  We compared this to our existing hosting on Rackspace Cloud and RapidCompute is only more expensive on a bandwidth basis. I am told they are throwing in 100 or GBs for free for new customers.
  - Free Willy
    
    Dont compare rapidcompute package with a cloud. Cybernet virtual machine collocation is expensive. Small shops and students will not find it feasible to pay 100-200 dollar a month for hosting a server or desktop machine just because it is online 24hr.
    - AtEvent
      
      I think the starting price is 29 dollar. I don’t think students should be using this package.
      - Free Willy
        
        Yes 29 dollar is for 512mb RAM which even students will not choose for their term project. Minimum practical machine is 2gb and it costs approx 100 dollar.
        
        Shahid Saleem
        
        It seems like these hypothetical students should use the free micro instances on EC2. Limited memory (600MB RAM) and limited storage on EBS (many AMIs I have seen have only 8GB persistent disk) but CHEAP.
        
        Another option is Heroku for application hosting only. One dyno is free. Two dynos costs a total of $35/month.
    - Jugnoo
      
      Nobody is saying that it is a cloud. But it is not expensive if you pay Rs.10-15k per month for hosting a small server with license OS and internet. Student groups can manage it with their pocket money.
      - Free Willy
        
        Well if this is not a cloud then why is it so expensive? What % of students get this much pocket money? If cybernet wants to sell it in market, they have to lower the price. Else this will not be successful in market.
        
        Jugnoo
        
        Rapidcompute is not only for students. We will upgrade this and then different companies can host their website on it. We provide very good support for email and website.
Restauranteer

Free Willy, you seem particularly irritated that Cybernet launched the first cloud in Pakistan.

Do you work for the competition and were responsible for launching a cloud there? Is that why you have your knickers in a twist?

Cloud isn’t a big deal. Everybody’s doing it. Just go ahead and launch your own.
Azad Willy

Hahaha @Restauranteer, even if his “knickers” were not in a twist, they probably now are.

On a more serious note (although I am ROTFL by your last comment),many companies are working on the cloud like Wateen and PTCL. Wateen has a lot of old hardware from TM days and is perfectly good to use in cloud environment. It is good they are actually putting these old servers to some use.

Good to see this area growing. Will define new business models.
Zubaida Apa

Good idea. I just recycled my junkyard to make a shower for my plants. I named it “cloud” and it is the second cloud of Pakistan. PTCL and Wateen lost again :p
- Azad Willy
  
  Behn ji, Amazon EC2 still uses old AMD processors in their cloud circa 2009 when their cloud was still in somewat infancy. Wateens servers are circa 2011 when we bought a lot of hardware thanks to the excesses of the ex management. You see at that time we were planning to launch a mission to the Moon and so I can guarantee you that the hardware and Naeem sb (God bless his soul) will at least help us reach the cloud.
  
  May your days be filled with sunshine and perhaps a few clouds.
  - Tech Talk
    
    @Azad
    I like your sense of humor :-) but on a different note, your Naeem Sb rather jumped the gun and told blue chip magazine that you were the first cloud company in Pakistan…..in January!!!!
    
    http://www.wateen.com/2012/01/20/naeem-zamindars-interview-with-blue-chip-magazine/
    
    Six months and not a peep or poop out of you guys!! Is this slow pace part of Naeem Sb’s “Art of living” and fruity meditation skills ? :-)
    - Zubaida Apa
      
      Mr. Cyber and Mr. Wateen: It is better not to serve at all than serving a half cooked meal. (From the kitchen)
      - CorrectYourEyesight
        
        I’m just glad both Cybernet investors and Wateen Shaikhs are investing in Pakistan and creating jobs for our people so that our people’s kitchens r operatin
Azad2

@Azad Willy

Actually CubeXsWeatherly introduced their cloud today.

http://cubexsweatherly.com/cubexsservices.asp
xim

Zubaida Apa: CubeXs just took your advice it seems. Lol..it’s a cloud fest!!!
Samajhdaar Customer

At a glance.

{In order}

Cybernet vs Cubexs
——————-
Non standardized vs Tier-IV datacenter
Xenserver vs VMware
Maipu? vs Juniper
Fortinet vs Cisco
Bigger NW backbone vs Smaller backbone
Unbranded servers vs HP & Dell servers
JBOD vs SAN
No data encryption vs Data Encryption

Unknown factors:
—————
Price?
Support?
Scale?
- CorrectYourEyesight
  
  @Samajhdaar Customer and probably a CubeXS cpemployee.
  I don’t know the internals of either cloud is I must admit but how do you know??? And brands matter zero for clouds! what brand servers does Amazon, VPS, Rackspace or GoGrid have. Talk benchmarks rather than the brand of servers or network switches. This is the first thing about cloud you should know.
  
  We had CubeXS as an ISP before but moved to Cybernet because quality was no comparison.
  
  And please CubeXS is not a tier 4 data center by any means. We audited them for colo space and it is a far cry from tier 1 data center. No idea about Cybernet tiering. But does tiering even matter? Since this is cloud and not a colo?
  
  One main thing you forget to mention is that Cybernet is backed by strong group of sponsors while CubeXS main investor backed out sometime ago I am told. This frankly as a customer to me is more important than the brand of server or switch or tiering or virtualization layer being used.
  
  Talking of first first glances the http://www.rapidcompute.com website looks much more impact ful than the shoddy job CubeXS has done. Drastic improvements are needed on the website.
  
  Sorry I have no grudges against anyone but I think your comparison is both irrelevant and negatively portraying one company over the other.
  
  By the way both companies claim to have SANs. This would be very expensive AFAIK.
  - Azad2
    
    Abeh bhai chore deh yeh sab fassad. Pakistan Cloud providers should be competing with regional and Internatonal providers and not with eachother.
    
    This mine in bigger than yours makes no difference until we can take on regional cloud players.
Samajhdaar Customer

@CorrectYourEyesight and probably Cybernet employee.
I am glad to know that brands matter zero to a cloud. Before your enlightening post I was thinking that it is technology that the manufacturers translate into brands. And the better the technology incorporated, the better the brand gets chance in market (and get bigger market share in turn). Thanks for correction.
CorrectYourEyeSight

@Samajdhaar Customer aka CubeXS guy

You are welcome. I am glad you understand the difference. And before you make any more hasty comments, I suggest you educate yourself a bit more of why server brands don’t matter and are getting affected by cloud.

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/the-week-the-cloud-won/
”
This doesn’t just change the software business, but it does radically affect the hardware business. The cloud is a collection of thousands of computer servers, bought by companies that are buying in volume, and care less about brand. Laptops and desktops don’t get as much wear and tear when a business is connected to the cloud. Those stalwarts also face competition from tablets and smartphones, as employees find they can do more tasks on mobile devices.

If the changes are happening as rapidly as this week’s earnings suggest, all the traditional manufacturers, resellers, consultants and other camp followers of the current client/server computing world, who thought they had a few more years to adjust to the new realities, are having a really bad day.
”

Ok since I’m a Cybernet employee as you have pointed out, maybe I should now stop trying to educate the CubeXS employees:)
Samajhdaar Customer

Wow. How convincing! It must be the winning trick. All big technology manufactureres must be producing crap without any value proposition for their products. Now I have to believe that soon this “cloud” thing will force them all to close their businesses.
I guess tech leaders at your company should open-up an “Institute of Illogical Thinking” :) Please keep educating, we’ll end up having a pile of jokes :p
- CorrectYourEyeSight
  
  @Samajhdaar –
  
  I think the time has come for you to change your nickname because it really belies your ability to argue logically.
  
  All you’re doing in this post is trying to discredit my argument by twisting my words. I am NOT saying that ‘big technology manufacturers must be producing crap’ like you’re saying. Nor am I implying as such.
  
  If you *actually* read and thought about my post (and the accompanying blog article) like I asked you to, you’d realize that the argument I and the blogger are making that with the popularity and growth of cloud services as many organizations move to the cloud over hosting applications in house, the growth and demand of branded servers is getting adversely affected. The blog goes on to provide evidence that the stock prices of traditional manufacturers is taking a beating because of future expectations by investors for limited growth of these companies as the cloud becomes popular and where – it *really* is common knowledge – that commodity and unbranded hardware is preferred by cloud providers.
  
  Will the hardware manufacturers close down their businesses? I never made this statement either or implied it. There will continue to be a large market for standalone servers, and even private clouds, for applications that are more suited to be hosted inhouse. Such applications could include inhouse file servers and domain controllers that require fast access over the LAN. Here companies such as Dell, HP and IBM dominate and will probably continue to dominate for quite some time I think.I would actually also argue that many traditional large applications hosted inhouse traditionally such as weather prediction, large file storage and eGovernment can also be moved to the cloud eventually.
  
  Therefore please stop twisting my words to discredit the argument being made (in the words of the of the New York Times Blogger):
  “The cloud is a collection of thousands of computer servers, bought by companies that are buying in volume, and care less about brand.”
  - Samajhdaar Customer
    
    Fine bro.. what the blog reads can be one of the ways of thinking. And you can utilize cheap hardware at places. But not for enterprise services.
    Now it is established that we are not using branded hardware since quality of hardware doesnt matter (processing, environmentals, new HW based virtualizing techniques- all value zero). Nor the best of the software are you using in the stack. Neither the datacenter standards matter. But its still state-of-the-art solution. Kindly explain what is it that makes it so great? Please dont say that it is the “architecture” of your solution :)
    (Surpsisingly on the other hand you also claim that it is based on best-of-the-breed components)
    Cheers
    - Shahid Saleem
      
      – And you can utilize cheap hardware at places. But not for enterprise services.
      
      Oops, someone forgot to tell Google!
      
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_platform#Current_hardware
      
      Really, all this talk of “enterprise this” and “enterprise that” is just noise. Real Engineers get stuff done no matter what their software runs on.
Baboo Bhai

@ Samajhsar – You are really not. This service is not for enterprise use as people already have discussed. You boarded on a fast running train. Target customers are students, small shops and restaurants who want to host their websites.
Other important conclusion:- A public cloud is always built-up of scrap. Private cloud uses all that sophisticated stuff.
Deep Throat

I don’t know why Cybernet has been so hush about the internals about its cloud.
But I have finally confirmed from my sources what they are using :

1. VMWARE, AND Xenserver for virtualization layer. For the large instances it is all VMWARE.

2. Cisco for networking. New Juniper SRX for firewall. Maipu for routing and BGP function. I don’t know why they need so many different suppliers for this but it seems they want to separate everything.

3. Hitachi SAN. This was confirmed to me by my source at the Hitachi supplier STME but I have heard from EMC they are using EMC SAN for their high performance optimized storage. Maybe Hitachi for capacity storage option.

4. Openstack confirmed.

5. Dell and IBM blade servers. I am told Linux on Dell and Windows Server on IBM. Mix of Intel Xeon and AMD CPU blade cards. Cheaper Linux offering on AMD. Larger on Xeon.

They have chosen these options I am told for enterprise offering and they got supplier credit from many suppliers for all the hardware. Total cost about $1.5M. Highest cost was for SAN.

Big investment I think in these times but apparently company is gungho on this.
- Ketchup
  
  Wow. This is very detailed indeed.
  
  Now that you have revealed Cybernet’s secret sauce, Wateen and PTCL, I mean BTCL… will just copy it for their cloud.
  - Bloomberg
    
    Well I dont think. At least PTCL need not. PTCL already has a much bigger Cisco-Juniper environment and has multiple EMC and Hitachi SANs in their different datacenters. Their physical recipe is cloud-ready in terms of network, compute nodes and data storage. They only have to invest in softwares.
    On the other hand Wateen only has big plans, may be older than cybernet’s plans. Credit goes to Cybernet that at least they did something in the field even if it is not upto the mark of a cloud’s definition at the moment.
    - Patriot
      
      Just because you have such a Gora Complex that you have even descended to using the Mayor of New York’s name, doesn’t give you to define what the real definition of ‘cloud’ is at the moment.
      
      Perhaps you should return to polishing boots in the New York City subway station.
    - Patriot
      
      Just because you have such a Gora Complex that you have even descended to using the Mayor of New York’s name, doesn’t give you the authority to define what the real definition of ‘cloud’ is at the moment.
      
      Perhaps you should return to polishing boots in the New York City subway station.
      - Patriot
        
        Just so everyone is clear. This is the definition of Cloud service models (IAAS, PAAS, SAAS) from Wikipedia
        
        Cloud computing providers offer their services according to three fundamental models:[3][33] Infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and software as a service (SaaS) where IaaS is the most basic and each higher model abstracts from the details of the lower models.
        
        [edit]Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)
        See also: Category:Cloud infrastructure
        In this most basic cloud service model, cloud providers offer computers – as physical or more often as virtual machines –, raw (block) storage, firewalls , load balancers, and networks. IaaS providers supply these resources on demand from their large pools installed in data centers. Local area networks including IP addresses are part of the offer. For the wide area connectivity, the Internet can be used or – in carrier clouds – dedicated virtual private networks can be configured.
        To deploy their applications, cloud users then install operating system images on the machines as well as their application software. In this model, it is the cloud user who is responsible for patching and maintaining the operating systems and application software. Cloud providers typically bill IaaS services on a utility computing basis, that is, cost will reflect the amount of resources allocated and consumed.
        Infrastructure-as-a-Service or IaaS Cloud is a platform through which businesses can avail equipment in the form of hardware, servers, storage space etc. at pay-per-use service.
        Moreover, IaaS is a branch of cloud computing that has gathered attention among the entrepreneurs largely with the prime motive to make their business environments more organized and in sync with the ongoing operational activities of organizations.
        When we talk about IaaS functioning, it is not a machine that we are talking about, which does all the work, it is simply a facility given to the business enterprises that offers users the leverage of extra storage space in servers and data centers.
        Examples of IaaS include: Amazon CloudFormation (and underlying services such as EC2), Rackspace Cloud, and RightScales.
        [edit]Platform as a service (PaaS)
        Main article: Platform as a service
        See also: Category:Cloud platforms
        In the PaaS model, cloud providers deliver a computing platform and/or solution stack typically including operating system, programming language execution environment, database, and web server. Application developers can develop and run their software solutions on a cloud platform without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers. With some PaaS offers, the underlying compute and storage resources scale automatically to match application demand such that cloud user does not have to allocate resources manually.
        Examples of PaaS include: Amazon Elastic Beanstalk, Heroku, EngineYard, Google App Engine, and Microsoft Azure.
        [edit]Software as a service (SaaS)
        Main article: Software as a service
        In this model, cloud providers install and operate application software in the cloud and cloud users access the software from cloud clients. The cloud users do not manage the cloud infrastructure and platform on which the application is running. This eliminates the need to install and run the application on the cloud user’s own computers simplifying maintenance and support. What makes a cloud application different from other applications is its elasticity. This can be achieved by cloning tasks onto multiple virtual machines at run-time to meet the changing work demand.[34] Load balancers distribute the work over the set of virtual machines. This process is inconspicuous to the cloud user who sees only a single access point. To accommodate a large number of cloud users, cloud applications can be multitenant, that is, any machine serves more than one cloud user organization. It is common to refer to special types of cloud based application software with a similar naming convention: desktop as a service, business process as a service, Test Environment as a Service, communication as a service.
        The pricing model for SaaS applications is typically a monthly or yearly flat fee per user.[35]
        Examples of SaaS include: Google Apps, Quickbooks Online and Salesforce.com.
      - Ketchup
        
        Hahahaa
        Polishing American boots in the New York Subway.
      - Bloomberg
        
        Its not a matter of Gora complex when it comes to commercial organizations. Its only a matter of saving $$$ my dear mate. Xenserver is also Gora invented just like VMware.
        Organizations here feel no reluctance in using an Israeli products when it comes to business profit. Only way forward for us is to indulge into R&D at every level. Patriotism is good thing but be realistic if you want to serve the country best.
ISP Watcher

Corrections:
1. Cybernet is not a VMWare and EMC SAN customer so no chance of using these things. Confirmed from EMC.
2. Fortinet is used for firewall (not Juniper SRX)
3. At network access layer, a new chinese brand is used (named maipu. cybernet is promoting it to the customers)
- Deep Throat
  
  Corrections to corrections;
  1. SAN based EMC Cloud storage confirmed. The platform is ATMOS
  http://www.emc.com/storage/atmos/atmos.htm
  Maybe they are not telling you because there could be some NDA. This is the first it in Pakistan. I have heard they are bringing SAAS model soon.
  
  2.Fortinet was their old firewall from some time ago. They have invested in Juniper SRX for cloud.
  
  3. Network access is on Cisco 6500. IP routing on Maipu. Confirmed.
Patriot

One of my friends just pointed me to this link and I am sorry but I am absolutely shocked to see the comments on this page.

There is condemnation and insult to fellow Pakistani entrepreneurs launching the cloud calling them not the real thing, cheap unbranded components and Chinese manufacturers and what not. On the other hand there is great flattery and kissing a$$ of American products such as EMC, vmware, Dell, HP.

As long as this GORA complex remains and the low self esteem we have as a nation, we will not be able to progress. So lets stop taking pot shots at eachother (Cybernet and CubeXS employees included) and just celebrate that we finally have 2 cloud service providers in Pakistan and wish them the best.

Oh and just that everybody knows, none of the public cloud service providers use branded anything and they run applications for Fortune 500 companies some of whom are bigger than the entire market capitalization of Karachi Stock Exchange.
ISP Watcher

@ Deep Throat with all due respect;
1. Had cybernet used any popular technology patent, cybernet would be advertising it all around to captalize on it’s value (e.g. EMC or Hitachi or IBM). In addition the vendor would have been also advertising everywhere in market that they have helped cybernet build this solution.
2. I am sorry but infortunately ATMOS is not for the purpose that you are thinking. Its a cloud storage solution but for a different purpose. My appologies for exposing an obvious lie, hope you wouldnt mind even if you belong to cybernet’s technical management team. Because it is unethical to sell products based on false claims.

@ Patriot: I agree with you on Gora complex phenomena. Tragedy is that even if we want to go for a cheaper or freeware solution, we dont have a local option which we can promote.
- CorrectYourEyeSight
  
  Editors, please feel free to zero out any words you feel are insulting. My intention is not to offend people on the forum but I’m just amazed by some of the false notions being propagated.
  
  @ISP Watcher
  
  Wah Wah! You are so on the spot…
  1. “Had Cybernet used any popular technology patent, Cybernet would be advertising…”. This must be the most moronic oxymoron I’ve heard all week. Why would Cybernet use a ‘popular’ technology patent? What does popular technology patent mean anyway? What popular technology patents do EMC and Hitachi and IBM use? And what do they advertise.
  
  Cybernet AFAIK deployed a complex implementation of Openstack on a farm of servers and offered cloud services as many other companies do. Some companies extend off the base code to offer some SAAS features while Cybernet is doing basic IAAS.
  
  2. I dont know about EMC ATMOS and first time I’ve heard this. I notice that @Deep Throat made this comment. I dont know how he knows and the extent to what he knows.
  
  But what’s more important is that AFAIK nobody from Cybernet’s management team has made any statement regarding the hardware being used except that there’s Intel, AMD processors, SANs and other cloud components. I don’t know if they even admitted to using Openstack although I guess that is an Opensecret now.
  
  So no apologies needed please. The ‘obvious lie’ you’re referring to is someone taking a guess at what the hardware being used is.
  Also, thank you for the lesson in advertising ethics. Again AFAIK no management has made any false claims. However even if such claim were made, perhaps you should first look to preaching ethics to the makers of the much established skin fairness creams, hair growth lotions and this new Magnum chocolate bars which promise to immediately transform you to becoming the Queen of England.
  This has been going on for far too long and we should penalize them first before someone bringing new technology to the country.
  
  Oh and finally, “the vendor would have been also advertising everywhere”. Have you thought the vendors may actually be barred from advertising in the market? Maybe there are more sides to the story.
Pakistani

Dear Pariot – unfortunately all these unbranded stuff is also based on western manufacturing e.g. intel, AMD. If our companies & enterpreneurs have no escape from these technology mfg, then atleast they should do things properly whatever they do.
Mate – Do a real thing instead of merely having a chauvinistic anti-brand attitude, if you want to make our Pakistani nation proud.
http://www.ponka.com.pk Ponk

I dont know why they are using JBOD ? If they claimed that they are backed by a larger group which is so far correct then why the hell they are compromising on quality standards and reliability by using JBOD (considering they have hitachi SAN?), Xenserver, maipu and fortigate?
Hameedullah Khan

First of all, by the information provided on the site, it can’t be called cloud. Cybernet needs to study more about Cloud.

I have no doubt in their technical team but the thing they are calling cloud is not basically cloud, its just a Virtual Server Solution with configurable Memory and storage.

Cloud solution is something else. And people who are calling it that it matches RackSpace are totally underestimating RackSpace or they haven’t really used RackSpace.

But overall its a good initiative. And hope they move in the positive direction from here.
- CorrectYourEyeSight
  
  @Hameedullah Khan aka Cloud Expert
  
  You said “Cybernet needs to study more about Cloud.” Ironically, I feel that you do. Sadly you said that RapidCompute is not a cloud but then you go onto say
  “Cloud solution is something else.”
  But don’t qualify it. What else??? Perhaps this is because you yourself don’t really know?
  
  Rackspace uses Openstack to manage a farm of servers with storage, memory and cpu and rents these out on a per second, per month basis:
  
  http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/cloud_hosting_products/servers/pricing/
  
  Perhaps Cybernet doesn’t do per second billing now but the basic cloud function and components are the same: Openstack and a farm of servers and storage. I’m not going to make a comment about what branded hardware they are using because I truly don’t know. I know Rackspace uses Openstack on local disks so don’t need SAN
  
  Cybernet offers fixed jumps of cpu and memory and variable jumps of disk storage and network BW. This is followed by most cloud providers.
  
  The problem is that cloud actually is simpler than most people think or make it out to be. Lets not get into the trap of trying to make something sound bigger and more complex than it actually is.
- http://twitter.com/fahadzaheer Fahad Zaheer
  
  Yes you are right , I appreciate you Hameed if you post little more details on “CLOUD”.
Mehmood

Hi to everyone; let me introduce myself first rather going in with twisted names. I was associated as a consultant with SingTel during their cloud launching days and I am pretty much sure most of you don’t need any further introduction of SingTel. The cloud itself is still need a lot to be discussed; like what is to be called cloud and which virtual instances are not termed as cloud. The only reason behind this is that we consultant’s we want cloud to be more complex so that our business keep running. It is a long debate whether what will be termed as cloud computing as this particular field needs to be more mature. Like during my visit to central Europe a company looking after the Council Tax System was actually using a very basic feature set of cloud from last three years but yet to call it the cloud; thanks to confusing instead of educating sessions and white papers by big brands/Pseudo-Consultants. The Launch of RapidCompute and CubeXS Cloud services are really pleasing for me as Pakistani companies having their own cloud services means we as a country registered ourselves on the global map… thanks to CYBERNET and after that CubeXS for their initiatives. I am proudly believe that these two especially CYBERNET has broken the MYTH surrounding the cloud services; benefitting the Consultants globally in terms of making money. The details which I got from this particular blog about RapidCompute (as majority of bloggers targeting it) I believe it is what an IAAS cloud service is…. believe me there isn’t any rocket science in setting up cloud unless you do your hardware sizing without involving any consultant who previously or currently have any association with IBM/DELL/HP or many other known brands. Also want to share that around two weeks back I have a chance to visit NU Singapore and came to know that there is a bunch of student working on “opensource application” and on its completion it will be a matter of clicks to setup Cloud with a pool of hardware using that software. Although the success of that software still unknown.
Also as I have noticed everyone is more focused on the hardware used….. Believe me it took SingTel a year to actually reveal the hardware platform they are using (and even not in detail) for their Enterprise Level Power ON cloud offering.
However I think a debate is always good and many of you have gained lot of knowledge because of this debate about Cloud… but let’s not de-grade any of them …. Thumbs Up for CYBERNET and CubeXS …… at least Pakistan have their own cloud service providers…. hosted in Pakistan. Apart from this the upcoming war will be for fully functional CDN… let’s see who will be the first one…. Those who are left behind still have a chance to go for this …. Need any consultancy please feel free to contact me :)
Appeaser

Agreed to Mehmood, we should support our own country providers instead of only highlighting their weaknesses.
Both CubeXS and Cybernet have their own target markets for this offering. CubeXS product is targeted for mid to enterprise market while Cybernet’s product is for small level and students market. So no conflict of interests. Time to cheer-up
- Jamshed
  
  More like the other way around.
  
  Cubexs is a virtual server instances on shared hosting. It’s good for small websites. This is what I can see.
  
  Cybernet looks like a professional set up optimised for high iops applications such as transactional Processing databases and High computation apps like erp.
  
  Otherwise also I would not trust someone like cubexs yet. They are not very established yet and they have an excuse for a dc. Cybernet is more recognised brand and better service.
  - Thurkey
    
    @Appeaser
    
    Cubexs website bhai tharkey heh tharkey. Just because unho neh Microsoft key product key tasweereh daal dee gain uska matlab nahin keh it is enterprise class system. Peecheh kiya heh aur kaun heh sab seh important heh.
    
    In my views, cyber ka product baihtar heh aur company ka naam bhi behtar heh.
    
    Anyway acha heh keh dunno neh launch kiya heh laiken mera vote Cyber keh saath. Go cyber go pti
Element

@ Appeaser … the information provided on rapid compute website related to the technology and infrastrucutre used for Cloud doesn’t depict that it can’t be used for enterprise applications.
- Thurkey
  
  Nababa na. Website of cyber sau gunna behtar heh. Technology key itnee details nahin dee Cyber neh but I trust them more ji.
  
  Cubexs needs new web developer.
  - Element
    
    i also meant the same…the information that is been provided on cybernet rapid compute web also depicts that service can cater enterprise apps that are being used in PAK.
Mehmood

Dear Appeaser Thanks for being a gentleman. Yes it’s a big effort done by Cybernet and Cube-xs; however with all due respect I like to differ with your last statement.
Apparently by just going through Website I think Cybernet seems more focused in this business with Rapidcompute a separate brand name and website to honor their effort while Cube-xs website portray a different picture; … feels like they have to catch some subway…. But I appreciate their effort too…thumbs up for both Cybernet Rapidcompute and Cube-xs Cloud Service.
Now talking about which is for Enterprise and which for midsized; I believe its way to early to classify anyone of them as an enterprise or SME/Student. I think by seeing Exchange Server and Hosted Office services at Cube-xs website, made everyone feel that it’s for Enterprise (Why an Enterprise need these things hosted on public cloud???).
I think the public cloud globally is not yet mature enough to considered by Enterprises; reason being that the below two issues not addressed to full extent globally or deliberately neglected/not discussed for cloud
1 – SLA (I mean everyone is offering SLA which is non-negotiable, made on terms suitable for Cloud Service Provider)
2 – Security and Integrity (All the security measures are done using external security appliances; no mature industry standard built-in security is available for data security and integrity)
These were the two same challenges which were highlighted in the conference I attended around a year back in NewYork; where speakers from biggest enterprises raise this concern and settled on the fact that if anyone is so huge to be called as Enterprise and very much concern about data integrity and security they should establish their own cloud and/or maintain it in any data center collocation rather going for public cloud that will definitely reduce their TCO and eliminate the evil of maintaining a separate division and HR – Definition for Enterprise differ for regions around the world :-) here Enterprise means GlaxoSmithKline, NYSE etc.
“The essence of all the things I have discussed remains in my last statement above.” And also keep this discussion on its definitely very helpful as well as educational apart from the negative comments rather called blog bullying.
Lastly my suggestion for companies interested in going for cloud in Pakistan is to test the offerings of these two CSPs by hosting your smaller applications like eAMS, HRIS apps Visitor Management or something like Sales Funnel Manager etc. I believe if I get it right the services offerings are pay as you go, so a mere 100-200 USD investment is worth it if you can bring your TCO down to 30 to 40 percent what you currently spending. These are my two cents …… and there is always a room for better suggestion.
- Jamshed
  
  I completely agree with this. The basic effort on cybernet website is much more than the shabby job by cubexs. Cubexs please work on your website.
  
  Both companies are Microsoft spla partners but cubexs has pasted more on their site.
End of Discussion

@All

That’s it we’ve hit a century with the number of comments on the topic,
“Cybernet Launches Pakistan’s First Cloud Solution”

Mashallah and Congratulations to both Cybernet for RapidCompute and CubeXS for their cloud service.

We wish both Pakistani brethren companies very best of luck in future and hope you will make our country’s name shine.

May Allah give you success to beat with Amazon, Rackspace, Joyent, Terremark, Tata Cloud and all the other International players.

Ameen.
Lahori Yank

Actulay the title was a bit controversial so it catches attraction of people.
CubeXS did a half hearted job in spreading awareness about their product. Please give a better shot.
With cybernet I have only one complian that I request them to work on. The price which Cybernet is asking for, is a little unjustified. If it is expensive because its for corporate customers, you are missing most important things like DR and data security. Plus you consider it or not, people have raised serious concerns about reliability of platform. So corporate customers may not be interested. On the other hand its unaffordable for students and tiny business.

Students or tiny business will find it more economical to purchase a decent refurbished physical machine in a cost less then 6 months bill of cybernet’s VM. Cybernet should give their country brothers consideration so that they can actually be able to reap fruits of cybernet’s sincere effort for them.

Cybernet has an edge of really amazing professionals in their team and I really regard Mustafa Rana sb. and Salik sb.
Clarification

@ Mr. Lhori
Cybernet huge package of rapid computer is RC20-G which is not for students only. It is for large companies because it is 20GB RAM and price about 1000 dollar per month. This is fastest virtual computer of Pakistan. We have anti virus for full security of your data.
With students also – businessman can upload their computer data for online backup on other smaller packages.
- Cybernet
  
  @Clarification: Cybernet guys will kill you for calling their product “rapid computER”. :)
  - Clarification
    
    @ Cybernet: You are under estimating may be because you are from competitor company and using cybernet nickname. Do you think this product is slow and not rapid? This is very fast computer system that is why name is “rapid”.
Choroyaar

Choro yaar saar meh dard na karo.
Kuch naayen baat karo.

Pakistan meh nanotechnology peh koi kaam kar raha heh?
UG

Yes Cybernet working on it and going to launch first nanotechnolgy cloud of Pakistan.
http://www.getnewsinfo.com Reshhia

Wow now is cybernet launches rapidcompute, pakistan’s first cloud computing service.
http://www.cyber.net.pk True_Comments

Dear All
True cloud should have following features:
1. Elascity
2. Self Service
3. Virtual infrastructure
4. unlimited Storage
5. IaaS, SaaS, PaaS services

I found most of the features on CubeXS http://www.cubexsweatherly.com while Rapid cloud is not self service and focused on IaaS only.

another feature live chat support on CubeXS website makes it different, seems good support

Good Start…. I think this discussion should stop and let see who can provide good services.

I am looking many peoples taking it personally, seems they are either sitting at cybernet or cubexs. this is not good sign. let other people comments on services instead you people on each other.

Finally, Personnaly I found Cubexs good and let see what is next
- CubeCS employe
  
  Personally I found CubeXS a complete hack job of a cloud.
  I think they have just thrown in a bunch of acronyms and pasted items from different brand providers such as Microsoft, VMWARE etc and just a hodge podge with no clear strategy.
  
  Today I see their launch ceremony and it was very pathetic. I did not go to Cybernet one but I know some person who did and it was uch better.
  
  I think these comments are just put by CubeXS employees who are hugely jealous that Cybernet came from nowhere and unseated them at their own game.
  
  if you ask me however that CubeXS data center was and is crap to begin with. They keep saying Tier IV data center but this is a joke. The data center is near main thoroughfare, near the sea and NOT connected by two different grids. Its all a big sham. I also know from my contacts at FPCCI that they don’t even pay their electricity bill and just put a kundi on FPCCI meter and then got caught!!!
  
  I would never trust my server in their colo let alone my data!
  - Faheem
    
    Hello Employee….. you have written wrong spelling of CubeXS in your name. are you really employ at cubeXS?
    
    :)
Shadaab

CubeXS undoubtedly looks more professional in approach for corporate class customers. On the other hand Cybernet has the advantage of using low-cost commodity platform so they have a cushion to decrease their prices in order to grab mass consumers like students and micro size business entities.
- CubeCS employe
  
  Another one by a CubeXS employee. They have pasted everything under the sun onthe website and are hoping that by putting Microsoft Exchange andVMWARE and SAN names they are going to sound enterprise class or give you ‘professional’ approach. So far all I have seen is just a bunch of names of different brands and a very hurriedly made website probably because Cyber.net launched before the cubexs.
  
  Open your eyes because Amazon and Rackspace don’t do it this way either. they are promoting their own brand and not microsoft or dell or hp. infact these other vendors are begging at their feet for this brand name and to buy their servers.
  
  In my opinion, Cyber.net’s approach is much more professional all around and they have really thought through their own implementation.
  
  I also congratulate Cyber.net for not throwing around names of brands on their website just to sound professional or enterprise class. The brand should be cybernet or rapdicompute or whatever not Microsoft Vmware hp dell etc etc. This is a joke. Anybody can put this brands and pray that something sticks. I salute Cybernet for not doing this.
  
  one last thing I want to say. I defend Cyber.net because I got a first hand demo and test the service on the cyber gpon network. It was very fast and very low delay. it was almost like on a lan connection. Cubexs says it also says it provide fiber on the website but everyone know they have no network and are only renting from other peoples and so the network is nothing compared to cybernets network. This is an added plus for Cyber.net
  
  To me Cyber.net is a total solution provider for enterprise class service and for cloud.
  - Shadaab
    
    Dear Cybernet (nicked CubeCS Employe)
    Lolz. Well actually cybernet has no brand names of softwares, network equipment and SAN to throw (the one cybernet is using must be kept secret otherwise no fish will stick :p ). Do you think cybernet have much musclepower in her team to nullify the technical advantages that big brands have earned after millions of dollars R&D? For example Fujitsu cloud blade provides I/O virtualization; can you get anywhere near with a commodity server?
    I am not against cybernet and appreciate the effort. But I sincerely suggests cybernet to focus on pains of their apppropriate market (i.e. students and micro-business) else you will be aiming high and missing the target.
    - CorrectYourEyeSight
      
      I don’t fully agree with CubeCS but I disagree with your assessment that brands matter.
      Read that article I talked about above:
      http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/the-week-the-cloud-won/
      
      Brands don’t matter for cloud servers. I noticed Cube XS page and see that all they are doing is pasting brands and partnerships. I checked with Cybernet and they have many of the same components such as Microsoft SPLA, Nexenta, Dell, Hitachi etc but for cloud its not important. In fact these companies like HP and Dell are launching clouds of their own and now stuck competing with their own customers. Cloud is about Ram, cpu and storage IOPS. Not about the size of check you wrote Dell or HP
      
      It is also easy to say students and microbusinesses but what is a micro business? Just some silly attempt to disparage your competitor that like the person above has pointed out, took CubeXSs pants off by launching first.
      bytheway CubeXS is a data center company and should remain such. First they need to fix the data center… do you think this is worthy of a Tier IV data center
      http://cubexsweatherly.com/tour-of-data-center.php
      
      Really, cmon!
Iqbal

CubeXS, it was a Cybernet thread. Please take your marketing elsewhere or ask Propakistani to cover you. It really doesn’t serve your purpose announcing your launch in the comments section of a competitor’s coverage and then trying to bash ‘em.

Cybernet, any particular reason for the silence? I have been using Cybernet and I personally know some of the guys involved. I don’t think there is a reason to hold information back.
- CorrectYourEyeSight
  
  Did CubeXS launch their cloud? Was it in Islamabad or Karachi or Lahore? Why is there no story about this??? No press wanted to cover them?
  - CorrectYourEyesight
    
    I think you should read newspaper before commenting anything. Every newspaper and media did coverage for this my dear….so please open your eyes :) .
    
    Ankhain band kar lainay say haqeeqat ko jhutlaya nahi ja sakta….So Please be positive
- CorrectYourEyesight
  
  My dear Iqbal,
  
  I will call to microft and all other big IT vendors to come and published their news on propakistani, as this is the biggest site ever to publish any news as per you :) .
  
  This is why world don’t accept us as we don’t even accepts ours winning in the region rather pointing out each and other .Please be positive and appreciate the good things happening in Pakistan. We should see and accept the reality , we should see the services offering by Cube XS and Cybernet.
  
  Thumbs up to Cybernet and Cube XS and shame on you peoples, rather then appraising you all are trying to fight each other.. Allah pak apko hidayat dai.
- CorrectYourEyesight
  
  My dear Iqbal,
  
  I will call to microft and all other big IT vendors to come and published their news on this site, as this is the biggest site ever to publish any news as per you :) .
  
  This is why world don’t accept us as we don’t even accepts ours winning in the region rather pointing out each and other .Please be positive and appreciate the good things happening in Pakistan. We should see and accept the reality , we should see the services offering by Cube XS and Cybernet.
  
  Thumbs up to Cybernet and Cube XS and shame on you peoples, rather then appraising you all are trying to fight each other.. Allah pak apko hidayat dai.