Today, LayerStack partners with unwire HK, a well-known technology information website, to launch a joint promotion – Cloud Trial Event 2021. The program is open to all HK-based businesses, regardless of size or industry. No prepayment or credit card information is required, successful applicants can get 1-6 months free trial on cloud servers. Interested parties can click HERE to access the event page and fill in the application form, our CS team will then contact you in few days.
It is pleased to announce the new Dedicated GPU option specially designed for users with intensive and special computing needs. Users can harness the full power of dedicated GPU to achieve ultra-high performance computing cloud servers specialized in Data Parallel Computation, Machine Learning and Graphically-Intensive Projects. The Dedicated GPU is expected to be launched in early January 2021, interested users can contact us at [email protected] for more details.
Machine Learning
GPU is widely used in deep learning because of the strong capability of parallel computing. Compared to CPU, GPU has much more cores to learn representations automatically from data such as images, video or text. Thus, it helps to reduce machine learning training time from days to minutes, enabling researchers and developers to obtain faster, more accurate information from deep learning.
Graphically Demanding Applications
Besides, GPU is effective in video and image rendering. The long rendering time is always a major issue to creative professionals that tied up computing resources and stifled creative flow. Modern GPUs enable and accelerate the cloud servers to process video and graphic in higher-definition formats. Obviously, it is also powerful in computationally intensive gaming, providing gamers with smoother and higher-quality gaming experience.
Specification
LayerStack offers NVIDIA® Tesla T4 GPU for intensive users. T4 is a high rating GPU with 2560 CUDA cores and 320 Tensor cores, it has 16GB GDDR6 Memory and 40 RT core. Work together with best-in-class AMD EPYC2 CPU to deliver the best cloud performance for most demanding applications.
LayerStack is consistently committed to improving and providing our valued customer with superior cloud computing service. We have made some adjustments on the plans and offers on LayerPanel, the highlights are listed below:
New Dedicated CPU Cloud Server: It is pleased to announce the launch of our new cloud server plan – the Dedicated CPU Cloud Server. The server is installed with entire 2nd Gen AMD EPYC CPU cores which are accessible only by your instances, thus users’ software and applications can always run at peak speed. The plan and pricing information is available at https://www.layerstack.com/pricing-cloud-servers.
Updates in High Memory Cloud Server: High Memory Cloud Server has been officially renamed as Memory Optimized Cloud Server. All the specification and cloud performance remain unchanged.
Price Adjustment on Auto-Backup: The cost of Auto-Backup is calculated proportionally to the plan subscription fee, the rate is increased from 15% to 20% of plan price. Full Backup details at: https://www.layerstack.com/backups.
Price Adjustment on DDoS Attack Protection Service: The price of DDoS protection add-on is adjusted from US$ 20.5 to US$30.5 per month. Full DDoS Protection details at https://www.layerstack.com/ddos-protection.
It is very appreciated if you have any ideas for improving our products, please let us know your comments on LayerStack Community.
It is pleased to announce the launch of our new cloud server plan – the Dedicated CPU Cloud Server. Same as other LayerStack cloud servers, it is powered by 2nd Gen AMD EPYC 64-Core CPU to deliver high cloud performance for most of the general and CPU-intensive workloads especially for the ones need sustainable computing support like machine learning. In contrast to standard servers, dedicated CPU server is installed with entire CPU cores that are accessible only by your instances, thus your software and applications can always run at peak speed.
Dedicated CPU’s Specifications
The selected 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processor has 64 cores and supports 128 threads with a TDP of 225W. The base clock speed is 2.0GHz which can be boosted up to 3.3GHz in turbo mode. It works perfectly on diverse tasks relying on CPU power, such as analytics, app development, CAE/CFD/FEA ERM/SCM/CRM apps, VDI and many more.
Benefits of AMD EPYC on Cloud Server
The AMD EPYC™ processor secure root of trust is designed to validate the initial BIOS enabling software boot without corruption. It also helps safeguard privacy and integrity by encrypting each virtual machine with up to 509 unique encryption keys known only to the processor.
Most Common Use Case of Dedicated CPU Plan
Harness the full power of the CPU for applications and workloads. Fast loading and responsive applications in the absence of other clients competing for computing power. Scalable on-demand and intended for heavy workloads, such as AI, machine learning, CI/CD, batch processing, and video encoding.
LayerStack is consistently committed to improving and providing our valued customer with superior cloud computing service. We have made some adjustments on the plans and offers on LayerPanel, the highlights are listed below:
New High Frequency CPU Cloud Server: We are exciting to announce that High Frequency CPU Cloud Server is officially launched, it is powered by 2nd Gen AMD EPYC 7742 with base clock speed 2.25GHz and a turbo boost of 3.4GHz. Specially designed for most demanding and CPU-intensive workloads. The plan and pricing information is available at https://www.layerstack.com/pricing-cloud-servers.
Withdrawal of High Storage Plan: The High Storage Plan is no longer available on LayerPanel. It is removed from our official website on 27/10/2020.
Changes in LayerStack Template: Template is now integrated with VM Import on LayerPanel supporting five VM image format including VDI, VMDK, VHDX, QCOW2, and RAW. Every account can create or import 3 templates with max. size 150GB each. Full Template details at https://www.layerstack.com/templates.
New Feature to Private Networking: Labeling function is now available, cloud users can add customized label to different Private Network.
Price Adjustment on Acronis Offsite Backup Service: A new price list is applied to Acronis Offsite Backup Service. The updated pricing can be reached at https://www.layerstack.com/pricing-acronis.
Price Adjustment on DDoS Attack Protection Service: The cost for DDoS protection add-on is adjusted from US$ 18 to US$20.5 per month. Full DDoS Protection details at https://www.layerstack.com/ddos-protection.
You can also check out all the previous updates at LayerStack Release Note. It is very appreciated if you have any ideas for improving our products, please let us know your comments on LayerStack Community.
LayerStack is coming up with an exciting, one-of-a-kind High Frequency CPU Server Plan unmatched in the cloud-computing industry. Applications that depend upon higher computing power, faster network speeds, and lightning access to storage infrastructure will significantly benefit from the plan. The plan utilizes high-rating CPU – the AMD EPYC 7742 which boasts a superior performance with 64 cores and 128 threads. It comes with a high base clockspeed of 2.25 GHz, capable of a turbo boost up to 3.4 GHz. The 2nd generation EPYC processor is based on Zen 2 microarchitecture, with a TDP of 225 W and built on the 7 nm process technology.
Uses of High Frequency CPU Server
High Frequency CPU Servers handle high-performance computing (HPC) workloads easily due to their superior clock speeds, large bandwidth, and fast I/O transfers. The ability to perform quadrillions of calculations is immensely useful in data-sensitive applications, hyper-converged infrastructure, increased VM density, and processing complex calculations with humongous data in real-time.
The EPYC server series provides the computing backbone for Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft’s Azure services. Research labs use clusters of high-frequency CPU servers for predicting and tracking storms and testing new products. Live event streaming, rendering mind-blowing special effects, and 3D imaging need powerful CPUs. Artificial intelligence and machine learning use HPC in applications ranging from detecting credit card fraud to teaching self-driving vehicles. Real-time stock trends and automated trading platforms use high-frequency servers extensively.
Comparison of CPU’s used by LayerStack and other top cloud providers.
LayerStack uses AMD’s powerful EPYC series processors in all its plans. According to Passmark’s CPU benchmarking test, LayerStack CPUs’ score is significantly higher than the CPUs selected by most of the top cloud providers, we have picked a few providers and compare the CPU efficiency.
*The comparison below is for reference purpose only, the information may vary due to different cloud server deployment, LayerStack bears no responsibility for any listed information.
LayerStack
The Standard Plan uses AMD EPYC 7662 and 7702, with clockspeeds between a base 2.0 GHz and max turbo 3.35 GHz. They both have 64 cores and supports 128 threads simultaneously, with a TDP up to 225W.
The High Frequency CPU Plan uses the AMD EPYC 7742 which is highly scored by PassMark Software.
DO Cloud Provider
The Standard Plan uses Intel Xeon E5-2650 v4, with clockspeeds between a base 2.2 GHz and turbo 2.9 GHz. Launched in Q2 2016, the Xeon has 12 cores and supports 24 threads, with a TDP of 105W.
The CPU-optimized Plan uses Intel Xeon Gold, with clockspeeds between a base 2.3 GHz and turbo 3.7 GHz. Launched in Q4 2017, it has 18 cores and supports 36 threads, with a TDP of 140W.
L Cloud Provider
The Standard Plan uses both Intel Xeon E5-2697 v4, with clockspeeds between a base 2.3 GHz and turbo 3.6 GHz, and AMD EPYC 7501 between 2.0 GHz and 3.0 GHz. The Xeon has 18 cores and supports 36 threads, while the 7501 has 32 cores and supports 64 threads.
The Dedicated-CPU Plan uses AMD EPYC 7601, with clockspeeds between a base 2.2 GHz and turbo 2.7 GHz. Launched in Q4 2017, the 7601 has 32 cores and supports 64 threads, with a TDP of 180W.
Comparison Result
LayerStack’s EPYC 7702 and 7742 have the highest CPU Mark scores, followed by L Brand’s EPYC 7601 and 7501. DO Brand’s Xeon E5-2560 scores the lowest.
It is pleased to announce that LayerStack Templates is officially integrated with VM Import on LayerPanel. Users can export a virtual machine image from your virtualization environment to LayerStack. Those images will be shown as templates in the panel which you can use to launch instances. With the upgraded Templates function, users can benefit from the scale of LayerStack while using your own custom environment.
What is VM Image
A virtual machine image is a snapshot of your disk at one point in time, those images are usually installed with operating systems and software such as databases or operational applications. VM image is useful for users to move workloads from the current virtualization environment to the cloud. Besides, It is also effective when users want to deploy multiple servers with a consistent cloud environment.
Which image formats are supported?
LayerStack Template is now supporting five image formats including Virtual Disk Image (VDI), Virtual Machine Disk (VMDK), Virtual Hard Disk (VHDX), QEMU Copy-On-Write 2 (QCOW2), and raw. If you are using any other image formats for cloud migration, please directly contact our CS team for a free consultation.
Pricing and Applications
Importing VM image to LayerStack Template is free of charge. Every account can create 3 templates with max. size 150GB each. Users who reached the template limit can simply delete outdated templates on LayerPanel and import new images for cloud deployments.
Quick Start Guide:
Create Template 1. Log in to LayerPanel (https://www.layerpanel.com/#/login) 2. Go to Services section and select Templates 3. Click Create or Upload to build your templates 4. It will be shown as Working on the list once the templates are successfully created.
Install the server with Custom Template 5. Select the relevant cloud server at “Service – Cloud Server”. 6. Click the Rebuild button at top right corner. 7. Scroll down the OS options and select the custom template at the bottom. 8. Follow the in-built guide and proceed with template installation.
User data security is always LayerStack’s major concerns, today we are pleased to announce that Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is official launched on LayerPanel. LayerStack VPC is a virtual isolated network dedicated to any of your LayerStack cloud servers aiming to provide user with completely isolated cloud servers to place sensitive data and works.
Progression of Private Networking
LayerStack VPC is the natural progression of our existing Private Networking features. Although they are both sharing similar operating principle, VPC goes one step further by hiding the Public IP of isolated instances. It results in each private instance that you created is logically isolated from other private networks and the public Internet.
Thus, VPC cannot download and upload any data to the public network directly, all data transfer has to pass through gateway server which maintains the true privacy and data security inside the private instances.
Data Transfer
Efficiently transmit data over a dedicated VLAN circuit which is unreachable from the internet, data can be transmitted via a high capacity and low latency isolated network. Unlimited traffic is available for inbound and outbound transfers, unlike many cloud providers in the market like Linode, DigitalOcean and Vultr, no extra cost will be charged for data transfer.
Furthermore, enterprises can achieve data mirroring with the ultra-low latency bandwidth, the system can real-time copy sensitive data to multiple isolated instances as a part of crisis prevention plan.
The Use of VPC
VPC can be very useful when users want to store
their business sensitive data separately in order to further improve the data
security level, those sensitive data can be something like backend system,
client’s personal information, transactions data etc.. VPC makes it extremely
hard for third parties to stumble across data and
employ them in negative way. In fact, multiple isolated instances
can be deployed with one gateway server, the independence of different business
projects can be enhanced. Multi-VPC may works for project-based companies like
web and apps developers which resources do not need to communicate with each
other, the clients’ data can be more secure and better managed by the service
providers.
Custom ISO features has been officially activated on LayerPanel 2 in all regions. Custom ISO is usually used for installing custom operating systems or booting custom rescue disks on Cloud Servers. With using the Custom ISO feature, user can be benefited from saving download and setup time while installing identical OS and applications in different computing server or VPS. In fact, some industrial software solutions are only compliable to specific operating systems which is supported by LayerPanel 2 from now on.
The process involves the uploading of an ISO file through FTP or HTTP. The LayerPanel offers this uploading feature where a user can upload one ISO file per client as a default limit. The following steps will give user the correct method to upload and run a custom ISO.
1. Upload Custom ISOLog in to LayerPanel 2, go to the Services section and click Cloud Servers, then choose the Cloud Servers that you want to detach ISO file.
2. Click the ISO button.
3. Click the Upload option and choose from 3 options – FTP / HTTP / Google Drive URL for ISO uploading process. For more details: https://bit.ly/2LVOYKA
4. Once the upload process is completed, please click Switch, choose your custom ISO file and click Mount ISO and Restart for mounting this ISO into your Cloud Servers.
5. Click Console button to access the server console.
6. Click the Send CtrlAltDel button in the Console window, then immediately left-click inside the Console window, press the Escape key (ESC) as soon as the “Press ESC for boot menu” message appears in order to access the boot menu for the server. Lastly, press 4 to boot the server from DVD/CD (boot from ISO)
* If the Escape key (ESC) is not pressed on time, the below screen will pop-up when user accessing Console.
7. You may detach & delete ISO file after all installation is completed.
With the Covid-19 outbreak, remote working is rapidly growing and becoming the new business trend. HK Gov has recently launched the Distance Business Programme (D-Biz) to support enterprises to develop distance businesses with innovative technologies and create new value. For each IT solution, the funding ceiling is HK$100,000 and each company may receive maximum funding of HK$300,000 to undertake a project to be completed within 6 months.
LayerStack cloud server is complied with high CPU and SSD performance which balance compute, memory and network resources. Besides, LayerStack is featured with Private Networking, Auto-Backup, User Permission Management and many more. Enterprises can effectively move their businesses and websites to cloud, allowing employee to access business documents without restrictions of space or time. Furthermore, enterprises can also be benefited with Data security, Scalability, Disaster recovery and Global disposition by applying cloud computing technology.
Distance Business Programme (D-Biz) is open for application from 18th May 2020, contact us via email: [email protected] NOW for your customized cloud solution.
