Well, sort of.

Not just an “app,” but a serious SaaS enabling applications.

The good folks at Peer1 have launched something new. It’s called the CloudXcelerator cloud program, aimed at helping you succeed in developing and launching your own application.

All you have to do is to apply here and if you are selected, you will be able to develop, test and run your cloud application on the company’s SuperNetwork™ infrastructure. You will enjoy discounted hosting, discounted storage, free publicity, free lead generation, and co-marketing funds.

Photo by Bob Jagendorf (c) 2010 by permission

By it’s name, Assembla, sound very much like the word, assemble. Maybe think of it as assemble meets new business processes in which teams around the world can collectively build software from a central repository.

If you’re a developer or a consulting firm building software for clients, Assembla can be an ideal way to collaborate.

In this video, you see a demonstration of  how to create a new space, add and remove tools, and rearrange the space navigation.

Assembla helps your create, build and story your code in a secure environment known as  Spaces.  Creating new spaces and managing your existing ones are the most basic and important functions for getting the most out of your Assembla subscription. It’s easy to configure your space to fit your needs.

If you have a dedicated hosting configuration, then you should consider Assembla Private Installations where you own, integrate and customize your solution.

Check out Assembla and tell them that DedicatedHosting.com sent you!

Omar Uddin is a change agent of social change.  His goal is to help solve the problem of getting people to volunteer and become the new first responders for causes around the globe.  His company, UVision Consulting, developed a solution known as VolunteerACT, that enables people to not just follow causes, but get involved as volunteers with those causes and learn something at the same time. So, beyond the traditional meet-up sites that exist, VolunteerACT helps organizations and causes gain measurable value from a volunteer through productivity and results from the work just like any other staff would be part of the team to help.

Seeing that there were large number non-profits in the metro Washington, DC area, Uddin saw a greater opportunity for change when our nation was going through a giant economic downturn.  Even though the economy is slightly turning around, Uddin learned that people have been donating less and becoming more active as volunteers since 2008 when the recession started.  Research also suggests that volunteers are now more likely to donate money or motivate others to donate than simply just marketing to donors. Above and beyond traditional volunteer management, he envisioned a reactive force of a range of volunteers from micro-volunteerism, on-site volunteers and remote volunteers who could collaborate to aid causes such as becoming, if you will, first responders to a natural disaster such as earthquakes and tsunamis.  With his premise that people tend to self organize to not only have their voice heard, they want to show action and leadership and engage others who are like minded.  VolunteerACT is a platform that helps connect what have traditionally been followers into volunteers wanting to make a difference.

With the economy still rebounding, the reality is that with 10% unemployment in the US, increasing school tuition and decreasing funding to educational institutions, it’s tough for many people to both look for jobs and find a way to stand out from the saturation of job applicants. Volunteering over time can be a way to build a civic and social transcript that may one day become the norm. In fact, Change.org provides a guide for how you can include your volunteer experience on your resume.

VolunteerACT is a great way bring volunteers and causes closer together and create a new culture of volunteerism. Check out their beta and test drive a better way to measure volunteer productivity to further your collective cause.

As for hosting, they are using a combination of dedicated and cloud based services.  The site is hosted on the cloud, and volunteer information – due to privacy issues – remain on dedicated servers.

Uddin represents a generation of social entrepreneurs who are using external hosting providers that lets them focus on core mission of doing social good.

Clint Watson calls him self a software craftsman and art fanatic.  He loves to build software and loves great art. His business, known as Fine Art Studio Online, has been helping artists sell their art online.

Originally, Clint helped artists build their web sites, but quickly realized that he did not want to have to make constant changes and modifications that required tremendous amounts of time.   He then developed a platform that enabled artists to build their own web sites without the need for servers and ongoing maintenance.

Here’s Clint’s story on his approach to hybrid hosting and how he’s helping artists from all over the world expand their reach.  Watch carefully as Clint not only talks about his business, but his approach in building a virtual company.

Hope Bertram is President of the Chicago-based Windy City Social, Inc.,  a networking group committed to helping professionals in their 30’s and 40’s connect on a social, intellectual and professional level.  She also has another site, The Year of Hope.

Hope’s events range from happy hours, wine tastings and musical chair dinners to hikes, bike rides and informational sessions that aim to help enhance people’s careers and your lives.  I had a chance to catch up with Hope at SXSW 2010 and here’s her take on hosting.

Meritage Homes is custom home builder that has already constructed more than 60,000 homes across the southern and western part of the United States.   The company is now ranked as the tenth largest homebuilder in the country, on the Forbes’ Platinum 400 – Best Big Companies of America, the “Fortune 1000” largest corporations of America and has been named Texas Builder of the Year five times.  The company is publicly traded on the NYSE under the symbol MTH.

Hear what the company’s Online Marketing Manger, Misty Puls has to say about how she uses dedicated hosting.

When I first heard about Project Gatsby, I was intrigued by the name, immediately associating it with the great American novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

If the Great Gatsby celebrated the great Jazz Age of the 1920’s, its message was in the sense of reality that it brought, as our country was going through an era of cultural and economic transformation.

As we go through this economic recovery, the companies and individuals I get to meet through this blog collectively share a sense of opportunity that as businesses are re-tooling, they are also looking at lower cost and more efficient ways to conduct business.

Listen to what Eric Bell and Edmund Schnecker have to say as they tell the story of how they are helping small to medium sized businesses take advantage of virtualization best practices.

To date, they have helped clients design, build and maintain over  5,000 virtualized servers.  If you are getting ready to make upgrade or expansion plans in software and server technology, you might want to visit with Project Gatsby to see how they can help you.

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Ori Rajwan is an independent software developer and entrepreneur based in Tel Aviv.  His advise on moving to dedicated hosting is simple:  find the environment you feel most comfortable with and go for it.

Ori prefers LAMP and PHP as his development platforms, and sees the main advantage for him in using dedicated hosting as being for system administration and support.  Ori also uses a combination of cloud and dedicated hosting solutions as a way to host his files, while still maintaining control on his files.
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Step into The Cell CyberLounge and you’ll find a bank of  sixteen high end, custom built PCs made just for gamers. The company’s founder and CEO, Sean Maddox not only offers a unique facility for his customers to play the latest and coolest games, but he’s building a community of gamers who can share their most extreme wants and desires when it comes to hardware configuration, hot gaming titles and even a chance to compete in tournaments.

This combination of taking things to the extreme also means extreme demands on servers. Sean had a mandate to himself when he started building his business: focus on building killer gaming machines in-house, and use dedicated hosting to serve content and data. That strategy has served him well, in keeping costs low and passing the savings on to his gaming customers.

For $35 per month, you can get an unlimited pass to game to your heart’s desire. You can also buy 30 hours of gaming time for $15 or 75 hours for $25.

Sean is not just all about gaming. Given the computational demands of gaming, Sean is also using his facility in another creative way: he’s big on Grid Computing. On the back end of his business Sean uses his gaming machines as clients on a distributed cluster platform for high performance computing needs, be it a contract for seismic processing or high demand data crunching that he will do for other companies.

For Sean, dedicated hosting is an enabling platform, that can be integrated into his HPC  (high performance computing) cluster, and having the flexibility and reliability of an outside hosting firm that lets him grow and expand his business as needed.

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