8KMiles Virtual Cloud Computing environment is the revolution that you were waiting for.
  

8KMiles, through its cloud based Virtual Computing Environment provides on demand access to pre-configured remote desktops and remote servers. Using the VCE, developers and testing professionals will be working on cloud based systems that provide real time monitoring and collaboration. Also, the remote systems can be completely sandboxed (block network access, download and local save / print) to offer IP protection and security.


What is VCE?
Virtual Computing Environment (VCE) is a Computing environment from the "Cloud" to meet your computing needs while you focus on the project execution. Today, a VCE is Amazon's EC2 services packed to suit 8KMiles users. With the 8Kmiles VCE, engaging remote contractors can be as good as having them in your office, working on your own desktops. Without the overheads, of course !



Typical use case scenario

  • Buyer subscribes to VCE and adminiters access
    • - Providers login to and work in the VCE
    • - Developers designs, codes and builds the application
  • Test specialist logs into the same VCE and tests the app
  • Buyers can track project progress in the VCE in real time
  • Entire VCE can be moved out of 8KMiles for production use when application is ready

Sample list of pre-configured VCE stacks :

1. Java with Eclipse IDE on Windows/Linux
2. NET ( Visual Studio ) with SQL server
3. Android SDK ( with Eclipse IDE and simulator ) on Windows
4. Lamp stack for internet application development / testing
5. Adobe Flex ( with IDE ) on Windows
6. Sharepoint development / testing
7. ROR on Linux

In addition to the security systems provided by Amazon, 8KMiles helps user to protect their data by providing following abilities:
  1. Outbound network security:
    • a) Block access to the Internet from within the VCE: User will not be able to do any outbound network transactions, most importantly to the Internet.
    • b) Stop users copying data to clipboard using NX client: When logged in to the VCE using NX Client, user will not be able to copy and paste the content to his local clipboard. However, user will be able to copy text using other SSH clients like Putty or in-built ssh program on a Linux laptop.
  2. Block SFTP access to users:
    Users can be restricted from using SFTP server to transfer files in and out of the VCE. Note: In this model, we will not be able to control other ways of data capturing like taking snapshot of the screen using Digital camera, printing the user's display screen etc.
  3. Licensing and Support:
    Linux VCEs are installed and pre-configured with open source or freeware software and 8KMiles do not take any responsibility of the behaviour or support of the software part of the VCE. If the 8KMiles user wants to install licensed software on a Linux VCE, then it is up to the user to manage the licenses and support. Windows VCE is an interface to Amazon's Windows EC2 services and licensing and support are governed by Amazon Web Services. If the 8KMiles user wants to install licensed software on a Windows VCE, then it is up to the user to manage the licenses and support.
  • Real-time collaboration and monitoring
  • Centralized infrastructure - provides Security and enables project continuity
  • Usage based pricing
  • Zero configuration / setup time
  • Automatic Backup / Disaster Recovery
  • 8KMiles provides on-demand infrastructure delivered from the cloud
  • Access pre-configured remote desktops and remote servers (Linux & Windows)
  • Open source and licensed (Microsoft) software No account setup / maintenance on Amazon cloud
Amazon EC2 provides a complete firewall solution; this mandatory inbound firewall is configured in a default deny mode and the Amazon EC2 customer must explicitly open any ports to allow inbound traffic. The traffic may be restricted by protocol, by service port, as well as by source IP address (individual IP or CIDR block).

The firewall can be configured in groups permitting different classes of instances to have different rules, for example the case of a traditional three-tiered web application. The group for the web servers would have port 80 (HTTP) and port 443 (HTTPS) open to the world. The group for the application servers would have port 8000 (application specific) accessible only to the web server group. The group for the database servers would have port 3306 (MySQL) open only to the application server group. All three groups would permit administrative access on port 22 (SSH), but only from the customer's corporate network. Highly secure applications can be deployed using this expressive mechanism