Infinitely Virtual - Virtual Office Los Angeles

Infinitely Virtual is (IV) a California-based hosting company and subsidiary of Altay Corporation. The company supplies IT products and services that leverage server virtualization concepts and technology. IV builds products that meet the needs of small and medium companies internationally.

Corporate History

Adam Stern started Altay Corporation in 2003, the same year he completed a business degree from California State University, Northridge. Stern previously worked for CallOne, Inc., a value-added reseller of computer equipment and professional services. From 1997 to 2000, Stern led CallOne as the Vice President of Operations. He then worked for 3Com in 2000.

In forming Altay Corporation, Stern’s purpose was to provide professional services to small- and medium-size businesses (SMBs). Altay Corporation experienced rapid growth as it provided companies such as Tutor-Saliba Corporation, now Tutor Perini with Windows and VMware solutions. Changes were already afoot in that sector; there were freelancers in abundance, zeroing in on the SMB market. Against that competitive backdrop, Stern’s company was able to forge substantial relationships with a number of larger companies. As Altay developed, Stern gained valuable insights as a business leader. Over the next few years, he began to recognize that virtualization would be the future of computing. In 2007, he created Infinitely Virtual as a subsidiary of Altay Corporation to provide Virtual Dedicated Server solutions to growing enterprises.

Stern went all-in for virtualization well ahead of the time the technology achieved the status of a trend. With roots in the enterprise computing space in the early 2000s â€" years before cloud computing and virtualization were in the vernacular â€" Stern saw higher Internet speeds to the office and how businesses (especially the SMB market) were using dedicated servers. He had little interest in building a business that looked like other virtual server companies. Instead, he recognized that no one was looking at the virtual dedicated server concept â€" what became the “Infrastructure as a Service” model â€" where servers and prefab packages effectively take the place of IT professionals, a benefit for small and midsize businesses.

Stern chose Angela Terry to lead Infinitely Virtual’s financial operations. Terry’s educational and professional backgrounds matched well with the company’s needs. She received her BA in Economics from UCLA in 1982 and passed all four parts of the CPA exam on her first attempt. After working for public accounting firms, she took time off to raise a family and eventually started her own accounting practice. When Stern launched Infinitely Virtual, he sought out Terry for her financial expertise.

In the ensuing year, Stern used nearly all of his credit to fuel the growth of Infinitely Virtual. And by the end of the next fiscal year, he had paid off all of his debt and Infinitely Virtual was in the black. Infinitely Virtual experienced significant growth during the worst of the recession, in part by offering technologies and services that enable client businesses to grow and meet their revenue and productivity goals during economically challenging times.

As an early adopter, Stern quickly concluded that small and medium-sized businesses had much to gain from virtual hosting services. Yet the technologies were too complex to handle in-house. As a result, Infinitely Virtual focused on this market, which grew exponentially over the next few years.

Infinitely Virtual Begins

Infinitely Virtual began with a pilot virtual environment at the One Wilshire data center in downtown Los Angeles, using Hewlett-Packard dl360 servers and offering Windows and Linux virtual dedicated servers. Deployed in 2006, this was essentially a cloud computing platform before the term existed.

With further development, services such as Virtual Terminal Servers, Virtual Office Networks and other customized configurations were offered to customers as well.

In 2009, Infinitely Virtual moved its primary data center from the One Wilshire collocation site to the Wilshire Annex in Los Angeles. This move enabled the company to continue offering technologically sophisticated Virtual Dedicated Servers while keeping prices low. Due to increased growth, a secondary data center at the AmericanIS Lightwave Data Center was brought online in San Diego. Products and services included Privately Hosted Exchange, Virtual Terminal Server and Virtual Dedicated Server, running on HP c7000 Series bl490c blade servers.

Corporate Responsibility

Corporate responsibility and environmental consciousness are high priorities for Infinitely Virtual. All products and services feature low-power consumption, in many cases under 10 watts per server. Infinitely Virtual minimizes its impact on the environment by being both a provider and a consumer of cloud-based services.

The company ethosâ€"treat customers/vendors/employees the way you wish to be treatedâ€"extends beyond the workday. Infinitely Virtual is an active supporter of YouthLinc, and has sponsored a young person’s participation in a trip to Kenya. The company has also made its mark in one of Eastern Europe’s rebounding economies, donating cloud-based infrastructure services to an advanced computer science class at the International Christian School of Budapest, an American school in Diosd, Hungary.

Market Successes

Infinitely Virtual ranks among the world’s Top 100 Cloud Service Providers (CSPs), according to Penton’s fifth-annual Talkin’ Cloud 100 report. In mid-2015, the company earned the rating of "Enterprise-Readyâ„¢" in Skyhigh Networks’ CloudTrustâ„¢ Program for four of its offerings: Infinitely Virtual Cloud Server Hosting, Infinitely Virtual Infinite Protect, Infinitely Virtual InfiniteVault and Virtual Terminal Server Cloud Server. The company was named a finalist in the 2013-2014 Cloud Awards Program in two categories â€" Best Cloud Hosting Provider and Best Cloud Reseller/Reseller Program.

Since 2010, Infinitely Virtual has consistently been voted one of the fastest growing providers in the cloud hosting industry, according to HostReview. The company took the top spot in HostReview’s rankings for March 2013. The publication honored Infinitely Virtual with Top #10 rankings in two categories in the January 2014 Web Host Awards â€" Best Cloud Computing Provider and Fastest Growing Provider. In October of the following year, Infinitely Virtual ranked first for Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting. In early 2016, Infinitely Virtual ranked 6th among the foremost players in the cloud hosting space for the year, according to HostReview’s Best Cloud Computing Providers Awards, finishing ahead of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google.

Infinitely Virtual has been named to the Ingram Micro 2015 SMB 500 for three years running. The annual list recognizes the top 500 fastest-growing Ingram Micro U.S. channel partners serving the small and midsize business (SMB) market.

Market Expansion

Along with industry recognition, Infinitely Virtual has expanded its footprint in the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) market. In mid-2012, the company was approved as an Intuit Commercial Host, which enabled IV to provide QuickBooks capability to clients via its virtual server platform; within two years, Infinitely Virtual was named a Premier Reseller for the entire line of QuickBooks products and services.

In March 2013, Infinitely Virtual moved its backup data center from San Diego to Boston, setting the stage for expansion to new geographic and vertical markets. In early 2014, the company entered the manufacturing sector though its partnership with BASIS International Ltd.; Infinitely Virtual subsequently introduced InfiniteERPâ„¢, a cloud-based enterprise resource planning suite for manufacturers. Around the same time, the company released its first hosting plan aimed at the education sector. In the fall of 2015, Infinitely Virtual announced its entry into the hosted payroll processing market, a part of the $7 billion payroll processing industry. And in December of that year, the company completed the mandatory HITECH audit, paving the way for its move into the healthcare IT market with a series of HIPAA hosting plans.

Products and Services

Infinitely Virtual specializes in Windows- and Linux-based Virtual Server Hosting, as well as Microsoft Exchange Server Hosting, Office Virtualization, and Cloud Hosting solutions. Infinitely Virtual's products fall into distinct areas:

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

• Virtual Datacenter Standard plans enable users to purchase pools of resources and share them among their servers.
• Virtual Datacenter Premium plans are designed for those who require a great deal of compute power, and want to achieve the highest possible performance
• Windows Cloud Hosting. Infinitely Virtual’s premium Windows Cloud Server plan includes all the benefits of a dedicated server without the cost of physical hardware.
• Linux Cloud Hosting. Infinitely Virtual offers a premium Linux Cloud Server plan that includes all the benefits of a dedicated server without the cost of physical hardware.
• Self-install Cloud Hosting. This option enables users to install any supported operating system on a safe, fast virtualization environment.
• Upload Cloud Server Hosting. Users can upload their server directly into Infinitely Virtual’s E.V.E. with the Upload Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting plan.

Disaster Recovery as a Service(DRaaS)

• InfiniteProtect provides a complete backup and disaster recovery solution for unlimited servers and computers, with unlimited backup retention.

Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

• QuickBooks Virtual Terminal Server plans enable users to share Quickbooks Pro, Premier, Accountant and Enterprise Editions with Infinitely Virtual’s QuickBooks Terminal Server.
• QuickBooks Virtual Terminal Server Premium plans combine the company’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) QuickBooks hosting solution with its Virtual Terminal Server - Premium offering.
• Virtual Terminal Server â€" Standard enables users to share Windows applications with coworkers anywhere in the world.
• Virtual Terminal Server â€" Premium was designed for growing businesses, delivering the benefits of the VTS - Standard package, while including Active Directory Controllers and a Virtual Dedicated File Server with SharePoint Foundation.
• Virtual Office Network - Standard â€" Infinitely Virtual has combined its Virtual Terminal Server plan with its Dedicated Exchange Hosting plan in its Virtual Office Network â€" Standard+ package.
• QuickBooks Virtual Office Network combines the features of Infinitely Virtual’s Dedicated Exchange Hosting plan and its QuickBooks Terminal Server - Premium plan.

Storage as a Service (STaaS)

• InfiniteVault enables users to share; users can Cloud-enable the desktop or a server in minutes. Users can also create Team Shares and work together seamlessly and securely.
• Virtual VPN Server, aimed at users who want to share their data on Infinitely Virtual’s VPN Server with friends and colleagues anywhere in the world using software included in every version of Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

Notable Achievements and Interesting Facts

In October 2014, Infinitely Virtual donated cloud-based infrastructure services to the International Christian School of Budapest, an American school in Diosd, Hungary. The company outfitted an advanced computer science class at ICSB with its Diamond Virtual Datacenter Standard plan, valued at approximately $4,000. Infinitely Virtual supplied 24 students with 48 virtual machines for classroom curriculum as part of an ongoing program. The configuration consisted of 100GB RAM, 1TB storage, 50 Ghz CPU, and 48 Windows Server Standard. The ICSB installation is equipped with onsite and offsite backup using Application-Consistent Snapshot technology.

In 2014 and 2015, Infinitely Virtual founder and CEO Adam Stern moderated two webcasts from ExecSense, a pay-to-view service from the Financial Times:

• “What CFOs Need to Know About Cloud Environments and Choosing: Understanding the Cost, Risk and Option Value of Decisions”
• “Addressing the Challenges Small and Medium Businesses Face in Moving to the Cloud”

In 2015 and 2016, Stern served as a judge of the Stratus Awards for Cloud Computing, a program of Business Intelligence Group. The Stratus Awards recognize those companies and individuals innovating in the Cloud and providing offerings that are differentiated in the market.

In 2016, Stern contributed to Recalculating: 97+ Experts on Driving Small Business Growth, a new book from the publishers of Small Business Digest. “Liberate Cloud Computing from Vendors - and Free Your Small Business to Use Technology to Actually Grow”

In the Press

• 15 MSP Pros Reveal What Their Customers Are Saying About Cloud Computing
• Is Hybrid Cloud the Future of Enterprise IT?
• Recap: 226 Virtualization and Cloud 2016 Predictions - What did Company Executives Predict at VMblog?
• Web Host Infinitely Virtual Adds New Cloud Hosting Plans
• VPS Host Infinitely Virtual Developing New Control Panel
• Web Host Infinitely Virtual Offers New SharePoint Hosting Plans
• Infinitely Virtual Developing Product Based on Office Communications Server
• Infinitely Virtual Adds Juniper Firewall Perimeter Anti-Virus
• Infinitely Virtual Adds Solid-State Drives to Boost Server Performance
• Web Host Infinitely Virtual Launches New Linux Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting Plans
• Web Host Infinitely Virtual Courting new Reseller Partners
• Infinitely Virtual Offers Free SNMP Monitoring, Develops Premium Plan
• Infinitely Virtual Provides Microsoft Office 2010 to Virtual Server Customers
• Infinitely Virtual Expands Operations Into American Internet Services San Diego Data Center
• Infinitely Virtual Doubles Primary Hosting Space, Adds Secondary Facility
• Infinitely Virtual Releases VMware Fault Tolerance
• Infinitely Virtual Completes Upgrade to VMware vSphere 4
• Infinitely Virtual Adds Global Crossing As Upstream ISP
• Infinitely Virtual Uses Greener HP Blades

References

External links

• Official website
• Altay Corporation Website
• Press
• Newsletters
• Videos