PioneerX supports clouds, open to Facebook

Kitely may be turning the OpenSim hosting model upside down with its metered pricing, but other OpenSim hosting providers have already embraced the cloud. “We already utilise cloud based resources to allow for dynamic commission and decommission of region servers, both in our private cloud and [Amazon] EC2,” PioneerX owner Simon Gutteridge told Hypergrid Business.

Museum of Natural History on 3rd Rock Grid, which uses the PioneerX platform. (Image courtesy 3rd Rock Grid.)

It works in the background, however, and it transparent to customers. “A new module comes out at the end of the week that allows for dynamic purchase and commission of the regions, that is designed to support this process,” he said. Meanwhile, one enhancement being planned for the PioneerX RCI grid management system is to allow for instant creation of Amazon-based regions, he said. That will make the setup of new regions much easier, he said. Gutteridge also added that social media integration, such as Facebook, is possible in the future. “If one of the grids running the system wants that kind of integration, then we will be happy to develop and add it,” he said. However, there are no plans to add to the RCI grid management console itself, he said, since it’s not intended to be used by end-users. “The platform is designed for grid owners to help run grids,” he said. Meanwhile, Sim-OnDemand has been offering Amazon-based regions to customers for over a year. And SpotOn3D also offers cloud-based regions, for about $5 per hour per region for up to 100 simultaneous avatars (plus a $25 monthly fee) for their existing hosting customers

Maria Korolov