Summer is in full swing and on a particularly hot afternoon last weekend, I enjoyed a little time at the local community pool to cool off.  As is typically the case with recreational pool-goers, there are those who take a more cautious approach to the pool, testing the waters before slowly submerging. And then there are others who take the opposite approach and cannon-ball straight in. The same can be said for cloud computing.

While it is undeniable that cloud computing is gaining momentum exponentially in today's IT landscape, taking that first step can still be daunting to many organizations. You won't find many that are diving right in without first testing the waters. That's why Layered Tech, an infrastructure hosting company, gives organizations a chance to ease into cloud computing. The company offers a Virtual Private Data Center service built off the CA AppLogic cloud platform that gives cautious cloud-goers the flexibility they need. According to Todd Abrams, EVP at Layered Tech:

 "Our Virtual Private Data Center (VPDC) offering has been an important differentiator for us and has helped us appeal to both the cloud "toe-dippers" as well as to support full-scale implementations.

Unlike a traditional hosting environment where you are limited by the CPU or RAM of the servers your application is hosted on, our VPDC services provide greater flexibility to grow as your traffic needs change. A VPDC is not a shared environment. The resources are private and unique to you, but additional capacity is automatically allocated when you need it, and you pay only for what you use."

Layered Tech also appeals to the highly regulated industries that are more reluctant to leverage cloud computing due to compliance concerns.

"Another important differentiator for us is the expertise in compliance that we have thanks to our acquisition of GSI Hosting. Companies in highly regulated industries like financial services and healthcare want to take advantage of the flexibility and cost savings that cloud computing can deliver, but they have to be compliant with PCI, HIPAA and other regulations."

So for those organizations that are thinking about diving into cloud computing, but not quite ready to go headfirst, consider those cloud solutions that enable you to move at your own pace.

To learn more about Layered Tech and how they are supporting cloud "toe-dippers", visit the Cloud Luminaries site and watch more videos of organizations who are paving the way in cloud.