"As cloud computing becomes the mainstream, the pre-boot sequence (BIOS) is still one of the most important parts of many application configuration requirements in IT administration. In the past, moving to the cloud meant losing control of the extremely important hardware feature that occurs just before the operating system loads onto a virtual machine. Now, ProfitBricks returns this capability back into the hands of IT administrators by enabling BIOS level access for all its virtual machines.
For decades, on-premises installations meant application developers and systems administrators had access to this pre-boot sequence, whether it was for easing asset management, helping to recover from failure, or fine tuning systems for performance. The move to the cloud meant losing access to this important level of control, as cloud providers only offer administrative credentials to a server only once the operating system has loaded.
""Our virtual machines look and feel more like the bare metal, all instances include dedicated CPU cores, dedicated RAM and now BIOS-level access just like the physical servers that IT admins are used to, except they get all of the advantages of cloud computing from the price/performance leader,"" said ProfitBricks Co-Founder, CEO, and CTO Achim Weiss. ""We want to give our customers as much control of their virtual data center as they would have in a traditional on-premises data center, but without the hassle of the capital expenditures and never-ending hardware maintenance. With this new feature we're making cloud computing an even more attractive alternative for the enterprise.""
Using the ProfitBricks Data Center Designer, customers can observe and interrupt the pre-boot sequence of a virtual machine as it starts up. Access is available to the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) where Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) configurations can be customized and API access is given to the Basic Input/Output Operating System (BIOS). Additionally, later in the pre-boot process, the multi-boot loader GNU GRUB is also accessible, allowing system administrators to execute tasks like entering different recovery modes and conducting memory tests, all prior to the guest operating system being loaded.
ProfitBricks is a leading price and performance leader who introduced Cloud Computing 2.0 - that offeres more speed, flexibility and value, and not offers a cloud experience more closely resembling bare metal servers."
