Softlayer, a Texas based on demand data center provider, announced today a line of cloud services called CloudLayer. CloudLayer comprises of four service offerings as described below:

CloudLayer Computing

An on demand compute environment similar to Amazon EC2. The CloudLayer computing is available with a minimum of a 2.0 GHz processor and offers a choice of operating system. CloudLayer computing supports full virtualization (i.e. storage, security and networking) using Citrix Xen Server and is available in the following capacity formats :

CloudLayer Cloud Delivery Network (CDN)

“CloudLayer CDN distributes content through a network with 21 nodes throughout the cloud, putting your content geographically closer to your end-users. This minimizes the distance the data has to travel, avoiding network traffic jams, decreasing latency, and improving the user experience. CloudLayer CDN includes robust tools for digital rights management and content monetization. CloudLayer CDN is available with two different distribution options:

1. Origin Pull —The first time content is requested, it’s pulled from the host server to the network and stays there for other users to access it until it’s automatically cleared 24 hours after the last demand for it.

2. POP Pull —Content is stored on all 21 nodes around the globe, remaining available “at the edge” of the network at all times.”

The plan for using Softlayer’s CDN is shown below.

CloudLayer Storage

CloudLayer storage competes with Amazon S3. However, it is completely different in its structure and operation. Unlike Amazon S3, CloudLayer offers a wide choice of access methods and devices such as of native Windows client or WebDAV access (Windows, Mac and Linux), rich Web 2.0 client, native applications for BlackBerry, iPhone, and Windows Mobile devices. CloudLayer Storage pricing is shown below.