SoftLayer Releases Android App

SoftLayer Technologies, a provider of on-demand virtual data center services, has released an Android application for managing those services on-demand virtual data center services from a smartphone

The SoftLayer Mobile Client for Android, released Tuesday, arrives just weeks after the company launched similar software for the Apple iPhone. In general, the latest application provides much of the functionality of SoftLayer's customer portal through a mobile device running Google's Android operating system.

SoftLayer said the new application runs natively on Android, providing a level of control and robustness that wouldn't be available through browser-based software.

"SoftLayer is committed to making hosting and server management as easy and convenient as possible for our customers," Nathan Day, chief technology officer for SoftLayer, said in a statement.

Capabilities include the ability to create and view tickets for support questions or requests. In addition, the client provides details about dedicated servers, virtual servers and cloud-computing instances, as well as the ability to manage system startup, shutdown, pinging and reboot. Users also can get bandwidth usage information.

The latest mobile client is available at no charge through the Android Marketplace or SoftLayer Web site. Along with the iPhone and Android apps, SoftLayer said software for additional mobile devices would be released soon.

SoftLayer is not the only online hosting service to offer mobile management applications. Rackspace offers an iPhone and iPad app for its customers.

Cloud-computing services are growing in use among companies looking to reduce in-house infrastructure costs for providing non-core services. Gartner predicts global revenue from cloud services will reach $68.3 billion this year, a 16.6% increased from 2009.

Major tech companies providing cloud-computing services include Amazon, Oracle and others.