Build a cloud environment. Manage a virtual data center. It's that easy, right? No, not exactly. Building a highly scalable, high availability, geographically distributed cloud requires thoughtful architectural design, resilient infrastructure, and flexible compute resource provisioning. Managing the cloud requires a deep understanding of industry best practices. Maintaining Quality of Service (QoS) and honoring Service Level Agreements (SLAs) require real-time monitoring and granular analysis. The complete cloud solution has remained elusive....until now. Joyent SmartDataCenter addresses the key concerns and needs of service providers that wish to build their own cloud environment. For the past six years, we have built and operated the highly acclaimed Joyent Cloud and, in parallel, developed and refined the world's most advanced, carrier grade cloud infrastructure platform: SmartDataCenter.