Cloudscaling

About Cloudscaling

Cloudscaling, founded in 2006 by Randy L. Bias and Adam Waters, was a San Francisco-based software company that specialized in cloud computing infrastructure. The firm initially operated as a professional services company, designing and deploying custom cloud infrastructure for large service providers, including an early engagement with KT Corporation (formerly Korea Telecom). The engineering team's background included experience on cloud projects at prominent technology companies like Yahoo!, Amazon Web Services, and VMware. This expertise informed their approach to building scalable cloud architectures from the ground up.

The company's core offering was the Cloudscaling Open Cloud System (OCS), an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solution built upon the OpenStack open-source project. This system was engineered to allow clients to create private and hybrid clouds within their own data centers, mirroring the operational efficiencies and scalability of public clouds like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Compute Engine. Cloudscaling's business model centered on providing a product that enabled enterprises to build their own IaaS solutions on their choice of hardware, targeting clients with dynamic, "cloud-ready" applications that required elasticity and horizontal scalability. The OCS product suite included an operating system for managing compute, storage, and networking, as well as features like an advanced scheduler for virtual machine placement and API support for both AWS and OpenStack.

A significant milestone occurred in February 2012 when the company pivoted from a services focus to a product company with the launch of OCS version 1.0. This shift was followed by a Series B funding round of $10 million in 2013, with investors including Trinity Ventures, Juniper Networks, and Seagate Technology. Throughout its operation, Cloudscaling served notable clients such as Ubisoft, Living Social, and EVault. The company's journey culminated in October 2014, when it was acquired by EMC Corporation for a sum reported to be under $50 million, as part of EMC's strategy to bolster its hybrid cloud offerings with OpenStack capabilities.