Cloudscaling
Cloudscaling is a company.
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Leadership Team
Key people at Cloudscaling.
Cloudscaling is a company.
Key people at Cloudscaling.
Key people at Cloudscaling.
Cloudscaling was a San Francisco-based cloud computing company that developed the Open Cloud System (OCS), an OpenStack-based platform for deploying infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) public, private, and hybrid clouds supporting dynamic, cloud-ready applications akin to those on AWS or Google Compute Engine.[1] It served telecom providers, enterprises, and service providers like KT Corporation, Internap, Ubisoft, LivingSocial, and EVault, solving the challenge of building scalable, open-source cloud infrastructure amid proprietary vendor lock-in.[1][3] Starting as a professional services firm in 2006, it pivoted to products in 2012, raised $10M in Series B funding, and was acquired by EMC in 2014 for under $50M, marking strong growth in the early OpenStack ecosystem.[1][4][5]
Cloudscaling was founded in 2006 in San Francisco by Randy Bias and Adam Waters, whose engineering team had prior experience on cloud projects at Yahoo!, Amazon Web Services, VMware, and Puppet Labs.[1] It began as a professional services company designing custom cloud infrastructure, primarily for large telecom providers; an early win was deploying CloudStack and the first non-Rackspace OpenStack Swift storage cloud for KT Corporation in 2010, followed by one for Internap in 2011.[1] By late 2010, the team had deep expertise across ~10 IaaS providers from strategic engagements, informing their pivot in February 2012 to a product company with OCS 1.0 release—shifting from services to scalable OpenStack software.[1][2] Michael Grant later served as CEO during this product phase.[3]
Cloudscaling rode the OpenStack wave in the early 2010s, capitalizing on the shift from proprietary IaaS (e.g., early AWS, GoGrid) to open-source alternatives amid "cloud computing" standardization post-2008 CloudCamps and clouderati formation.[1][2] Timing was ideal: post-EC2 launch (2006), it addressed vendor lock-in and consumerization of IT, enabling telcos and enterprises to build flexible clouds like web-scale providers (Google, Amazon).[1][2] Market forces like OpenStack's rise (Swift deployments 2010-11) favored it, influencing the ecosystem by proving commercial viability—paving the way for broader OpenStack adoption and hybrid cloud strategies before EMC's 2014 buyout integrated it into enterprise portfolios.[1][4]
Post-2014 EMC acquisition (now Dell Technologies), Cloudscaling's OCS tech likely fueled Dell's OpenStack offerings, though as an acquired entity, its standalone trajectory ended.[1][4] Future influence persists via OpenStack's maturity in hybrid/multi-cloud trends, where open infrastructure counters hyperscaler dominance. As AI and edge computing demand scalable IaaS, Cloudscaling's early blueprint—dynamic apps on open platforms—shapes enduring strategies, underscoring how pioneers like it accelerated cloud's commoditization.[1][2] This validates betting on open-source disruptors in infrastructure plays.