Service provider in Germany: the beginning of CloudKleyer’s journey

Short description for end and sidebar: CloudKleyer is well known both in Germany and in Europe. Today, many European enterprises use its services. What the startup was like, why Oracle played an important role in the company’s history and how the founders managed to bring the business to a leading position in a short period of time?

Behind every successful company there are always people: the example of CloudKleyer only confirms this truth. The knowledge, experience, and energy that the founders, Jan Weller and Igor Davydov, invested in the startup helped not only to build an effective business model, but also helped them to become leaders in their segment not only in Germany, but also in Europe in a relatively short period of time.

Founders and ideologues of the company

Jan Weller

Managing Director of CloudKleyer. IT systems specialist (Master of Science in Engineering, Master of Science in Industrial Engineering). Oracle Certified Professional (Oracle Certified Professional 9i, Oracle Certified Master 10g). Work experience: 20+ years.

Profile

• Project management.
• Database administration.
• Development of data models and applications (including database-driven applications).
• Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC).
• Performance Tuning.
• SQL Optimization.
• Integration with Oracle Fusion Middleware.
• Oracle VM.
• DWH/BI Database Management System.
• Other tools and solutions: APEX, Oracle Workflow, XDB, Forms, Graphics, Reports, etc.

Involved projects

• T-Systems System Center (telecommunications). Development of the main configuration and calculation tool for IT services and management: architecture, data modeling, Oracle 11g software development, data modeling tools, PL/SQL, database gateway.
• T-Online, Deutsche Telekom (Internet Service Provider). Process-oriented order management system: data modeling, software, development, organization of server part (Oracle 9i database), applying Designer 6i tools, PL/SQL, Oracle Workflow, Teamlead Backend.
• Deutscher Wetterdienst (public sector). Customizing reports and forms in the application environment (10.7).
• Bosch Siemens Hausgeräte (consumer goods manufacturing). Development of an application for a call center, applications and web forms for training, development of Oracle Forms 6i-based constructor, using Headstart, CDM Ruleframe (a framework for implementing business rules).
• Telegenz – subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom (telecommunications). Development of a speed measurement application and other applications using Forms 4.5, Reports 2.5, PL/SQL.
• Lufthansa Cargo (logistics). Development of a customer database using Forms 4.5 , Reports 2.5, PL/SQL, Designer 1.3.2, Headstart (Version 3.4.3 W), Developer Server, OAS 2.0 bzw. 3.0.
• CloudKleyer Frankfurt GmbH (service provider): business founder, managing director, coordinating leader. Company development, administrative functions.

Igor Davidoff

Chief Technical Officer, CloudKleyer Senior Consultant. Certified computer scientist (Master of Science in Computer Sciences). Oracle and IBM Certified Professional (Certified Professional 9i, Oracle Certified Master 10g, IBM Certified Solution Expert DB2 UDB V7.1 Database Administration). Work experience: 20+ years.

Profile

• Project management.
• Business process design and modelling.
• Service oriented architectures.
• Forensic intelligence (investigation of information security incidents.
• Virtualization (Oracle VM).
• Architecture heterogeneous system landscape.
• Database administration.
• Application development (including data-base driven applications).
• Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC).
• Performance Tuning.
• SQL Optimization.
• Integration with Oracle Fusion Middleware.
• DWH/BI Database Management System.
• Other tools and solutions: APEX, Oracle Workflow, XDB, AQ etc.

Involved projects

• Nestlé Deutschland AG (catering services). System administration, technical support. Database design, development and redesign of web application for carryover analysis with the addition of planning modules, project management, business process design, development, system integration, redesign using Oracle DB from version 7.3.4 to 8.1.7, Oracle Designer, MS Visual Studio6.0, ASP, SOAP, DCOM, IBM DB2 UDB 7, AIX, Oracle DB 9i R.2, Oracle Designer, Oracle JDeveloper, Java, XML. Maggi web-presence: performance analysis, coordination, and project control.
• Deutsche Bank AG (finance). Development of facilities management software, web applications for analysis and project management, database design, development and system integration, interface design, portal application development, software integration, system administration. Applied tools and solutions: MS SQL Server V.7 and V.2000, ASP, MS Visual Basic, MS Access, Oracle DB 8.1.7, MS Visual Studio, ASP, Java, Oracle Designer, Oracle DB 9i, Oracle JDeveloper, Apache FOP, and XML.
• WERTBAU GmbH & Co. KG (construction). Order processing, web applications, project management, database and application design, development and system integration using MS SQL Server 2000, ASP.NET, MS VB.NET.
• Enterpriser GmbH & Co. KG (consulting). Open applications for data exchange and collaboration, analysis, design, administration, implementation using Oracle Collaboration Suite, SuSE, OpenExchange Server.
• T-Online International AG (Internet Service Provider). Design, development, system integration of billing portal, order management system, and other software using Oracle DB 9i RAC, Oracle Workflow, Oracle Designer 6i, PL/SQL, XMLDB, Web Services, Solaris 9 SPARC.
• Leipziger Messe GmbH (exhibition activities). Coaching, Oracle Database Lite integration, architecture, security, synchronization, troubleshooting.
• Koblenz Municipal Data Processing Center (public sector). Interface design, SOA basis, design and modeling using Oracle SOA Suite, Oracle DB 10g, Oracle JDeveloper, Oracle Application Server, XML/XSLT/XQuery/XML Schema, WSDL.
• DELL (computer hardware manufacturing). Design and implementation of a BPM evaluation system. Using Oracle SOA Suite, Oracle DB 10g, Oracle JDeveloper, Oracle Application Server, XML/XSLT/XQuery/XML Schema, WSDL
• Deutsche Telekom AG (telecommunications). Middleware system (customer and order management, architecture, design, business process analysis, software development, migration) using Oracle SOA Suite, Oracle DB 10g DB R.2, 11g R.2, Oracle JDeveloper, Oracle Application Server 10g, Java, XML/XSLT/XQuery/XML Schema, WSDL, BPEL.
• Ancotel GmbH (telecommunications). Business process analysis and optimization, interface definition, documentation.
• State Sanitary Service of Frankfurt am Main (public sector). Import, analysis, updating of data for expert assessments, development of process-oriented DWH applications for specific databases using forensic data protection methods.
• Landwirtschaftliche Rentenbank (finance). Support in the implementation of the new registration software. Release plan, deployment concept, operational management, runtime analysis, batch management, data migration, documentation development (user manual).
• CloudKleyer Frankfurt GmbH (service provider) – business founder, technical architect, senior consultant. Development and modernization of technical infrastructure, consulting.

First steps: collaboration with Oracle, business idea

As certified Oracle specialists, Jan Weller and Igor Davidoff have repeatedly participated in the implementation of various projects as invited experts. Each of them was responsible for a different part of the client IT infrastructure organization. Jan was mostly engaged in technical administration and coordination, Igor was a technical consultant for implementation and customization of Oracle products.

Having crossed paths in different projects, they got to know each other well. As a result of their joint work, they formed a successful professional tandem, within which there was complete mutual understanding and respect. The level of qualification, potential, coincidence of values, interests and views – this small team had a lot of things in common. And it was obvious that they could become companions, and the common business would have excellent prospects. Not surprisingly, when Jan had the idea of organizing his own company offering service provider services (colocation, rental of dedicated servers, etc.) in Germany, he offered Igor a business partnership. So back in 2013, CloudKleyer Frankfurt GmbH was founded.

Why Oracle

Since both partners had been specializing in Oracle for a long time and knew the features of the products perfectly well, the hardware solution from this vendor was selected to deploy virtualization for the new company:

• Oracle SUN Server X3-2;
• Oracle Pillar Axiom 600 data and application storage system.

And, accordingly, Oracle VM infrastructure was deployed.

Service provider CloudKleyer Frankfurt GmbH: in tune with the times

When CloudKleyer first announced itself as a service provider in 2013-2014, Oracle was the leader of the IT industry at that time. The virtualization technologies it developed were progressive and in demand. Many companies in Germany and Europe were actively using the vendor’s products, and we, as a provider, offered and technically supported the corresponding services.

But the market evolves, and over the past 10 years, Oracle technologies have lost relevance. Today, Oracle virtualization has moved into the category of outdated products and is not suitable for most of our clients that are mainly small and medium-sized businesses. And since the development of CloudKleyer follows the trends, we gradually moved away from Oracle virtualization and now offer more popular cloud solutions, such as, for example, Microsoft Azure, ABC Cloud, and hybrid products.

As one of Germany’s leading service providers, we strive to grow together with our clients and to be relevant to both their individual challenges and current trends. Therefore, we are constantly looking for the most efficient ways to organize IT infrastructure, providing our clients with flexible and secure IT and networking solutions that are tailored to their business needs and can evolve with their growth.