CloudKleyer history: from startup to IT infrastructure leader

2013. Successful start, 3 first contracts and ambitious plans

The founding date of CloudKleyer Frankfurt GmbH is February 21, 2013, when the founders signed a partnership agreement.

• More about the founders
• Find out why we selected this name and why we placed the resources specifically in Frankfurt on Kleyerstrasse.
• Why our data center is trustworthy and provides maximum security for our clients: read more in our blog.
• The gnome, clock and antlers were the first symbols of CloudKleyer. Learn why this symbolism was selected.
• With what services and hardware CloudKleyer history began in 2013: read the blog.

On March 18, the registration of a business with an authorized capital of €50,000 took place at the District Court Ámtsgericht. The company’s activities are: virtual services, infrastructures, provision of infrastructure services, including virtualization, information technology services. Jan Weller was elected managing director.

Launch of the corporate web site in two languages: German and English.

The shareholders' meeting decided to increase the authorized capital to €500,000. In November, the relevant changes were made to the statutory documents.

Offsite events

We took part in the first exhibition for us: Capacity Moscow 2013. We had our own stand at the exhibition, held a prize draw, actively communicated with colleagues and potential customers.

We participated in another significant event: Capacity Europe 2013, held in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands. The event brings together flagships of the telecommunications industry and was interesting for us primarily as a platform for establishing partnerships.

We associate 2013 primarily with startups: opening of the company, the first offsite events, PR publications in magazines, meetings, new contacts, the first negotiations with clients, and the signing of the first contracts.

2014. Developing business relations, 14 new contracts

“Capacity Russia & CIS 2014” International Conference (Moscow), where top managers of leading telecommunications companies, technology suppliers, and representatives of the wholesale market of the industry from all over the world gathered to exchange ideas and experience. In addition to reports and collective discussions, the event specifically allocated time for informal communication, which created favorable conditions for expanding our business relations.

Once again CloudKleyer is participating in “Capacity Europe 2014” (Amsterdam, Netherlands).

We continue to actively expand our client base. We hold many personal meetings and negotiations.

2015. We are building up capital and capacity, and getting closer to our clients

On August 20, 2015, the shareholders' meeting decided to increase the share capital to €700,000.

Adding new language versions to the website: Russian and Ukrainian. Our journey began with participation in various events, including international ones. By introducing additional languages, we strived to become closer to our clients and to ensure the convenience of using the web resource.

Product line upgrade

In 2015, a client came to us who preferred (and still prefers) IBM products. Since the client had questions and required technical support, we went ahead and added hardware from this vendor.

In addition, in the same year, several large companies appeared among our clients who were not satisfied with Juniper products, and our arsenal was supplemented with more expensive hardware from Cisco.

2016 is the year of intensive contacts. We form a team and adapt to the challenges of the market

The most significant event in 2016 was the renewal of the team. The management took measures to adapt the business to the changed market and new challenges. Due to the changed external circumstances, we had serious personnel reshuffle: the development director, customer service manager, development manager left, the financial director was added, and the engineer was replaced. Thus, a new team was formed, which continues to operate up to the present day.

Offsite events

In the first four years, the company placed great emphasis on participation in exhibitions. The year 2016 was especially rich. CloudKleyer representatives participated in one or another event almost every month. The geography of trips was extensive:

Powering the Cloud (Frankfurt, Germany)

ICE Totally Gaming (London, Great Britain), GCCM (London, Great Britain)

World Hosting Days (Rust, Germany)

Future thinking (Darmstadt, Germany)

World of Cloud (Frankfurt, Germany), ITW Chicago (USA)

Tools Berlin (Germany), GCCM (Berlin, Germany), ANGACOM (Cologne, Germany)

Topsoft 2016 (Zurich, Switzerland)

IT & Business (Stuttgart, Germany), GCCM (Dubai, UAE)

IT & MEDIA (Darmstadt, Germany)

Deutsch-Russischer Mittelstandstag (Hamburg, Germany)

Adding hardware

One of the new clients for whom we were deploying virtual infrastructure, had to solve the issue of connecting a large number of USB keys. We offered USB-Over-IP technology, and as physical hardware we selected Digi AnywhereUSB Plus network hub. In the future, we have started offering it to other clients.

The focus of our attention throughout 2016 was on finding new partners and clients, expansion, and updating the infrastructure to meet the needs of clients.

2017. Rebranding, taking a course on renewal

The year is associated with active updates and a course aimed at increasing brand awareness and increasingly personalizing services.

• CloudKleyer updates its image: rebranding is carried out, the company gets a new logo, more modern and memorable.
• The format and focus of events is changed, the number of trips is reduced to seven. Now CloudKleyer participates only in specialized events and thematic exhibitions, which are closest to the company's specifics.
• Many personal meetings with potential clients are held.
• The appearance and functionality of the corporate web site is updated. Since the addition of new languages did not bring the expected effect in the form of a flow of applications, we decided to keep only two main language versions: in German and English.

Customized services

Since 2017, the company stops creating its own services, rejects standard contracts and almost completely switches to working with the client's requests. If a client is interested in some new technology and approaches us with a question, our specialists study the innovations and then offer to develop a solution tailored to the business objectives and implement this technology in the client's company. This is how Acronis as Backup as a service (BaaS) came into being.

New hardware

In 2017, clients are most interested in HP and Dell products. Accordingly, we studied the offerings of these vendors and supplemented the lineup with new hardware.

Questionnaire

To make our approach even more client-oriented, we have developed and implemented a potential client questionnaire. The questionnaire helps to delve deeply into the client's business in the context of IT, understand his needs, personalize services, and form an adapted offer.

Participation in significant events

The 11th International Exhibition-Forum Russian Gaming Week (RGW), held in Moscow (Russia) and dedicated to the gambling business. In the center of attention of the participants such relevant topics as legal aspects of gambling companies, prospects, issues of development of online platforms for cyber-sport and gambling, strategy planning and many others. We viewed the forum primarily as a platform for generating new ideas and concluding partnership agreements.

Updating our image, improving our service and transitioning to work with client requests.

2018. Playing by new rules

Strengthened network security, taking additional measures to prevent cyber threats:

• We have installed an Advanced Firewall Manager (AFM) F5® BIG-IP®, which was specifically designed to provide data centers with protection against threats propagating over popular protocols (http, https, ftp, DNS, SMTP).
• We have implemented Fortinet, a global high–performance solution that simplifies the IT infrastructure and protects it from dynamic threats.
• Launched SSL VPN, allowing clients to access the management infrastructure of servers via VPN (Secure SSL VPN).

New point of the company's development

We signed the first DDoS protection contract with DDoS-Guard security provider.

Offsite events

Russian Gaming Week (Moscow, Russia): an annual event that brings together manufacturers, distributors, and operators working in the gambling business.

As in the previous year, we became participants of one of the largest thematic events of the gambling industry: the 12th International Exhibition-Forum RGW 2018 organized by the event company Smile-Expo in Moscow. The forum was visited by 1200 people from Europe, Asia, CIS countries. For us, this event was interesting from the position of establishing new partnerships and attracting new clients.

ENOG 15 / RIPE NCC Regional Meeting (Moscow, Russia): a regional conference that brought participants from 21 countries under one roof. The purpose of the event was to provide an opportunity to exchange experience and discuss important issues of the Internet community, both regional and international.

CloudKleyer was one of the sponsors participating in the MainLichtblick charity event, which was held in Commerzbank (Frankfurt, Germany). The purpose of this event is to collect donations for seriously ill children in need of support. Check out what Klaus Jürgen Orth, then director of CloudKleyer, says about this event in his interview:

Europe's largest industry trade show and conference gamescom 2018 (Cologne, Germany). Held annually and dedicated to the novelties of the gaming industry. The event is attended by a huge number of guests from all corners of the world, which makes it useful in terms of partnership prospects.

In 2018 and 2019, we are undergoing a shift in focus. While previously we spent a lot of time on exhibitions and events, in these two years we re-focused on communication with clients. We’ve started to actively work with existing clients: we held more personal meetings where we communicated, clarified needs, desires, learned about trends and new business objectives in order to offer even more client-oriented solutions. We also met with potential clients who came to us through referrals. Established new partnerships at offsite events, participated in trade fairs together with clients and partners.

2019. Taking it to the next level

Lineup update

In 2019, our serviced hardware lineup included Huawei and Aruba products that we have not worked with before. We were able to set up an Aruba vendor that provided a full service cycle (procurement, provisioning, and maintenance). We also found a partner with whom we signed a contract to support Huawei hardware.

Participation in thematic exhibitions

RIPE NCC Day Moscow (Russia) is a one-day event for network engineers and technical staff of Internet operators. Participants share knowledge, exchange experience, learn about the latest innovations in the Internet industry, and sign cooperation agreements.

Traditionally, as one of the sponsors, we took part in the 4th charity event "Night for Children" organized by MainLichtblick. That evening we managed to raise a record amount of funds, which were donated to sick children and helped them fulfill their cherished wishes.

Gamescom 2019 (Cologne, Germany), a large-scale international exhibition for the games industry. We were impressed by the scale of the event, the variety of products, and the quality and professionalism of its participants. Taking part in gamescom 2019, we pursued several goals: to get acquainted with new technologies and trends in the gambling industry, as well as to find potential partners and customers interested in our IT solutions.

We added two more new products to our service lineup.

2020. Moving online, but not giving up

In March 2020, there are forced communication restrictions due to the covid pandemic. Because of the lockdown, all scheduled offsite events have been canceled. Personal negotiations with clients are physically impossible. We have to switch to regular online meetings where all current issues are discussed and goals for the next period are set. Online communication proved to be so convenient that we continued it even after the pandemic ended.

In 2020, we also made attempts to register for online events, but this format was still underdeveloped at that time: almost all meetings were forced to be canceled by the organizers for one reason or another. So the online format failed to become an equivalent alternative to offsite events.

New on the web site

A small update of the web site: the services we provided were described in detail. And since then the structure of services on the website has not changed.

In the face of the pandemic, we had to switch to remote operation. However, this, as well as other difficulties associated with the lockdown, did not prevent us from maintaining and even increasing our efficiency: in 2020, the company's turnover grew by 5%.

2021. A pandemic? And we are increasing our momentum!

In 2021, active work is underway to update and refine the web site: its outlook has been changed, the description has been partially updated, new materials and brochures have been added.

The pandemic did not break us, the CloudKleyer team did not panic, but honorably accepted the challenges. We continued to grow and develop, found alternative ways of interaction, did not lose touch with our clients and partners, and maintained the quality of our services. Eventually, according to the results of 2021, the company's turnover increased by 20%.

2022. Supporting customers in all conditions, growing, investing in the future

As for the most businesses, the period from 2020 to 2022 was very challenging for CloudKleyer. During that time, we were trying to combat the effects of the lockdown by still providing support and ramping up services for existing clients. But we didn't have the opportunity to travel to offline events. However, this had a positive effect: thanks to the forced restrictions, our expenses were significantly reduced, which helped us to maintain our budget and invest the saved funds in the company’s development.

• In 2022, we changed our DDoS defense partner and left only two service companies. Why we did it and what has changed: read the blog.

Optimization of hardware support

Initially, we equipped the infrastructure with "young" hardware that was under warranty from the manufacturer. In 2016, the warranty expired and we needed to extend our support contracts. We selected service providers that had the most suitable terms for us at that time.

During the life of the company, the line of hardware was constantly changing. Something became obsolete, we expanded, and new hardware appeared. In addition, clients relocated with their hardware, which also needed to be serviced. Service contracts were modified accordingly. Over time, we were left with four support contractors.

By 2022, we started clearly understand with which of the service companies it was more convenient and comfortable to work, so we decided to optimize and streamline relations with them. As a result, we selected two most reliable service providers: one became the main service provider and the other became an additional one.

Events

Our company resumed its regular participation in the "Night for Children" charity event, organized annually by MainLichtblick and held in Frankfurt, which was interrupted due to covid pandemic.

In 2022, our company position on the market remained stable despite the global crisis situation; what's more, we've managed to turn a profit. Our sustainable business model allows us to remain in a good position even in times of crisis and to provide a high level of service despite the global cataclysms. The growth of the company's turnover for the year amounted to +16%.

2023. Saying goodbye to the pandemic: going back offline

Innovations

In 2023, we launched completely new services for our company, such as organizing a direct physical channel with our partner Hezner DC. This "docking" allowed us to provide our clients with the ability to create and run virtual machines in minimal time.

Additionally, in 2023, we introduced a new product of our own development: Pydio Cells. This is a high-performance cloud platform for document sharing and teamwork. Pydio Cells offers a number of advantages over SaaS solutions. In particular, it allows you to:

• store and transfer files of enormous size;
• automate workflows using just one site;
• provide a high level of security.

Events

ICE London: the largest international trade show for gambling industry.

Conference CloudFest 2023 (Europa-Park, Rust, Germany). This is a large-scale event that brings together market leaders in the provision of cloud services.

Participated in a business breakfast organized by Arctic Wolf together with Systrade.

Hannover Messe, a major industrial exhibition in Hannover, Germany. Previously, the event was mainly devoted to IT, now the topic has expanded and includes a variety of areas of the production and energy industries A separate block is dedicated to startups. We are interested in Hannover Messe primarily from the point of view of fresh solutions in security, monitoring, support, IT logistics, digital platforms, other IT segments, as well as a platform for establishing partnerships, including with new companies that have entered the market.

Cloud Expo Europa Frankfurt: Germany's leading cloud event.

SaaS Leader Summit 2023 Cloud Ecosystem (Berlin, Germany): B2B conference of the largest SaaS community in the German-speaking segment. It is a platform where providers and investors openly share their experience, the latest innovations in the SaaS market, discuss current and future trends and development strategies. This is where partnerships are established and contracts are signed.

Participation in the charity event "Night for Children", as usual organized by MainLichtblick and took place in Palmengarten (Frankfurt, Germany). The total amount of funds raised on this special evening amounted to €123,000.

Exhibition gamescom 2023, where the most advanced and creative novelties of the game industry are demonstrated.

Technical Fest in Germany - it-sa in Nürnberg (IT-Sicherheit), an international event dedicated to information security.

Digitalization Congress - Digitalisierungs Kongress (Frankfurt, Germany).

• Anniversary year. What helps us adapt to the most difficult situations and confidently move towards success: details in this article.

The problems caused by the pandemic did not end in 2023. The crisis affected various aspects of life and business, but even in such conditions we did not give up and continued to work actively:

• participate in significant professional events;
• make new contacts;
• introduce new products;
• improve the service;
• individually solve the tasks set by our clients, striving to meet their needs and expectations.

In 2023, CloudKleyer once again showed stability and progress: our turnover increased by 13%. This is an impressive result considering the ongoing crisis.

2024. Moving forward with confidence

At the beginning of the year, we received official confirmation of our membership in The German Mittelstand, the German association for small and medium-sized businesses. This was another important milestone in the development of our firm.

Events

NETworking @ Airport Frankfurt (B2B) evening is an offline event organized by BVMW–Frankfurt in order to help entrepreneurs make valuable personal contacts and become closer to each other.

A partnership agreement has been concluded between CloudKleyer and RETN. Thanks to this partnership, we have the opportunity to provide direct connectivity to the Hetzner data center. We have already started accepting client requests and deploying AWS Outpost Rack server racks in our data center in Frankfurt am Main. Read more in the blog.

Another Hannover Messe trade fair for manufacturing, where you can get acquainted with the latest developments in IT, industry and energy, as well as find new partners, including startups.

RIPE 88 in Krakow, Poland, is the largest conference on network resource allocation, bringing together ISPs, network operators, and other stakeholders. Organized by RIPE NCC, one of the five European regional registrars, it brings together ISPs, network operators and companies whose interests lie in the Internet.

CloudKleyer traditionally participated in the annual MainLichtblick Eine Nacht für Kinder 2024 charity event, which took place on June 12. Together with other participants, we supported the work of the charity organization and helped to raise the sum of €112,530. Thanks to these funds, several more children with health problems will be able to fulfill their cherished wishes. Read more in the blog.

• Development of a convenient calculator for online calculation of the cost of services and adding it to the corporate web site.
• Creation of "News" section to announce new services on our Internet site.
• In autumn (October-November) we plan to take part in RIPE 89, TBC.