Following the challenges arising from Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, US Signal sought an additional IaaS solution to offer their customers. John White, Chief Operating Officer at US Signal, emphasizes the importance of companies controlling their own destinies and having full opportunities for cloud consumption.
US Signal is a leading digital infrastructure provider offering cloud, core connectivity, and data center services. With a portfolio including colocation, IT infrastructure, endpoint monitoring, data management, disaster recovery, and security services, US Signal’s data center solutions can meet even the most unique and complex technical requirements.
Founded in 2000, US Signal has grown into one of the largest privately held data center services providers. Its natural growth strategy has allowed US Signal to evolve its solution portfolio based on customer demand, emerging technologies, and changing business requirements. With two core competencies—internet connectivity and data center services—and 10 data centers, US Signal supports a wide range of customers and hosts some of the largest healthcare organizations and manufacturing companies in the Midwest.
Ensuring Reliability and Predictability Based on Open Source
Following the challenges arising from Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, US Signal sought an additional IaaS solution to offer their customers. John White, Chief Operating Officer at US Signal, emphasizes the importance of companies controlling their own destinies and having full opportunities for cloud consumption.
“We are a Premier VMware partner, among the largest in the U.S., and it was going really well for us. However, over the last few years, as VMware grew, they focused on just about anything but the service provider community. This created some challenges for us and our customers and left VMware vulnerable to disruption,” White said.
The Choice of Apache CloudStack
While some customers continue to use VMware for specific use cases, US Signal wanted to offer an alternative IaaS solution that would ensure predictability, avoid dependency on a single vendor, and lower licensing costs.
“At the end of 2023, we quickly put together an R&D team focused on finding alternative cloud solutions,” explained White. “Our Cloud Team started working with various technologies, and CloudStack was one of them. We thought it would probably take us a few years to figure out an alternative, but as we began designing and building, we discovered that CloudStack was working pretty well. We were able to get pretty good consistency, performance, and availability,” White observed.
“We knew we wanted to do something open, and CloudStack seemed to be the right fit for us,” continued White. “We wanted the solution to be self-service and able to run multiple hypervisors. While we plan to use KVM, we wanted to have the ability to run Xen if needed. An additional requirement was options for easy migration between VMware and the new platform.”
US Signal’s criteria:
– Self-service solution
– Online portal available
– Multi-hypervisor support
– Performance and availability
– Easy migration from VMware
– Simple networking management
– Firewalls and load balancing easy management
– Same support, performance, and uptime SLAs to match their VMware environment
– Distributed solution between multiple data centers
– Integrations with existing tools and technologies
– OpenAPI
US Signal chose Apache CloudStack not only for its outstanding technical capabilities but also for its supportive open-source community. This choice enables the company to control its own destiny without being dependent on a single vendor.
“We appreciate that Apache CloudStack is supported by an open community. We are going to be contributing, others are contributing, we are all driving towards a common goal. This collaboration provides long-term support and growth that will meet future technology demands,” White added.
Future Roadmap with CloudStack
US Signal is committed to providing outstanding, customer-focused services. They hope to leverage Apache CloudStack to enable AI workloads, support edge computing (customer premises), and meet compliance standards such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, and HITRUST.
“We are proud of what we have been able to achieve with CloudStack in a very short timeframe. We’re really excited for our launch and strongly recommend CloudStack as an alternative IaaS solution to VMware or even the hyperscalers,” White concluded.
US Signal, a Frontrunner in Cloud Services in the USA
US Signal’s dedication to customer-focused solutions and forward-thinking approach positions them as a leader in the cloud services industry. Their adoption of Apache CloudStack demonstrates their commitment to providing reliable, predictable, and cost-effective solutions while supporting AI workloads and future technological advancements.
Learn how US Signal can help your organization transform its digital infrastructure and meet evolving technology and business needs. Visit https://ussignal.com to get started.
Ivet Petrova is the Marketing Director of ShapeBlue. She is responsible for strengthening ShapeBlue’s global brand and market awareness of ShapeBlue’s services. Specifically, Ivet’s team is responsible for brand, advertising, content and digital marketing, social media, and media relations.
Ivet is also an active member of the CloudStack community, working on increasing the awareness of the technology and showing its benefits to a wider market.
Ivet has 13+ years of experience in marketing for IT service providers including a number of cloud and hosting providers, storage companies, SaaS providers and software development companies. She holds a Masters degree in Marketing.
Away from work, Ivet is passionate about travelling around the world and exploring new cultures.
