Using a major cloud computing provider is convenient, but it doesn't come cheap. Ubicloud, a startup founded by the team at Citus Data, which Microsoft acquired in 2019, offers a layer of core cloud computing services on top of affordable bare metal servers from providers like Hetzner, OVH Cloud, and Leaseweb. By doing so, we hope to change this situation. And AWS. This includes managed services and an open source version that allows developers to build their own clouds on top of bare metal providers.
Currently, Ubicloud provides prerequisite networking capabilities for creating public and private virtual networks, as well as a small core component of compute and PostgreSQL database services (Citus Data is also betting big on PostgreSQL). The focus is on the set. Attribute-based access control is also included by default. Over time, the team also plans to add block storage capabilities and his Kubernetes-based container services.
Image credit: Ubicloud
Co-founders Ozgun Erdogan and Umur Cubukcu previously built Citus Data, where they also met Daniel Farina, who previously helped build Heroku PostgreSQL. During my time at Microsoft, I also worked on several core Azure services. Citus Data was part of his 2011 summer group at Y Combinator, and after a stint at Microsoft, Cubukcu said he returned to the accelerator as a visiting partner in 2023.
“We've obviously built our careers and built on what we've gained in the cloud itself. Citus Data wouldn't be possible without it,” Cubukcu said. “We are big fans of the cloud. […], we've been working on this for a long time, and it turns out there's actually a better way to do it, or an easier way to do it. ”
He acknowledged that Ubicloud is not meant to replace the entire AWS offering. But the bulk of the value lies in perhaps 10% of those services, he argues, and believes Ubicloud managed services can provide developers with that at a lower price and with a simpler developer experience. Masu. “The difference between the cost of hardware and what hyperscalers charge is gradually increasing. We used to see significant price declines, but now that's not happening at all,” he said. I did. Then he also said that one of the areas where progress has been made is in egress rates, which is helping services like his Ubicloud.
Ubicloud developers will now be able to choose where to host their services. The team told me that one of Ubicloud's sweet spots at the moment is that he is running the GitHub Action runner. The company is also seeing solid demand for its PostgreSQL database services, with many users spinning up machines for long-running workloads on the platform.
President Erdoğan highlighted that the Kubernetes platform is also in development, which will allow the team to offer even more functionality on top of the infrastructure-as-a-service layer.
If you've been in the cloud for a long time, you may be a little familiar with AWS' open source competitors. Since the early days of hyperscale clouds, we have seen projects aimed at providing core AWS services, primarily for on-premises use cases. The big name here is OpenStack. Although OpenStack has experienced its own boom and bust cycles, it has established a stable position in recent years.
However, the Ubicloud team claims that their approach is completely different. “OpenStack is from a different era,” he says. “It reminds me […] Hadoop has a consortium of different companies. It's certainly open, but it supports 10 different operating systems and hypervisors. And it really takes a lot of people to make it work. This is a solution, but it doesn't have a managed version of his OpenStack-as-a-service, for example. It's too complex for that, but Ubicloud gives you a managed service from day one. Sign up and get started in 2 minutes. ”
Similarly, President Erdoğan pointed out that today's open source situation is completely different. This will allow Ubicloud to use existing open source projects for things like virtual networking and storage services. “Fifteen years ago, all those services were [that are on the Ubicloud roadmap] There was no open source data plane component. These days, all but one or two of our core services have great open source alternatives,” he said.
Ubicloud also announced today that it has raised $16 million in a seed round, which closed in early January. Investors include Y Combinator and 500 Emerging Europe, as well as a number of angel investors.
The company now has 10 employees, split between San Francisco, Amsterdam (where the Citus Data team built a small engineering team during its time at Microsoft), and Istanbul.