Today, we will share another success story in the web hosting industry with you.
As they would say, automated, simple, and affordable to everyone. We were pleased to talk with Mr. Vitaliy Gritsay from Serverspace, who helped us learn more about their company.
Grab your preferred drink and enjoy this interview.
What are the beginnings of Serverspace?
Serverspace is an international cloud provider offering vStack- or VMware-based virtual servers for rent. Our company joined the cloud market in 2008, but the Serverspace brand appeared as a result of rebranding in 2019.
The company originally emerged as a provider of infrastructure as a service based on VMware. Users could only create servers based on one virtualization platform. Later we integrated the innovative hyper-converged platform vStack and in 2020, we became the first cloud service provider to offer virtual servers based on vStack. Thanks to this integration, Serverspace was ranked number one in the global virtual machine performance test, according to GeekBench. Users can now choose between the two vStack and VMware virtualization platforms in the in-house developed control panel.
What were the challenges that the company had to overcome?
The coronavirus pandemic was one of the main challenges for us, as well as for many companies in the world. It affected both internal company processes and the growth of the cloud technology market. During this period, more and more online services and stores began to appear, and companies needed to organize work outside the offices. Therefore, we adjusted to the growing customer needs and adapted the service to them. We added new services like Managed Kubernetes and Cloud VPN, launched Terraform-provider, and added the ability to configure Nat and Firewall.
As for internal processes, our employees switched to remote work. This was not critical, as the team quickly became used to this work format. Regular joint demonstrations of their pets always cheered us up for the whole day. And online corporations have become an interesting experience for everyone.
What are the markets that you are operating at the moment?
Today, cloud infrastructure is needed almost everywhere, from small tech startups to large enterprises. Our cloud is focused on those who need to maintain corporate infrastructure: remote offices, CRM systems, and information portals. Virtual servers can also be used for testing web and mobile applications, logistics automation, and much more. We highlight several industries we are targeting: EdTech, E-commerce, digital agencies, streaming, and logistics.
Where are your data centers based?
Data centers are located in 5 worldwide regions: USA (New Jersey), Netherlands (Amsterdam), Russia (Moscow), Belarus (Minsk) and Kazakhstan (Almaty). In the near future we plan to connect a data center in Canada.
What are the main products and services of Serverspace?
Serverspace main service is virtual server rental powered by one of the two virtualization platforms, vStack or VMware. vStack is an innovative hyper-converged virtualization platform, which is based on open source technologies. The lightweight bhyve hypervisor and simplified code base OS FreeBSD allow you to deploy high-performance servers in 40 seconds.
Recently, application deployment processes have significantly changed and the practice of application containerization is spreading, so we implemented Serverspace Managed Kubernetes. The service allows creating and configuring clusters for different tasks, from local testing to corporate software development. If the user works with high system load, he can enable High Availability cluster with three control plane nodes for correct system operation. For load balancing and traffic routing our developers implemented Ingress controller.
Serverspace users can also work with unlimited autoscalable Object Storage to store media files or backups in the cloud. Block storage allows flexible scaling of disk space and adding additional SSD volumes to the virtual server.
For customers who want to protect their internal infrastructure, Serverspace offers the ability to consolidate virtual servers into an isolated network by creating edge gateways and configuring NAT and Firewall rules. NAT provides protection for devices in an isolated network and access to the Internet from one external IP address. Firewall protects the network from external threats and restricts Internet traffic inside or outside the isolated network.
To automate infrastructure and server management, Serverspace offers API, CLI and Terraform tools.
Recently we launched the 1-Click App marketplace. When selecting a server configuration, the user can mark the applications that will be installed on the server. The marketplace includes WordPress, Docker, Apache, Nginx, PostgreSQL, LAMP, and LEMP. Other applications will be added soon.
We would like to learn more about the Cloud for E-commerce option.
Our website has a “Solutions†section describing in what areas users can use Serverspace services. As for e-commerce, our virtual servers are suitable for creating and hosting your own service, online store or marketplace. At Serverspace, server scaling makes it easy to change VM resources during peak periods or sale season. When the peak passes, you can return the RAM and CPU to their previous state. Storage size and bandwidth can also be increased as the e-commerce project grows. The DNS service allows you to delegate a domain to a fault tolerant DNS server and manage its resource records via the Serverspace control panel.
What about Big Data Computing?
We have not any specialized services for working with Big Data, and we are not planning to develop it. We are focused on infrastructure and application deployment tasks
What are some other products that you are proud to offer?
We are proud of all the services we provide because our team works carefully on every product. We are pleased to be the first cloud service provider based on the hyper-converged vStack platform. Thanks to vStack technologies, servers can be deployed in a record time of 40 seconds.
We are always working on updating and improving our services according to the needs of our customers. Our 1-Click App marketplace allows you to deploy a server with preinstalled applications. All you have to do is choose the software you need and wait for the server deployment to complete. Cloud VPN service allows you to deploy your personal VPN in one click without having to install and configure it yourself.
We are proud to be added to the list of verified Terraform providers by HashiCorp. Serverspace users have access to the Managed Kubernetes service, which allows them to create and configure clusters for tasks ranging from local testing to enterprise software development. The Edge Gateways service provides the ability to organize an isolated network and configure Nat and Firewall rules.
The control panel, developed by our engineers, allows users even without knowledge in server administration to easily deploy a VM with the necessary configuration. If the customer does not have enough capacity ordered, he can easily change the configuration in the server settings.
We noticed you offer a free trial. Can you tell us more about that?
New users, after registering, get test funds which can be used for deploying the server and getting a closer look at our services.
Customer satisfaction is very important for the success of one company. How do you tackle the customers’ needs on a daily basis?
Our users are people associated with the IT industry, so developing and working with sites is their daily routine. We provide them with a platform where they can easily deploy the infrastructure to store the necessary data and work of varying complexity. Many users need the ease of use without too much movement, so we’ve developed a user-friendly control panel that allows them to do it without any problems.
We provide access to an extensive knowledge base, which is constantly being updated. Here users can find answers to questions related to server administration. If consultation or help is needed, technical support will answer within 30 minutes and provide information on completely various user questions.
What are the top 5 things that Serverspace is different from the competition?
1. As we mentioned before, Serverspace is the first provider to offer virtual servers based on vStack. It allows you to deploy high-performance servers in 40 seconds.
2. Our developers have created a flexible calculator allowing you to choose server resources according to your project requirements. The calculator is available in an in-house developed control panel. You can always change the server configuration in server settings..
3. Unlike many other providers, our services are charged every 10 minutes. You pay only for the time of real use of the server.
4. Serverspace offers a large choice of OS templates. You can order virtual machines with the latest versions of Linux, Windows and FreeBSD. It is also possible to create a server with PFSense and VyOS network operating systems.
5. 1-Click App marketplace helps users save time by deploying a server with preinstalled applications. When setting up the configuration, you can choose the software that will be installed on the server. We continue to gradually expand the set of preinstalled applications.
What are your plans for the next 12 months?
Soon our users will be able to create virtual servers and Kubernetes clusters in Canada. We are also continuing to improve our Managed Kubernetes service, we plan to add Kubernetes persistent volumes and cluster application management using the Kubernetes Dashboard. Web-based Kubernetes dashboard will allow users to deploy containerized applications in a cluster, and troubleshoot and manage resources. We will provide access to VMware Cloud Director to work with VMware-based virtual infrastructure.
Now our team is working on a new control panel interface to adapt it to different devices and make it more user-friendly. So our customers will be able to see the new control panel within a year.
In the future, we plan to launch services: new S3 storage, where you can add bucks in different locations, and CDN, which will accelerate the download of static content sites and applications.
Finally, is there anything else you want to share with our readers?
Thank you for reading this interview and hearing more about Serverspace. We will be happy to see you among our customers.
