CASE STUDY

The unbelievable Machine Company: why Germany’s
leading enterprise cloud provider runs on OnApp

The unbelievable Machine Company - *um - was the first
native German cloud provider, and since its launch in 2008
has grown to become the leading Big Data and cloud service
provider in the country. Now *um is setting its sights on global
cloud customers, and hybrid cloud management services,
using the OnApp cloud platform to help drive its growth.
*um is not a typical transactional cloud provider. It’s a consultingled specialist in big data, data science and cloud, and this unique
combination has attracted some of the largest German and Austrian
enterprises - including broadcasting and media companies like
Deutsche Welle, Antenne Bayern, t3n, die tageszeitung, B.Z. and
Gründerszene; Metro Group, one of the largest retailers in the
world; and clients as diverse as Gebrüder Heinemann, Porsche,
Audi, Parship, Delivery Hero, Deutsche Post, easybank, dooyoo and
MyToys.
“When we founded *um in 2008 there were only two cloud providers
in Germany: AWS, and us,” says Mario Apitz, Director of Operations
at *um. “The market was still very much focused on traditional
managed hosting for enterprise applications, and cloud adoption was
quite slow to take off: when it comes to security and data protection,
Germany is a very cautious and conservative market, as you might
imagine.”
“So our cloud service was designed to fit the needs of our market.
We provide consulting and managed services far beyond what you
can get from a transactional cloud like AWS.”

Custom cloud and big data solutions

OnApp products:
OnApp Cloud, OnApp Federation
Use case:
Enterprise/managed private cloud
Summary:
• OnApp stack provides robust
functionality for German
enterprises - customized by *um
• OnApp enables hybrid cloud service
delivery, with multi-cloud, multihypervisor capabilities
• OnApp Federation helps *um
connect German enterprises with
global cloud infrastructure
• OnApp’s long-term partnership
delivers platform for growth

*um began using OnApp in 2012. Today, OnApp’s cloud
orchestration, management and billing functionality lies at the heart
of its own branded *umCloud platform. All enterprise clients run
on their own exclusive private cloud infrastructure, orchestrated
by OnApp; the *um team customizes each deployment, integrating
OnApp with specific server hardware, firewall appliances, load
balancers and storage systems to deliver the performance, security
and throughput each client needs for its workloads.
“We focus on designing, delivering and managing Internet and big
data applications for enterprise clients, and providing data science
expertise and services around that - analytics, predictive systems
and AI,” says Mario. “We handle clients at the kind of scale of 50 or
60 billion requests per month - clients running very large Hadoop
clusters, NoSQL databases, Elastic Search or Node.JS stacks, and
Internet applications on private cloud infrastructure.”
About two thirds of customers run workloads on the *umCloud
platform, based on OnApp. The unbelievable Machine Company hosts
its cloud services at state-of-the-art Tier IV datacenters in Berlin and
Frankfurt, primarily for customers in Germany and Austria.

“OnApp gives us the flexibility to
create bespoke services, while making
back-end administration efficient and
reliable for our technical teams”
Mario Apitz, Director of Operations
The unbelievable Machine Company

“Our customers don’t buy from us because they want cheap commodity IaaS - that’s what Amazon is for,” says Mario.
“We design and deliver the infrastructure they need, through a proven, agile IT management methodology, and manage
each client’s service with a dedicated account team. OnApp gives us the flexibility to create bespoke services, while
making back-end administration efficient and reliable for our technical teams.”

Helping global companies do business in Germany
As *um looks to the future, it’s adapting and evolving its product
and service strategy to meet the changing needs of the market, in
three important ways. The first is helping international companies
find a trusted partner they can work with, in Germany, when they
need to host applications and data in compliance with the country’s
strict data privacy regulations.
“I’ve said that Germany is a very conservative market, and this
conservatism is embodied in our legislation,” Mario says. “Things
may change in 2018 when the EU begins to standardize privacy
regulations, but right now, if you want to do business in Germany,
you have to host your data here, in compliance with German law.
We’re seeing lots of interest from companies in the U.S. who need a local partner who can build, deliver and manage
cloud and big data solutions in compliance with German law - so they can go to market here, securely and legally.”

Helping German companies expand globally
Local companies are also turning to *um to help them extend their presence
into the U.S., and further afield. OnApp’s Federation will play an increasingly
important role in this, as Mario explains:
“We’re a successful company, and we’ve grown strongly, but it’s still difficult
for us to build out the kind of global footprint our customers need,” Mario
explains. “Clients have workloads they need hosted and managed in the U.S., or
in Asia. They want to migrate workloads close to regional users, or for specific
compliance reasons, or simply to offload some task to infrastructure with
different price or performance characteristics.”

“We have access to the global
network of OnApp cloud
infrastructure: which means, we can
start building global infrastructure
into our managed cloud services,
without having to invest in building
our own”
Mario Apitz, Director of Operations
The unbelievable Machine Company

“Because the *um cloud runs on OnApp, we have access to the global network
of OnApp cloud infrastructure: which means, we can start building global infrastructure into our managed cloud services,
without having to invest in building our own. That’s a powerful thing,” he adds.

Hybrid cloud management
The third change is in response to the need for hybrid cloud services, which combine different on-premise and hosted,
private and public, and virtual and dedicated IT infrastructure.
“Most clients use multiple cloud service providers,” Mario explains.”They run their big data projects and their core private
cloud infrastructure with us, but they still use other platforms, like AWS. Our role is evolving to focus more strongly
on the management layer, on helping clients across these infrastructure types. OnApp will play an important role in
that from a platform perspective, since it brings many different types of infrastructure together in one management
environment - on-premise private cloud, global public cloud, AWS, dedicated servers and more.”
“And on top of that, we bring our IT and application infrastructure management approach, our methodology - to provide
consulting and services for the new hybrid world, which combines traditional dedicated hosting, private cloud and public
cloud - and managing the whole project lifecycle, security, integration, compliance. The whole cross-infrastructure
operational approach,” says Mario.
Working in tandem with OnApp, the unbelievable Machine Company is set to grow from strength to strength. To learn
more about *um and *umCloud, visit https://www.unbelievable-machine.com.

Learn more about OnApp:
(UK) 0800 158 8600
(US) 866 234 3240
http://onapp.com
start@onapp.com

© OnApp Limited 2016. All rights reserved. 10/14/LW