Today, we stand together at a significant milestone in our journey at Cloud68.co. Our 4th anniversary is the ideal moment to reflect on our path, our shared experiences, and the supportive network that has stood with us. Here’s a detailed look into our evolution and how we have come to our current position four years after it all started.

From Local Hackerspace to Unified Vision: The Genesis of Our Dream

Our story has humble beginnings in a local hackerspace where a group of like-minded individuals connected over a shared love for open-source platforms and a commitment to digital rights. This connection evolved into a professional collaboration, combining our passion for open-source with a vision that extended beyond activism.

Initially, our ambition was to use our knowledge of open-source platforms as consultants. But conveying the value of our expertise and building sustainable, recurring revenue soon proved challenging. These obstacles prompted us to rethink our approach.

A Turning Point: Refocusing Goals and Embracing Challenges

Faced with these hurdles, we engaged in intensive brainstorming and analysis to redefine our mission. Our new direction was guided by several key principles:

• Facilitating a seamless transition for various teams from big tech platforms to open-source ones.
• Maintaining a small, non-corporate team design to preserve our collaborative spirit.
• Developing clear, easily understandable pricing and packages to ensure stable, recurring income.
• Crystal clear focus to support small to medium-sized teams.
• Sticking unwaveringly to our core principles without compromises.

Building, Learning, and Adapting: The Formative Years

The initial two years were filled with crucial decisions and considerable learning opportunities. From legal establishment in Estonia to choosing Germany for our main digital infrastructure and France for encrypted backups, our path was replete with both challenges and discoveries. We built our internal digital structure, crafted our architectural framework, initiated support protocols, compiled internal and public documentation, and formed promotional strategies so that more people were aware of our services.

Every lesson learned was a valuable step in our ongoing journey.

Four Years On: Lessons, and the Road Ahead

Four years later, we look back with a sense of accomplishment at what we’ve achieved. Our enhanced service quality, robust security protocols, presence at notable events (FOSDEM, OFFDEM, FOSSCOM and more), optimized automation code, and solid financial standing are evidence of our sustained dedication.

As we plan for the future, our goals are both ambitious and attainable:

• Continual refinement of our operations to excel in service delivery.
• Supporting those tirelessly enhancing open-source platforms.
• Joining forces with initiatives resonating with our mission.
• Providing quality, reasonably priced services through our Starter and Medium packages.

Some of our team members at FOSS4G in Prizren.

Aligning with others who uphold our values, we believe we can create significant change, challenging those entities that threaten our privacy.

A Sincere Expression of Gratitude

We want to extend our deepest thanks to everyone who has been part of this journey. From our dedicated team members to our loyal subscribers who have entrusted us with such essential responsibilities as managed hosting services for their infrastructure, your support has been invaluable.

Happy birthday to us, and here’s to the unceasing pursuit of making it as easy as possible to migrate from big tech to open source platforms 🎉.