MoonQube’s Journey to building a Reliable, Affordable Public Cloud Hosting Service with OpenMetal

Since its inception, MoonQube has been challenging the limitations of traditional cloud hosting by delivering flexible and cost-effective services for developers, small businesses, and educational institutions. Their growth, however, was hampered by poor performance, slow support, and unexpected price hikes from their previous cloud provider. Determined to find a partner aligned with their mission, MoonQube turned to OpenMetal and achieved:

  • Superior Performance: MoonQube’s OpenMetal-powered infrastructure now outperforms many competitors on industry benchmarks.
  • Cost Efficiency: With OpenMetal’s fair and transparent pricing, MoonQube reduced costs significantly, passing on these savings to their customers.
  • Unparalleled Support: OpenMetal’s hands-on support has been a game-changer, enabling MoonQube to innovate and scale without compromise.

About MoonQube

Founded to challenge the limitations of traditional cloud hosting, MoonQube delivers flexible, cost-effective cloud services to developers, small-to-medium businesses, and educational institutions.

Leveraging years of experience and a frustration with rising costs in the cloud industry, MoonQube created a unique offering that combines reliable performance with competitive pricing. Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, the company offers a range of services—from Virtual Machines to Kubernetes clusters—allowing customers to optimize their cloud infrastructure without compromising on quality or cost.

The Challenge: Breaking Free from Digital Ocean

Before MoonQube turned to OpenMetal, they hosted their infrastructure with Digital Ocean, a journey marred by significant challenges. “It was one of the worst experiences,” recounts MoonQube’s founder and CTO. Support requests would take over 48 hours to receive a response, often resulting in weeks of delays for simple issues. Furthermore, Digital Ocean’s recent price hikes—up 20% without added value—exacerbated frustrations. The technical team at MoonQube explained:

“The virtual machine performance was poor, which meant frequent web server issues during peak times, and we were locked into their ecosystem, unable to migrate our images elsewhere.”

For MoonQube, it was clear they needed a new provider, one that offered performance, transparency, and cost efficiency.

The Solution: Choosing OpenMetal for Launching a Public Cloud Service

MoonQube discovered OpenMetal through searches conducted online for reliable cloud providers and was intrigued by OpenMetal’s open-source model and competitive pricing. Conversations with the sales team and guidance from OpenMetal’s CTO Todd Robinson provided a foundation of trust and reassurance, leading MoonQube to select OpenMetal as the backbone for their public cloud infrastructure.

“We needed a reliable private cloud setup to launch MoonQube effectively, and OpenMetal was the answer.” 

OpenMetal’s Hosted Private Cloud platform which can be deployed in under 45 seconds, allowed for a Day 2 Operations launch, something that was not available with other private cloud providers. To top that, OpenMetal’s fair and transparent pricing model ensured that MoonQube knew exactly what they were paying for, with no hidden fees or surprise bills. Data egress pricing was also the best in the market, with generous bandwidth allotments and a fair 95th percentile pricing model.

With OpenMetal, MoonQube also got direct root access to their cloud giving them full control on how to optimally allocate the resources available in their cloud. The inherent full privacy and security afforded by the private cloud was a much needed feature too.

MoonQube’s Cloud Core: 
Three Large V2 Servers

Each server comes with:
2x Intel Xeon Silver 4314 Processor with
32C/64T 2.4/3.4Ghz
2x 3.2TB NVMe Drives
480GB Boot Disk
512GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM
20Gbps Private Bandwidth
1Gbps Public Bandwidth 

In Action: Building the Infrastructure

MoonQube’s migration to OpenMetal was seamless when it came to setting up their OpenStack cluster, which powers their public cloud infrastructure. While the technical foundation for the cloud was easy to establish, integrating a third-party billing and management panel took more effort, but was facilitated by OpenMetal by introducing MoonQube to some of the open source cloud billing platforms on the market. 

OpenMetal’s engineering team was there every step of the way, providing invaluable support and handling questions promptly.

“Every time an issue popped up, OpenMetal’s team was right there to help us resolve it.” 

This hands-on support – which was in stark contrast to past cloud providers MoonQube worked with – made all the difference, allowing MoonQube to remain lean and agile throughout the launch process.

“OpenMetal provided the agility, customization and performance MoonQube required to move quickly from just an idea to a fully functioning public cloud offering.”

Founder, MoonQube

Result: Enhanced Performance and Savings

Since moving to OpenMetal, MoonQube has benefited from significant performance improvements and cost savings. 

Regarding performance, reports from the independent VPSBenchmarks website, shows that after moving to OpenMetal, MoonQube is outperforming most of its competitors on the critical performance benchmarks.

MoonQube VPS Benchmarks

Performance snapshot taken on November 14, 2024

While improving performance, MoonQube has also been able to provide the best value for money. They have been able to do this due to the fair and fixed pricing model that OpenMetal provides them. With this, MoonQube is able to pass on the savings to their customers.

Comparing AWS’s t4g.medium instance against MoonQube’s st1.medium instance, MoonQube’s founder explained that,

“We’re able to offer our medium instance at just $16 a month, compared to AWS’s $25”.

This is outside of the additional savings that MoonQube can offer based on OpenMetal’s more affordable storage and bandwidth pricing. These savings empower MoonQube to pass value directly to their customers, reinforcing their mission to deliver high-quality, low-cost cloud services.

Reflections on the OpenMetal Experience

Reflecting on their journey, MoonQube’s team gave OpenMetal an impressive 11/10 rating. For MoonQube, partnering with OpenMetal means more than just a stable infrastructure; it means access to experts committed to their success.

“The support team has been a game-changer for us,” MoonQube’s Founder shared. “Responses are quick, direct, and genuinely helpful. It’s not just about fixing the problem—it’s about understanding the solution.” 

Choosing OpenMetal has allowed MoonQube to remain lean and focused on their mission, giving them the flexibility to innovate in the competitive public cloud hosting marketplace. Their journey exemplifies the value of a true technology partnership, and with OpenMetal’s continued support, MoonQube is set to redefine what affordable, high-quality cloud hosting can look like.

The Next Phase? Scaling for Growth

Looking to the future, MoonQube plans to scale its footprint with OpenMetal by expanding into additional data center regions, first strengthening their presence on the East Coast of the U.S. and eventually moving into Europe.

As their customer base grows, they anticipate hiring dedicated technical staff to manage infrastructure and further expand service offerings. With OpenMetal’s infrastructure and support, MoonQube is confident in their capacity to grow while maintaining quality and affordability.

Does This Resonate With Your Business Needs?

Contact our cloud team to find out how OpenMetal can optimize your infrastructure costs and become your partner in success.