OpenMetal Cloud Customer Success Story
Since 2013, MyMiniFactory has been developing a “MetaReverse” community for independent digital creators. Over the years, they have steadily grown their user base, but a significant surge in 2021 as well as infrastructure outages prompted them to assess their cloud infrastructure choices to accommodate future expansion.
OpenMetal helped MyMiniFactory find:
- Mission Alignment
- Cost and ROI Optimization
- A Partner in Growth
- Granular Control Over Infrastructure
About MyMiniFactory
MyMiniFactory is the world’s leading 3D printable object-sharing platform, with a catalog of over one million 3D printable files created by thousands of talented digital creators. Their platform includes membership in the 3D print community, access to crowdfunding for new projects, 3D printing competitions, and the ability to open an online store and monthly subscription for “Tribes”, many of whom are followers of unique games.
MyMiniFactory aims to build what they call a “MetaReverse” – a liberating universe built on actual re-connections between people in virtual worlds, thanks to the power of 3D printing. This value-driven ecosystem is built on and reflects the overall goals of MyMiniFactory:
- Sustainability: Because an ecosystem where creators can be financially independent supports a sustainable community. MyMiniFactory receives a small percentage of this revenue to maintain a sustainable platform.
- Purposefulness: Because originality built with a purpose supports superiority in the quality of content. MyMiniFactory offers guaranteed 3D printable files and more high-quality digital content in line with this value.
- Inclusivity: Because everyone in the community, from beginners to professionals, is able to find a place to express their own identity on MyMiniFactory with a wide array of unique features.
- Freedom: Because…”Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains. Those who think themselves the masters of others are indeed greater slaves than they.” —Jean-Jacques Rousseau
MyMiniFactory’s cohesive platform is made up of 3D designers, 3D scanners, illustrators, creators, storytellers, painters, makers, and users, and is constantly growing. They are based out of the United Kingdom, with users around the globe but primarily in the United States.
The Vision
Since 2013, MyMiniFactory has been developing their MetaReverse community for independent digital creators. Over the years, they have steadily grown their user base, but a significant surge in 2021 as well as infrastructure outages prompted them to assess their cloud infrastructure choices to accommodate future expansion.
The majority of their cloud infrastructure, mainly focused on storage and retrieval of large 3D design files, was hosted on two other cloud infrastructure providers.
Recognizing the need for a cloud provider that could optimize costs, minimize cloud waste, and facilitate their growth plans, they embarked on a search. Additionally, they prioritized finding a provider that shared their core values and demonstrated a commitment to giving back to the community.
The MyMiniFactory Cloud Wishlist
- Minimal downtime or service interruptions.
- Flexible infrastructure capabilities to accommodate traffic and usage fluctuations.
- Great support and customer service.
- Cost reduction and better ROI.
- A cloud partner, invested in their growth and success.
- Cultural fit; the new vendor had to be aligned with their values of sustainability, purposefulness, inclusivity, and freedom.
The Solution
An Enterprise Storage Cluster with OpenMetal Standard Cloud Core + Ceph Storage
The initial solution implemented for MyMiniFactory’s mission-critical storage needs was an enterprise Ceph cluster for S3 storage. This was deployed in OpenMetal’s US East Coast Ashburn data center with a Standard Cloud Core connected to three large storage nodes with 12×12 TB drives, yielding a raw storage capacity of approximately 0.5 PB.
The Ceph cluster allows for:
- Scalability with easy expansion of storage capacity as the demand for 3D files increases.
- High performance by distributing the workload across multiple servers, enabling fast access and retrieval of large files.
- Improved data redundancy and availability through data replication and erasure coding techniques, minimizing the risk of data loss.
- Cost-effectiveness as Ceph can utilize commodity hardware and allows for incremental scaling, reducing upfront expenses.
- Simplified management of storage infrastructure with centralized interfaces, streamlining operations and ensuring efficient resource utilization.
- Flexibility and freedom from vendor lock-in since Ceph is an open source solution.
- Compatibility and future expansion as Ceph supports industry-standard protocols and integrates seamlessly with existing infrastructure.
By implementing an enterprise-level three-server hyper-converged Ceph cluster, OpenMetal was able to immediately enhance MyMiniFactory’s ability to meet the growing storage demands of their customers effectively, while benefiting from scalability, high performance, data redundancy, cost optimization, simplified management, and flexibility.
Within less than a year MyMiniFactory’s storage cluster has grown from supporting 0.5PB to 1.9PB of data on nine of OpenMetal’s XLv2 Storage Nodes with 12x 18TB drive and Erasure Coding 7/2 for efficiency.
Industry Leading Fair Data Egress Pricing Model
OpenMetal employs a unique model for data egress pricing which highly benefits MyMiniFactory by reducing their overall bandwidth related costs as compared to a public cloud provider.
- Cost Clarity: MyMiniFactory benefits from a pricing model that assigns a specific amount of egress to each hardware unit in their cloud, bare metal, or storage cluster deployment. This clarity ensures MyMiniFactory can budget effectively and understand their baseline costs.
- Financial Control: When MyMiniFactory’s use cases require more egress than the included amount, OpenMetal charges based on the 95th percentile of megabit usage. This approach prevents unexpected cost spikes and grants MyMiniFactory greater control over their egress expenses.
- Flattened Bursting: OpenMetal’s pricing model flattens bursting, ensuring that MyMiniFactory does not encounter unexpected surges in egress costs during peak usage periods. This stability is particularly advantageous for MyMiniFactory as they have fluctuating data transfer needs.
- Customized Savings: For MyMiniFactory’s specific use cases, averaging egress usage can yield substantial cost advantages compared to conventional per-GB billing. OpenMetal’s tailored approach permits MyMiniFactory to optimize costs according to their unique requirements.
- Adaptability: MyMiniFactory appreciates the flexibility in OpenMetal’s egress pricing model, aligning costs closely with their actual data transfer patterns. This adaptability enables MyMiniFactory to avoid unnecessary expenses while ensuring reliable data handling for their platform.
OpenMetal’s egress pricing model empowers MyMiniFactory with financial predictability, control, and customization, enabling them to manage their egress-related expenses efficiently and effectively serve their growing platform’s needs.
The Results
Along with finding mission alignment between our two companies, OpenMetal helped MyMiniFactory meet their technical and business goals. They are set up for growth, efficiency, and scalability. The MyMiniFactory team has shared some of the positive results they’ve seen:
Streamlined operations with more flexibility and security
Through the utilization of OpenStack’s tools and APIs, MyMiniFactory has adeptly configured its infrastructure to align seamlessly with its particular needs. This was achieved in an unattended manner using code. One such example is networking configuration and resource isolation, where MyMiniFactory completely isolated and therefore provide a higher level of protection for their production servers.
Improved agility, scalability, and costs
MyMiniFactory, guided by the wisdom and insights provided by OpenMetal, orchestrated its infrastructure to facilitate swift testing and a seamless journey toward a more robust product.
MyMiniFactory appreciates the unique approach employed by OpenMetal, charging based on a consumption threshold flow basis for bandwidth, which greatly helped with ROI on their cloud infrastructure investments.
“We welcome OpenMetal’s unique method of charging on a consumption threshold flow basis for bandwidth and in relation to profitability we are pleasantly surprised with the monthly ongoing costs of using their infrastructure. They have been very agile and flexible in accommodating our rapid growth and aligning the contract with our planned growth.”
– Matt Weston (CFO) @ MyMiniFactory
Reliability and competitive edge
OpenMetal’s robust platform with no downtime in the past 460+ days (as of September 2023) and no network interruptions have allowed MyMiniFactory to be resilient.
MyMiniFactory’s choice to partner with an OpenStack infrastructure provider stands as a testament to its commitment to excellence. This decision harmoniously resonates with the core values that underpin the business, creating a differentiating positive angle in it’s market and with it’s community.
Predictable spend and ROI
For MyMiniFactory, the establishment of a predetermined, monthly cost has proven to be a source of liberation on the budgetary front. This has enabled them to allocate of resources across various facets of the business, secure in the knowledge that infrastructure costs remain firmly under control. Consequently, the technology budget has been redirected toward expanding the team, a strategic move propelling their growth.
Reliable support and service
“Support has been excellent. All technical issues have been resolved within 24 hours and any responses to technical enquiries have been thoroughly thought out first.”
– Arys Andreou, Head of Infrastructure @ MyMiniFactory
“OpenMetal is an essential partner that aligns with our values and ambitions. They grasp the significance of fostering creativity and building a strong sense of community. They are an extension of who we are.”
Nebo Nikolic, CEO @ MyMiniFactory
Continued Partnership
OpenMetal has a close relationship with MyMiniFactory’s technical team and continues to work with them to optimize their workloads to get the most out of their infrastructure.
MyMiniFactory has shared that they envision working with OpenMetal for years to come, and only see the partnership getting stronger as both companies expand globally.
Additional Case Studies
Read about additional OpenMetal customer successes and case studies by visiting these additional resources:
