DataYard
DataYard’s mission is to empower businesses by providing robust, reliable, and scalable cloud hosting and infrastructure. They pursue core values of service excellence and customer-centricity, working closely with clients to manage and support their complex IT needs. By taking on technical complexity, DataYard aims to make a significant difference, enabling businesses to achieve greater operational efficiency and strategic focus within their respective industries in increasingly complex digital environments.
As DataYard explored adopting Ceph as a next-generation storage platform, the team set up an initial proof of concept using repurposed hardware. The primary goal was to evaluate whether Ceph could effectively support their future cloud hosting platform and replace traditional storage solutions.
Building and managing a Ceph environment proved to be complex for the DataYard team. They encountered several challenges during the setup and recognized a crucial need for deeper expertise to fully design, deploy, and operate the cluster efficiently.
DataYard needed to make strategic decisions about the future of its infrastructure, encompassing critical aspects like scalability, performance, and the move toward open source technologies. This required a clear understanding of the best and most future-proof path forward.
Without a clear understanding of Ceph's best practices and essential design considerations, it was challenging to determine whether Ceph was the right long-term solution for DataYard. This uncertainty posed a problem in committing to a new storage platform.
To address these challenges, DataYard worked with 42on to follow a Ceph training program specifically focused on building both foundational knowledge and practical skills. The training combined in-depth theoretical sessions with hands-on labs, enabling the team to better understand how Ceph works and how to operate it effectively in practice. This targeted 42on training directly helped DataYard overcome the complexity barrier in building and managing their Ceph environment, by equipping them with the necessary operational expertise and confidence to make informed architectural decisions independently going forward.
A key aspect of the 42on training was its highly interactive approach, diverging from a fixed curriculum. The sessions actively encouraged open discussion and direct engagement with the instructors, offering DataYard a unique opportunity to ask questions specific to their own environment and explore how Ceph could be best applied to their use case. This combination of theory, practical exercises, and tailored guidance from 42on closed critical knowledge gaps, providing DataYard with a clear understanding of how to design, deploy, and evaluate a Ceph cluster, instilling confidence for their proof of concept and future plans.
Following the training, DataYard was able to close key knowledge gaps and approach Ceph with significantly greater confidence. The team gained a clear understanding of how to properly evaluate, design, and manage a Ceph environment, enabling a more structured and effective proof of concept.
The training also enabled DataYard to make more informed decisions about the future of its storage platform. With a better understanding of Ceph’s capabilities and best practices, the team is now in a strong position to assess its fit for their business and plan the next steps toward adoption.
As a result of the enhanced expertise, DataYard is moving forward with concrete plans to build out a robust Ceph cluster. This new cluster is intended to support the next generation of its cloud hosting platform, representing a significant technological advancement.
DataYard also intends to continue working with 42on for further consulting and support. This ongoing partnership ensures that future Ceph implementations will be designed and deployed in a reliable and scalable way, leveraging 42on’s specialized expertise for sustained success.
42on supports Ceph teams with the complete operation of Ceph clusters by providing Consultancy, Training, Emergency Assistance, and Managed Services.
Why choose 42on as your partner for your open source infrastructure?
42on's passion for open source, particularly Ceph, is not just a statement but a core ethos. Actively engaged in the Ceph and related open source communities, our contributions to GitHub, tech blogs and events showcase our enthusiastic involvement
We avoid vendor lock-in and work together with clients that use open source or subscribed Ceph. This vendor-agnostic approach ensures clients have the freedom to choose their preferred vendor while benefiting from 42on's expert support and guidance.
We understand that every business has unique needs. Therefore, we provide a range of services that allow you to customize your level of control. You can choose to maintain complete control or delegate tasks as you see fit.