Aussie OpenStack company gears up for global expansion

Aptira has brought on two additional advisors to help maximise global growth opportunities and expand operations from APAC into Europe and the US.

The Australian managed hosting, pubilc cloud infrastructure and enterprise private cloud solutions provider was founded in 2009 and has since established itself as a player in the OpenStack market.

Currently, Aptira has two seats on the OpenStack Foundation Board of Directors and employs three of the 12 OpenStack Ambassadors. Its customers include Red Hat, Cisco, Telstra and Singtel Optus.

Now, Max McLaren, Red Hat regional vice president and general manager ANZ, and Ben Kepes, investor and industry commentator, have joined Aptira's advisory panel to provide guidance on strategy, messaging and marketing as the company continues to extend its operations in APAC, and now Europe.

McLaren is a senior executive with almost 30 years in the IT industry, including 12 years with IBM and Lotus.

He now runs Red Hat's ANZ business, a role he took on in 2011 following a five-year stint as general manager for the region.

"Being part of Red Hat for the past 10 years has reinforced my belief in the power of community-based, collaborative development which is the cornerstone of innovative, reliable and cost-effective alternatives to the traditional way IT has been delivered in our industry," says McLaren.

"With the increased connectivity that characterises the world in which we work, collaborate, consume, and entertain ourselves today, I am convinced Open source and the cloud will revolutionise every organisation and every market.

"I look forward to supporting the Aptira team in leading this change, and partnering with them to continue helping Australian organisations successfully realise the opportunities these trends provide," he says.

Kepes is a subject matter expert with an extensive following across multiple channels, whose commentary is regularly published around the world, and is an active member of Clouderati - the global group of thought leaders in cloud computing.

Aptira will leverage Kepes' expertise in cloud, infrastructure and software to underpin its strategic decision-making and operational investments, according to a statement.

"I consider a few questions before becoming involved with a company: is the company in an important space, is the company doing really good things in that space and, most importantly, is the company full of truly good people?

"Aptira ticks all three boxes and I'm proud to be helping them with their journey," says Kepes.

McLaren and Kepes join Simon Anderson, DreamHost CEO, who has been an advisor to Aptira since 2013.

"During my time with Aptira, I've witnessed the company build a great reputation for OpenStack expertise and operational excellence in APAC and, more recently, Europe," says Anderson.

"I'm excited to be joined by Max and Ben to support the Aptira team through its work in driving the adoption of OpenStack for cloud computing worldwide."

Tristan Goode, Aptira CEO, says Anderson, McLaren and Kepes' expertise will enable Aptira to identify and capitalise on industry opportunities as it continues to expand.

Building upon its success as the leading provider of OpenStack in APAC, Aptira has opened its first European office and intends to further the use of Open source solutions in other markets, including the US.