From hyperscalers to open technologies
A channel industry under pressure
Traditional VAR and managed service business models are increasingly being replaced by dynamic, consumption-based cloud services. To remain competitive, partners need to automate every stage of the customer journey, from provisioning and billing through to governance and lifecycle management, while maintaining complete ownership of the customer relationship. OpsMgr was created to solve exactly that challenge.
The scale of the opportunity is significant. Global public cloud expenditure is expected to exceed $1.6 trillion by 2028, yet many channel partners struggle to compete commercially with the hyperscalers. In many cases, the hyperscaler invoices the end customer directly, reducing both partner margin and long-term customer ownership. Meanwhile, industry analysts estimate that as much as 40% of cloud spend is unnecessary or inefficient. Illapa Cloud CEO and founder Jason Dance believes that trusted channel partners are ideally placed to solve that problem – provided they have the right technology platform.
About Illapa Cloud
Illapa Cloud is an independent software vendor developing OpsMgr, a multi-tenant hybrid cloud management platform. OpsMgr enables channel partners to build, operate, and commercialise their own cloud services across public, private, and on-premises infrastructure. It's the technological foundation for partners who want to compete in the consumption-based cloud economy while retaining full ownership of their customer relationships.
From customer to strategic partner
Illapa Cloud has been an IONOS CLOUD customer since 2018, and the relationship built over those years created the foundation for something much bigger. In 2025, as Illapa Cloud began developing OpsMgr Version 2, conversations with the IONOS CLOUD team evolved naturally into a broader strategic partnership centred on the Data Center Designer platform.
How partnering with IONOS CLOUD transformed Illapa Cloud's platform and business
The limits of building on hyperscalers
During 2025 discussions between IONOS CLOUD and Illapa, both teams recognised a shared opportunity: to work together to help channel partners build their own cloud businesses. From that point, the relationship became a genuine partnership.
The first version of OpsMgr was built around AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and VMware. As Illapa Cloud's vision evolved, the team recognised that dependence on proprietary managed services was limiting the platform's potential, constraining flexibility, portability, and the ability to innovate independently. The platform needed to run on open technologies and enterprise infrastructure that Illapa Cloud could truly own and control.
An open, enterprise-grade alternative to the hyperscaler
The IONOS CLOUD Data Center Designer gives Illapa Cloud's engineering team complete visibility and control over their underlying infrastructure, while simultaneously allowing them to demonstrate OpsMgr's capabilities in the same environment their customers will use. Development and production environments are now clearly separated, and the platform is built to scale both technically and commercially as the business grows.
Increased control, reduced costs
The move away from proprietary managed services has reduced operational costs. The more significant gain, however, has been control. Illapa Cloud is no longer constrained by a single cloud ecosystem's available services. The team can now select the right technology for each requirement, with IONOS CLOUD providing the ideal foundation.
Support that keeps pace with ambition
For a software business building a platform for other businesses to build on, infrastructure support is central to the product. Illapa Cloud has direct access to people who understand their objectives and are genuinely invested in their success.
- Increased control and flexibility by moving from proprietary managed services to open, enterprise infrastructure
- Reduced operational costs as a direct result of that migration
- Separate development and production environments for improved reliability
- Infrastructure platform that scales alongside Illapa Cloud's technical and commercial growth
"Without IONOS CLOUD, it's highly unlikely that OpsMgr Version 2 would have evolved into the platform it is today."
Jason Dance, CEO, Illapa Cloud
Why choose IONOS CLOUD for your ISV or channel business?
Illapa Cloud's journey began in 2018, and over seven years that relationship grew from customer and supplier into a genuine strategic partnership. When discussions around OpsMgr Version 2 began in 2025, the IONOS CLOUD team was already aligned on the commercial vision and ready to support the engineering ambition. For software vendors building platforms that others will depend on, that kind of partnership is essential.
Where hyperscalers lock customers into proprietary ecosystems, IONOS CLOUD provides the enterprise-grade infrastructure to run open technologies on your own terms. For Illapa Cloud — and the channel partners who will use OpsMgr — working with a leading European cloud provider delivers real confidence around data sovereignty and regulatory compliance.
IONOS CLOUD's breadth of infrastructure gives ISVs the freedom to architect solutions around requirements, not around what a single ecosystem happens to offer. Illapa Cloud migrated from AWS and built a stronger, more flexible platform as a result. The Data Center Designer provides the visibility and control that engineering teams need to build, iterate, and scale, without being constrained by black-box managed services.
Try the IONOS CLOUD
- Flexible open-source database for all workloads
- Customisable resources for CPU, RAM and storage
- GDPR compliant in ISO-certified data centres
The IONOS CLOUD in practice
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