The Apache CloudStack European User Group (CSEUG) convened on May 8th in Vienna, Austria, marking its return with a technically focused event that brought together a dynamic cross-section of users, contributors, developers, and operators from across Europe. Hosted at Quartier Belvedere Central, the event delivered a full day of in-depth technical sessions, collaborative community interactions, and practical insights into real-world deployments and advancements within the Apache CloudStack ecosystem.
Organised annually by the CloudStack EU Community and with the support of longtime contributors and sponsors including ShapeBlue, ProIO, and LINBIT, the event continues to grow, reflecting the maturity and vitality of the Apache CloudStack community.
A Full Day of Technical Deep Dives and Community Learning
The agenda for this year’s event included presentations covering core concepts, advanced configuration techniques, case studies on production deployments, and proposals for future development. The program was structured to accommodate both new users interested in open-source cloud orchestration and experienced practitioners working with large-scale Apache CloudStack environments.
Below you can find the sessions slides, abstracts, as well as speaker’s social links in case you would like to connect and have any questions about their session!
Access each session's slides by clicking onto the presentation graphic.
Apache CloudStack 101 – What’s New and What’s Coming, Giles Sirett, ShapeBlue
Giles Sirett, CEO of ShapeBlue kicked off the day with an accessible yet thorough overview of Apache CloudStack’s core capabilities. He walked attendees through the project’s architecture, support for multiple hypervisors (KVM, VMware, XCP-ng), and how CloudStack integrates into existing IT environments. The session also highlighted new features from recent releases and shared exciting developments on the roadmap, including enhancements in UI/UX, support for containerized workloads, and improvements in scalability and automation.
Storage Setup for LINSTOR/DRBD/CloudStack, Rene Peinthor, LINBIT
Rene Peinthor, Software Engineer at LINBIT, presented a comparative analysis of various storage setups including LVM-Thin, ZFS, and striped volumes, explaining the trade-offs between performance, failure domains, and operational complexity. Attendees gained actionable insights into designing optimized storage backends using LINSTOR with CloudStack, and learned best practices for balancing high availability with efficient resource utilization.
I’d Like to Resell Your CloudStack Services, But..., Brian Turnbow, CDLAN
Brian Turnbow, DCT at CDLAN, shared a candid case study on onboarding a white-label reseller into CDLAN’s CloudStack-powered platform. The talk addressed the operational and technical challenges faced when customers require custom IP ranges, brand identity, billing integration, and even their own network capacity. This session resonated with providers looking to expand their customer base while maintaining operational control and compliance.
Fully Open-Source Private Clouds: Freedom, Security, and Control, Swen Brüseke, ProIO
In a compelling argument for digital sovereignty, SwenBrüseke, CEO at ProIO, presented ProIO’s fully open-source approach to building secure and performant private clouds. By combining Apache CloudStack with LINBIT’s storage stack, and maintaining transparency through professional support, ProIO demonstrates how organizations can reduce dependency on proprietary solutions while ensuring reliability, flexibility, and security. He also offered a comparative evaluation of CloudStack vs. other solutions like Proxmox, highlighting CloudStack’s strengths in automation, scalability, and multi-tenancy.
CloudStack + KVM: Your Local Cloud Lab, Francisco Arencibia, Jotelulu
Francisco Arencibia, Senior DevOps Engineer at Jotelulu, provided a highly practical guide for setting up a CloudStack-based private cloud lab using KVM, ideal for testing and development. Attendees learned how to automate the entire setup using Ansible, making it simple to deploy and tear down environments. This session served as a great entry point for developers and sysadmins looking to experiment with CloudStack or prototype cloud-native applications.
Proposed Feature: Monitoring and Managing Cloud Usage Costs in Apache CloudStack, Grégoire Lamodiere & Joffrey Luangsaysana, DIMSI
Grégoire Lamodiere, CEO and Joffrey Luangsaysana, Cloud Expert at DIMSI introduced a proposed native feature aimed at tracking and visualizing cloud resource usage and cost within CloudStack. Gregoire and Joffrey emphasized the need for better visibility for both administrators and end users—especially in multi-tenant or MSP environments. The session invited feedback from the community, igniting discussion around metrics collection, usage-based billing, and potential integrations with third-party tools. The proposal underscores the community’s commitment to evolving CloudStack in response to real-world needs.
Stretching CloudStack Over Multiple Datacenters, Wido den Hollander, Your.Online
Scaling CloudStack beyond a single datacenter brings new architectural considerations. Wido den Hollander, CTO at Your.Online, explored techniques for spanning CloudStack zones across multiple physical locations, including challenges in networking, storage, and orchestration. Drawing from operational experience, he outlined patterns for inter-datacenter VM migration and high availability while preserving CloudStack's logical zone constructs.
Pushing the Limits: CloudStack at 25K Hosts, Boris Stoyanov, ShapeBlue
The closing session was a standout, as Boris Stoyanov, QA Manager at ShapeBlue walked the audience through a large-scale load testing initiative involving 25,000 hosts in a lab environment. This technical deep dive included performance benchmarks, system bottlenecks, and the specific code changes implemented to support this level of scalability. The findings will inform future development efforts to further strengthen CloudStack’s ability to support massive, distributed infrastructure.
Thank You for Making It a Success
The Apache CloudStack community would like to extend a sincere thank you to ShapeBlue, ProIO, and LINBIT for their continued sponsorship and support. These events wouldn’t be possible without the volunteers, contributors, and passionate users who give their time and energy to make each gathering meaningful.
We’re already looking forward to the upcoming CloudStack India User Group 2025, taking place on 11th July at the Yotta Data Centre Park (D1) in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Shortly after, we’ll be gathering again for the next CloudStack European User Group meeting in London on 18th September. And finally, the highlight of the year—the CloudStack Collaboration Conference—will be held in Milan, Italy from 19th to 21st November. As the most significant CloudStack event globally, the conference brings together professionals from around the world to connect, share knowledge, and shape the future of open-source cloud infrastructure. Until then, stay involved, stay curious, and keep building!