Cloudways

Cloudways

Trade name	Cloudways
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Cloud computing Web hosting
Founded	August 1, 2012;13 years ago (2012-08-01)
Founders	Aaqib Gadit Pere Hospital
Headquarters	New York , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Paddy Srinivasan (CEO) Suhaib Zaheer (SVP) [1]
Products	ThunderStack server stack
Brands	Cloudways
Services	Managed cloud hosting
Parent	DigitalOcean

Cloudways is a managed cloud hosting platform founded in 2012, enabling users to deploy web applications on servers from providers like DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud, Linode and Vultr. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5]}

History

Cloudways was founded in 2012 by Aaqib Gadit and Pere Hospital in Malta. ^{[6] [7] [8]} It was designed to simplify cloud hosting with automation, managed services, and an easy-to-use interface. ^{[9] [10]} It grew by serving small and medium-sized businesses, digital agencies and e-commerce platforms needing cloud solutions without direct server management. ^{[5] [11] [12]}

Acquisition by DigitalOcean

In August 2022, DigitalOcean Holdings Inc. announced its intention to acquire Cloudways for $350 million in cash. ^{[13] [14] [15]} The acquisition was completed in September 2022 and aligned with DigitalOcean's ^{[16] [17] [18]} strategy to enhance its offerings for small and medium-sized enterprises through integrated managed hosting services. ^{[19] [20] [21]}

Services and features

Cloudways provides managed cloud hosting that supports deployment on leading infrastructure providers such as DigitalOcean, AWS, Google Cloud and Linode. ^{[22] [23] [24]} Its proprietary Thunder Stack includes Nginx, Apache, Memcached, Varnish, Redis, and PHP-FPM to optimize application performance. ^[25] The platform manages server setup, maintenance, security patches, backups, and performance monitoring. ^{[7] [21] [26]}

In 2022, Cloudways integrated Cloudflare services to offer advanced features such as CDN, DDoS protection, and a Web Application Firewall (WAF). ^{[27] [28] [29]}

References

1. "DigitalOcean unveils new malware protection for Cloudways platform". datacenternews. Retrieved 17 April 2025.
2. "DigitalOcean to Buy Web-Hosting Firm Cloudways for $350 Million". bloomberg. Retrieved 11 April 2025.
3. "MSN". www.msn.com. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
4. Staff, V. B. (2025-05-08). "The future of managed hosting: Smarter, Faster, AI-powered". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
5. "Will a $350M deal boost Pakistan's start-up ecosystem?". TRTWORLD. Retrieved 11 April 2025.
6. Ecombridges (2023-05-16). "Cloudways Pricing 2023: Which Plan Should You Choose?". Ecombridges. Retrieved 2025-04-17.
7. "US firm buys Cloudways for $350m". DAWN. 25 August 2022. Retrieved 11 April 2025.
8. "Cloudways". Akamai. Retrieved 2025-05-07.
9. "Jan 06, 2023 | Gong ceremony marks largest acquisition in IT sector". Dawn Epaper. 2023-01-06. Retrieved 2025-05-07.
10. Giannelis, Matthew (2025-05-20). "Hosting.com Shared Servers Outperform Cloudways "High Performance" VPS". Tech Business News. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
11. "Cloud Services, SaaS M&A: DigitalOcean Acquires Cloudways for 6.7X Annual Revenue -". ChannelE2E. 2022-08-24. Retrieved 2025-04-11.
12. Alam, Kazim (2023-01-06). "Gong ceremony marks largest acquisition in IT sector". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 2025-04-17.
13. "DigitalOcean croque CloudWays pour 350 M$ - Le Monde Informatique". LeMondeInformatique (in French). 2022-08-24. Retrieved 2025-04-11.
14. "DigitalOcean Holdings Buys Cloudways, Enhances Offerings for SMBs". www.channelfutures.com. Retrieved 2025-04-11.
15. "US firm to buy Pakistan's Cloudways for $350 million". The Current. Retrieved 2025-04-17.
16. "Pakistan Stock Exchange Limited - | PSX | Events PSX | PSX Holds Gong Ceremony To Mark The Acquisition Cloudways". Pakistan Stock Exchange Limited. Retrieved 2025-05-07.
17. Team, Techjuice (2022-08-24). "Pakistan's Leading Cloud Host Provider 'Cloudways' to be Acquired by DigitalOcean for $350 million". TechJuice. Retrieved 2025-05-07.
18. DigitalOcean (2022-08-24). "DigitalOcean to Acquire Cloudways". TelecomTV. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
19. Shahnawaz, Hamza (2023-01-05). "PSX celebrates biggest acquisition of Pakistani IT firm by foreign entity". Pkrevenue.com. Retrieved 2025-04-17.
20. "Document". www.sec.gov. Retrieved 2025-04-11.
21. "Cloud Services, SaaS M&A: DigitalOcean Acquires Cloudways for 6.7X Annual Revenue". channele2e. 24 August 2022. Retrieved 11 April 2025.
22. "#Cloudways Increases Cloud Hosting Options, Integrates #Linode as Its Sixth Cloud Infrastructure Provider". HostingJournalist.com. Retrieved 2025-05-07.
23. Report, Recorder (2023-01-06). "Largest takeover of local startup by a US firm: PSX hosts gong ceremony to mark acquisition of Cloudways by DigitalOcean". Brecorder. Retrieved 2025-05-07.
24. April, Jen Phillips (2025-05-26). "Best Web Hosting for Small Business of June 2025". Newsweek Vault. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
25. "Cloudways Reviews & Product Details" . Retrieved Jun 19, 2025.
26. Report, Recorder (2023-01-06). "Largest takeover of local startup by a US firm: PSX hosts gong ceremony to mark acquisition of Cloudways by DigitalOcean". Brecorder. Retrieved 2025-04-17.
27. "Govt to expand IT industry to raise its contribution in economic development: Dar". 2023-01-03. Retrieved 2025-04-17.
28. "Best Cloud Web Hosting for 2025". CNET. 2025-04-05. Retrieved 2025-04-11.
29. updated, James Capell Contributions from Ruby P. Jane last (2021-12-06). "Cloudways review". TechRadar. Retrieved 2025-06-19.{{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)