Q-Layer

Q-layer was founded in 2005 with one clear mission: enable service providers to offer their customers a virtual private datacenter. For that purpose, Q-layer has developed datacenter virtualization software that leverages on the emerging virtualization technology introduced by VMWare, Microsoft and Xen
Datacenter virtualization is the new paradigm where storage and server resources are provisioned based on easy to understand parameters while making abstraction of the underlying physical infrastructure in the datacenter. This is accomplished by integrating server, network and storage virtualization.

Q-layer enables service providers to compete with next generation hosting offerings such as Amazon S3 and EC2, using the private virtual datacenter concept: utility-based provisioning and billing based on actual usage.

A virtual private datacenter includes all features of a physical datacenter, except there is no hardware involved. Instead of buying racks, rack space, servers or storage devices, the customer buys a pool of CPU power, memory, storage capacity and network capacity. The customer will use the acquired resources to setup his own (virtual) datacenter, including servers and storage, without touching any physical machine.

The company was founded by a group of datacenter veterans, who also helped build the success of DataCenter Technologies (acquired by Veritas in 2005) and Dedigate (acquired by Terremark in 2005). The development team is responsible for patent-pending innovations such as strategically positioning primary and secondary data on disks. The company is backed by leading venture capital firms, including Big Bang Ventures, Partech International and Wellington Partners.Q-layer has its operational headquarter in Lochristi, Belgium and employs around 40 people worldwide. R&D are located in Belgium and Egypt. Q-layer has regional sales and support representation in a number of countries throughout Europe and North America.

Kristof De Spiegeleer (CEO) - Kristof founded Datacenter Technologies (DCT) in 2001, which was acquired by Veritas (now Symantec) in April 2005. DCT developed a revolutionary and unique backup solution, based on Content Addressed Storage technology. In 2000, Kristof founded Dedigate, a managed hosting provider. Dedigate was acquired by Miami-based Terremark in August 2005. He started his career at PSI Net where he was responsible for the European expansion of PSINet's datacenter division. Kristof De Spiegeleer holds a Master's degree in Engineering from the University of Ghent and a post graduate degree in business management from the University of Leuven.

 

Sophie De Maesschalck (CFO) -  Sophie previously worked as strategy consultant for Bain & Company, on projects in the telecommunications and insurance sector. Sophie started her career as design engineer at Proximus (Belgian mobile operator). She also did research work at Corning Inc, Corning, USA. She holds a Master's degree in Engineering from the University of Ghent, Belgium, and obtained her PhD in Applied Sciences - Telecommunications from the same university, funded by IMEC.

 

Niko Nelissen (VP Business development) - Niko is co-founder of Hostbasket and was Technical Director, where he built in-depth knowledge of datacenter operations. Hostbasket has grown - without external investments - to being the market leader in Belgium with over 100.000 customers and € 5 million in revenue. He started his career at Siemens where he did business development in EMEA for automation software. Niko Nelissen holds a Master's degree in Engineering from the University of Ghent and a post graduate degree in business management from the University of Leuven.

 

Francis Martens (VP Engineering) - Francis was Manager Software Development at EMC² from 2001 till 2006. At EMC² he scaled the business from 15 people in 2001 to over 100 people in 2006, covering all key areas of software product development. Prior he was Global Operations Manager at Filepool. Filepool was a pioneer in content addressable storage and was acquired by EMC² in 2001.

 

Jan De Landtsheer (Technical Director) - Jan was director of Dedigate France and Technical Director for Dedigate Europe, where he successfully completed large scale cross-datacenter server farm deployments. As Technical Director in Datacenter Technologies, he was responsible for the virtualization of the company's whole server and storage infrastructure. Jan is an expert in Linux based storage systems, in large scale server architectures, network design and server solutions in general.