From 18-Month Releases to Multiple Deploys Per Day

Challenge

Schuberg Philis operated Apache CloudStack with 18-month release cycles. Bug fixes, security patches, and features accumulated into massive, high-risk releases. The slow cadence was unsustainable for a mission-critical cloud platform serving banking and enterprise clients.

Approach

We built a CI/CD pipeline for the CloudStack platform and executed a year-long quality refactoring program across the codebase. We introduced unit and system testing and embedded engineering best practices that did not exist before. The pace of change we drove ultimately led to Cosmic Cloud being forked from the Apache CloudStack project — the community could not keep up with the velocity we established. The same engineering practices were then carried over to customer teams, raising development standards across the organization.

Outcome

Release cycles compressed from 18 months to multiple deployments per day. The year-long quality investment paid off in sustained velocity: the team shipped faster because the codebase was healthier. The practices spread to customer teams, improving delivery across the broader Schuberg Philis ecosystem.