About Us

We believe open source software can change the world.

For companies of all sizes, Instaclustr is a one-stop destination for deploying, managing, and monitoring all components of the data infrastructure. Instaclustr allows companies to focus internal development and operational resources on building cutting-edge customer-facing applications.

Our multi-faceted global team with offices in the United States, Australia, and Europe ensures your application-critical data services are taken care of 24×7x365.

Company milestones
  • Management Platform
    We provide a cloud-based, automated, proven and trusted management platform solution that offers easy access to, and operation of, specially selected open source technologies. Our platform powers mission critical, highly available applications for our customers and helps them reduce time to market and operational risk by achieving the highest levels of scalability, reliability, and performance. For customers not ready or able to have data hosted in cloud environments, our management platform can be extended to service on-premises infrastructure or hybrid deployments.
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  • Services
    We offer a range of customizable consulting solutions delivered by best-in-class open source technology experts, all designed to help you accelerate your adoption of open source technologies and maximize the benefits of these deployments. From architecting your deployment, to building out specialized components using open source technologies, and on to massively scaling your applications in production, we have a solution no matter where you are in your open source adoption lifecycle.
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  • Support Solutions
    For customers who are not ready or able to utilize our managed platform solution, we provide 24×7 expert and dedicated support for open source data technologies through Instaclustr Support. Our support plans include code-base and operational support for any environment, on-prem or in the cloud, so that you can maximize the benefits of operating open source data technologies with the added comfort of having deep operational expertise at call when you need it.
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Our vision and values
Instaclustr is on a mission to revolutionize the way companies use open source technologies
  • Trust
    With more than 300 million node hours under management across operational and production environments, we have seen it all. We can provide you with uptime guarantees because we know what we are doing and what to expect.
  • Team
    Trust for us is much more than just saying you can trust our solutions. We have worked hard on obtaining independent assessments and certifications including SOC 2 and PCI to provide assurance to customers that our environment can be trusted.
  • Tenacity
    We ensure absolute resiliency and provide the uptime and assurance our customers require. Others talk about it, we live by it.
  • Peter Lilley Chief Executive Officer
    Peter Lilley Chief Executive Officer
    SUMMARY

    Peter is CEO and a Co-founder of Instaclustr. He has more than 25 years of experience and expertise in information technology services, both as a business leader and implementer of customer solutions. Peter previously led Stratsec, a specialist cybersecurity business, as CEO from startup through growth and onto successful exit in 2011. At Stratsec, he had responsibility for all aspects of the business from its foundation in 2003, its growth across Australia, and into South East Asia culminating in the naming of Stratsec as Australian Business of the Year in 2010, along with several other cybersecurity awards. In 2011, Stratsec was acquired by BAE Systems with Peter taking on a senior cyber leadership role until the founding of Instaclustr in 2013. Peter is now applying his experience in growing great companies to building and scaling Instaclustr.

  • Steve Francis CRO & EVP GTM Operations
    Steve Francis CRO & EVP GTM Operations
    SUMMARY

    As Chief Revenue Officer & EVP GTM Operations, Steve is responsible for all go-to-market functions including Sales, Customer Success, Sales Engineering, Marketing, Consulting & Instaclustr Labs.

    Steve has experience leading large sales teams with revenue responsibility in excess of $100M in markets including hybrid cloud, ERP, SDN virtualization, database, and middleware. Before joining Instaclustr he led US Commercial sales for SDN and Cloud Management at VMware.

    Steve earned his MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management where he was a Sloan Fellow. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Washington.

    Steve lives in Seattle, Washington and is a lover of the outdoors and keen on boating in particular.

  • Ben Bromhead Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder
    Ben Bromhead Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder
    SUMMARY

    As Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder at Instaclustr, Ben sets the technical direction for the company. Ben is located in our California office and is active in the Apache Cassandra community.

    Prior to Instaclustr, Ben had been working as an independent consultant developing NoSQL solutions for enterprises and was running a high-tech cryptographic and cybersecurity formal testing laboratory at BAE Systems and Stratsec.

  • Ben Slater Chief Product Officer
    Ben Slater Chief Product Officer
    SUMMARY

    As Chief Product Officer, Ben is charged with steering Instaclustr’s development roadmap and overseeing the product engineering, production support, open source, and consulting teams.

    Ben has over 20 years experience in systems development, including previously being lead architect for the product that is now Oracle Policy Automation, and over 10 years as a solution architect and project manager for Accenture. He has extensive experience in managing development teams and implementing quality controlled engineering practices.

  • Doug Stuart Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder
    Doug Stuart Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder
    SUMMARY

    Doug is a Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder at Instaclustr. He also leads Instaclustr Labs, an initiative designed to grow and leverage our enabling services capabilities, capture new and innovative ideas, and extract value from our extensive deep technical experience and body of knowledge. Before this role, Doug led the marketing division at Instaclustr.

    Prior to Instaclustr, Doug was a Co-founder of Stratsec, a world-class, highly awarded and recognized cybersecurity consulting, testing, and research firm, which was acquired by BAE Systems in 2011. Stratsec was awarded Telstra Business of the Year in 2010. Doug has also been recognized as a leading entrepreneur in the industry through the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Program in 2010.

  • Michael Meskes Chief Information Officer
    Michael Meskes Chief Information Officer
    SUMMARY

    Before becoming the CIO of Instaclustr, Michael founded and managed credativ and its Open Source Support Center. He bootstrapped the company to become a multi-national specialist for open source services. In the process, he helped numerous businesses improve their IT infrastructure by using pure open source solutions. On the community side, Michael has been a developer for nearly 30 years working on different open source projects, including well-known solutions like Debian and PostgreSQL. He has also engaged in significant open source evangelism and given related presentations at various events. Michael teaches open source infrastructure components at a local university as an adjunct professor.

  • Evita Davies Deputy Chief Financial Officer
    Evita Davies Deputy Chief Financial Officer
    SUMMARY

    Evita works with the Leadership and Operations team to deliver accounting, tax, and financial capability. Evita is a Chartered Accountant with over 15 years experience across a number of industries, working previously for the accounting and advisory firm PwC and at an ASX listed company. Evita is based at the Canberra, Australia office.

  • Adam Zegelin SVP Engineering and Co-Founder
    Adam Zegelin SVP Engineering and Co-Founder
    SUMMARY
  • Benjamin Levin Chair of the Board
    Benjamin Levin Chair of the Board
    SUMMARY

    Ben Levin founded Level Equity and is a partner and the co-CEO of Level Equity Management, LLC. He has been an investor in growing media, software, and services companies since 1997 and is a frequent speaker on the growth equity industry. Prior to Level Equity he was Managing Director at Insight Venture Partners and previously held positions with Mentmore Holdings Corporation, the private investment arm of a New York City-based family office, and in the mergers and acquisitions division of Salomon Brothers. Ben graduated from Harvard College.

  • Jerry Stesel Director
    Jerry Stesel Director
    SUMMARY

    Jerry is a founding partner of Our Innovation Fund, LP and an Investment Committee member. He has extensive investment banking, legal, and technology investing experience. Most recently, Jerry worked at Deutsche Bank and CBA advising some of Australia’s largest and fastest-growing companies on company transforming transactions. Jerry founded and successfully exited a payment services business in 2016. Jerry holds a combined Bachelor of Commerce and Laws (with Distinction) from UNSW and completed the Executive Management Program at Columbia Business School, New York.

  • Ben Bromhead Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder
    Ben Bromhead Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder
    SUMMARY

    As Chief Technology Officer and Co-founder at Instaclustr, Ben sets the technical direction for the company. Ben is located in our California office and is active in the Apache Cassandra community.

    Prior to Instaclustr, Ben had been working as an independent consultant developing NoSQL solutions for enterprises and was running a high-tech cryptographic and cybersecurity formal testing laboratory at BAE Systems and Stratsec.

  • David Kirk Director
    David Kirk Director
    SUMMARY

    David is the former Chief Executive of ASX-listed Fairfax Media Ltd., where he led the successful investment into a number of internet businesses including Fairfax’s acquisition of Trade Me and Stayz. David has been a growth stage investor in technology-based businesses since 1999. He is Chairman of ASX-listed Trade Me Group Limited and Kathmandu Holdings Limited, a Director of Forsyth Barr Limited—a privately-owned New Zealand investment firm, and a Director of SiteMinder, SMI, and Viocorp.

    Prior to entering the corporate world, David enjoyed a highly successful rugby career, captaining the All Blacks to win the World Cup in 1987. He was awarded an MBE in 1988.

    David is a Rhodes Scholar with degrees in Medicine from Otago University, and Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University.

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