United Cloud is operating in sync from five European Centers. After the expansion of the Belgrade center by the end of 2022, it is now moving into Ljubljana bigger office and starts development of the new software platform for Broadband CPE, as was announced by Sergej Berisaj, CTO of United Cloud for Netokracija.

“I always love to say that we are not just another typical IT company. We see ourselves as a regional innovation center where more than 320 people of different expertise cooperate on the development of products for telecommunication and media industry”, said Sergej Berisaj.

These are, he continues for Netokracija, products that brought changes, for several years back, on seven markets where United Cloud operates, for millions of people using them on daily basis.

“But we will not stop there. It is of utmost importance for us that United Cloud is physically present in these markets. This brings us closer to customers and the source of global trends, that we implement locally”, he explains.

As Sergej points out – the growth of United Cloud was triggered by the growing demand for their products, where it is not mere expansion of physical presence of this United Group’s IT development center, but expansion of knowledge and possibilities, as well as strengthening links with the regional IT community.

“New office is an ideal space enabling employment of more people in Slovenia and the continuation of delivery of top-quality products in the region. It is a spacious, state-of-the-art space set at prestigious location, designed to support collaboration, innovation, and time for focused work”, he pointed out.

Regional Growth Despite Changes in the IT Market

To the question related to the impact of crisis on operations of United Cloud, where many companies from the industry decide to freeze their investments, it is pointed out that, unlike the outsourcing companies that are most affected by this crisis in IT sector, United Cloud develops and maintains their own products, which makes them a reliable and stable IT center in the region.

“Our sustainable growth and team building are always driven by business goals, not by simple sales of services, or the goal of achieving better financing rounds, as seen in several startup practices. We give priority to long-term success and stability of our team, and all our recruiting decisions are rooted in actual job requirements,” Sergej Berisaj pointed out.

He clarified that the United Cloud team is responsible for full product cycle, which is rare in the industry that is becoming increasingly complex, diverse, and fragmented. From research, design, development and integration to maintenance and support, their team is engaged in all aspects of product cycle. Such approach enabled higher level of quality control and product portfolio expansion.

“Also, this helps us react faster to changes in the market and adapt to specifics of each region in which we operate. This gives us significant advantage over competition. Also, it enables us to attract and retain top talent, which results in further growth. We started off as a small team in 2016, and in less than a year we launched EON TV. Today, we have serious professionals in teams working on 15 production lines. This makes us one of the fastest growing technology companies in the region,” said United Cloud CTO.

CPE and Smart Solutions Development for Future

CPE is short for Customer Premises Equipment, and it represents the equipment provided by cable providers used in homes of customers.

“In United Cloud, we have a production line for CPE devices development. On the Next Giga Connect, held every year in Prague, we had the opportunity to discuss the future of development of broadband CPE in general, and their role in the next generation of smart services. We presented our strategy to develop a new CPE broadband platform that is a significant step to offering faster, efficient, and superior quality solutions for end users. With extensive experience in the development of Set Top Boxes based on Android TV platform, we are positioned as leaders in the industry with more than 1,000,000 devices installed and received awards on the leading global conferences (IBC CPE Award),” said Sergej Berisaj.

According to CTO of United Cloud, the role of CPE in the development of smart solutions for the future shall be key, since this equipment becomes a central hub connecting the home network of the customer with the internet, facilitating automation of the process for Smart Home, energy management, home entertainment and Smart City applications, etc.

United Cloud is focused on developing high quality and reliable software platform for routers and modems (that is, CPE devices in homes of customers) that are necessary to connect to network, with the goal of developing a unique platform for customers that enables identical activation, management and use in different hardware platforms with simultaneous support of different technologies for network access such as 5G, xPON, xDSL and DOCSIS, with parallel provision of compatibility with different networks.

“In order to provide excellent customer experience on all access technologies, we are working on bundling the software stack on the CPE itself, that is, directly on the device, and we have significant experience and know-how behind it. The project includes the development of bundled firmware based on OpenWRT operating system. This will not only contribute to the creation of a new platform but enable us to apply security and functional updates in the entire CPE product line. This approach will enable single development of a smart service, with universal introduction to all devices. Thus, we aim to simplify the development process and implement unified solutions, bringing significant technological progress in this area,” said Berisaj.

As he pointed out, after an extensive period of research and setting grounds for platform development, they are ready to execute this initiative to cover a wide spectrum of devices.

United Cloud Hires

When it comes to plans for Broadband CPE project for the future, Sergej announced they are focused on long-term plans related to a period of several years, but their primary goal is to build a strong team.

“We know how difficult it is to find quality people today, especially the ones that are ready to commit for a long-term. We will do our best to gather engineers working in C, C++, Python, Lua and Shell scripting technologies. We need people that are ready to directly impact product development in each phase, propose the best technological solutions and ensure that the highest industry standards are met. Our team is experienced, we have this fundamental engineering mindset and we love working from scratch. It is what we feel is ours, what pushes us move forward. Our development cycle is based on trunk-based development, writing tests and continuous integration, while all solutions are additionally tested in United Cloud Laboratory. When all checks are successfully completed, we use canary technique and partial rollout to deliver the solution to end users,” said Sergej Berisaj.

At the end of our interview, CTO of United Cloud Sergej Berisaj sent an open invitation to all individuals that see themselves in the activities he spoke about, who love or intend to work with embedded platforms, to be pioneers with the United Cloud team to reach the first results together, which is estimated in one-years’ time, to apply for one of the open positions on company’s website.