Panfactum Mission
We approach the problem from two angles:
- Infrastructure Costs: We maintain the free and open-source Panfactum Framework, the most cost-effective way to run production-hardened workloads in the cloud.
- Labor Costs: Our support organization and certified partners provide end-to-end management of user's cloud environments at a fraction of the cost of the alternatives.
We have seen firsthand how tackling these challenges produces a qualitative difference beyond simple cost reduction. When costs are a fraction of the status quo, it becomes easy to unlock new capabilities.
In other words, a cheaper cloud is also a better cloud. We gain the headroom to integrate game-changing tooling and functionality that would have otherwise been cost-prohibitive to deploy and manage.
How we started
In 2016, it was no surprise that most organizations were struggling to develop and deploy the foundational systems that comprise a good software platform. However, after nearly a decade working in the DevSecOps field, it was surprising how little progress had been made on this front.
To fill this gap, I developed a "starter kit" for companies ranging from pre-seed startups to large enterprises. In 2023, this kit formally became the Panfactum Framework that you see today.
Shortly thereafter, James and I launched Panfactum Group to support the continued development and support of the Framework. In 2024, we created our first edge release and began taking on alpha customers.
Since then, we have been focused on stable, long-term growth toward our core mission: cutting the total cost of cloud computing by 99%. Thanks to our amazing early adopters, we have been profitable and growing since day one.
Our next chapter involves expanding the out-of-the-box capabilities of the framework and growing the team to support our expanding user base!
Let's get to building!
Two Charters
Panfactum Framework
The commitments we make to our OSS users.
1. Self-hostable
In a world where the challenges of self-hosting have all but been eliminated, multi-tenant platforms-as-a-service (PaaS) no longer makes sense when building for the future. Self-hosting on commoditized cloud compute will always offer better availability, durability, flexibility, security, and pricing so long as the components are easy to deploy and maintain. Our framework will always remain self-hostable.
2. Open Tooling and Standards
No framework can cover 100% of the needs of every user, all the time. As a result, organizations must be able to learn how their systems operate and be able to extend and exchange them as they see fit. Closed platforms and proprietary standards leave users at the mercy of their vendors. We will take the opposite approach and ensure every part of our system is built on open-source components and standards exclusively.
3. Batteries Included
The Framework will Just Work™ out-of-the-box without users needing to understand all the underlying complexity on day one. Our concern will not end at simply getting the system components running, but ensuring that they are so well-integrated as to be indistinguishable from an atomic system.
4. Developer Productivity
The success of most software companies is constrained by how quickly and robustly its engineers can write and deploy new software. A great platform cannot just concern itself with creating a robust cloud architecture, but must also ensure that the developer experience is a first-class concern. This includes providing the best possible local development environment, CI / CD pipelines, and observability platform.
5. Ownership
We believe a platform can only be successful if its users feel like they own it. That feeling requires a robust understanding of how it works, why it came to be as it is, and how to adjust it to their unique needs. We do not aim to take responsibility away from our users but arm them with the tools they need to be heroes and subject-matter experts in their organizations. As a result, our documentation and guides are as important as the code we write. If users have unanswered questions, we treat those as we would treat bugs in the framework itself.
Support Plans
The commitments we make to our customers.
1. Expert Guidance
Too many contractor / consultant relationships rely on the client to drive the engagement forward and define what needs to be done. We know that most of our clients are not full time infrastructure experts and they simply want their workloads to run efficiently, security, and resiliently. We know how to best accomplish that, and we will provide you the framework through which we can make that happen at the lowest possible cost.
2. Proactive Support
Most organizations treat their support motions as a cost-center and do everything they can to reduce the number of interactions customers have with it. As a result, most have a reactive posture. For us, support is the product. That means take responsibility for your infrastructure as if it were our own and proactively identify and address issues before they occur.
3. Risk Reduction
There is nothing more frustrating than working with a vendor who makes bold promises but has no follow-through. This is especially rampant in the infrastructure and devtool space where every day users are inundated with "transformational" gimmicks. Any promise we make will be guaranteed contractually so that you can rest easy knowing that its our money (not yours) on the line.
4. Extreme Problem Solving
We take responsibility for every system component that we bundle in the Panfactum framework, whether we created it or not. We will go to any lengths to solve your problems, even if that means diving deep and patching third-party systems. With us on your team you should have confidence that your team is capable of resolving any infrastructure obstacle that you may face.
5. Self-service
While our customers should always feel free to throw problems over the fence for us to tackle, anything we deploy should be able to be serviced directly by the customer. Our value proposition is not that we have a set of secret magic incantations, but rather that working with us is faster and cheaper than going it alone.