0.5% IT cost ratio at €20M revenue: Cloud hosting for KRUU

Q: How high are typical IT costs at companies with €20M in revenue?

In e-commerce and cloud-driven businesses, IT costs typically range from 2% to 5% of annual revenue. KRUU achieves an IT cost ratio below 0.5% — including We Manage fees — through multi-cloud architecture and use-case-based provider selection. This is made possible by consistently avoiding AWS list prices and choosing specialized EU providers.

Q: Why multi-cloud instead of a single hyperscaler like AWS?

For many standard workloads — such as S3 storage or compute instances — AWS is 10 to 20 times more expensive than specialized EU providers. With multi-cloud, the cheapest suitable provider can be chosen per use case: Digital Ocean for the US market, Hetzner for tickets and dev systems, Gridscale for seasonal application load. No vendor lock-in costs, no hidden egress fees.

Q: How does a seasonal business scale its cloud infrastructure efficiently?

The key is choosing a cloud provider whose database services scale dynamically with actual load instead of requiring fixed provisioning at peak capacity. At KRUU we use Gridscale: the database automatically scales with demand and is billed on average rather than peak utilization. This is ideal for the wedding business with ten times more load in spring than in winter — hyperscaler databases would need to be sized for peak, tying up significant capital during the off-season.

Q: What does a 24/7 DevOps team cost internally vs. externally?

An internal 24/7 team requires at least three engineers for shift work plus vacation coverage, incurs standby allowances for nights, weekends, and holidays, and quickly adds up to a six-figure annual cost. External managed DevOps is typically billed as a monthly flat fee and is significantly more economical for mid-sized companies like KRUU — especially given seasonally fluctuating workload.

Q: How do you run a platform consistently across two continents?

A consistent platform needs providers in each region (for US compliance and latency), but the same tooling layer: at KRUU, we automate server configuration via Ansible, CI/CD via GitLab, web analytics via Matomo, and ticketing via Zammad — identically everywhere. Local fulfillment servers at the logistics locations complement the cloud infrastructure for shipping processes.

KRUU is the world's largest mobile photo booth provider — with 100+ employees, 5,000 photo booths in rotation, and around €20 million in annual revenue. We Manage has been on board as technical partner from day one: multi-cloud architecture, 24/7 operations, and IT costs below 0.5% of revenue — across two continents, 11+ countries, and 10 years.

The numbers at a glance

< 0.5%

IT costs as percentage of annual revenue — including We Manage fees, at ~€20M revenue.

99.99%

Server uptime — measured with Sentry and Hyperping, even during peak wedding season with up to 800 photo booth shipments per day.

5,000

Photo booths in rotation across 2 continents and 11+ countries.

10 years

Partnership with We Manage — from the first photo booth to international expansion into the US.

"What I like about Andy and his team is their focus on the best solution – for us as customers. Even if it sometimes means less revenue for 'We Manage.' I don't know this kind of approach from other service providers. I can highly recommend We Manage!"

Philipp Schreiber

Founder & CEO, KRUU GmbH

From Heilbronn to the USA

KRUU and We Manage share a long history that started in the Heilbronn nightlife scene, where Andreas Lehr met KRUU founder Philipp Schreiber. From a website that let you rent photo booths (which didn't exist yet at that point), KRUU has grown into the world's largest mobile photo booth company.

KRUU needed proper server infrastructure, redundancy, and optimal hosting from day one. Together we scaled from USB sticks via fulfillment servers all the way to a full international cloud infrastructure.

3 challenges we solved together

Seasonal business, high reliability requirements, international scaling — KRUU operates in a tension field that demands tailored infrastructure.

Seasonal demand swings

Wedding season brings peak demand in spring; winter is quiet. Over-provisioning at AWS scale drives costs through the roof — we use providers that bill on average rather than peak capacity.

Reliable infrastructure

During peak season, any outage means thousands of weddings and events without a photo booth. KRUU is a well-oiled machine where every cog meshes with the next — downtime is not an option.

DevOps: make or buy?

A 24/7 in-house DevOps team requires three engineers, shift schedules, and overtime pay. For a company KRUU's size, the answer was clear: bring in an experienced partner — flexible, cost-effective, always available.

Our approach: multi-cloud instead of hyperscaler

Instead of betting blindly on AWS, we built KRUU a tailored cloud architecture — distributed across multiple providers, each picked for its specific use case.

Digital Ocean

Cloud servers for the US market — from the warehouse in Michigan, KRUU serves the entire United States.

Hetzner

Cloud servers for the ticketing system and development environments — cost-effective German provider.

Gridscale

Cloud servers for the main application and S3 storage — billed on average rather than peak capacity, perfect for seasonal load.

Fulfillment servers

KRUU-owned servers at the warehouse locations in the US and Germany — for return logistics and shipping operations.

How does We Manage help?

The tech stack at a glance

Hosting: Digital Ocean, Hetzner, Gridscale + KRUU fulfillment
OS: Ubuntu LTS
CDN: Cloudflare

We use Ansible consistently to automate server configuration.

Both the Symfony backend and the Zammad ticketing system are also available as managed services for other customers — running on our Managed Cloud Servers.

Technologies

nginx
PHP
Symfony
NodeJS
pm2
Docker
ClickHouse

Applications

Zammad
GitLab
Matomo
ImgProxy
Shlink
Airbyte
Metabase

Strategies for every growth phase

In the beginning, everything was manual: photo booths configured by hand, images shipped on USB sticks. As the business grew, automation took over — today, local systems handle everything from device configuration to image upload, fully automated.

From the German market, the journey continued to Austria, France, Western Europe, and finally the USA. From the warehouse in Michigan, KRUU now serves the entire American market — running the same platform as in Germany. We Manage handles not only the cloud servers, but also the fulfillment servers on site at the logistics centers.

The results after 10 years of work

We Manage has been on board as a strategy and execution partner for KRUU's IT from day one. The numbers speak for themselves.

Successful internationalization

KRUU operates on two continents — in 11+ countries worldwide, with a consistent platform and automated processes.

Cloud costs below 0.5%

Total IT costs — including We Manage fees — make up less than 0.5% of annual revenue of around €20 million.

99.99% server uptime

A flexible, highly reliable cloud infrastructure — that holds up during peak season with 800 photo booth shipments per day. Continuously monitored with Sentry and Hyperping.

The full KRUU story as PDF

10-year partnership, 0.5% IT cost ratio, multi-cloud across two continents — in full depth with all the numbers.

How we pulled KRUU out of the standard AWS mainstream
Which cloud providers we pick for which use case — and why
How 24/7 operations work without an in-house team

Conclusion

With multi-cloud architecture, 24/7 operations, and a partnership that has worked on equal footing for ten years, KRUU is set up for its next growth phase — from real-time data exchange between EU and USA to new market expansions.

Facing a similar challenge with your own hosting? Let's talk.

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Frequently asked questions

What we are often asked about multi-cloud hosting, scaling, and DevOps outsourcing — answered from 10 years of experience with KRUU.

How high are typical IT costs at companies with €20M in revenue?