Powering Agile Cloud Networks: How Nebula Systems Builds Redundant Infrastructure with VyOS

“VyOS gives us both flexibility and predictability. It keeps us agile while letting us scale—without locking us into one way of doing things.”
— Hanis Irfan, Cloud Infrastructure Engineer, Nebula Systems Sdn Bhd

Customer Overview

Nebula Systems Sdn Bhd is a Malaysian cloud infrastructure and managed services provider. With a presence across Malaysia and regional ambitions, Nebula offers a comprehensive portfolio of cloud solutions, including Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), S3-compatible storage, backups, disaster recovery, and internet connectivity. Their customers range from enterprise clients to telecom operators and service providers. The team behind Nebula has always believed in building around open standards and tools that offer both flexibility and control—principles that led them to VyOS.

Challenge

As Nebula expanded its offerings, the complexity and expectations placed on their networking stack also grew. Their existing dual-router design encountered limitations during growth, prompting a full network redesign and upgrade. They needed a solution that would:

Support both edge and core routing roles, with seamless BGP-based peering
High Availability: Enable resilient and redundant gateway designs using VRRP and other HA mechanisms
Operational Control: Maintain operational control and visibility, even during upgrades and transitions
Automation Ready: Integrate well with automation and monitoring systems
Efficient Workflow: Provide a low-overhead CLI-based workflow to suit a lean engineering team

Why VyOS

VyOS was already embedded in their workflow when Hanis Irfan joined as Cloud Infrastructure Engineer. But as Nebula evolved, the platform continued to prove its value—technically and operationally.

Intuitive CLI: Similar to Juniper and Cisco, VyOS's configuration syntax made onboarding easier while offering clear rollback and change comparison via its commit-confirm model.
Community & Support: Whether through forums or direct support, the responsiveness of the VyOS community helped Hanis's team rapidly resolve questions during deployment.
Protocol Support: From BGP and VRF to advanced security practices like RPKI (currently under evaluation), VyOS offered the flexibility they needed.
Transparent and Open: Being open source aligned with Nebula's commitment to avoiding vendor lock-in and enabling more tailored implementations.

Implementation

VyOS is currently deployed in both edge and core environments across Nebula’s infrastructure. Hanis and his team use VyOS as part of their network redesign, ensuring future scalability and easier rollout of automated processes. It provides:

BGP Peering: Stable BGP peering to upstream ISPs and customer networks
Redundant Routing: Redundant routing using protocols like VRRP
Monitoring & Visibility: Custom monitoring and performance visibility using integrated tools
Testing Environment: Lab and staging support for continuous testing of changes before production rollouts

Results

Hanis cited the commit-confirm model as a standout feature, allowing their engineers to avoid accidental misconfiguration and giving them time to validate changes before finalizing. Beyond infrastructure, Hanis also used VyOS to support a networking workshop at a Malaysian government technical college—introducing students to BGP and OSPF using VyOS virtual routers. Key results include:

Infrastructure: Redundant and scalable routing infrastructure with VyOS at both edge and core
Operational Confidence: High operational confidence thanks to a powerful commit-check workflow
Knowledge Transfer: Effective knowledge transfer in training and community programs
Open Design: Open design and roadmap flexibility, free from vendor lock-in

Looking Ahead

Nebula continues to refine its VyOS-based infrastructure as it moves toward full-scale automation and tighter integration with Terraform, Ansible, and real-time monitoring systems. Their network engineers are also exploring VyOS container use cases and deeper routing policy controls to support multi-tenant services more efficiently.