> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://datum-4926dda5-mintlify-style-consistency-1774830500.mintlify.site/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Overview > Read about Datum, an open network cloud built for AI, including key trends that inform its strategy. Datum is an 'open network cloud' designed to unlock internet superpowers for every agent, app, and builder. We provide network and connectivity services but targeted at 100% programmatic and agentic use cases. Unlike a traditional CDN or hyperscaler cloud: * We are 100% focused on modern, "alt cloud" service providers * Our code is open source (AGPLv3) so you can run it anywhere if needed. Our product is evolving quickly and we currently only offer a free tier. We make money by providing infrastructure and network aggregation via our public cloud, and by managing private or custom edge clouds. ## Background Founded in late 2024, we're built by a team of infrastructure veterans and investors from Amplify, Cervin, CRV, Encoded, ex/ante, Step Function, and Vine Ventures. Previously we've helped to build infrastructure companies like Packet, Voxel, SoftLayer, StackPath, Highwinds, Zscaler, and many more. ## Context Our platform provides traditional internet-scale primitives (e.g. intelligent edge proxies, private backbones, cloud onramps, peering, meet-me-rooms, etc) but with an experience that is 100% programmatic, agent-first, and backed by AGPLv3 open source. We believe that a network cloud in the AI era is a bit different than a traditional CDN, mainly because the use case is intelligence not caching. Additionally, we think that open (open source + open ecosystems) is a critical requirement in a world that is increasingly fragmented and regulated. Our target customer is a modern service provider, which we lovingly call [Alt Clouds](https://www.alt-cloud.org/). We aim to support 1k's of them, so neutrality and transparency are important features in everything we do. ## Our Trends We started Datum because we saw three big trends: 1. Intelligence & Data Everywhere 2. 1000's of New Providers 3. An Era of Increased Regulation Want to learn more? Check out Zac's [blog post here](https://www.datum.net/blog/every-agent-needs-an-edge/).