Rackspace Cloud Library

What is OpenStack?

OpenStack® is an open source software platform for private clouds and public clouds. As an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform, OpenStack enables companies to easily and efficiently add servers, storage and networking components to their cloud.

OpenStack History and Reach

Together, Rackspace and NASA launched OpenStack as an open source cloud software project in 2010. Today, OpenStack is managed by the nonprofit OpenStack Foundation. Rackspace is a platinum sponsor of the foundation and is actively involved with the OpenStack community.

OpenStack is the cloud platform of choice for some of the world’s largest companies. OpenStack powers Walmart’s ecommerce site serving 80+ million people each month. CERN, the European research organization, also uses OpenStack for its private cloud — the largest OpenStack cloud in the world, with nearly 200,000 cores.

Why Use OpenStack?

Cost Savings

OpenStack software is free and open source to help users avoid vendor lock-in with expensive hardware.

Cloud Options

Deploy OpenStack as a public, private or hybrid cloud. The stack’s key components include compute, storage, networking, identity services and image services.

Scalability

Users can deploy virtual machines, apps and other resources easily and quickly, scaling their operations up and down as their needs change.

Flexibility

Because OpenStack is an open source project, its code can be accessed and changed based on needs. Users often share these modifications so that everyone benefits from a worldwide community of users.

How Can Rackspace Help?

451 Research says that Rackspace is widely recognized as “the world’s leading OpenStack service provider.” We attribute that to a steadfast commitment to both the platform and our customers.

Commitment to the platform

We have more hands-on experience helping companies run OpenStack than any other service provider. No organization has contributed more OpenStack code than Rackspace. We’ve logged more than 1 billion managed server hours with OpenStack environments that support some the biggest companies in the world.

Commitment to our customers

As an OpenStack co-founder, we know OpenStack better than any other provider. We have over 1,000 OpenStack experts delivering 24x7x365 operational support. Businesses around the globe rely on us to architect, secure, monitor, patch and upgrade their OpenStack environments.

Our OpenStack Private Cloud services allow you to choose the right cloud and the right level of support for your environment.

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