Open, independent, future-proof: OpenStack is more relevant than ever!

Proprietary cloud services offer convenience - but often at the expense of flexibility, transparency and cost-effectiveness. High operating costs, dependence on individual providers and limited customization options are increasingly causing some to reconsider. At a time when digital sovereignty, regulatory requirements and the pressure to innovate are playing a central role, the importance of OpenStack as an open, scalable alternative.

What began in 2010 as a joint project between NASA and Rackspace has developed into a globally active innovation network. The OpenStack community unites developers, operators and companies working together on a cloud platform that focuses on freedom, customizability and independence. Today, OpenStack is more than just technology - it is a commitment to a self-determined, open cloud future.

OpenStack: The alternative to the classic public cloud - or not quite "own" after all?

A public cloud solution from the major hyperscalers is not always the best choice. This is where OpenStack comes in - as a powerful open source platform that allows companies to build and manage their own cloud infrastructure. But what makes OpenStack different? And how does it differ from other cloud approaches?

What exactly is OpenStack?

OpenStack can be thought of as a modular toolkit: a collection of interconnected open source projects that together form a flexible, scalable cloud environment. OpenStack covers key areas such as computing, storage, network management, identity and access management and automation. In contrast to commercial providers, with OpenStack you retain full control over your infrastructure - and can adapt it to your individual requirements.

A look back: from NASA and Rackspace to the global movement

The origins of OpenStack date back to 2010, when NASA needed an agile platform for its research projects and Rackspace wanted to create an open alternative to existing cloud offerings. This collaboration gave rise to OpenStack - a project that is now supported by a globally active community. This community not only ensures continuous further development, but also an ecosystem that grows with the requirements of modern IT landscapes.

What OpenStack can do: The versatile possibilities at a glance

OpenStack provides a wide range of powerful services - and is therefore suitable for a wide variety of use cases, from classic data centers to modern edge clouds:

Compute (Nova): Management and provision of virtual machines in various sizes and configurations - flexibly and efficiently.
Networking (Neutron): Setting up and managing complex network infrastructures, including virtual networks, subnets, routers and load balancers.
Storage:
- Cinder (Block Storage): Persistent volumes for VMs - comparable to classic hard disks.
- Swift (Object Storage): Highly scalable, fail-safe storage for unstructured data such as backups, media or archive data.
Identity Management (Keystone): Central authentication and authorization - including user, role and project management.
Image Service (Glance): Storage, management and provision of VM images for automated instance launches.
Orchestration (Heat): Automation of complex cloud infrastructures using declarative templates.
Dashboard (Horizon): A user-friendly, web-based interface for managing your OpenStack environment.

And that is by no means all: the constantly growing OpenStack ecosystem includes other projects such as Magnum (container management), Ironic (bare-metal provisioning) or Sahara (Big Data/ETL workloads) - and thus adapts flexibly to the requirements of your IT landscape.

The evolution of OpenStack: as a managed service in the public cloud

For a long time, OpenStack was primarily of interest to companies that wanted maximum control over their infrastructure - including the costs of operation and maintenance. However, the platform has evolved. One exciting development in recent years is that OpenStack no longer necessarily has to be hosted and operated in-house.

More and more providers - especially in Europe - are now offering Managed OpenStack as Public cloud service to.

What does Managed OpenStack actually mean?

With Managed OpenStack, an external service provider takes over the complete technical operation of the OpenStack infrastructure. This includes installation, configuration, maintenance, scaling and security. For companies, this means

Focus on the essentials: You concentrate on your applications, not on the underlying infrastructure.
Reduced complexity: You benefit from the flexibility of OpenStack without having to bear the operational overhead yourself.
Flexible scaling: As with other public cloud offerings, you scale resources as required and only pay for what you actually use.
Data sovereignty & compliance: European providers in particular attach great importance to data protection, GDPR compliance and regional data storage - a decisive factor for regulated industries.

Technological classification: Where does Managed OpenStack stand?

Managed OpenStack offers many advantages - but it is important to know the technological differences to hyperscalers such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud.

The biggest difference lies in the breadth and depth of the service offering:
While hyperscalers offer a variety of Managed Services and Serverless functions from machine learning to IoT to fully managed databases and features like AWS Lambda, public OpenStack providers are primarily focused on the classic IaaS levelCompute, storage and networking.

Managed database services or comprehensive platform services are sometimes limited or not available at all from OpenStack providers. On the other hand, they score points with transparency, control and clear infrastructure separation.

For which projects is Public OpenStack particularly suitable?

Despite (or perhaps because of) this focus, Managed OpenStack is an interesting option for many scenarios:

Lift-and-shift of traditional workloads:
Ideal for companies that want to migrate existing VM-based applications to the cloud without major adjustments.
Projects with high compliance and data protection requirements:
European providers often enable fully GDPR-compliant data storage - a must for many regulated industries.
Open source-oriented companies:
Those who rely on open standards and want to avoid vendor lock-in will benefit from the portability between OpenStack environments.
Flexible development and test environments:
Low entry barriers and usage-based billing make Managed OpenStack an attractive platform for dev/test projects.

For highly specialized, cloud-native applications with a strong focus on serverless or AI services, the large hyperscalers currently offer the greater variety of functions. However, for many companies, the advantages of OpenStack outweigh the disadvantages in terms of Independence, data control and cost structure.

OpenStack has long since evolved from a self-hosting model to a fully-fledged public cloud alternative. European managed service providers in particular are opening up new deployment scenarios - without compromising on data protection or flexibility.

Although the range of specialized services does not (yet) come close to the large hyperscalers, Public OpenStack offers many companies exactly what they need: a powerful, open and compliant cloud infrastructure - without vendor lock-in.

How does OpenStack work in practice?

But beyond the theory and promises, how does Managed OpenStack perform in real-world use? In the next part of our blog series, we take a look behind the scenes: We share our practical experience with OpenStack in a lift-and-shift context, show how stable and performant network and compute services are in everyday use - and what lessons we have learned from specific projects.