OpenStack is a free open source software platform that provides a free architecture for cloud computing and is mostly used as infrastructure as a service (IaaS) for hybrid private cloud projects.
The cloud computing software platform OpenStack consists of a series of contiguous components that control, manage, and deploy in the background a pool of hardware resources such as processing power (processors), memory (RAM and hard disk), and network topologies.
OpenStack users can manage, manage and customize the OpenStack infrastructure through a graphical user interface (GUI). Alternatively, this can also be done via the command line (shell) or via a RESTful API for communication with other machines or cloud computing platforms.
OpenStack has a modular architecture and is composedof several components for which own code names are partly used.
OpenStack Compute, also known as Nova, provides computing power in the form of virtual machines through APIs to enable the development of cloud applications. For administrators or users, web interfaces are available for OpenStack Compute. The OpenStack Compute architecture scales horizontally, in other words, the virtualized systems can be distributed over any number of compute nodes.
OpenStack Object Storage can be used independently of an OpenStack Nova Compute Cloud or in conjunction with other cloud computing platforms. OpenStack Swift provides a distributed, API-accessible storage platform that integrates directly with applications and provides cost-effective, scalable redundant storage, which can be used for, for example, for archiving, backups or data retention.
When used together, OpenStack Nova and Swift provide a full set of APIs for the OpenStack core components. Together, OpenStack Compute and Object Storage provide a robust cloud computing platform with scalable storage for images, snapshots, backups, virtual machines or block-oriented storage devices.
OpenStack Neutron provides network connectivity to other OpenStack services such as Compute as “Networking as a Service”. Neutron offers the developer or user an API to define and connect networks.
OpenStack Neutron features an extensible Plug'n'Play architecture that supports many popular network vendors and technologies, such as Open vSwitch, Cisco UCS & Nexus, Linux Bridge, NEC OpenFlow, Cloudbase Hyper-V, IBM SDN-VE, Lenovo, Juniper, Calico or BNC.
OpenStack Neutron Networking can be used for many network topologies and offers advanced features such as L2-in-L3 tunneling (VLAN), LB-aas, VPN-aaS, firewall-aaS, data-center-interconnect-aaS via the plugin architecture.
OpenStack Cinder provides virtual block storage media, such as disks, CDs and more, in virtualized form, which can be mounted as block storage by virtual machines. OpenStack Cinder Block Storage connects to OpenStack Swift via API so that block storage media can communicate with the object store.
OpenStack Keystone is the OpenStack identity service used for authentication (authN) and high-level authorization (authZ). The OpenStack Keystone architecture has recently been redesigned to enable external services and authentication / authorization mechanisms such as oAuth, SAML or openID in future releases.
OpenStack Glance offers the possibility to save and load SnapShots (Virtual Machine Disk Images) - such as completely installed and configured operating systems. OpenStack itself uses Image Service Glance to provision new computing instances.
In addition to above listed core services of OpenStack, there are other projects that make OpenStack a very complex and versatile cloud computing software.
Contact us if your organization needs support in installing an OpenStack Cloud Computing environment for business-critical processes and projects or IT restructuring. We advise you and build your OpenStack environment. We have specialized in OpenStack for several years and offer you an innovative solution based on the Open Compute project with the help of Docker and Kubernetes.
Join our regular free OpenStack training sessions, such as the Meetup Openstack Fundamentals Workshop. The OpenStack tutorial can be downloaded here.
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