What Is OpenStack in Cloud Computing?

Key takeaways

• OpenStack builds a private cloud with Nova for compute, Neutron for networking and Keystone for identity.
• Organisations pick it for control, cost at scale or data sovereignty.
• It needs a skilled team to run, so count operating effort as well as licence cost.

OpenStack lets an organisation run its own cloud rather than renting someone else's. That appeals to anyone concerned about control, cost at scale or data sovereignty, and it carries an operational cost that is easy to underestimate.

Table of Contents

1. What Is OpenStack?
2. What Are the Core Components?
3. Why Do Organisations Choose OpenStack?
4. Who Actually Uses It?
5. What Is the Operational Reality?
6. How Does It Compare to Public Cloud?
7. Can It Be Used Alongside Public Cloud?
8. What Skills Does Working With It Require?
9. Is OpenStack Still Relevant?
10. How Do Organisations Actually Deploy It?

What Is OpenStack?

OpenStack is open-source software for building and operating cloud infrastructure. It pools compute, storage and networking resources from physical servers and presents them as on-demand virtual resources, giving an organisation cloud capability on hardware it controls.

Essentially it provides the same self-service infrastructure model as public cloud, but running in your own data centre. Users request virtual machines, storage and networks through an interface, and the platform allocates them from your physical capacity.

What Are the Core Components?

The main services handle compute, object and block storage, networking, identity, image management and the dashboard. Each is a separate project that can be deployed independently, which is both the platform's flexibility and its complexity.

Identity is the component everything else depends on. It authenticates users and services to one another, which makes it both architecturally central and the place where misconfiguration causes the widest problems.

Why Do Organisations Choose OpenStack?

The usual drivers are data sovereignty requirements, avoiding dependence on a single commercial provider, predictable cost at large and steady scale, existing data centre investment, and the ability to customise the platform itself.

• Data sovereignty - infrastructure physically located and controlled where policy requires
• Avoiding lock-in - open source with no single commercial dependency
• Cost at scale - steady large workloads can be cheaper on owned hardware
• Existing investment - hardware already purchased and depreciating
• Customisation - the platform itself can be modified

The cost argument holds specifically for steady, predictable, large-scale workloads. For variable demand, public cloud elasticity usually wins, because owned capacity must be sized for peak and sits idle otherwise.

Who Actually Uses It?

Telecommunications operators, research institutions, government bodies, large enterprises with regulatory constraints, and public cloud providers building their own platforms. It appears most often where control requirements outweigh convenience.

Telecommunications is a notable adopter because network functions increasingly run as software on general-purpose infrastructure, and operators have both the scale and the engineering capability to justify running their own platform.

What Is the Operational Reality?

Running OpenStack requires genuine engineering capability: Linux, networking, storage, virtualisation and the platform itself. Upgrades are demanding, troubleshooting spans several interacting services, and the skills required are scarcer than public cloud skills.

This is the factor most consistently underestimated. The software is free; the team required to operate it reliably is not, and organisations that adopt it without that capability tend to end up with an unreliable platform nobody fully understands.

Many adopters therefore use a vendor-supported distribution rather than deploying the upstream projects directly, trading some cost for supportability.

How Does It Compare to Public Cloud?

OpenStack provides control and potentially lower cost at steady scale, at the price of operational responsibility. Public cloud provides managed services, elasticity and a far larger feature catalogue, at the price of ongoing spend and provider dependency.

Can It Be Used Alongside Public Cloud?

Yes, and that hybrid arrangement is common. Regulated or steady workloads run on the private platform while variable demand and specialised managed services come from public cloud, connected so both can be managed with consistent tooling.

The considerations mirror those in our hybrid cloud guide, particularly around identity consistency and network connectivity between environments.

What Skills Does Working With It Require?

Strong Linux administration, networking including virtual networking concepts, storage fundamentals, virtualisation, automation with configuration management tools, and troubleshooting across interacting distributed services.

Linux depth is non-negotiable, which is why OpenStack roles frequently recruit from experienced system administrators rather than from cloud-native backgrounds. Understanding what the platform is doing underneath is what makes debugging possible.

That foundation is exactly what RHCSA training establishes.

Is OpenStack Still Relevant?

It remains relevant in sectors where data control, sovereignty or scale economics genuinely favour private infrastructure, particularly telecommunications, research and government. For most general enterprise workloads, public cloud has become the default.

The honest framing is that it occupies a specific niche rather than competing broadly with public cloud. Where the requirements match, it is a strong answer; where they do not, it imposes cost without corresponding benefit.

How Do Organisations Actually Deploy It?

Most use a vendor-supported distribution rather than assembling upstream projects directly, deploy through automation tooling rather than manual installation, start with a limited service set, and expand once operations are stable.

• Supported distribution - trades cost for tested upgrade paths and support
• Automated deployment - manual installation does not scale or reproduce reliably
• Start narrow - compute, networking and storage before optional services
• Plan upgrades early - version upgrades are the hardest recurring operational task
• Invest in monitoring - failures span several interacting services

Upgrade planning deserves particular attention. Deployments that fall several versions behind become progressively harder to move forward, and organisations sometimes find rebuilding easier than upgrading, which is an expensive discovery.

The narrow start also helps recruitment and training. A small, well-understood platform that the team can operate confidently is more valuable than a broad one nobody fully understands.

Talk to a WebAsha training advisor about batches, syllabus and current fees.

Related reading

• What Is Firewall as a Service (FWaaS)?
• What Is a Hybrid Cloud in Cloud Computing?
• What Is Amazon Web Services (AWS)?