OpenStack, an open-source cloud operating system, is getting popular day by day. OpenStack controls large pools of computing, storage, and networking resources throughout a data center. It provides a very simple and easy-to-use web interface for administrators to manage resources, manage users and assign resources to users. Its popularity can be measured through the famous companies who are using it such as BMW, GoDaddy, Wells-Fargo, Time-Warner Cable, PayPal, and many more.

How to use OpenStack?

OpenStack can be used by administrators on hypervisors in a virtual machine environment. The most popular hypervisors with OpenStack are KVM and XenServer. In addition to different hypervisors, OpenStack also supports ARM and alternative hardware architectures. OpenStack can be used as a service provider offering an IaaS platform or services. Another possible use is by the IT department acting as cloud service providers for business units and project teams. Big data processing with tools like Hadoop can be done using OpenStack as well as scaling compute up and down to meet the demand for web resources and applications.

Feature Benefits

Some of the benefits of OpenStack are given below:

• Manage virtualized commodity server resources
• Manage Local Area Networks (LAN)
• API with rate limiting and authentication
• Distributed and asynchronous architecture
• Virtual Machine (VM) image management
• Live VM management
• Floating IP addresses
• Security Groups
• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
• Projects & Quotas
• VNC Proxy through a web browser
• Store and Manage files programmatically via API
• Least privileged access design
• Dashboard with fully integrated support for self-service provisioning
• VM Image Caching on compute nodes