The OpenStack initiative arose from two manufacturers combining their products – Rackspace object repository and NASA hypervisor management system. The first OpenStack was released in October 2010. OpenStack is very similar to the Amazon service. Many services and processes in these platforms are the same and compatible with each other.
OpenStack consists of several modules that interact via directory services. Today the platform includes the following instruments:
Such features as provision of physical hardware on request are planned in the near future. OpenStack has a great potential, but today it is hard to consider it a finished product. Functional solutions are very often being transformed and complemented. You can download OpenStack absolutely free of charge. However, in order one could get a finished product that one could use for their own purposes a lot more needs to be done. Statistics on product development is as follows:
As you can see, many of the world’s leading companies are engaged in the development of this product.
There are no means in OpenStack to ensure high availability, and there are no specific plans for its implementation. There is no backup system for the VM. If the virtualization server fails the virtual machines will be lost, too.
Despite all above-mentioned features and shortcomings, OpenStack platform may still be used for different tasks. One of the options is to organize your own services that will work in the cloud. If there is a need for regular testing or a cloud platform for the development of new applications it makes sense to pay attention to OpenStack. Alternatively, you can use only some separate OpenStack modules. For example, you can use the work of several programmers to write and implement a sort of corporate Dropbox based on Swift.