OpenStack is an open source cloud computing platform that allows organizations to create public and private clouds to deploy applications and services. It provides infrastructure as a service (IaaS) capabilities such as compute, storage, and networking resources that can be accessed on-demand in a self-service model. While OpenStack provides benefits like agility, efficiency, and scalability, deploying it requires significant technical expertise and resources. Organizations should partner with experienced integrators like Red Hat for OpenStack deployment, support, training, and evolution to production workloads rather than attempting to implement it themselves without proper skills.