Rackspace-White-Paper-OpenStack

1. White Paper
Gain Control and
Freedom with
Open-Source
Private Cloud
How OpenStack became the enterprise-
ready cloud platform of the future.

2. Introducing an open-
source platform for
leveraging modern cloud
technology
The Broadcom acquisition of VMware®
in 2023 has brought organizations
around the world to a crucial decision point. As they consider the next steps
in their VMware journey, many are turning to an open-source platform to
leverage modern cloud technology and help keep costs down while future
proofing their environment — OpenStack. According to experts, VMware
migrations and public cloud repatriations are set to quadruple OpenStack
deployments by 2029.
This white paper explores the advantages of OpenStack as an effective
and secure alternative to VMware — and as today’s leading private cloud
solution. Insights include a description of how the platform, created by
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Rackspace
Technology®
, offers organizations the opportunity to increase control and
freedom in a vendor-agnostic, flexible and scalable environment. The white
paper also explores the unique benefits of partnering with the solution’s
original co-developer, providing insight on maximizing its potential in
today’s organizations.
1. “Cloud repatriation, VMware drive OpenStack resurgence as 30th release lands,” The Stack,
October 3, 2024. www.thestack.technology/new-openstack-release-2024-2-dalmation.
Gain Control and Freedom with Open-Source Private Cloud 2

3. The path to a
future-ready cloud
Thousands of organizations are reviewing their private cloud strategy in
the wake of the Broadcom acquisition of VMware. Concerns about rising
costs, unbundling and divestiture of dependable products, and the potential
erosion of VMware expertise have left them wondering which direction
to turn next. An increasingly common answer is migrating to OpenStack.
In fact, the OpenInfra Foundation expects OpenStack deployments to
quadruple by 2029.
Ideally, organizations should adopt a technology stack that is ready for the
future. This can help ensure that they are at the forefront of cloud technology
today and remain there. The good news is that OpenStack is an ideal
alternative to VMware for many organizations.
OpenStack is a modern private cloud solution that provides the capability,
scalability and reliability of enterprise-grade cloud with no licensing
fees. It can support new technologies, such as AI, machine learning
and high-performance computing. Further, this open-source option is
helping organizations pursue innovation at speed and at scale, all while
mitigating risk.
Whether an organization chooses to stay with VMware or seek an alternative,
the solution they select must support their business objectives. Ideally,
it will lower total cost of ownership, offer flexibility to scale IT resources
in alignment with the business’s needs, and accelerate its transformation
initiatives so the organization can rapidly deploy new services and
applications — all while helping it adhere to stringent industry standards
and security for its critical business data.
In fact, the challenge posed by the Broadcom-VMware changes can be viewed
as an opportunity. Today, businesses have the ability to gain complete
control and freedom with a vendor-agnostic, flexible, scalable open-source
private cloud solution.
2. “2020 Open Infrastructure Foundation Annual Report,” OpenInfra Foundation, 2020.
3. Ibid.
4. Dana Cazacu et al., “Building the Open Infrastructure Blueprint: How Linux, OpenStack, and
Kubernetes Combine to Deliver an Open-Source Powered Infrastructure Stack,” OpenInfra
Foundation, accessed October 3, 2024.
What is OpenStack?
OpenStack is an end-to-end, open-source cloud computing platform that
was created by Rackspace and NASA in 2010. Over the years, the software
has matured into a modern solution for a hybrid cloud approach with
capabilities that match or exceed those of VMware. Its capabilities include
mobility, containerization, network topology, block storage, shared storage,
API capabilities and data sovereignty. The latest OpenStack 20242
release
delivers support for AI workloads, with enhanced security and improved
user experience.
As one of the world’s three most active open-source projects,3
OpenStack
is an effective and secure alternative to VMware. The Open Infrastructure
Foundation considers OpenStack to be the de facto standard for open-source
cloud infrastructure.4
Some of the world’s largest organizations rely on
OpenStack, including Walmart, Workday, T-Mobile, Rakuten, Banco Santander,
Bloomberg and Adobe®
.
The open-source nature of OpenStack means that it comes with no licensing
fees and avoids vendor lock-in, while delivering a public-cloud-like experience
for enterprise IT departments. A vibrant global community of developers
and organizations share knowledge and create widely adopted REST APIs.
Organizations can both choose their infrastructure vendor and contribute to
the platform by writing their own features.
The OpenStack world is mature and growing
• 45M cores of compute in production in 2024, expected to quadruple
to 180M cores by 2029
• 500 leading enterprise organizations, including Red Hat, Mirantis,
Blizzard Entertainment, NVIDIA and Rackspace, are actively
contributing to OpenStack
• 166% increase in compute cores in production from 2020 to 2022
• 85% of OpenStack deployments use Kubernetes®
• 80% of OpenStack users operate in a hybrid cloud environment
5. OpenStack 2022 User Survey Report; OpenStack Dalmatian 2024.2 latest release report.
Gain Control and Freedom with Open-Source Private Cloud 3

4. The private cloud
of the future
For organizations seeking a future-proof cloud computing solution, tested
and proven OpenStack is a natural fit. OpenStack delivers a wide range of
unique capabilities and benefits, including:
Versatility: OpenStack is successful in a range of industries and niches,
allowing organizations of all types to customize their cloud infrastructure to
meet their business needs, whether they prioritize compliance and security,
scalability, multi-tenancy, data sovereignty or other functionality.
Flexibility: The flexible and highly customizable structure of OpenStack
allows engineering and operations teams to choose which modules to deploy.
OpenStack can also meet data sovereignty and compliance requirements in
locations worldwide.
Scalability: OpenStack can scale up and down as needed, with architecture
so flexible it can grow from a single node to tens of thousands of nodes.
Its inherent ability to run accelerated workloads natively means that it can
run resource-intensive systems and machinery intelligently and seamlessly,
including at data-center scale with thousands of machines.
User friendliness: The API-centric design of OpenStack provides a public
cloud-like user experience, offering more control over an environment and
enabling seamless integration with DevOps tools that increase efficiency.
Enterprise readiness: OpenStack integrates with organizations’ current
applications and infrastructure without requiring refactoring, allowing them
to maintain legacy workloads while modernizing others at their own pace.
In addition, it delivers critical capabilities needed in today’s enterprises,
including robustness, fault tolerance, business continuity and observability.
Vendor-agnostic model: As an upstream open-source project, OpenStack
allows organizations to escape vendor lock-in. The flexibility to switch
among service providers helps ensure that companies can access the best
service affordably.
Affordability: OpenStack does not require licensing fees due to its open-
source nature, keeping it affordable and financially sustainable for
organizations of all sizes.
Community support: OpenStack has a large and active global community of
developers and users, which means that continuous improvements, updates
and support are readily available. What’s more, Rackspace helps ensure
continual updates of the latest code releases.
Streamlining: The OpenStack community has created deployment
ecosystems to reduce internal system complexity, such as OpenStack-Chef
and TripleO. Additionally, vendors like Rackspace and Dell Technologies®
can modify the environment in targeted ways to customize and simplify the
user experience.
Manageability: OpenStack offers structured, fast and seamless upgrades
that are rolled out once a year. Further, dashboards are readily available for
conveniently managing OpenStack environments.
Future-proof experience: OpenStack positions organizations at the
forefront of cloud technology and stability. No single corporate entity owns
this solution, which means that organizations can have confidence in the
sustainability of their OpenStack environment.
Gain Control and Freedom with Open-Source Private Cloud 4

5. Why work with the original
OpenStack expert?
The simple answer is that Rackspace has been there since the beginning. As
a co-developer of OpenStack with NASA, Rackspace has the depth of solution
knowledge and breadth of applied industry experience that no other solution
provider offers. Rackspace has been supporting the platform since its
inception. We have more experience than any other company in automating
at scale and building out robust and unique platforms and systems.
Our leading OpenStack solution is Rackspace OpenStack Private Cloud.
This solution simplifies cloud adoption by delivering a fully managed
OpenStack private cloud with integrated software and hardware to data
centers around the world. It enables IT organizations to stop managing their
own infrastructure, lower costs, rapidly respond to demand in different
geographies, and help solve data sovereignty and compliance requirements.
To optimize OpenStack deployment, Rackspace has partnered with industry-
leading hardware developer Dell Technologies to help ensure that our
Rackspace OpenStack Private Cloud solutions are architected, secured and
operated by certified experts who bring together the best technologies,
automation and human expertise. Dell’s cutting-edge hardware, integrated
with OpenStack services managed by Rackspace, helps ensure a secure,
high-performance cloud environment tailored to each organization’s exact
business needs.
With Rackspace OpenStack Private Cloud, Rackspace curates OpenStack
for each organization, picking and choosing the most production-ready
projects and advising them on what to consume. We then help customize
the environment to eliminate complexity — meaning that the organization
doesn’t need extensive OpenStack experience to succeed. Or if the
organization is interested in a more hands-on approach, Rackspace advisors
have deep expertise in OpenStack and can train teams to explore the edges
of the OpenStack ecosystem.
For those who want to manage their own private cloud, Rackspace offers
a proven build-operate-transfer model. We start by working with the
organization to design and build a scalable, production-ready private cloud.
Then, for an agreed-upon period, we provide 24x7x365 cloud operations
and industry-leading service-level agreements (SLAs). Finally, we transfer
cloud operations to the customer after providing extensive on-site,
personal training.
Rackspace and OpenStack by the numbers
• Billions of hours of
OpenStack served
• Hundreds of deployments and
upgrades each year
• 350K+ nodes under management
• 150 certified OpenStack
administrators
• 50+ certified Kubernetes®
administrators
• 8-year average
customer relationship
• 140+ private clouds in operation
Rackspace offers multiple operational models, including:
• Rackspace OpenStack Enterprise: Single-tenant option that’s fully
customizable with managed Kubernetes and disaster recovery.
• Rackspace OpenStack Business: Single-tenant option that is an entry-level
OpenStack with a cloud-hosted control plane.
• Rackspace OpenStack Flex: Multi-tenant option fully managed by
Rackspace that offers burstable, on-demand infrastructure to allow for
scaling up or down.
• Rackspace OpenStack Anywhere: Single-tenant option that’s available in
an organization’s data center or in third-party facilities, and that allows for
management of the most sensitive data.
All these options offer a true multicloud-like experience and support,
wherever the organization operates its cloud.
• Up to 35% cost savings versus
DIY or staff/contract workers
• 99.99% OpenStack API
uptime guarantee
• 100% network uptime in
Rackspace global data centers
• 100% availability for critical
infrastructure systems in
Rackspace data centers
• 15 minute live response time to
emergency tickets
• 1 hour replacement of any
failed hardware component in
Rackspace data centers
Gain Control and Freedom with Open-Source Private Cloud 5

6. Realize the benefits of the
OpenStack modern private
cloud
The OpenStack open-source cloud computing platform offers significant
potential for organizations seeking a modern, future-ready alternative
to VMware. Working with Rackspace can help organizations realize their
full potential with a rich array of benefits — from cost management to
innovation at speed.
Strategic cost management: Migrating to OpenStack with Rackspace can
dramatically lower the total cost of ownership, resulting in up to 84% savings
over vendors that charge per seat, core or socket. A cost savings of this
magnitude frees up valuable resources for strategic investments in areas of
key innovation and growth. Many vendors license cloud solutions on a per-
socket basis, while Rackspace only charges support fees for its fully managed
OpenStack service. Rackspace does not differentiate on price based on core
or socket counts, and our flexible commercial options bring cost savings to
customers of any size.
Assistance in scaling: Rackspace has been running an OpenStack public
cloud since 2012, which is now operating in seven data centers worldwide.
This supports nearly unlimited growth of OpenStack and enables Rackspace
to offer massive scalability. Rackspace manages the architecture in a robust
way that enables organizations to grow from a small cloud to a large cloud
without large-scale redeployments or migrations. All growth can happen
within the OpenStack ecosystem, making business growth easy and painless.
In one example, Rackspace helped an organization expand from a 30-
node cloud to well over 1,100 nodes, while maintaining the zero-downtime
approach that was necessary for the company’s production application.
Easy access to OpenStack engineers: One of the biggest challenges faced
by cloud computing consumers is finding experienced talent to help manage
their platform. Rackspace solves the dilemma with Rackspace Elastic
Engineering. This service provides a pool of experts led by an elite architect
and an engagement manager to help manage and improve OpenStack
deployment. Using an hourly consumption format that delivers on-demand
access to highly skilled engineers, Rackspace Elastic Engineering is our way of
offering expertise as a service. Rackspace engineers have niche skills gained
via extensive exposure to a wide range of permutations and configurations.
Risk mitigation and compliance: The comprehensive security and compliance
services provided by Rackspace help ensure that organizations can adhere
to stringent industry standards. Rackspace leverages its years of operational
experience to advise organizations on their security posture and strategy,
so they are better prepared to uphold national and regional regulations.
Rackspace can also assist with the operational management requirements
of an organization’s security posture, such as staffing an on-site OpenStack
expert pod with Rackspace Elastic Engineering support to help companies in
data-sensitive industries maintain high levels of security.
Innovation at speed: Leveraging OpenStack solutions empowers companies
to accelerate transformation initiatives, enabling rapid deployment of new
services and applications that drive business differentiation and value.
OpenStack helps ensure that an enterprise can remain competitive in a
dynamic market environment.
Gain Control and Freedom with Open-Source Private Cloud 6

7. Case study:
Rackspace operates a customer’s
OpenStack estate
A global web service provider with 280,000 physical nodes of OpenStack
private clouds turned to Rackspace to take over its OpenStack estate
while its team turned its attention to building out a public cloud strategy.
Rackspace offered a dedicated pod approach staffed by more than 20
Rackspace engineers working on the customer’s laptops inside its systems.
This approach was designed to create a seamless experience for application
owners. The Rackspace team is now operating the customer’s OpenStack
workloads independently.
Case study:
Rackspace helps modernize a customer’s
OpenStack environment — with
zero downtime
A scientific organization, that has been an OpenStack customer with
Rackspace for over a decade, needed to modernize its OpenStack
environment to enhance the resiliency, reliability and functionality of its
private cloud. The organization used Rackspace Elastic Engineering to
support a minimum viable product (MVP) upgrade that moved the system
forward through several OpenStack versions — in less than a year with zero
downtime. Rackspace engineers also helped convert the organization’s
networking topology to single-bond LACP, cutting the number of switch ports
needed in half, which allowed for higher rack density and significant savings
on data center costs.
Gain Control and Freedom with Open-Source Private Cloud 7

8. Enterprise-class Dell
hardware and support
The Rackspace OpenStack solution is built on hardware from Dell, the
preferred vendor for enterprise-class hardware. Rackspace has always
collaborated closely with Dell, with the two partners working together to
validate Dell’s infrastructure solutions with multiple OpenStack reference
architectures. The partnership offers a seamless integration of cloud
environments, ensuring that each OpenStack deployment is fully supported —
from initial architecture through ongoing management — allowing businesses
to focus on achieving their outcomes. Dell’s OpenStack offerings include:
OpenStack Block Storage (Cinder) solutions: Dell offers OpenStack block
storage solutions through Cinder, the OpenStack Block Storage service.
Dell provides Cinder drivers for its storage arrays, including PowerFlex,
PowerStore and PowerMax, which integrate with OpenStack to support
efficient storage management. These drivers enable enterprise features,
like thin provisioning, snapshots and replication, making it easier
for organizations to handle storage needs dynamically and allocate
resources effectively.
Dell’s container storage integrations: Dell’s container storage integrations,
including the Dell Container Storage Interface (CSI) drivers and Kubernetes
native services (Container Storage Modules), add persistent storage
capabilities for Kubernetes environments within OpenStack, along with
features like observability, node resiliency, data replication and data
encryption. With these integrations, OpenStack users can ensure that their
containerized workloads in Kubernetes have access to storage that grows
with demand, helping them manage dynamic applications efficiently within a
hybrid cloud environment.
Dell’s automation ecosystem integrations: Dell enhances automation in
OpenStack environments through integrations with Ansible and Terraform.
Dell’s Ansible modules support automated provisioning, configuration
and management of Dell server storage and network infrastructure
solutions, reducing the need for manual setup. This allows administrators
to quickly deploy and scale OpenStack resources, making day-to-day
operations simpler. Additionally, Dell’s Terraform providers enable
infrastructure as code (IaC) practices, so users can create, track and
repeat infrastructure configurations as needed. This integration with IaC
principles supports consistent deployments, faster recovery and efficient
infrastructure managements.
Dell infrastructure for AI: Dell is leading artificial intelligence (AI)
infrastructure deployment with deep ecosystem integrations for solutions
like the Dell AI Factory (an extensive range of solutions with NVIDIA and
others) and Dell Enterprise Hub (for validated open-source models).
Organizations that adopt OpenStack can make infrastructure choices that
extend their investments to a wide range of generative AI use cases.
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9. About Rackspace Technology
Rackspace Technology is a hybrid, multicloud solutions expert. We
combine our expertise with the world’s leading technologies — across
AI, applications, data and security — to deliver end-to-end solutions.
We have a proven record of advising customers based on their business
challenges, designing solutions that scale, building and managing those
solutions, and optimizing returns into the future.
As a global hybrid, multicloud technology services pioneer, we deliver
innovative capabilities to help customers build new revenue streams,
increase efficiency and create incredible experiences. Named a
best place to work, year after year according to Fortune, Forbes and
Glassdoor, we attract and develop world-class talent to deliver the best
expertise to our customers. Everything we do is wrapped in Fanatical
Experience®
— our obsession with customer success that drives us to
help each customer work faster, smarter and stay ahead of what’s next.
© 2025 Rackspace US, Inc. :: Rackspace®
, Fanatical Support®
, Fanatical Experience®
and other Rackspace marks are either service marks or registered service
marks of Rackspace US, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, service marks, images, products and brands remain the sole
property of their respective holders and do not imply endorsement or sponsorship.
Rackspace Technology cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.
Rackspace-White-Paper-OpenStack-PRI-TSK-11768 :: January 6, 2025
Unlock the full potential
of your cloud strategy
Turning challenges into opportunities is what the best technologies have
always aimed to achieve. As you contemplate how to move forward in
response to today’s market changes, you have a unique opportunity to
embrace a choice that will enable your organization to manage and automate
your cloud infrastructure with more control and freedom than has ever
before been possible.
Together, Rackspace and Dell deliver a robust, secure and scalable OpenStack
solution designed to unlock the full potential of your cloud strategy. The
platform of choice for open-source private cloud, OpenStack offers versatility
and enterprise readiness — so you can be equipped to future-proof your
stack, mitigate price change risks and innovate at speed.
Take the next step
Contact Rackspace Technology to schedule a Cloud-Aware Readiness
Assessment. We can help refine your cloud strategy and build a business
case for your workload portfolio.
Learn more at: rackspace.com/cloud/openstack/private
Gain Control and Freedom with Open-Source Private Cloud 9