Rackspace OpenStack Reviews

Rackspace OpenStack is more suitable for enterprises that are looking for private cloud solutions and who are thinking of offloading some of their auxiliary workloads from the public cloud and saving money. Rackspace OpenStack can fit in that use case where enterprises are thinking of a hybrid model of the cloud. We are a product and solutions company that builds a private cloud infrastructure based on Rackspace OpenStack for our customers. We are not a system integrator. We provide the product and solutions on top of Rackspace OpenStack.

The first benefit of Rackspace OpenStack is that it can be a direct alternative to VMware for implementations. VMware is expensive, but Rackspace OpenStack can save companies money in comparison. Additionally, Rackspace OpenStack is scalable, making it a good choice for companies with growing needs. The Rackspace OpenStack community is large and has been around for 10-plus years. This maturity means that there are many companies that can provide support for enterprises switching to Rackspace OpenStack solutions. Additionally, Rackspace OpenStack is free, except for the cost of support. This makes it a more affordable option than VMware.

There are many services that can be directly used which are not available in VMware. These include data analytics solutions and services, services specific to big data, and Container as a Service. Therefore, there are many additional services which are available in Rackspace OpenStack. VMware probably does not have as many services as Rackspace OpenStack does.

There are always new improvements being made to different aspects of Rackspace OpenStack.

Another advantage of Rackspace OpenStack is its flexibility. we can run the cloud on our commodity servers, which brings in more flexibility and customization options. This includes being able to customize the architecture to our specific needs.

Rackspace OpenStack is constantly changing with new services and features being released every six months. This quick release cycle makes it difficult to keep up with all of the changes. 

VMware has a side-to-side replication feature, which is still more mature than Rackspace OpenStack's which can't be used in a production environment. By making this feature called Freezer more mature, enterprises may be more likely to adopt Rackspace OpenStack.

I have been using the solution for over eight years.

Rackspace OpenStack is becoming more mature with each cycle and is quite stable. We have had a few implementations without any issues in the last four or five years. Our implementation is also enterprise-grade, and we don't have a single point of failure.

Hyperconverged infrastructure is scalable, and Rackspace OpenStack can be deployed on it. This means that if a customer needs to scale, they can just add more hardware to the back of the system and it will be added to the cluster in a few hours.

Rackspace OpenStack's initial setup is complex, but it has a lower cost than VMware. I believe that if the setup was easier the cost of the solution would be higher. 

Deployment can take a long time if done manually, but with the help of tools like Ansible, the process can be automated. A more mature organization can take a few weeks to deploy the grid, but no more than that.

The first step in creating a cloud is capacity planning. This involves figuring out the amount of cloud capacity a customer needs. Once this is determined, the necessary hardware is procured. The hardware must have the specifications to meet the customer's capacity requirements. Once the customer agrees with the filing, we go ahead with the provisioning of the hardware. The hardware is provisioned, the next step is to stack the hardware inside the rack and plug it on. Then we start deploying the Rackspace OpenStack on their servers and building all the applications which are required to support, maintain, and monitor the complete cloud infrastructure. We then proceed with the testing of the entire stack. We deliver, ship the hardware to the customer's place and deploy it. 

The deployment requires a lot of people. We do refer the resources to other departments because it will be mostly on-site in the customer's location. We have to be there helping their IT team get set with the deployment and after that, we can complete the rest remotely.

I give the solution an eight out of ten.

Maintenance can be carried out with a really low number of resources. However, if somebody requests 24/7 monitoring or other similar services, we would need a bigger team. Generally, we don't require many resources. Two or three people can maintain a reasonably large cloud deployment.

We don't use any Rackspace OpenStack distribution such as Red Hat or Mirantis. We use the community version of Rackspace OpenStack, which has strong community support.

Anyone planning to invest in VMware or Nutanix, which are both at least ten times more expensive than Rackspace OpenStack, should start thinking about this Rackspace OpenStack alternative. A lot of organizations are already using Rackspace OpenStack, which is less popular than VMware and Nutanix, but it's definitely a viable option for anyone planning to set up a private cloud infrastructure.

OpenStack is a cloud provider with several vendors, which have all been used.

Apart from the main features, I really appreciate OpenStack's microservices architecture and its flexibility for deployment with different tools. Scaling up and down is easy, and the support for authentication, policies, encryption, and other features is commendable.       

OpenStack's UI, while user-friendly, could be improved to offer a more intuitive experience. Additionally, the storage solutions, aside from S3, seem to be limited or restricted in their options, and expanding these choices could be beneficial.

I have been working with OpenStack for around two years.

While issues do arise, we have become adept at resolving them due to our familiarity with the environment and our troubleshooting skills. I would rate the stability an eight out of ten. 

It is a scalable solution.

The community support and resources available for different open-source distributions have been quite helpful. While we managed to address many issues through community forums and articles, technical support has also provided valuable assistance when needed.

The initial setup of OpenStack can be challenging, especially for those not accustomed to it. However, the documentation provided by OpenStack is quite helpful. Despite some deployment issues, once users become familiar with it, the platform becomes more manageable. We've experimented with various flavors, including Red Hat OSB and Canonical. To streamline the process, we incorporated deployment automation and scripting. One notable challenge we faced was the extended deployment time, especially with Red Hat, which could take around 30-45 minutes. Despite the challenges, the platform offers scalable resources and infrastructure, making it suitable for creating private cloud environments.

Maintenance is similar to deployment, and it can be time-consuming without any additional procedures.

Our client had PostNL, so we couldn’t evaluate the existing options.

The documentation for various distributions is helpful, but I would recommend placing more emphasis on documenting permissions and scripting the deployment process. Consistency in deployment and maintenance procedures is important, and having automation in place would be a valuable addition. I would rate the overall solution an eight out of ten.

I primarily use it for personal use inside an enterprise. I use it to deploy a private cloud. 

The enterprise that I work with already uses OpenStack. They demanded I learn it and I was able to find classes online to get started. In general, OpenStack is more useful in the public, in the world, instead of other tools that are used to implement private clouds.

The initial setup isn't too difficult. 

It's scalable. 

The stability is excellent. 

You do not have to pay anything to use it. 

OpenStack is difficult for the novice in terms of beginning to use cloud tools. If you want to do some tasks, for example, if you want to create a domain in OpenStack, you must do that in command line. There isn't any GUI available, and new users might find the command line difficult to understand. OpenStack isn't so easy for people who don't practice. They need to simplify the product and make it more visual for beginners. 

I've used the solution for maybe a month so far. I took lessons on Youtube and Udemy. 

I've found the stability to be quite good. I'd rate it eight out of ten. I haven't dealt with bugs or glitches, and it doesn't crash or freeze. 

The scalability is okay. I would rate it six out of ten in terms of its ability to scale. It's easy to expand as needed.

The solution isn't too complicated to set up. If you follow some good training documentation, the deployment will be straightforward. It helps if you have a technical background, however. A novice might find it a bit hard. 

The solution is free to use. 

OpenStack is great for being able to create a stable private cloud. I'd rate it eight out of ten. 

Our primary use case for the OpenStack is for migrating data from the cloud to on-premises. We want to migrate some of the open source OpenStack components to customize our work with our applications. Our main use is video streaming on Openstack.

The most valuable feature is the customization. With the customization you can really give the customers what they want.

In terms of what needs to be improved, I would say the support.

You're asking for the Rackspace OpenStack and I'm working on the open source OpenStack. Rackspace might have some good support but the open source OpenStack doesn't have support because there are too many versions coming and too many people are customizing it. That's why the support is a problem for open source versions.

It needs to develop a very good user interface which can compete with the public cloud.

In the next release, I would like to see more of the load balancing technologies and applications from the public cloud which OpenStack doesn't have right now.

I have been using Rackspace OpenStack for three years. 

The OpenStack application version we use is Nexus Prime.

The stability is okay but there too many versions coming out. The line migration is a problem.

The scalability is good. The application is deployed in the OpenStack, so actually the user number is in lakhs, like with the application server.

I would rate the technical support a 6 or 7 out of ten.

In terms of the initial setup, currently we have multiple scripts. These scripts can deploy if you come back to feed them.

One a scale of one to ten, I would rate Rackspace OpenStack a seven.

OpenStack was needed to integrate an eCommerce site's pictures with Akamai cloud services.

It created a reusable library with OpenStack features. The documentation was plentiful and very helpful.

Image storage with Akamai. OpenStack allowed for mass uploading of images to Akamai cloud services. It also allowed for product administration with images.

It could use more examples in different languages (API use cases).

Networking (Networks, CDN) and Object Storage (CDN)

Pricing Overview.

We've tried features of this product in the last few months.

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In-house

We use OpenStack for my company for maybe 14 virtual machines. 

The principal use of Rackspace OpenStack was for virtual machines. It has a different architecture, which can be based on a single machine or a group of machines. The scope of the application varied, from GitHub to asset management and other uses. We worked on infrastructure as code, which was fascinating because it allowed us to use architecture-like software.

It was a very flexible and scalable solution. It was very useful because we were not dependent on a single vendor's solution. Increasing the number of machines or changing the hardware configuration was very easy.

The deployment process could be easy.

I have been using Rackspace OpenStack for five years.

The solution is stable.

The initial setup is complicated. There are many components, so you have to ensure that every part is running correctly. 

Our cluster has about eight nodes, and it took about a week. Two skilled engineers are required for the solution's deployment.

You were using the free version of OpenStack. You didn't have the license for it.

Overall, I rate the solution between eight and nine out of ten.