OpenStack is a modular, open-source cloud computing platform designed to deliver Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions that control pools of compute, storage, and networking resources across physical infrastructure. It’s widely deployed by enterprises, service providers, and research institutions to build public, private, and hybrid clouds.
At its core, OpenStack orchestrates and manages existing hardware and software resources using a collection of loosely coupled services that communicate via RESTful APIs or command-line interfaces. Administrators and users can operate it through a graphical dashboard, APIs, or CLI tools written in languages like Python, Go, Ruby, and Java.
Key architectural goals of OpenStack include:
- Scalability: Support for large clusters of heterogeneous infrastructure.
- Extensibility: Modular design with pluggable services.
- API-centric management: Unified REST interfaces for all functionality.
- Open ecosystem: Developed by a global community under the OpenInfra Foundation.
Fundamental Concepts
Before we list services, let’s understand some core technical principles:
Modular Architecture
OpenStack decouples functionality into discrete services (projects), each responsible for a specific domain such as compute, storage, networking, identity, or orchestration. These services can be deployed independently and scaled horizontally.
Control Plane vs Data Plane
- Control plane services handle management, scheduling, authentication, and orchestration.
- Data plane services directly manage resources like network packets, storage blocks, or VM instances.
API-First Design
Every component exposes REST APIs, enabling automation, integration, and programmability. Users interact with the cloud via:
- Web UI (Dashboard/Horizon)
- CLI tools
- SDKs and REST calls.
OpenStack Core Services
Below is a categorized list of OpenStack services (projects). Note: some services are core to most deployments while others are optional add-ons with specialized capabilities.
🧠 Identity & Common Services
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Keystone | Identity, authentication and service catalog — centralizes user and project access control. |
| Placement | Tracks resource provider inventories and allocates resources to workloads. |
| Barbican | Key management and secret storage API for encryption keys, certificates, and secure data. |
| Glance | Image registry: stores and retrieves VM and container images. |
| Horizon | Web-based dashboard UI for managing services graphically. |
🖥️ Compute & Workload Services
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Nova | Compute service that manages VM lifecycle (creation, scheduling, deletion). |
| Zun | Container management service (runs containers within OpenStack). |
| Qinling | Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) / serverless workloads. |
| Ironic | Bare-metal provisioning, deploying physical machines. |
🌐 Networking
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Neutron | Provides software-defined networking (SDN) with flexible network abstractions (networks, subnets, routers). |
| Octavia | Load balancing as a service. |
| Designate | DNS-as-a-Service. |
💾 Storage Services
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Swift | Distributed object storage for large, unstructured data. |
| Cinder | Block storage for attaching persistent volumes to compute instances. |
| Manila | Shared filesystem service. |
🛠️ Orchestration & Automation
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Heat | Orchestrates cloud applications using templates (similar to AWS CloudFormation). |
| Senlin | Cluster / auto-scaling management. |
| Mistral | Workflow service for automating operational flows. |
| Zaqar | Messaging as a service for application communication. |
| Blazar | Resource reservation service. |
| Aodh | Alarming service (telemetry-triggered events). |
📊 Workload Provisioning & PaaS
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Magnum | Provision container orchestration engines (Kubernetes, Swarm). |
| Sahara | Provision big data processing frameworks (e.g., Hadoop). |
| Trove | Database-as-a-Service (managed DB instances). |
📈 Auxiliary and Analytics Services
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Masakari | High availability and instance failover. |
| Murano | Application catalog with dashboard integration. |
| Solum | Application development lifecycle automation. |
| Freezer | Backup and disaster recovery service. |
| Cloudkitty | Rating and billing service. |
| Searchlight | Indexing & search service for cloud metadata. |
| Cyborg | Lifecycle management of accelerators (GPUs, FPGAs). |
How These Services Work Together
In a typical OpenStack deployment:
- Users authenticate via Keystone.
- Nova provisions compute instances; Neutron sets up networks; Cinder or Swift provides storage.
- Glance supplies the image used to boot instances.
- Horizon lets users manage all components via a GUI.
- Placement, telemetry, and orchestration add intelligence, reporting, and automated workflows.
This modular separation allows operators to scale each service independently and mix optional components based on business needs.
OpenStack provides a highly modular and extensible cloud platform that lets organizations build robust IaaS clouds with industry-standard management APIs. Its ecosystem spans compute, networking, storage, orchestration, analytics, and provisioning services — enabling a full range of cloud workloads.
Open Source Cloud Computing Infrastructure – OpenStack
Releases
Recent Releases (2020–Present)
| Release | Codename | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2025.2 | Flamingo | 2025 |
| 2025.1 | Epoxy | 2025 |
| 2024.2 | Dalmatian | 2024 |
| 2024.1 | Caracal | 2024 |
| 2023.2 | Bobcat | 2023 |
| 2023.1 | Antelope | 2023 |
| 2022.2 | Zed | 2022 |
| 2022.1 | Yoga | 2022 |
| 2021.2 | Xena | 2021 |
| 2021.1 | Wallaby | 2021 |
| 2020.2 | Victoria | 2020 |
| 2020.1 | Ussuri | 2020 |