OpenStack

What OpenStack does

OpenStack is an open-source cloud computing infrastructure platform, launched in 2010 and governed by the Open Infrastructure Foundation (OpenInfra Foundation), a Delaware 501(c)(6) non-profit corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas. The platform provides infrastructure-as-a-service functionality through a modular architecture of core services — Compute (Nova), Object Storage (Swift), Image Service (Glance), Networking (Neutron), Dashboard (Horizon), Orchestration (Heat), Identity (Keystone), Metering (Ceilometer), and Block Storage (Cinder) — that together control large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources via standardized APIs or a web dashboard. Additional components provide orchestration, fault management, and service management for high availability. The platform supports virtual machines, bare metal, and containers, and is deployed across on-premises, public cloud, and edge environments, with notable production deployments at Walmart (170,000+ cores across 30+ regions), China Mobile (50,000+ servers for NFV), and Blizzard Entertainment.

The project does not generate direct software revenue; it is released under the Apache 2.0 license. The OpenInfra Foundation sustains operations through Platinum, Gold, and Individual membership fees, event sponsorships (OpenInfra Summit, Project Teams Gathering, OpenDev, OpenStack & OpenInfra Days), and donations. Distribution and commercialization occur through the OpenStack Marketplace across public clouds, hosted private clouds, remotely managed private clouds, distros/appliances, consulting/integrators, training, and drivers, served by an ecosystem of 200+ companies including Canonical, Red Hat, Mirantis, VMware, Intel, AMD, ARM, Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung. The latest release, OpenStack 2026.1 "Gazpacho" (April 2026, the 33rd release), was developed by approximately 500 contributors from 100 organizations delivering 9,000 code changes over six months and introduces parallel live migrations for VMware migration, vTPM migration support, enhanced OVN BGP routing, renewed Cyborg AI accelerator management investment, and the SLURP (Skip Level Upgrade Release Process) enabling annual rather than semi-annual upgrades.

Name

OpenStack

Legal name

The OpenStack Foundation, d/b/a Open Infrastructure Foundation

Website

https://openstack.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

OpenStack is an open-source cloud infrastructure platform (launched 2010) governed by the OpenInfra Foundation, providing modular IaaS services for compute, storage, and networking across on-premises, public cloud, and edge environments. It serves telcos, retailers, HPC, and enterprises — including Walmart, China Mobile, and Blizzard — via a 200+ company partner ecosystem.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Cloud Infrastructure

NAICS

Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Infrastructure Automation & Configuration Management (IaC) (HDABABAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Hyperscale & OCP Server Designs (HDABADAB), Intent-Based Networking & Automation (NetOps) (HDABAFAF), Private Cloud Networking & SDN/NFV Management (HDABABAK)

Keywords

• Open source cloud infrastructure
• Infrastructure as a service
• Private cloud platform
• Cloud orchestration software
• Virtualization management

Headquarters

HQ city

Austin

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Open Source Software: OpenStack is open source software released under the Apache 2.0 license. The project itself does not generate direct revenue. The OpenInfra Foundation supports the project through membership fees, event sponsorships, and donations from the ecosystem.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels8 records

Marketing channels12 records

Core offering

OpenStack is a set of open-source software components that provide common services for cloud infrastructure, controlling large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources managed through APIs or a dashboard. Beyond standard infrastructure-as-a-service functionality, additional components provide orchestration, fault management, and service management for high availability of user applications across on-premises, public cloud, and edge environments.

Product overview

OpenStack is a set of open-source software components providing cloud infrastructure-as-a-service functionality. The platform operates as a modular architecture with core services including Compute (Nova), Object Storage (Swift), Image Service (Glance), Networking (Neutron), Dashboard (Horizon), Orchestration (Heat), Identity (Keystone), Metering (Ceilometer), and Block Storage (Cinder). These components work together to control large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources managed through APIs or a dashboard. Beyond standard IaaS functionality, additional components provide orchestration, fault management, and service management to ensure high availability. The platform supports deployment in on-premises, public cloud, and edge environments.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• OpenStack Compute (Nova) Manages compute resources in the cloud, handling the creation, scheduling, and lifecycle management of virtual machine instances for organizations building private or public cloud infrastructure.
• OpenStack Object Storage (Swift) Provides scalable object storage for unstructured data, enabling users to store and retrieve large amounts of data via RESTful API for cloud-native applications.
• OpenStack Block Storage (Cinder) Provides persistent block storage for compute instances, enabling storage volumes that can be attached to virtual machines in OpenStack cloud environments.
• OpenStack Networking (Neutron) Provides network connectivity and addressing for virtual machines, offering flexible networking models including enhanced OVN BGP routing for different applications and workloads.
• OpenStack Image Service (Glance) Manages disk images for virtual machines, allowing discovery, registration, and delivery of virtual machine images across OpenStack deployments.
• OpenStack Dashboard (Horizon) Web-based graphical interface for managing OpenStack resources including compute, storage, and networking services across cloud deployments.
• OpenStack Orchestration (Heat)

Quantifiable outcome

• 40 Million+ cores managed globally
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability1 record

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• VEXXHOSTcoreTechnology or IntegrationVEXXHOST is listed as the provider powering openstack.org and is recognized as a key infrastructure partner for the OpenStack project.
• OKESTROcoreTechnology or IntegrationOKESTRO provides a comprehensive solution that seamlessly integrates all aspects of business operations. Listed as OpenInfra Foundation Member Spotlight, demonstrating deep integration and support for OpenStack.
• AtlancisminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorFeatured in the Marketplace Spotlight. Atlancis OpenStack Cloud for CSPs guarantees local sovereignty of data, reduces cost of acquisition and ownership, provides hyper-scalability and flexibility, and ensures users have access to local support.
• OpenMetalminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorOpenMetal provides hosted private cloud solutions built on OpenStack, promoting true cloud native architecture with standardized APIs, dedicated hardware, and vendor independence.
• Ecosystem Members (200+ companies)coreTechnology or IntegrationOver 200 companies participate in the OpenStack ecosystem, including major technology vendors, cloud providers, telecommunications companies, and system integrators. Members include Canonical, Red Hat, Mirantis, VMware, Intel, AMD, ARM, Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, and many others.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Mirantis: Mirantis is the leading pure-play commercial OpenStack distribution and managed services provider. It is the most direct peer as it specializes exclusively in OpenStack and related open infrastructure technologies, serving enterprises that need commercial support for the platform.
• Red Hat OpenStack Platform: Red Hat OpenStack Platform is a major commercial OpenStack distribution integrated with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Red Hat is also a Platinum member of the OpenInfra Foundation ecosystem, making it a core commercial peer for OpenStack-based private cloud deployments.
• Canonical Charmed OpenStack: Canonical provides Charmed OpenStack, an Ubuntu-based OpenStack distribution with Juju orchestration. It is a direct commercial peer offering an alternative enterprise-grade OpenStack deployment path, particularly strong in telco and government segments.
• SUSE: SUSE has historically offered SUSE Cloud built on OpenStack and remains part of the OpenStack ecosystem. While SUSE has shifted strategic focus to Kubernetes, it is a direct peer in the open source enterprise infrastructure space where OpenStack competes for workloads.
• Apache CloudStack: Apache CloudStack is the closest open source alternative to OpenStack for building IaaS clouds. While smaller in footprint, it competes directly for the same private cloud and service provider use cases, often at lower operational complexity.

Broad incumbents

• VMware (Broadcom): VMware is the incumbent private cloud platform that OpenStack directly competes against, particularly in enterprise virtualization. Broadcom's acquisition and pricing changes have made VMware a target for migration to OpenStack, defining the competitive dynamic between the two platforms.
• Nutanix: Nutanix is a hyperconverged infrastructure provider competing for the same enterprise private cloud workloads as OpenStack. It is a broader incumbent offering an integrated hardware/software stack as an alternative to do-it-yourself OpenStack deployments.
• Microsoft Azure Stack: Azure Stack and Azure Local are Microsoft's on-premises extensions of Azure, competing directly with OpenStack for enterprises wanting hybrid cloud with hyperscaler consistency. It represents a broad incumbent alternative backed by significant R&D investment.

Emerging players

• Platform9: Platform9 offers managed private cloud solutions including OpenStack-as-a-Service. It targets enterprises that want OpenStack without operational complexity, positioning as an emerging player with a managed-service approach that competes for the same workload as self-managed OpenStack deployments.

Regional players

• ZStack: ZStack is a China-based open source IaaS platform modeled on OpenStack with strong regional presence in Asia-Pacific markets. It offers comparable functionality for building private and hybrid clouds, particularly relevant in markets where data sovereignty and local support are prioritized.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/OpenStack
• Facebookfacebook.com/openstack
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/openstack

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about OpenStack