| Type | Title | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Converged Infrastructure | Jul 30, 2025 | Download |
| Product | Reviews, tips, and advice from real users | Jul 30, 2025 | Download |
| Comparison | Rackspace OpenStack vs Dell PowerEdge VRTX | Jul 30, 2025 | Download |
| Comparison | Rackspace OpenStack vs HPE ConvergedSystem | Jul 30, 2025 | Download |
| Comparison | Rackspace OpenStack vs Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers | Jul 30, 2025 | Download |
| Title | Rating | Mindshare | Recommending | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dell PowerEdge VRTX | 4.2 | 19.7% | 90% | 20 interviewsAdd to research |
| Oracle Private Cloud Appliance | 4.0 | 15.2% | 85% | 6 interviewsAdd to research |
Rackspace OpenStack was previously known as OpenStack.
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.
