Navigating Your Transition to OpenStack

Fifteen years ago, Rackspace Technology® and NASA co-created OpenStack® — the open-source cloud platform now used by thousands of organizations worldwide. Today, OpenStack supports critical infrastructure across industries, offering an open, modular architecture that organizations can customize to meet their specific operational and compliance needs.

OpenStack can provide a powerful and simple way for companies to run enterprise ready applications.The platform includes components for provisioning and orchestrating compute, storage and networking resources, as well as tools for identity, telemetry and automation — all maintained by a global community of developers. With OpenStack, organizations can build and manage private, public or hybrid cloud environments using pooled virtual resources and fully open APIs.

For IT leaders rethinking their cloud strategy, OpenStack offers a compelling path: a way to modernize infrastructure without being locked into rising licensing fees, proprietary architectures or unpredictable pricing.

How OpenStack helps reduce cloud spend

Proprietary cloud software and hyperscalers often lock customers into pricing models that can shift unpredictably over time. OpenStack offers a different path — one that gives organizations more control and visibility into their cloud costs. By reducing licensing fees and enabling efficient use of resources, OpenStack can provide a clear economic advantage. OpenStack can help you:

• Lower capex and opex costs: OpenStack eliminates the need for costly licensing and gives you control over how infrastructure is sized and scaled, leading to more efficient use of both capital and operational resources.
• Improve cost predictability: With no proprietary pricing structures or surprise fee increases, OpenStack makes it easier to forecast and manage spend over time.
• Increase pricing flexibility: By reducing reliance on a single provider, you gain the freedom to negotiate better rates and pivot without expensive disruptions.

Planning your OpenStack journey

The move from a proprietary virtualization platform or public cloud to OpenStack isn’t just a technical migration — it’s a strategic shift. To avoid delays, downtime and risk, you’ll need more than a basic lift-and-shift plan. Success depends on partnering with a team that has deep OpenStack experience and a clear roadmap for the transition. Key areas of expertise you’ll need access to include:

• Cloud design and architecture: Building a production-ready OpenStack cloud requires in-depth knowledge of platform components, scalability strategies and best practices.
• Strategic migration planning: A well-structured migration strategy minimizes disruption, ensures data integrity and keeps workloads moving on schedule.
• Ongoing operations and support: OpenStack demands operational rigor. Around-the-clock management and troubleshooting from trained specialists can make all the difference.
• Training and enablement: Transferring knowledge to your internal teams ensures long-term success and gives you full control over your new cloud environment.

Navigating your OpenStack journey

The transition to OpenStack requires more than just deploying software — it demands careful planning, technical precision and operational readiness. As a co-creator of the platform, we bring the depth of experience needed to help enterprises make the move with confidence and clarity.

Our proven build-operate-transfer model guides you through each phase of OpenStack adoption:

• Build: We work with your team to architect and deploy your OpenStack environment, define a migration strategy and support workload onboarding.
• Operate: Our engineers manage your environment with 24x7x365 support and SLAs while your team builds hands-on expertise.
• Transfer: We hand off operational ownership through structured training and documentation, enabling your team to take control.

Our model is backed by more than one billion server-hours operating OpenStack clouds and a global team of over 2,200 certified professionals. Throughout the process, we focus on equipping your team to take ownership — not creating long-term dependency.

To learn more about reducing complexity and gaining control with OpenStack, download our data sheet: Rackspace Private Cloud — Build, Operate and Transfer