Overview

OpenStack

Stacks792

Followers1.2K

Votes138

Kubernetes

Stacks61.2K

Followers52.8K

Votes685

Kubernetes vs OpenStack: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Kubernetes and OpenStack

Kubernetes and OpenStack are both widely used open-source platforms for managing and orchestrating cloud-based applications, but they differ in several key aspects.

Architecture: Kubernetes is a container orchestration platform that focuses on managing and scaling containerized applications. It provides powerful tools for automating deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications across a cluster of hosts. OpenStack, on the other hand, is a cloud infrastructure platform that provides a full suite of services for managing virtual machines, software-defined networking, and storage resources.
Scope: Kubernetes is primarily focused on container orchestration and provides features like auto-scaling, service discovery, and rolling deployments to ensure smooth operation of containerized applications. OpenStack, on the other hand, is a comprehensive cloud platform that offers a range of services including compute, networking, and storage. It is designed to provide a complete infrastructure solution for building private, public, or hybrid clouds.
Deployment Model: Kubernetes is designed to be a cloud-native platform and is typically deployed on public cloud providers, private cloud environments, or bare-metal servers. It abstracts the underlying infrastructure and provides a consistent API for managing containers. OpenStack, on the other hand, is typically deployed as an on-premises infrastructure platform and requires dedicated hardware resources for running its services.
Community and Ecosystem: Kubernetes has a larger and more active community compared to OpenStack. It is backed by major tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Red Hat, which ensures a steady stream of contributions and a vibrant ecosystem of tools and extensions. OpenStack, although it has a sizable community, has seen some consolidation in recent years, with some projects being deprecated or merged.
Maturity and Adoption: Kubernetes has rapidly gained popularity and has become the de facto standard for container orchestration. It is widely adopted across various industries and has a rich ecosystem of tools and platforms built around it. OpenStack, on the other hand, has been around for a longer time and has seen significant adoption in industries like telecommunications and research. It has a more mature codebase and a strong track record in managing cloud infrastructure.
Ease of Use and Complexity: Kubernetes has a steep learning curve and requires a good understanding of containerization concepts and practices. It provides a flexible and powerful platform for managing containers but can be complex to set up and operate. OpenStack, on the other hand, provides a more straightforward user experience with a web-based dashboard and a set of command-line tools. However, it can still be challenging to deploy and configure due to its comprehensive range of services.

In summary, while both Kubernetes and OpenStack are popular open-source platforms for managing cloud-based applications, Kubernetes focuses on container orchestration and provides a scalable and flexible solution, while OpenStack offers a comprehensive suite of cloud infrastructure services for managing virtual machines, networks, and storage.

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Advice on OpenStack, Kubernetes

Simon

Senior Fullstack Developer at QUANTUSflow Software GmbH

Apr 27, 2020

Decidedon

GitHub

GitHub Pages

Markdown

Our whole DevOps stack consists of the following tools:

@{GitHub}|tool:27| (incl. @{GitHub Pages}|tool:683|/@{Markdown}|tool:1147| for Documentation, GettingStarted and HowTo's) for collaborative review and code management tool
Respectively @{Git}|tool:1046| as revision control system
@{SourceTree}|tool:1599| as @{Git}|tool:1046| GUI
@{Visual Studio Code}|tool:4202| as IDE
@{CircleCI}|tool:190| for continuous integration (automatize development process)
@{Prettier}|tool:7035| / @{TSLint}|tool:5561| / @{ESLint}|tool:3337| as code linter
@{SonarQube}|tool:2638| as quality gate
@{Docker}|tool:586| as container management (incl. @{Docker Compose}|tool:3136| for multi-container application management)
@{VirtualBox}|tool:774| for operating system simulation tests
@{Kubernetes}|tool:1885| as cluster management for docker containers
@{Heroku}|tool:133| for deploying in test environments
@{nginx}|tool:1052| as web server (preferably used as facade server in production environment)
@{SSLMate}|tool:2752| (using @{OpenSSL}|tool:3091|) for certificate management
@{Amazon EC2}|tool:18| (incl. @{Amazon S3}|tool:25|) for deploying in stage (production-like) and production environments
@{PostgreSQL}|tool:1028| as preferred database system
@{Redis}|tool:1031| as preferred in-memory database/store (great for caching)

The main reason we have chosen Kubernetes over Docker Swarm is related to the following artifacts:

Key features: Easy and flexible installation, Clear dashboard, Great scaling operations, Monitoring is an integral part, Great load balancing concepts, Monitors the condition and ensures compensation in the event of failure.
Applications: An application can be deployed using a combination of pods, deployments, and services (or micro-services).
Functionality: Kubernetes as a complex installation and setup process, but it not as limited as Docker Swarm.
Monitoring: It supports multiple versions of logging and monitoring when the services are deployed within the cluster (Elasticsearch/Kibana (ELK), Heapster/Grafana, Sysdig cloud integration).
Scalability: All-in-one framework for distributed systems.
Other Benefits: Kubernetes is backed by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), huge community among container orchestration tools, it is an open source and modular tool that works with any OS.

12.8M views12.8M

Comments

Anis

Founder at Odix

Nov 7, 2020

Review

I recommend this : -Spring reactive for back end : the fact it's reactive (async) it consumes half of the resources that a sync platform needs (so less CPU -> less money). -Angular : Web Front end ; it's gives you the possibility to use PWA which is a cheap replacement for a mobile app (but more less popular). -Docker images. -Kubernetes to orchestrate all the containers. -I Use Jenkins / blueocean, ansible for my CI/CD (with Github of course) -AWS of course : u can run a K8S cluster there, make it multi AZ (availability zones) to be highly available, use a load balancer and an auto scaler and ur good to go. -You can store data by taking any managed DB or u can deploy ur own (cheap but risky).

You pay less money, but u need some technical 2 - 3 guys to make that done.

Good luck

114k views114k

Comments

Michael

CEO at asencis Ltd

Jan 5, 2021

Needs advice

We develop rapidly with docker-compose orchestrated services, however, for production - we utilise the very best ideas that Kubernetes has to offer: SCALE! We can scale when needed, setting a maximum and minimum level of nodes for each application layer - scaling only when the load balancer needs it. This allowed us to reduce our devops costs by 40% whilst also maintaining an SLA of 99.87%.

272k views272k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

OpenStack	Kubernetes
OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed through a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface.	Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.
Compute;Storage;Networking;Dashboard;Shared Services	Lightweight, simple and accessible;Built for a multi-cloud world, public, private or hybrid;Highly modular, designed so that all of its components are easily swappable
Statistics
Stacks 792	Stacks 61.2K
Followers 1.2K	Followers 52.8K
Votes 138	Votes 685
Pros & Cons
Pros 60 Private cloud 39 Avoid vendor lock-in 23 Flexible in use 7 Industry leader 5 Robust architecture	Pros 166 Leading docker container management solution 130 Simple and powerful 108 Open source 76 Backed by google 58 The right abstractions Cons 16 Steep learning curve 15 Poor workflow for development 8 Orchestrates only infrastructure 4 High resource requirements for on-prem clusters 2 Too heavy for simple systems
Integrations
No integrations available	Vagrant Docker Rackspace Cloud Servers Microsoft Azure Google Compute Engine Ansible Google Kubernetes Engine

What are some alternatives to OpenStack, Kubernetes?

Rancher

Rancher is an open source container management platform that includes full distributions of Kubernetes, Apache Mesos and Docker Swarm, and makes it simple to operate container clusters on any cloud or infrastructure platform.

Docker Compose

With Compose, you define a multi-container application in a single file, then spin your application up in a single command which does everything that needs to be done to get it running.

Docker Swarm

Swarm serves the standard Docker API, so any tool which already communicates with a Docker daemon can use Swarm to transparently scale to multiple hosts: Dokku, Compose, Krane, Deis, DockerUI, Shipyard, Drone, Jenkins... and, of course, the Docker client itself.

Tutum

Tutum lets developers easily manage and run lightweight, portable, self-sufficient containers from any application. AWS-like control, Heroku-like ease. The same container that a developer builds and tests on a laptop can run at scale in Tutum.

Portainer

It is a universal container management tool. It works with Kubernetes, Docker, Docker Swarm and Azure ACI. It allows you to manage containers without needing to know platform-specific code.

Apache CloudStack

CloudStack is open source software designed to deploy and manage large networks of virtual machines, as a highly available, highly scalable Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud computing platform.

Codefresh

Automate and parallelize testing. Codefresh allows teams to spin up on-demand compositions to run unit and integration tests as part of the continuous integration process. Jenkins integration allows more complex pipelines.

CAST.AI

It is an AI-driven cloud optimization platform for Kubernetes. Instantly cut your cloud bill, prevent downtime, and 10X the power of DevOps.

k3s

Certified Kubernetes distribution designed for production workloads in unattended, resource-constrained, remote locations or inside IoT appliances. Supports something as small as a Raspberry Pi or as large as an AWS a1.4xlarge 32GiB server.

Flocker

Flocker is a data volume manager and multi-host Docker cluster management tool. With it you can control your data using the same tools you use for your stateless applications. This means that you can run your databases, queues and key-value stores in Docker and move them around as easily as the rest of your app.