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  5. OpenStack vs SmartOS

OpenStack vs SmartOS

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

OpenStack
OpenStack
Stacks790
Followers1.2K
Votes138
SmartOS
SmartOS
Stacks9
Followers10
Votes0

OpenStack vs SmartOS: What are the differences?

  1. Architecture: OpenStack is a cloud computing platform that utilizes a decentralized model, consisting of various services running in separate processes, allowing high flexibility and scalability. In contrast, SmartOS follows a monolithic design, with all services tightly integrated within a single kernel instance, providing better performance and resource sharing.

  2. Virtualization: OpenStack supports various hypervisors like KVM, VMware, and Xen, offering flexibility in virtualization choices. On the other hand, SmartOS utilizes its own lightweight hypervisor called LX branded zones, which is optimized for efficiency and resource utilization, providing a more streamlined virtualization experience.

  3. Resource Management: OpenStack employs Nova for managing compute resources, Cinder for block storage, and Neutron for networking, allowing for a modular and segregated approach to resource management. In contrast, SmartOS leverages the ZFS file system for storage management and DTrace for resource monitoring, providing a comprehensive and integrated solution for resource allocation and monitoring.

  4. Containers: OpenStack supports containerization through projects like Magnum and Zun, enabling users to deploy and manage containers within the cloud infrastructure. SmartOS, on the other hand, integrates native support for OS-level virtualization through its Zones feature, providing a lightweight and efficient containerization solution within the platform.

  5. Community Support: OpenStack boasts a large and diverse community of contributors and users, providing extensive documentation, support, and resources for users to leverage. SmartOS, while also having an active community, is more niche and tailored towards developers and organizations seeking a specialized, high-performance cloud platform.

  6. Operating System Compatibility: OpenStack is compatible with a wide range of operating systems and distributions, allowing for interoperability and flexibility in deployment environments. In contrast, SmartOS is based on the illumos kernel, providing a unique operating system platform tailored specifically for cloud computing and virtualization needs.

In Summary, OpenStack and SmartOS differ in architecture, virtualization options, resource management approach, containerization support, community backing, and operating system compatibility.

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Detailed Comparison

OpenStack
OpenStack
SmartOS
SmartOS

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.

It combines the capabilities you get from a lightweight container OS, optimized to deliver containers, with the robust security, networking and storage capabilities you’ve come to expect and depend on from a hardware hypervisor.

Compute;Storage;Networking;Dashboard;Shared Services
Secure containers;Full isolation per container in a multi-tenant environment;Built-in networking;Secure, isolated, resizable filesystems for each container;The speed of bare metal performance + the flexibility of virtualization
Statistics
Stacks
790
Stacks
9
Followers
1.2K
Followers
10
Votes
138
Votes
0
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 60
    Private cloud
  • 39
    Avoid vendor lock-in
  • 23
    Flexible in use
  • 7
    Industry leader
  • 5
    Robust architecture
No community feedback yet

What are some alternatives to OpenStack, SmartOS?

Docker

Docker

The Docker Platform is the industry-leading container platform for continuous, high-velocity innovation, enabling organizations to seamlessly build and share any application — from legacy to what comes next — and securely run them anywhere

Apache CloudStack

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.

LXD

LXD

LXD isn't a rewrite of LXC, in fact it's building on top of LXC to provide a new, better user experience. Under the hood, LXD uses LXC through liblxc and its Go binding to create and manage the containers. It's basically an alternative to LXC's tools and distribution template system with the added features that come from being controllable over the network.

LXC

LXC

LXC is a userspace interface for the Linux kernel containment features. Through a powerful API and simple tools, it lets Linux users easily create and manage system or application containers.

rkt

rkt

Rocket is a cli for running App Containers. The goal of rocket is to be composable, secure, and fast.

VirtKick

VirtKick

Software as a service platform for hosting providers.

Vagrant Cloud

Vagrant Cloud

Vagrant Cloud pairs with Vagrant to enable access, insight and collaboration across teams, as well as to bring exposure to community contributions and development environments.

Studio 3T

Studio 3T

It's the only MongoDB tool that provides three ways to explore data alongside powerful features like query autocompletion, polyglot code generation, a stage-by-stage aggregation query builder, import and export, SQL query support and more.

OpenNebula

OpenNebula

It provides a simple but feature-rich and flexible solution for the comprehensive management of virtualized data centers to enable on-premise enterprise clouds in existing infrastructures. It can be primarily used as a virtualization tool to manage your virtual infrastructure in the data-center or cluster, which is usually referred as Private Cloud. It supports Hybrid Cloud to combine local infrastructure with public cloud-based infrastructure, enabling highly scalable hosting environments.

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus

Eucalyptus is open source software for building private, AWS-compatible IT, QA, and developer clouds. It makes it easy to deliver cloud computing, just like AWS, from within your data center.

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