OpenStack

OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of computing, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, 

all managed and provisioned through APIs with common authentication mechanisms.

A dashboard is also available, giving administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface.

Beyond standard infrastructure-as-a-service functionality, additional components provide orchestration, fault management, and service management amongst other services to ensure high availability of user applications.

Key points:

1: A software to create a cloud infrastructure

2: Launched as a joint project of Rackspace Hosting and NASA in   2010

3: Opensource

4: Presently many companies are contributing to openstack Eg. IBM, CISCO, HP, Dell, Vmware, Redhat, suse, Rackspace hosting

5: It has a very large community

6:can be used to develop private cloud or public cloud

7: Versions:

 Austin, Bexar, Cactus, Diablo, Essex, Folsom, Grizzly, Havana, Icehouse, Juno, Kilo, Liberty, Mitaka, Newton, Ocata (Latest)

OpenStack pros and cons

OpenStack is available freely as open-source software released under the Apache 2.0 license. This means there is no upfront cost to acquire and use OpenStack. 

Considering all of its modular components, OpenStack provides a comprehensive and production-ready platform upon which an enterprise can build and operate a private or public cloud. 

But potential enterprise adopters must also consider some drawbacks. Perhaps the biggest disadvantage of OpenStack is its very size and scope -- such complexity requires an IT staff to have significant knowledge to deploy the platform and make it work. In some cases, an organization might require additional staff or a consulting firm to deploy OpenStack, which adds time and cost.

As open-source software, OpenStack is not owned or directed by any one vendor or team. This can make it difficult to obtain support for the technology -- other than support from the open-source community.

Common OpenStack distributions include the Red Hat OpenStack platform, the Mirantis Cloud Platform and the Rackspace OpenStack private cloud.