OpenStack vs. Kubernetes: What’s the difference?

As cloud-native technologies continue to transform IT infrastructure, two names often dominate conversations: OpenStack and Kubernetes. While both are powerful, open-source platforms that allow you to automate application deployment and IT functions separately from the hardware, they serve different purposes. OpenStack’s function primarily involves building and managing public and private cloud computing platforms, whereas Kubernetes focuses on managing containerized applications and workloads. 

In 2023, OpenStack’s global footprint had grown to over 45 million compute cores in production, marking a 350 percent increase from 2018 [1]. This underscores OpenStack’s widespread adoption across areas such as health care, finance, and e-commerce, and its capability to scale as per your needs. Meanwhile, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) found that 84 percent of surveyed organizations were either using Kubernetes in production or actively evaluating it, highlighting its status as a core technology in cloud computing [2].

Understanding the differences between these widely adopted technologies, as well as how they complement each other, is key to building efficient cloud-based infrastructures. Explore OpenStack versus Kubernetes, as well as how to run them together to maximize both their benefits.

What is OpenStack?

OpenStack is an open-source cloud operating system that uses pooled virtual resources to build and manage public and private clouds. Originally created jointly by NASA and Rackspace Inc., it is currently managed by the OpenStack Foundation and used by many leading businesses to manage their cloud systems. The demand for OpenStack is increasing, primarily driven by the need to find virtualization alternatives to VMware; as a result, over 60 percent of organizations have already migrated to OpenStack due to its scalability and cost-efficiency [3].

How does OpenStack work?

OpenStack creates cloud environments using virtualization technologies such as Citrix to abstract the necessary physical resources from industry-standard hardware and gathers them into a centralized pool. You can then request network, compute, or storage resources through a portal that controls the application programming interfaces (APIs) that deliver the requested services. The API then allocates the necessary virtual resources from the central pool, allowing you to add resources on demand and providing a flexible and scalable environment for cloud computing. 

You can then organize these virtual resources into a cloud, monitor their status, and track how they’re being used, providing a customizable platform for developing different applications. As an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform, OpenStack allows you to create virtual machines (VMs) to perform multiple resource-intensive functions, such as processing and storage. Simultaneously, OpenStack allows different cloud services to interact with each other, enabling businesses to create private clouds within their data centers.

What is OpenStack best used for?

OpenStack is primarily used to create and manage cloud environments. By using OpenStack to build their cloud infrastructures themselves, businesses can avoid exposing their sensitive data and network structures to external service providers. In this way, businesses can benefit from a shorter time-to-market, faster innovation of customizable solutions, and easier compliance with regulations while avoiding locking in or committing to one vendor.

OpenStack vs. AWS

While both OpenStack and AWS offer comprehensive services for deploying and managing cloud applications, OpenStack is open-source and freely available, whereas AWS is a proprietary platform. Additionally, AWS offers a vast library of additional services that can solve various cloud computing issues, which can be convenient but also make it difficult to migrate from AWS to another platform if necessary. In contrast, you can use OpenStack with other open-source third-party solutions like Kubernetes to access most of these services with much less risk of vendor lock-in. 

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is a portable open-source container orchestration platform that automates the deployment, management, and scaling of containerized applications. Originally introduced by Google as an open-source tool in 2014, the CNCF now maintains it and has become a building block for cloud-native infrastructure. According to a 2024 Portworx survey, 72 percent of organizations are using Kubernetes to build databases, 67 percent are using it for analytics, and 54 percent are using it to simplify AI/ML workloads [4]. 

How does Kubernetes work?

Kubernetes works through containerization, which packages source code, libraries, and other dependencies into an independent space on a server called a container. Containers utilize a type of operating system (OS) virtualization to allow multiple applications to share a single OS instance by controlling the amount of CPU, storage, and disk space they can access. In this way, containers serve as a more lightweight and resource-efficient alternative to VMs. Containers can also run consistently, allowing them to support hybrid multi-cloud environments from different vendors. Kubernetes allows you to update single components within containerized applications without disrupting the rest of the technology stack. By grouping containers into “pods,” Kubernetes also ensures the combined management of different containers as single units. 

What is Kubernetes best used for?

Kubernetes’s primary use involves automating the management of containerized applications. It allows you to schedule and automate container deployment, testing, and networking. Additionally, you can use Kubernetes to automatically scale your container infrastructure based on your traffic workload, balance CPU load by distributing the workload to maintain performance, restart or replace failed containers, and simplify application rollouts and rollbacks. 

What is the difference between OpenStack and Kubernetes?

While OpenStack and Kubernetes are both open-source tools used to automate and manage cloud computing environments, they have essential differences. Explore these differences in detail below:

• Architecture: OpenStack uses virtualized resources that work on VMs to build cloud environments for running other applications, while Kubernetes is a container orchestration platform that automates the deployment and management of containerized applications at scale.

• Cloud-native support: Kubernetes requires you to have a cloud-native architecture in place to manage containerized applications. The OpenStack platform can not only work with cloud-native architecture, but it can also virtualize traditional workloads through VMs.

• Container support: Kubernetes can support only containerized applications on its cloud-native architecture, while you can use OpenStack to program your cloud environment to run both containerized and non-containerized applications.

• Containers versus virtual machines: You can use OpenStack to host containerized applications using OpenStack Magnum. You can use Kubernetes to host VMs using KubeVirt. However, as these are not their primary uses, these services might be less intuitive.

• Automation: Kubernetes allows a high level of automation for container management, allowing you to automate rollouts, deployments, and testing. OpenStack can automate cloud infrastructure provisioning, but it might require more manual effort.

Can you run Kubernetes on OpenStack?

Yes, OpenStack is a popular platform for running Kubernetes, especially for teams that want to avoid using Kubernetes platforms of public cloud providers like Google. Combining OpenStack with Kubernetes lets users reap the benefits of both these platforms, allowing them to build a scalable, flexible, and cost-effective cloud infrastructure for containerized applications. For example, you can use OpenStack Magnum to simplify the integration with Kubernetes, allowing users familiar with OpenStack to create and deploy containerized applications with ease. Running Kubernetes on OpenStack can have several benefits, including but not limited to:

• Scalability: Combining OpenStack’s IaaS capabilities with Kubernetes’ robust container orchestration, you can easily scale dynamic workloads, such as seasonally varying workloads.

• Cost-efficiency: Due to the open-source nature of both platforms, you can lower your operational costs by deploying Kubernetes clusters on OpenStack cloud environments.

• Resource optimization: You can use Kubernetes to automate resource allocation on OpenStack infrastructure, allowing more efficient use of resources and improved performance.

• Application portability: By using OpenStack to abstract the necessary infrastructure and Kubernetes to ensure application consistency, you can enable the seamless deployment and movement of containerized applications across multi-cloud environments.

OpenStack vs. Kubernetes: How to choose?

Whether you choose to use OpenStack, Kubernetes, or a combination of both will likely depend on your project needs and the specific environment you’re looking for. 

If you want to manage and deploy containerized applications, Kubernetes might be more suitable, whereas if you’re deploying your applications to traditional servers or VMs, OpenStack would be a better fit. 

Additionally, if you already have an infrastructure that supports automation, employing Kubernetes for your cloud platform can help improve your efficiency and scalability. However, if your automation pipelines aren’t well-developed, OpenStack might be a better option as it offers much better support for manually deployed applications. 

In general, you should use OpenStack if you want to configure a cloud infrastructure without building it from scratch, avoid vendor lock-in, develop private or public clouds, and have more control over your cloud infrastructure. Alternatively, you should go for Kubernetes if you want to deploy containerized applications on the cloud, develop cloud-native applications, and automate container maintenance tasks. 

Explore cloud technologies on Coursera

OpenStack can help you build a public, private, or hybrid cloud environment for your business, while Kubernetes can allow you to automate the management of containerized applications on the cloud. As businesses continue to rely on cloud technologies to streamline their IT infrastructure, learning when to use OpenStack versus Kubernetes might become even more relevant. 

To learn more about cloud computing architecture, consider taking the AWS Cloud Technology Consultant Professional Certificate on Coursera, which gives you the opportunity to learn more about deploying cloud-based solutions. Alternatively, to learn more about cloud concepts such as containerization and virtual machines, you could opt for the Google Cloud Infrastructure for AWS Professionals Specialization, also on Coursera.