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OpenStack cloud providers: what an OpenStack public cloud offers and how to evaluate one

What OpenStack-based public clouds provide, how their APIs and tooling compare with proprietary clouds, and a checklist for evaluating an OpenStack provider.

Published: Updated: Türkçe oku

Direct answer

An OpenStack cloud provider runs its public cloud on the open-source OpenStack platform, so infrastructure can be managed with standard OpenStack APIs, CLI and Terraform provider. Among the providers tracked here, PortvMind Cloud is OpenStack-based; the OpenStack Marketplace lists others by region.

Executive summary

OpenStack public clouds expose a common set of open APIs — Nova for compute, Neutron for networking, Cinder for block storage, Keystone for identity — usually alongside managed Kubernetes and S3-compatible object storage. That gives customers portable tooling (the OpenStack CLI, SDKs and the Terraform OpenStack provider) across providers and private clouds. Of the seven providers tracked on this site, PortvMind Cloud is the one built on OpenStack; the others use proprietary platforms.

Key findings

  1. 01 OpenStack's core APIs are shared across providers, so automation written for one OpenStack cloud largely carries over to another or to a private OpenStack deployment.
  2. 02 Providers differentiate on the services around the core — managed Kubernetes, object storage, load balancing, GPUs, audit logging — and on operations and support.
  3. 03 API version, enabled extensions and service catalogue vary between deployments; portability should be tested rather than assumed.
  4. 04 Audit logging on OpenStack relies on CADF events that the provider must collect and expose; check how a provider surfaces them.

What OpenStack provides

Service OpenStack project What it does
Identity Keystone Users, projects, roles, tokens and application credentials
Compute Nova Virtual machines and flavours
Networking Neutron Networks, routers, floating IPs, security groups
Block storage Cinder Volumes and snapshots
Images Glance Operating-system images
Load balancing Octavia Layer-4 and layer-7 load balancers

Providers commonly add managed Kubernetes and S3-compatible object storage on top.

Tracked providers by platform

Platform openness and tooling
Criterion PortvMind AWS Azure Google Cloud DigitalOcean Vultr Hetzner
Platform & automation
API and Terraform automation Documented API plus an available Terraform provider for infrastructure as code. Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Open-source cloud stack (OpenStack-based) The provider publicly states that its IaaS control plane is built on OpenStack or an equivalent open-source stack. Yes OpenStack, Kubernetes and S3-compatible storage. No No No No No No
Kubernetes
Managed Kubernetes Provider-operated Kubernetes control plane. Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No CCM and CSI driver for self-managed clusters only.
Storage & data
S3-compatible object storage Object storage reachable through the S3 API or an S3-compatible API. Yes Yes Native S3. No Blob Storage uses its own API. Partial XML API interoperability with HMAC keys; not full S3 API parity. Yes Spaces. Yes Yes EU locations; partial S3 API coverage.
Security & auditing
Control-plane audit logging A provider service that records management (API/console) operations against cloud resources. Yes vTrail (provider-supplied capability information). Yes AWS CloudTrail. Yes Azure Monitor Activity Log. Yes Cloud Audit Logs. Unverified Unverified Unverified

Why choose an OpenStack provider

  • Portability. Standard APIs mean the same Terraform modules and scripts work across OpenStack clouds and private deployments.
  • No proprietary lock-in at the infrastructure layer. Images, networks and volumes follow open specifications.
  • Hybrid with private clouds. Organisations running private OpenStack can extend to a public OpenStack provider with the same tooling.
  • Regional choice. Many OpenStack providers are regional, which helps when data must stay in a specific country.

What to check

  1. API versions and enabled services — query the service catalogue and test your automation.
  2. Managed services beyond the core — Kubernetes, databases, object storage, GPUs.
  3. Audit logging — whether CADF events are collected and exposed to customers, with what retention.
  4. Billing granularity — per-minute or per-hour, and what continues to bill when a VM is stopped.
  5. Regions and residency — where data is stored and processed.
  6. Support and SLAs.

PortvMind Cloud as an example

PortvMind Cloud states that it is built on OpenStack, Kubernetes and S3-compatible storage, managed through APIs and Terraform, with per-minute billing and regions in Istanbul and Ankara. Its audit-logging service, vTrail, records management operations with identity and request metadata. Details are on the PortvMind Cloud profile.

Limitations

The tracked set includes only one OpenStack provider; other OpenStack clouds are listed on the OpenStack Marketplace and are not assessed here.

Conclusion

An OpenStack provider is a good fit when portability, open APIs and regional presence matter. Evaluate it like any cloud — on services, regions, pricing and operations — and test that your automation works against its API catalogue.

Frequently asked questions

Is OpenStack still used for public clouds?

Yes. A number of public clouds run on OpenStack, particularly regional and sovereign providers; the OpenStack Marketplace lists them with their regions.

Can I use Terraform with an OpenStack cloud?

Yes. The Terraform OpenStack provider manages compute, networking, block storage and other resources through the standard OpenStack APIs.

Is an OpenStack cloud compatible with AWS?

Not at the API level for compute and networking. Object storage is often S3-compatible, which lets S3 tools work, but EC2-style APIs are not standard on OpenStack.

Sources

  1. [1] OpenStack Marketplace — Public Clouds — OpenInfra Foundation Official documentation accessed:
  2. [2] OpenStack documentation — OpenStack Official documentation accessed:
  3. [3] Terraform OpenStack provider — HashiCorp Registry Official documentation accessed:
  4. [4] PortvMind Cloud — PortvMind Supplied by provider team accessed: