Comparing Open Source Private Cloud (IaaS) Platforms

This excellent document was written by Lance Albertson, at OSU(Oregon State University) Open Source Lab.

http://assets.en.oreilly.com/1/event/80/Comparing%20Open%20Source%20Private%20Cloud%20Platforms%20Presentation.pdf

The purpose is for comparison between Openstack, Cloudstack, Eucalyptus and Ganeti from a private cloud perspective.

Storage Comparison

Type	OpenStack	Eucalyptus	CloudStack	Ganeti
Disk Image	yes	yes	yes	yes [1]
Block devices	yes [2]	yes [2]	yes [3]	yes [4]
Fault Tolerance	yes [5]	yes [6]	yes [7]	yes

1. Disk Image support has limitations
2. Via an elastic block storage service
3. iSCSI, OCFS2, CLVM (depends on hypervisor)
4. Primary storage method, also has sharedfs support
5. Uses rsync in the backend
6. Not added until version 3.0, uses DRBD (Distributed Replicated Block Device)
7. Parts are built-in, Storage is on your own

VM Image Comparison

Type	OpenStack	Eucalyptus	CloudStack	Ganeti
Image Service	yes	yes	yes	no
Self Service [1]	yes	yes	yes	no [2]
Amazon API	yes [3]	yes	yes	no

1. Ability for users to create and manage their own VM images
2. Third-party applications can offer this
3. Some support

Self Service Comparison

Type	OpenStack	Eucalyptus	CloudStack	Ganeti
Web Interface	yes	yes [2]	yes	yes [1]
Users & Quotas	yes	yes	yes	yes [1]
Console access	yes	yes	yes	yes [1]
User management	yes	yes	yes	yes [1]

1. Available via third-party application Ganeti Web Manager
2. Although it has own web UI, it doesn't have powerful functionality. Use ElastickFox or HybridFox instead.    


Networking Management

Type	OpenStack	Eucalyptus	CloudStack	Ganeti
Auto-allocation	yes	yes	yes	no [1]
Floating IPs	yes	yes	yes	no
User defined	yes	yes	yes	no
Layer 2	yes	yes	yes	no

1. Proposal submitted but not yet implemented

Strength & Weakness

Type	Weakness	Strength
Openstack	- Young codebase - Uncertain future - Initial configuration	- Single codebase - Growing community - Corporate support
Eucalyptus	- Install requirements - Configurable but not very  customizable - Community Inclusion	- Excellent commercial support - Fault-tolerance - Offers a hybrid-cloud solution with AWS
CloudStack	- Very GUI centric - Single java core - AWS integration weak	- Well-rounded GUI - Stack is fairly simple - Customization of the storage backend
Ganeti	- Admin centric - VM Deployment - No AWS integration	- Fault-tolerance built-in - Customizable - Very simple to manage and maintain