The OpenStack cloud architecture
OpenStack is an open source Apache 2.0 licensed framework used to build cloud platforms. It is primarily an IaaS and has been in the developer community since 2010. The OpenStack Foundation manages the software and has support from more than 500 companies, including Intel, IBM, Red Hat, and Ericsson.
OpenStack started as a joint project between NASA and Rackspace around 2010. The architecture has all the major components of other cloud systems, including compute and load balancing; storage components, including backup and recovery; networking components, dashboards, security and identity, data and analytics packages, deployment tools, monitors and meters, and application services. These are the components that an architect would look for when choosing a cloud service.
Rather than focus on a single commercial cloud architecture, we will examine OpenStack in depth as many of the artifacts of OpenStack are used or analogous to components...