Service Overview

The Basics

Genesis Public Cloud uses OpenStack as its cloud platform. OpenStack is an open source software platform that can control large pools of compute, networking, and storage resources. With Genesis Public Cloud, clients rent resources with a short 30-second metering interval, meaning clients only pay for what they use.

A short list of features that we include with Genesis Public Cloud:

  • Multi-tenancy
    • OpenStack is designed to provide Virtual Private Clouds (an AWS term) in the form of Projects
  • IP Address Management (IPAM)
  • Kubernetes support via the Magnum project
  • Object storage with S3 API compatibility
  • Scalable metrics collection
  • Secrets vault
  • Forward and reverse DNS management
  • Orchestration via HEAT or Terraform
    • these provide simplified configuration and auto-scaling of resources
    • Additional orchestration is possible using Ansible, Puppet, Salt, or Chef
  • Billing management for resources used in each project
  • Management via CLI, SDK, API, and Web-based UI

Why OpenStack?

OpenStack, like all popular cloud platforms, provides an abstraction layer between its API and the APIs of many components that make up a virtual infrastructure platform. Unlike other commercial cloud platforms, OpenStack is pluggable, allowing its platform operators to choose the technologies that best fit their needs, while providing a consistent front-end API to users. This also provides operators with the ability to swap-out components or sometimes use multiple vendors’ solutions for a particular component. For example, an operator may choose to use multiple storage platforms for different performance characteristics, from different vendors, but the user only sees a list of volume types with no visibility of the underlying infrastructure.

This abstraction eases system administration duties for users who simply want to deploy compute, networking, and storage infrastructure without having to deal with the nuances of individual back-end components, the physical hardware, cabling, connectors, rack mounts, power, data center, physical security, audits, and other activities that make no sense for individual companies or individuals to deal with. Most companies do not want to be in the infrastructure business, and should, instead, concentrate on their core business while using a cloud platform that abstracts away all of the difficult, and expensive, requirements.