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Cloud Foundry vs OpenStack
March 09, 2025 | Author: Michael Stromann
9★
Open Source Cloud Application Platform that makes it faster and easier to build, test, deploy and scale applications, providing a choice of clouds, developer frameworks, and application services. It is an open source project and is available through a variety of private cloud distributions and public cloud instances.
19★
OpenStack is a global collaboration of developers and cloud computing technologists producing the ubiquitous open source cloud computing platform for public and private clouds. The project aims to deliver solutions for all types of clouds by being simple to implement, massively scalable, and feature rich. The technology consists of a series of interrelated projects delivering various components for a cloud infrastructure solution.
See also:
Top 10 Public Cloud Platforms
Top 10 Public Cloud Platforms
Cloud Foundry and OpenStack are, at first glance, quite similar in that both are open-source, both let you deploy things in the cloud and both involve a lot of very intelligent people nodding thoughtfully at diagrams full of arrows. They allow automation, scalability and all sorts of clever integrations that make techies feel powerful and in control—until something inexplicably breaks, at which point they suddenly feel very small and mortal. They are both, in essence, tools that make clouds do things, though exactly what things depends on which particular set of problems you want to have.
Cloud Foundry, born in the great land of VMware in 2011, is the sort of thing developers love because it abstracts away all the fiddly bits of infrastructure and lets them deploy applications quickly without worrying about where exactly their code is running. It’s a PaaS, which sounds like something you’d need a prescription for but actually just means it deals with apps rather than raw infrastructure. It thrives in a world of containers, microservices and people who say things like "agile" without irony. OpenStack, on the other hand, arrived in 2010 courtesy of NASA and Rackspace, because if you're managing cloud infrastructure, who better to ask than the people who literally put things in space?
Unlike Cloud Foundry, OpenStack isn’t so much about running applications as it is about running everything underneath them. It’s a sprawling, modular beast that gives IT admins the power to control compute, storage, networking and other things that sound deeply technical and important. While Cloud Foundry is for developers who want their apps to "just work," OpenStack is for the sorts of people who enjoy configuring things, optimizing things and occasionally swearing at things. One is about making life easier by removing complexity; the other is about embracing complexity and bending it to your will.
See also: Top 10 Public Cloud Platforms
Cloud Foundry, born in the great land of VMware in 2011, is the sort of thing developers love because it abstracts away all the fiddly bits of infrastructure and lets them deploy applications quickly without worrying about where exactly their code is running. It’s a PaaS, which sounds like something you’d need a prescription for but actually just means it deals with apps rather than raw infrastructure. It thrives in a world of containers, microservices and people who say things like "agile" without irony. OpenStack, on the other hand, arrived in 2010 courtesy of NASA and Rackspace, because if you're managing cloud infrastructure, who better to ask than the people who literally put things in space?
Unlike Cloud Foundry, OpenStack isn’t so much about running applications as it is about running everything underneath them. It’s a sprawling, modular beast that gives IT admins the power to control compute, storage, networking and other things that sound deeply technical and important. While Cloud Foundry is for developers who want their apps to "just work," OpenStack is for the sorts of people who enjoy configuring things, optimizing things and occasionally swearing at things. One is about making life easier by removing complexity; the other is about embracing complexity and bending it to your will.
See also: Top 10 Public Cloud Platforms
