OpenStack Clouds Cost up to 23 Times More than OnApp Clouds, New Report Reveals

PRLog (Press Release) - Aug. 16, 2012 - It can be up to 23 times more cost-effective to build your cloud with OnApp than with OpenStack, according to a new report from Cloud Spectator, an independent cloud industry analyst firm. The Cloud Spectator report, Implementing and Running Your Own Cloud Service: OnApp vs OpenStack, compares the OnApp and OpenStack cloud management platforms, with a particular focus on the needs of service providers looking to build their own cloud. It examines total cost of ownership over three years as well as the core features and additional capabilities of each platform.

Cloud Spectator found that for a single cloud, running 48 CPU cores, OpenStack would cost $628,000 over three years, with more than 50 percent of that cost due in the first year. The same cloud running on the OnApp Cloud platform would cost 23 times less, at $26,880. For clouds with 1,000 CPU cores, OpenStack was found to cost 4.5 times as much over three years, and, for much larger 10,000-core clouds, OpenStack costs were still found to be more than $500,000 higher than OnApp over a three year period.
Cloud Spectator considered a range of costs over three years, for different sizes of cloud deployments. These included the cost of the cloud platform software, additional software requirements, implementation, upgrades and technical support. Full details of the TCO analysis and the methodology used are available in the report, which is available for free by registering at http://onapp.com/onapp-vs-openstack.

“It isn’t surprising that the real cost of OpenStack is in implementation, support and upgrades, rather than the software – but the size of the bill for those activities will be pretty alarming for most service providers,” said Kosten Metreweli, OnApp’s Chief Commercial Officer. “We designed the OnApp Cloud platform to make it as easy as possible for providers to build their own clouds. We offer a complete feature set, out of the box, and we include implementation, support and upgrades free with the software license.  

“That makes OnApp far more cost-effective for the vast majority of cloud deployments – but, actually, the cost isn’t really the most important consideration,” he continued. “With OnApp, you can get your cloud up and running in a few days, not a few months; and that means you can focus on what’s really important – designing your service and support package, branding and marketing your cloud, and building applications and services on top of the core platform that add value for users.”

Cloud Spectator's Senior Analyst, John Vlacich, also presented highlights of the report and additional research in a recent webinar run by The WHIR. A replay of the webinar is available at http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-webinar/open-source-or....

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