Red Hat OpenStack Platform
Cloud platform as a service (PaaS) software
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) providers
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- Ease of use
- Ease of management
- Quality of support
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What is Red Hat OpenStack Platform
Red Hat OpenStack Platform is a Red Hat–supported distribution of OpenStack for building and operating private cloud infrastructure. It provides IaaS capabilities such as compute, networking, and block/object storage to run virtual machine workloads in on-premises or hybrid environments. The product targets infrastructure and platform teams that need an open-source-based cloud stack with enterprise lifecycle management and support. It differentiates through Red Hat packaging, integrations with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and related tooling, and a supported upgrade and operations model for OpenStack components.
Enterprise-supported OpenStack distribution
The product packages upstream OpenStack services into a supported, tested distribution with vendor support and documented reference architectures. This can reduce the integration burden compared with assembling OpenStack components independently. It is commonly used by organizations that require predictable maintenance windows, security advisories, and long-term support policies. This support model is a key differentiator versus self-managed community-only deployments.
Strong private cloud control
Red Hat OpenStack Platform is designed for organizations that need to run IaaS in their own data centers or controlled environments. It supports common enterprise requirements such as tenant isolation, role-based access controls, and integration with existing identity and network services. This makes it suitable where data residency, regulatory constraints, or custom networking requirements limit the use of public IaaS. It also enables consistent infrastructure patterns across multiple sites.
Broad OpenStack ecosystem compatibility
Because it is based on OpenStack, the platform aligns with widely used OpenStack APIs and concepts for compute, networking, and storage. This can help teams avoid lock-in to a single public IaaS interface and support portability of VM-centric workloads across OpenStack environments. It also benefits from a large ecosystem of integrations and operational practices around OpenStack. For organizations standardizing on OpenStack, this improves interoperability across tools and vendors.
Operational complexity and skills
Operating OpenStack at production scale typically requires specialized expertise in networking, storage, Linux, and OpenStack services. Day-2 operations such as upgrades, capacity planning, and troubleshooting can be complex compared with consuming managed public IaaS. Organizations often need dedicated platform engineering and SRE capacity to run it reliably. This can increase total cost of ownership for smaller teams.
Primarily VM-focused IaaS
The platform’s core value centers on virtual machine infrastructure rather than developer-focused PaaS experiences. Teams seeking fully managed application runtimes, serverless functions, or simplified developer workflows may need additional products and integration work. As a result, it may not match the out-of-the-box developer experience associated with function-based or app-platform services. This can slow adoption for teams prioritizing rapid application delivery over infrastructure control.
Hardware and integration dependencies
Successful deployments depend on compatible hardware, networking designs, and storage backends, and these choices affect performance and reliability. Integrating with existing enterprise systems (identity, monitoring, backup, and security tooling) can require significant planning and validation. Multi-site or hybrid designs add further complexity around networking and operational consistency. These dependencies can lengthen implementation timelines compared with consuming a hosted IaaS service.
Plan & Pricing
| Plan | Price | Key features & notes |
|---|---|---|
| Premium (support level) | Not listed publicly — contact Red Hat Sales | 24x7 support (Premium support level). Historically Red Hat has sold OpenStack subscriptions with support-level tiers (Premium/Standard). Current Red Hat product pages direct purchasers to contact sales for pricing. |
| Standard (support level) | Not listed publicly — contact Red Hat Sales | Business-hours support (Standard). Pricing typically depends on deployment (per-socket / per-socket-pair or other units) and negotiated terms. |
| Controller Nodes (controller-only offering) | Not listed publicly — contact Red Hat Sales | A controller-node SKU/edition optimized for nodes that do not host guest VMs; historically offered at different price points than compute-node subscriptions. |
| Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure (bundle) | Not listed publicly — contact Red Hat Sales | A bundled subscription that has been offered combining OpenStack Platform with CloudForms and RHEV components. Contact sales for current packaging and pricing. |
| Historical (June 27, 2012) — listed on Red Hat blog (for reference only) | See note (list prices below) | Historical list prices published by Red Hat in 2012 (likely outdated): |
| • Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform Premium: $4,499 per socket-pair per year. | ||
| • Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform Standard: $3,449 per socket-pair per year. | ||
| • Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform for Controller Nodes Premium: $2,799 per socket-pair per year. | ||
| • Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform for Controller Nodes Standard: $2,149 per socket-pair per year. |
(These historical figures are included only because they appear on Red Hat's site as archived blog content; Red Hat’s current product pages do not publish up-to-date list prices and instruct prospective buyers to contact Red Hat sales.)
Seller details
Red Hat, Inc. (IBM subsidiary) / Mandrel open source project
Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
1993
Subsidiary
https://github.com/graalvm/mandrel
https://www.linkedin.com/company/red-hat/
