This eBook presents a compelling argument as to why you should consider re-architecting your enterprise toward a private cloud. It outlines some of the design considerations that you need to be aware of before implementing your own private cloud, and it describes using the DevCloud installer in order to install OpenStack on an Ubuntu 14 server. Finally, this eBook will familiarize you with the features and day-to-day operations of an OpenStack-based private cloud architecture.

Cloud computing is a new technology that’s designed to make a system administrator’s job easier. However, cloud computing comes in two varieties, public and private, and each is aimed at solving different problems. Public cloud computing, such as the offerings from Amazon and Rackspace, is designed to allow system administrators to scale their computing resources rapidly by bringing resources into existence upon demand. Underutilized resources can be retired with the knowledge that they can be brought back into production if needed at a later date. This allows administrators to manage (and pay for) only those resources that are being used.