Using Self-Service Tools to Buy Private OpenStack Clouds

In this blog:

• Benefits of Self-Service for Private OpenStack Clouds
  • Access Anywhere
  • Control Resources
  • Compare Cloud Costs
  • Deploy Safely
• Evaluate/Buy at Your Pace
• Take Next Steps

As on demand cloud computing choices have grown, so have customer options for how to purchase those clouds. It’s not uncommon for public clouds to offer self-service tools or a cloud hosting trial. But it is not as common for private or open source clouds. In this post, we’ll explore the benefits of using self-service tools to now buy hosted private cloud services online and how they can make the process more efficient.

The Growing Market of DIY Tech Buyers

As individuals become more tech savvy, there is a growing preference for consumers and businesses to purchase IT services through self-service portals vs having to speak to a company sales representative. A Gartner survey of 727 B2B buyers in 2022 showed that 83% percent of B2B buyers stated that they prefer ordering or paying through digital commerce vs Sales Rep interactions.

For cloud service buyers, self-service portals are not uncommon in the public cloud space. Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and many others offer online cloud portals and automation tools for users to purchase and spin up public cloud instances. Private clouds, however, have not been so easy.

The complexity of designing and deploying private clouds has historically necessitated skilled engineering teams and time to complete. This is even more true for open source cloud solutions. For those Do-It-Yourself (DIY) cloud users that prefer to buy through self-service portals, private and open source cloud options have been extremely limited, if available at all. But new on demand cloud computing options are challenging these norms.

Self-Service Benefits for Private OpenStack Clouds

OpenMetal Cloud Cores offer users a single-tenant cluster of three bare metal servers that can be deployed in less than a minute. This gives users the ability to spin up hosted private clouds and/or On-Demand OpenStack. These Cloud Cores deliver all the performance, security, and cost-effectiveness of private clouds, with none of the physical hardware management. Users have root access to server configurations, but the physical well-being of the hardware is managed by OpenMetal in its world-class data centers. It is a private OpenStack cloud that you own. And, now users can purchase it directly through self-service tools in the OpenMetal Central cloud portal.

Providing a true public cloud alternative, the OpenMetal Central portal allows users to now purchase hosted private clouds or request cloud hosting trials from its self-service tools, to simplify cloud shopping.

Access Any Time and From Anywhere

The OpenMetal Central portal allows users to purchase private OpenStack clouds and/or additional resources at any time, from anywhere. As long as users have an internet connection, they can log into this self-service tool to choose their on demand cloud computing resources and purchase directly through the portal. This can be especially useful for users who are in different time zones or working outside of typical business hours. Once deployed, users can use the portal to access the Cloud Cores and scale any and all private OpenStack cloud resources as needed.

Control Cloud Resources

The self-service tools in OpenMetal Central gives users greater control over their Cloud Core servers. Users can manage their account settings, including adding or removing users from their organization. Users can quickly add or adjust cloud resources, such as compute, object storage, block storage, etc. They can monitor bandwidth usage for better cost management. And, they can even use built-in tools like DataDog for cloud monitoring to review and document critical cloud operational data. These self-service tools in the portal can help users at organizations to optimize their private OpenStack cloud services and ensure they are operating as cost-effectively as possible.

Compare Cloud Costs

The transparency of OpenMetal pricing in the Central portal is another benefit. These self-service tools allow users to easily see and compare different cloud services and pricing options and make informed decisions on cloud purchases. This is especially useful for OpenMetal Cloud Cores support a private cloud platform vs public clouds. The self-services tools allow users to calculate and review the fundamental cost advantages of using the full resources of your own dedicated single-tenant environment vs paying for shared resources on a public cloud.

Deploy Safely and Cloud Cost-Effectively

In the end, deploying on demand cloud computing resources through self-service tools such as OpenMetal Central can be very cost-effective. The alternative is the costly and time consuming investment of internal staff or consultants building these private, OpenStack clouds manually.

And because the initial OpenMetal  Cloud Cores are built from a proven and tested design, users can safely and successfully private OpenStack clouds the first time. This helps avoid common risks associated with private and open source clouds, such as high cost overruns or long time delays.

Developers and IT leaders can gain peace of mind that their private OpenStack clouds will work at the outset.  This way they can focus on more strategic initiatives and not worry about the reliability of their underlying infrastructure.

Evaluate or Buy at Your Own Pace

Self-service tools, such as the OpenMetal Central portal offer many different conveniences and efficiency advantages when evaluating or purchasing cloud services. Before users buy, they should weigh their options closely to ensure that they are making the best decision for both their organization and their team.

Try Before You Buy

One way to ensure success is for users to test the private OpenStack cloud before they buy it. The same self-services tools in the OpenMetal Central portal that assist with buying clouds can be used to request a cloud hosting trial.

When users create an account in the OpenMetal Central cloud portal, they will be given the option to “Request a Cloud Trial” and choose between an individual or organizational cloud trial.

• Individual Trials allow users to spin up a live cloud for up to 8 hours of use.
• Organizational Cloud Trials allow multiple users from their organization to use a cloud for up to 30 days or more. This level of cloud trial does require more business information provided to qualify for the extended use.

Each of these options can be requested, approved, and accessed directly through the self-service in the OpenMetal Central cloud portal, so that they can continue to control their own buying process. However, any extensions beyond these allotted uses would typically require a discussion with the OpenMetal cloud team.

Buy Direct

When a user is ready to purchase from the pricing pages, they have various options through the self-service process.

• Convert the Trial: Users can purchase the trial they deployed by entering payment information during the cloud setup process or change the settings on their trial so that it converts to a paid cloud after their trial is over.
• Pay As You Go: Users can choose to be billed for hourly usage on a weekly basis with no agreement.
• Purchase on Terms: Users can purchase monthly plans on various agreement lengths to take advantage of significant savings. These agreements offer different term options from month-to-month up to a 5-year agreement. 

Consider Assisted Management

When you put great teams together it is more than a 1+1=2 calculation.  Our engineers can work with your engineers to create the cloud that beats all the requirements at a cost you will love.  Our Assisted Management level (see the pricing calculator) is the happy medium between hardware only support and our managed private cloud services.

Get a No Pressure Consultation

If you require technical or engineering assistance, a complimentary consultation with our cloud engineers and/or executive team is highly recommended. This “no pressure” consultation allows users to find answers to their technical or business questions without the worry of being sold to right away. Users can directly schedule a consultation with the team of their choice to get the answer they need. Our Sales Consultants are outstanding at assisting users, but OpenMetal understands that users may want to speak directly with their peers about technical issues before a Sales discussion. 

An additional advantage of the consultation is that it allows the Cloud Team and users to discuss the possibility of building a comprehensive proof of concept (PoC) to address specific workload applications and possible ROI.

Take the Next Steps

The OpenMetal Central Portal is the first step to utilizing self-service tools to evaluate and purchase on demand cloud computing resources. Take the next steps by creating your account here.