OpenStack consulting - deployment, support and upgrades

Our experience

We have been working with OpenStack since 2015, maintaining production environments daily. The clusters we work with range from 5-node PoC and test environments to 500+ node production deployments. We have deployed single-region clusters as well as HA setups spanning multiple availability zones and regions across different geographic locations.

We have experience with both long-term projects and one-off engagements when a team needs quick help with a specific problem. We provide OpenStack professional services for enterprises, public sector institutions, and research organizations.

Selected projects

• Designed a PoC cluster on the latest OpenStack release, prepared operational and upgrade procedures, built custom migration software to move instances from a legacy cluster, and managed the entire migration process.

• Designed and deployed a stretched cluster across two data centers with Ceph-based storage, HA control plane, and automatic disaster recovery between locations.

• Reviewed an existing architecture, identified improvements, consulted on new hardware selection, helped recruit an admin team, trained them, and provided last-line support.

• Built GitOps-based deployment pipelines with development, staging, and production clusters, including upgrade procedures.

• Migrated a client from VMware to OpenStack - designed the target cluster, migrated workloads, and trained the operations team on OpenStack administration.

OpenStack services we provide

OpenStack deployment and architecture design

We design and deploy OpenStack clusters based on your workload requirements. OpenStack deployment planning covers compute and storage sizing, network topology (provider networks, tenant networks, SR-IOV), high availability layout, integration with existing infrastructure, and advice on OpenStack billing systems and resource accounting. We also review existing architectures and recommend changes when performance or reliability is a concern.

OpenStack support

We provide ongoing OpenStack support for teams that need a reliable resource for production issues. This includes ad-hoc help when something breaks, post-project support agreements, and acting as the last line of support for your operations team. We work directly in your environment and document every incident so your team builds knowledge over time.

OpenStack troubleshooting

We help with root cause analysis of production issues: control plane failures, Neutron networking problems, Nova scheduling issues, RabbitMQ cluster splits, and storage backend performance. We work directly on your environment, identify the problem, fix it, and document what happened so your team knows what to look for next time.

OpenStack migrations

We handle migrations between OpenStack clusters (e.g. from a legacy release to a new deployment) and from other platforms to OpenStack, including VMware to OpenStack. This covers workload migration planning, building migration tooling when needed, and hands-on execution.

OpenStack upgrades (zero-downtime)

We plan and execute OpenStack version upgrades with zero downtime. This includes building a staging environment, testing your workloads against the new release, and migrating services in phases. The goal is to get you on a supported version without affecting production.

OpenStack performance optimization

We identify and fix performance bottlenecks in your OpenStack environment. This covers compute node tuning, network throughput issues, storage IOPS problems, and API response times.

OpenStack health checks and audits

We review your OpenStack environment and produce a report with specific findings - configuration issues, security gaps, and performance problems. Each finding comes with a recommendation and priority level.

Day-2 operations

We help your team set up repeatable operational processes: runbooks for common failure scenarios, monitoring that catches real problems, and automation for routine maintenance.

Technical team training

We train your operations team on OpenStack administration, networking, and troubleshooting. We also offer structured training courses for teams that prefer a formal curriculum.

How we work

Get in touch and describe your situation. We work on a time & material basis (per hour). For well-defined projects we can agree on a fixed fee. Post-project ad-hoc support is also available.

We also provide training and consulting services in Polish.

Contact us: hello@firstcloud.pl