| <section id="cloudstack_whatis"> | |
| <title>What Is CloudStack?</title> | |
| <para> | |
| Who Should Read This | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| If you are new to CloudStack or you want to learn more about concepts before installing and running CloudStack, read this overview. | |
| If you just want to get started, you can skip to Overview of Installation Steps. | |
| </para> | |
| <para> | |
| CloudStack is an open source software platform that pools computing resources to build public, private, and hybrid Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) clouds. CloudStack manages the network, storage, and compute nodes that make up a cloud infrastructure. Use CloudStack to deploy, manage, and configure cloud computing environments. | |
| Typical users are service providers and enterprises. With CloudStack, you can: | |
| <itemizedlist> | |
| <listitem> | |
| <para>Set up an on-demand, elastic cloud computing service. Service providers can sell self service virtual machine instances, storage volumes, and networking configurations over the Internet. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| <listitem> | |
| <para>Set up an on-premise private cloud for use by employees. Rather than managing virtual machines in the same way as physical machines, with CloudStack an enterprise can offer self-service virtual machines to users without involving IT departments. | |
| </para></listitem> | |
| </itemizedlist> | |
| </para> | |
| </section> | |