Concepts
This section explains OSISM's architecture, the components that make up a cloud pod, and the design principles that guide technology choices.
Architecture overview
The diagram above shows a high-level view of an OSISM-managed cloud pod. It illustrates how physical compute, storage, and network resources are abstracted into software-defined layers — OpenStack for compute, Ceph for storage, and SONiC with OVN/OVS for networking — with Kubernetes as a Service built on top.
The OSISM Manager
The OSISM Manager is the central control point of every OSISM deployment. It is the operator's single point of entry for deploying, configuring, and operating all services in a cloud pod. All Ansible-based automation — for OpenStack, Ceph, infrastructure, and Kubernetes — runs through the manager's job queue system.
See the OSISM Manager page for a detailed breakdown of the manager's components.
Components in a cloud pod
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) with OpenStack
- Software Defined Storage (SDS) with Ceph
- Bare Metal as a Service (BMaaS) with Ironic
- Software Defined Networking (SDN) with SONiC & OVN
- Kubernetes (K8s) with K3S
- Kubernetes as a Service (KaaS) with Gardener
- Kubernetes as a Service (KaaS) with Cluster API
- Identity & Access Management with Keycloak
- Privileged Access Management (PAM) with Teleport
- Logging, Monitoring & Telemetry with Prometheus & Grafana
- Realtime insights with Netdata
Technology Adaptability
OSISM integrates proven open source projects into a cohesive cloud platform. As technology evolves, OSISM adapts by evaluating and adopting new approaches while providing controlled migration paths. Read more in the Technology Adaptability chapter.