--- title: OpenStack Explained: Building Your Own AWS : Part 2 description: OpenStack is a modular cloud platform composed of specialized services that work together. Nova handles compute and VM scheduling, Glance stores OS images,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/openstack-explained-building-your-own-aws-part-2-ijr6clrkh twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: OpenStack Explained: Building Your Own AWS : Part 2 | daily.dev og:description: OpenStack is a modular cloud platform composed of specialized services that work together. Nova handles compute and VM scheduling, Glance stores OS images,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/openstack-explained-building-your-own-aws-part-2-ijr6clrkh og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/IjR6clrKh.png og:image:alt: OpenStack Explained: Building Your Own AWS : Part 2 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # OpenStack Explained: Building Your Own AWS : Part 2 **[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 6 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary OpenStack is a modular cloud platform composed of specialized services that work together. Nova handles compute and VM scheduling, Glance stores OS images, Neutron manages networking (virtual networks, subnets, security groups), Cinder provides persistent block storage (similar to AWS EBS), Swift handles object storage (similar to S3), Keystone manages authentication and identity, Horizon offers a web dashboard, and Heat enables infrastructure-as-code templating. When a user requests a VM, all these services coordinate in sequence to deliver a complete cloud experience. Understanding what problem each service solves is the key to remembering them. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is the difference between Cinder and Swift in OpenStack? Cinder provides persistent block storage that attaches to virtual machines like a disk, similar to Amazon EBS, while Swift provides object storage accessed through an API for things like images, videos, backups, and datasets, similar to Amazon S3. Cinder volumes mount as disks; Swift objects are retrieved via API calls rather than mounted. _Comparing storage models like block versus object storage gets easier when relevant explainers surface on daily.dev._ ### What does Nova do in OpenStack compared to Neutron and Glance? Nova is the compute service that coordinates creating virtual machines, deciding where they run and instructing the hypervisor to start them, without creating the VM itself. Glance stores the OS images Nova requests when launching a VM, and Neutron handles networking such as virtual networks, subnets, routers, floating IPs, and security groups for that VM. _Tracking how modular cloud components divide responsibility is easier with curated reading on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Storage isolation with OpenStack Services on OpenShift distributed zones](https://daily.dev/posts/storage-isolation-with-openstack-services-on-openshift-distributed-zones-yconwakga) · Red Hat Developer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [What is cloud computing? From infrastructure to autonomous, agentic-driven ecosystems](https://daily.dev/posts/what-is-cloud-computing-from-infrastructure-to-autonomous-agentic-driven-ecosystems-trrroewxq) · InfoWorld · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Why rent a cloud when you can build one?](https://daily.dev/posts/why-rent-a-cloud-when-you-can-build-one--iu3qxow9l) · Stack Overflow Blog · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#cloud](https://daily.dev/tags/cloud), [#infrastructure](https://daily.dev/tags/infrastructure), [#iac](https://daily.dev/tags/iac) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/openstack-explained-building-your-own-aws-part-2-ijr6clrkh) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"OpenStack Explained: Building Your Own AWS : Part 2","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/openstack-explained-building-your-own-aws-part-2-ijr6clrkh","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/openstack-explained-building-your-own-aws-part-2-ijr6clrkh"},"datePublished":"2026-07-13T19:28:54.126Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:39:42.506Z","description":"OpenStack is a modular cloud platform composed of specialized services that work together. 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