Exploring OpenStack for Scalable and Cost-Effective Virtualization in Education

The technological landscape of cloud computing has transformed significantly with the advent of virtualization, allowing for the provision of computing resources over the internet. The leading cloud computing software providers offer this new concept, and various service providers currently exist, providing options for virtualizing services on-premises as well. OpenStack presents an open-source alternative for building virtual local or cloud setups that support petabytes of data, unlimited scale, and configurable networking. The tool’s features make it an ideal solution for large scale virtualization, reducing maintenance costs and optimizing hardware resource utilization, particularly in education and government sectors. This paper presents an overview of the OpenStack software, with a focus on constructing a scalable hosting architecture tailored to educational settings. We discuss functional and architectural details that are essential to implementing unique cloud computing models for virtualization purposes. We describe an experimental virtualization setup that was implemented within an educational scenario, along with a guideline for configuring OpenStack. Overall, this study offers insights into the potential of OpenStack for virtualizing large-scale educational setups, paving the way for cost-effective and efficient resource utilization.