The infrastructure is there. The cloud experience isn't.
OpenStack does what it was built for: compute, networking, storage, and identity with APIs that work. But a developer who needs a Postgres still gets a virtual machine and an instruction sheet. Stackship is the layer on top — run Kubernetes on your OpenStack, install Stackship, and developers get a service catalog they order from themselves. You replace nothing. You add what was missing.
Where OpenStack ends and Stackship begins
Three layers, three jobs. None of them does another's.
OpenStack — the infrastructure
Compute, networking, storage, volumes, identity, and quotas. The primitives everything else rests on, with APIs and an operating model you already master.
Kubernetes — the orchestration
Clusters running on your OpenStack, via Magnum, Cluster API, or the distribution you prefer. The standard that makes workloads portable.
Stackship — the platform
Databases, object storage, cache, message queues, secrets, and functions as ready-made services. What developers order from, with guardrails and permissions you set.
What the developers get
The cloud experience on top of the infrastructure you already run.
A service catalog, not an instance and an instruction sheet
Postgres, object storage, a queue, or a secret as an order. The difference from IaaS is not how fast an instance boots — it is that nobody has to build the service on top of it.
Self-service without a ticket queue
A team goes from idea to running environment without anyone else opening a ticket. You keep control through policy and permissions instead of by being in the way.
The services live in your own registry
All resource images ship with the installation and land in your registry. Running the platform and provisioning new services requires no contact with us.
Your identity provider
SAML and OIDC against the IdP you already run. Platform permissions mirror the organization you already have, not a new one.
No new lock-in
Stackship runs on standard Kubernetes. What developers build is portable, and the platform can be lifted away without dragging the workloads down with it.
A European vendor
Stackship AB is Swedish and European-owned. If you chose OpenStack for sovereignty reasons, the layer on top doesn't have to erode that choice.
What you keep
- Your OpenStack. We don't touch it, and we require no changes to it.
- Your network and your storage. Kubernetes runs on what you already have.
- Your virtual machines. Workloads that aren't going to be containerized stay where they are. Stackship is an addition for what gets built new, not a forced migration for what works.
- Your operations team and your routines. We are a software layer, not a managed service. You keep operating your environment, with your tools and your processes.
- Your expertise. The OpenStack knowledge you've built up doesn't become worthless. It is the prerequisite for the layer on top to work.
What Stackship doesn't do
Just as important to know before you talk to us.
- We don't deliver Kubernetes. You set up the cluster yourself or through a partner. We put no requirements on distribution.
- We don't operate your environment. We make no availability commitments for an installation we don't run. Support and patch times are governed by the agreement; operations are yours.
- We don't replace OpenStack. If you need IaaS primitives, you still need OpenStack.
- We don't migrate your existing VM workloads. They can stay. Stackship addresses what gets built new.
For those who run OpenStack for others
If you run OpenStack as a cloud service for customers, Stackship is an offering you can put on top. Your customers get an application platform with self-service, you keep the customer relationship and the infrastructure, and nothing in the stack has to leave Europe.
We are not building an installation organization and we don't compete for your customers. We deliver the software layer and you deliver the cloud.
Talk to us about the partner modelFrequently Asked Questions
Layers, responsibilities, and terms in practice.
Compliance
GDPR data residency, NIS2 controls, audit logging, policy as code, RBAC, and encryption. Built into the platform, on infrastructure you control.
On top of your OpenStack, not instead of it
Tell us what your environment looks like and we'll walk through what Stackship would give your developers and what it would require from you. No slide deck, just a technical walkthrough.
Book a walkthrough