ELASTX is a Swedish cloud provider with a product technology based on OpenStack and other Open Source components. They are operating 3 data centres in the Stockholm area.
Features & Services
ELASTX are operating a combination of Open Source software in their raw form.
- The core IaaS offering is built with OpenStack, e.g. OpenStack Swift for object storage.
- The DBaaS are built with Severalnines CCX Cloud DBaaS.
- The Identity Provider is KeyCloak
All in all, the service portfolio of ELASTX covers the basic IaaS services for compute, storage, databases and networking, but not more. Elastx are offering to develop bespoke AI solutions together with a client. When specific requirements are important, this may be an interesting option. Elastx do not offer “shrink wrapped” AI cloud products as of now.
Developer Experience
ELASTX do not have even a thin layer on top of the Open Source software they are operating. Therefore, a developer working with ELASTX gets the raw, vanilla experience of the respective tools.
Some services are not covered with automation tooling. These are the ones that are not included out-of-the-box with OpenStack and the other Open Source products, e.g. with Severalnines CCX Cloud DBaaS. For example, creating a Kubernetes cluster currently requires interaction with customer support: Order a new cluster | Documentation.
Terraform
ELASTX do not maintain their own Terraform provider as of now. Rather, they are directly exposing the underlying technology and are recommending the respective Terraform providers.
A simple demo for Terraform on Elastx demonstrates the basic building blocks.
Console
The ELASTX console is simply the vanilla OpenStack console: Elastx OpenStack Dashboard.
Data Centres
ELASTX is operating 3 data centres STO1 – Stockholm South, STO2 – Stockholm West, and STO3 – Stockholm North. All these data centres are located in the Stockholm metropolitan area. The data centres are 20 kilometres apart from each other, ensuring compliance with basic georedundancy requirements.
The ELASTX data centres in Stockholm in relation to the geographical distribution of other cloud providers can be explored in our Data Centre Map.
Environmental Policy
The ELASTX data centres are powered with green energy and ELASTX holds an ISO 14001 certificate for the Environmental Management System.
Conclusion
ELASTX presents an intriguing option for Swedish businesses seeking a local partner for their cloud infrastructure needs. Its suitability, however, largely hinges on the specific types of workloads a business intends to manage, as ELASTX’s current service portfolio is primarily focused on Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).
One notable fact when considering Elastx is the proximity of its data centers—all of them located within the Stockholm metropolitan area. For businesses operating in Sweden, this geographical closeness can provide benefits such as reduced latency and compliance with local data residency regulations. On the other hand, certain geo-redundancy requirements may be hard to fulfill. Also, for serving an international client base, other cloud providers may have to be added to the mix.
A particularly distinctive feature of Elastx is its commitment to offering a pure, unmodified Open Source experience. Unlike other OpenStack cloud providers that often introduce proprietary layers or repackage the underlying Open Source solutions, Elastx maintains a “vanilla” implementation. This minimal intervention approach ensures there are no proprietary interfaces or tools, which can significantly lower the risk of vendor lock-in and provide businesses with greater flexibility to adapt their infrastructure as needed.
