MaaS – Metal as a Service

09.07.2019 6,749 12

Martin Pramatarov

MaaS is not just a cool name. It is actually super useful. Imagine you have a dream configuration, and nobody is able to provide it to you. MaaS can! MaaS is literary just hardware, Metal as a service.

Why would you like just the bare metal as a service?

Yes, you could rent a cloud server, but it will have a pre-installed operating system. If you have a startup company, you might have very different needs from what that server can provide. You could have a specific desire, a particular OS in mind with some extra software. With MaaS you can choose exactly what you want to be installed. Ubuntu, Windows or another OS. You decide.

You can get better efficiency with the best software configuration. You can get approximately a 5% increase in performance, thanks to the configuration you decided.

How does MaaS work?

MaaS is a manager of nodes. After the user registers, the new system joins the pool and gets ready. The control mechanism is IPMI or Cisco UCS.

An MaaS node is not like a virtual machine in the cloud. The user has a lot more control – root access for specific adjustments and drivers’ management. The full control is the difference between the MaaS and a cloud option.

It is scalable and easy to set up. You can have a few servers or hundreds in just minutes.

Ok, so you rented the parts, now what?

MaaS has a user interface that allows you to install any OS from an ISO file. It is fast to set up and you would be ready to go.

You can create virtual machines with KVM Micro-clouds. See the resources used for each KVM pod.

Benefits of MaaS

Fast and easy installation. You can install a complete OS in a few minutes with a simple copy and paste process. No need to format drives, create different partitions and setup applications.

More processing power. This is thanks to the fact that no hypervisor is needed. You can access the full potential of the hardware.

No sharing. You don’t share resources with other users. Your hardware is yours and you can use it at 100%.

Security. For companies with very sensitive data, this could be a good option. It is a super good safe container if set up the right way.

Now that you know what MaaS is, you can try it yourself depending on your business needs. And don’t forget to stay tuned for more updates on MaaS and other interesting articles.

Source: https://maas.io/