English on Empowering European Innovation

Safespring Kubernetes Engine demos

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Learn how Safespring Kubernetes Engine works in practice, from provisioning a managed cluster to connecting with kubectl and understanding the operational boundaries around the service.

These demos are aimed at teams evaluating Kubernetes on Safespring or preparing to run workloads on the platform. Each chapter card opens the same walkthrough at the selected timestamp, so you can jump directly to the part you need.

Introduction to Safespring Cloud Platform

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Contact us

Why choose a Swedish IaaS provider that upholds stringent data compliance standards for your software solutions?

At Safespring, we provide a cloud service that supports your business’s need for operational flexibility while maintaining a commitment to Sweden’s data privacy and compliance requirements. Our platform allows for efficient deployment, management, and scaling of applications.

What to Expect from a Meeting with Us

Insights into our cloud services and solutions tailored for SaaS companies
A walkthrough of how our platform can support your business’s digital transformation
Guidance on optimizing your cloud strategy to better suit your specific business needs

Deepen Your Expertise with Safespring OpenStack

Through focused demonstrations, we cover essential tasks and configurations necessary for managing and optimizing the Safespring OpenStack environment.

Digital control is not a product

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When CivSec published the report Digital rådighet och strukturella beroenden in May 2026, it gave a clear definition to the concept: an organization's actual ability to control information, systems and decisions over time, even when suppliers, contracts or legal conditions change.

The report places digital control alongside NIS2, the AI Act, DORA and the Swedish Cybersecurity Act (2025:1506).¹ It also points to the gap between what the regulatory frameworks already make possible and what organizations actually require when they procure, document and govern their digital environments.

Introduction to Safespring Kubernetes Engine

Sat, 20 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This demo walks through the full first-cluster flow in Safespring Kubernetes Engine: from signing in to the portal and creating a cluster to connecting with kubectl and removing the demo cluster when it is no longer needed.

The walkthrough starts in the Safespring self-service portal, where environments are used to group resources. From an empty environment, the demo creates a new Kubernetes cluster and shows the choices made during provisioning, including data center, control plane sizing and worker node sizing.

Safespring positions itself for continued growth: Appoints Johan Harrysson as new CEO

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Download high-resolution image.

The Swedish cloud provider Safespring announces today that it is strengthening its management team. Johan Harrysson has been recruited as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in a strategic move to lead the company forward following strong growth over the past five years.

Johan Harrysson, with experience as CEO of fast-growing companies in regulated industries, is a familiar name to the company, as he previously held the role of CCO (Chief Commercial Officer) at Safespring.

The EU just defined Sovereign Cloud, here is our score

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

On 20 October 2025, the European Commission published a reference for grading European clouds: the Cloud Sovereignty Framework.

Inspired by initiatives from France¹, Germany², and European regulations³, as well as international practices in export controls, supply chain resilience, and security auditability, this framework⁴ offers a new approach to objectify a topic that has been hard to quantify and compare.

This new framework echoes the white paper that the EuroStack industry initiative published just weeks prior, titled ”A Proposed Framework for a ‘Buy European’ Regulation of Strategic Digital Procurement”⁵.

EuroStack’s Second Open Letter: Buy, Sell and Fund European!

Wed, 07 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

On 6 May 2025, the EuroStack Industry Group, now over 200 strong, sent its second open letter to President von der Leyen, EVP Virkkunen and EVP Séjourné. Safespring is proud to stand with our peers in calling for the full deployment of the EuroStack by 2030.

Europe’s digital ecosystem is at a crossroads: continue as a “digital colony” dependent on US and Chinese providers, or build our own, sovereign infrastructure. The data are clear, over 80 % of large European enterprises’ cloud and software spending still flows to US giants, leaking jobs and value out of our economy. Even the major US vendors themselves now hedge against geopolitical risk with hollow promises to sue their own governments rather than secure our digital sovereignty.

When you want, need or are forced to leave an American cloud provider

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In today’s geopolitical landscape where USA quickly tries to become more like China and Russia, customers to American cloud providers are faced with difficult decisions.

Do you want to leave? Maybe you feel that USA is too far gone destroying their democracy, or that things in general are going haywire.

Do you need to leave? Maybe your customer demands that your service is free from American connections or your employees refuse to work with American cloud providers or the Trans-Atlantic Data Privacy Framework disappears. If you are in the public sector or primarily sell to the public sector then you may need to reassess whether you can store and process personal data and/or secret information.

Why Safespring supports EuroStack

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

At Safespring we have, for almost 10 years, been developing and selling cloud services that respects that the customers’ data only belong to the customer and that European digital sovereignty is necessary for Europe to thrive.

In the current global political landscape it is obvious that Europe’s dependency on USA and China when it comes to IT products and services is disastrous for Europe’s future. Europe therefore needs to act swiftly to regain control over it’s own destiny.

Is it possible to replace VMware? There might be...

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

With Broadcom's acquisition of VMware, many companies and organizations that have built their infrastructure on VMware have faced an unpleasant surprise: a new subscription-based model and overall higher prices.

TL;DR

Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware has sparked concerns over subscription-based pricing and higher costs.
While VMware excels at on-premises virtualization, Safespring offers a cloud-native alternative based on OpenStack (virtualization), Ceph (storage), and containers.
It’s not a direct drop-in replacement; instead, Safespring enables modernization of IT infrastructure with tools for network security, resilient services (via Elastic IPs and Server Groups), and flexible VPN options like WireGuard.
Built on open-source technologies, Safespring’s solutions avoid lock-in, empower administrators with hands-on control, and ensure predictable, transparent pricing over time.

Let's talk

The VMware Offering

For more than 20 years, VMware has been the most successful player in the market for virtualization solutions. VMware has offered flexibility (through virtualization) and other features and products to ease the workload of system administrators. Through good design choices, many customers have been able to migrate old physical systems directly into VMware. With robust monitoring, backend storage, and software-defined networking (SDN) solutions, VMware has enabled systems to be set up in a resilient and redundant way, requiring minimal changes to the actual software configuration of the systems. Additionally, VMware includes built-in network security features.

Embracing change: A Glimpse into Safespring's Engineering plans for 2025

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

I’m thrilled to share some exciting updates from Safespring’s engineering department. Since becoming Head of Engineering during September 2024, I’ve had the privilege of leading our teams that have been working tirelessly to enhance our infrastructure and capabilities.

It’s now almost 6 months since I took this role and I’m incredibly happy to share many exciting announcements and insights today!

TL;DR

Safespring’s Cloud Services Now Available Through OCRE 2024

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

As of February 3, 2025, Safespring’s cloud services are officially available through the OCRE 2024. This means that researchers and institutions can now procure our services more easily, with pre-negotiated terms and competitive pricing.

TL;DR

OCRE 2024 is a framework agreement that simplifies cloud service procurement for research and education institutions with pre-negotiated terms and competitive pricing.

Safespring has been a trusted provider of cloud services for the research and education sector since its founding. Our mission is to empower innovation by offering high-performance computing, managed container platforms, scalable storage, and flexible backup solutions—all designed to meet the needs of modern research environments.

Future-Ready Automated Services in the Higher Education Sector

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The higher education sector is standing at the crossroads of technology. Innovation must go on to meet new demands, but cost optimization and an ever-growing need for flexibility and security can be hard to deal with.

During a recent webinar with SIKT, “Virtualization and IT Infrastructure in the Higher Education Sector,” I had the opportunity to delve into how automation, open standards, and digital sovereignty can reshape IT operations for universities and colleges.

Driving Open Science Forward: Safespring’s Role in the EOSC EU Node Launch

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

We’re excited to share that the technical launch of the EOSC EU Node took place on 10 October 2024, and our CEO, Fredric, was present at the event in Brussels.

This milestone brings Europe one step closer to a fully operational platform for advancing Open Science and fostering collaboration across the research community.

Safespring is proud to be part of this important initiative aimed at building trusted infrastructure for open science across Europe. Read more about the event and its impact here: Technical Launch of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) EU Node.

Escaping the VMware trap?

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Broadcom's acquisition of VMware has had significant impacts on customers, causing concern and prompting some to consider alternatives. This post will address these challenges and describe one solution to the challenges.

These changes, after Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware, have led to higher long-term costs for many customers, especially smaller businesses that may see dramatic increases in their annual renewal fees.

Key effects of Broadcom's acquisition of VMware

Self-Service Access to Open Source Infrastructure using NATS & Huma

Fri, 24 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I recently had the opportunity to present at OpenInfra Day Sweden 2024, and I'm excited to share the insights and developments from our team at Safespring.

Over the past three months, we’ve been working on a new tool designed to enhance self-service access to open source infrastructure for our B2B and European research community customers. This tool leverages the power of NATS and Huma technologies.

Safespring’s Mission Safespring aims to become the platform of choice for European cloud computing. We are dedicated to providing secure, compliant cloud services across multiple data centers in the Nordics, including Oslo, Stockholm, and Luleå. Our offerings adhere to GDPR and European security standards, ensuring top-notch security for our users.

Greetings from OpenInfra Days Gothenburg 2024!

Tue, 07 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Hello everyone,

I’m Jon Ander Novella de Miguel, and I had the pleasure of representing Safespring at the OpenInfra Days held in Gothenburg on May 7, 2024. Although we missed seeing many of you there, I’m excited to share the essence of our session and how Safespring is pushing the boundaries of open source infrastructure.

Our Presentation: Enhancing Infrastructure with NATS and Huma

Our talk, “Using NATS and Huma to Enhance Open Source Infrastructure,” focused on how these technologies are integral to fostering a robust, secure, and flexible digital environment, especially for B2B and European research communities. We’re committed to providing solutions that not only meet current demands but also anticipate future challenges.

Creating and Managing SSH Keys in OpenStack

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Join us in this detailed demonstration where we guide you through the process of creating SSH keys for secure access to the OpenStack environment.

Starting with the basics, this video covers the generation of an RSA SSH key using the ssh-keygen command, including optional passphrase settings for enhanced security.

We then proceed to illustrate how to handle the public key by uploading it to the OpenStack platform and managing key pairs within the system.

Implementing Server Groups in OpenStack

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This video tutorial delves into the concept of server groups within OpenStack, a critical feature for ensuring that instances, particularly in high-availability setups like database clusters, do not run on the same physical hardware.

Safespring Cloud Architect, Gabriel, explains the distinction between different policies like affinity, anti-affinity, soft affinity, and soft anti-affinity, emphasizing the importance of anti-affinity for scenarios requiring true redundancy.

By walking through the creation of a server group named ‘DB Cluster’ with an anti-affinity policy, the video demonstrates how to configure and deploy instances that are guaranteed to operate on separate compute nodes.

Launching an Instance from an Image in OpenStack

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This video provides a step-by-step guide on launching a new instance in OpenStack using an image as the source.

Starting from the Safespring portal, the tutorial covers the entire process, from naming your instance and selecting the appropriate image and flavor to configuring network settings and security groups.

You will learn how to choose between different storage and compute options, set up network connectivity including IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, and ensure your instance is secure through proper security group settings.

Mastering Security Groups in OpenStack

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This tutorial offers an in-depth look at setting up and managing security groups within OpenStack, crucial for controlling access to instances across various network configurations.

Beginning with an overview of security groups’ role in defining what can interact within the OpenStack environment, the video guides viewers through creating and applying security groups named “frontend” and “backend” to manage web and database servers respectively.

The session demonstrates how to configure security rules that enable HTTPS and MySQL traffic, utilizing the capability to reference other security groups instead of specific IP addresses for scalability and ease of management.

Starting and Managing Instances from Volumes in OpenStack

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This tutorial delves into the process of launching an OpenStack instance using a volume instead of the default image source, providing a more robust data storage solution.

The video begins by explaining the benefits of using volumes, particularly their ability to store data in multiple copies, reducing the risk of data loss due to hardware failures.

Viewers will be guided through the steps of creating a bootable volume from an image, selecting storage types for performance or cost efficiency, and configuring the instance with appropriate network and security settings.

Understanding Instance Types and Storage Options in Safespring

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This tutorial video dives into the variety of instance types, also known as "flavors," available on the Safespring platform.

You will learn the key differences between B2 and L2 flavors, focusing on their storage capabilities. The video highlights how B2 flavors require an external volume for boot operations, whereas L2 flavors include built-in storage suitable for operating systems but with a caveat on data persistence and security.

This guide is essential for users looking to make informed decisions about instance configurations and understanding the implications of each flavor for their specific needs in cloud environments.

Understanding Network Configurations in OpenStack

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This instructional video provides a detailed overview of network configurations available on the Safespring OpenStack platform.

This tutorial demonstrates the practical use of jump hosts to securely access instances that are not directly reachable from external networks.

Starting with a setup that includes instances in both public and default networks, the video shows the step-by-step process of transferring necessary SSH keys to a public jump host, enabling secure shell access to a backend instance located in a less accessible network.

Utilizing Jump Hosts for Secure Access in OpenStack

Fri, 19 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This tutorial demonstrates the practical use of jump hosts to securely access instances that are not directly reachable from external networks.

The guide emphasizes the role of security groups and network settings in ensuring secure and controlled connectivity across different network layers.

Kubernetes Project Onboarding Guide

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to Project Onboarding - a transformative approach to simplifying namespace management in Kubernetes for multi-tenant environments.

This tool is crafted for IT architects, DevOps engineers, and technical teams eager to integrate company-specific workflows into Kubernetes, fostering a seamless, efficient namespace management system. Project Onboarding stands at the intersection of innovation and simplicity, offering a robust solution to the complexities often encountered in Kubernetes namespace management.

GitHub repository

Install the OpenStack Cinder CSI driver for Kubernetes

Wed, 13 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Have you configured your OKD or OpenShift cluster with the platform option set to "none" and, as a result, are missing the OpenStack Cinder CSI Driver Operator?

This guide is designed to help you effortlessly integrate the Cinder CSI Volume Provisioner into your OKD or OpenShift cluster. It’s designed to streamline the process, making the integration seamless and hassle-free.

Moreover, this guide is not exclusive to OpenShift or OKD environments; it can be easily adapted for use in vanilla Kubernetes setups with a simple modification. A key highlight for OKD and OpenShift users is the inclusion of Security Context Constraints (SCC) cluster role bindings in the Helm chart’s templates directory. This critical feature enables the Cinder CSI pods to run with privileged access, aligning them with OpenShift’s security practices and ensuring their optimal functionality within your cluster’s security framework.

Automating cloud resources with Python and Pulumi: Separating config from code

Tue, 19 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In infrastructure code (and other code, too) it is a good practice to separate the program logic from its input data (configuration). That way, in order to change the state of our infrastructure, we only need to change the input data and not the program unless the logic of the program changes.

In the previous blog post, we went through a basic setup of Pulumi with the Python template for using it to manage OpenStack resources in Safespring. This is a good starting point to understand the basics of how one can use Python together with Pulumi to declaratively manage infrastructure resources without having to write all resource graph management from the ground and up, which, of course, also would be possible with Python or any modern programming language for that matter.

Automating cloud resources with Python and Pulumi: Basic provisioning

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Efficient consumption of cloud services is all about automating the up and down-scaling of resources according to the ever-changing needs. The list of tools, their properties and their fitness for the purpose can be daunting.

On top of that comes the changing landscape in licensing and subscription, sometimes with astonishing effects on your existing cloud strategy, recently exemplified by Hashicorp’s unexpected license change to the Business Source License (BSL). In this landscape, we must always be prepared to adapt and change, thus, it is good to have acquaintance with both old established tools and some alternatives. This post is the first in a series on how to utilize Pulumi to automate service consumption towards the Safespring cloud APIs.

Creating a multi-cloud web service from scratch

Wed, 07 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Explore the power of infrastructure as code (IAC) with this guide on creating a scalable web application using multiple OpenStack sites. Learn how to utilize Terraform for infrastructure provisioning, Ansible for system configuration, and how these tools, in combination with DNS round-robin, can offer a dynamic and scalable solution for your web services.

In previous posts, we have shown the power of combining Terraform for infrastructure provisioning and Ansible for configuring operating systems on the instances in the infrastructure. In this blog post, we take it one step further. We will show a minimal example of how to scale up web service backends across multiple sites and use an API programmable DNS servcie (Gandi) to maintain A records for those backends, effectively scaling the service by means of DNS round-robin (RR).

Automating backup node enrollment with Cloutility API-client

Wed, 26 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In this tutorial, we will explore Safespring's cloutility-backup-client library written in Go. We will write a small, easily deployable, tool to automate the enrollment procedure of backup nodes and take a deeper look at a few of the methods available in the cloutility-api-client library.

Creating an open-source backup client library

Sun, 23 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

At Safespring, we are passionate about open source technologies. Our platform relies on multiple open source products, and we are committed to giving back to the community whenever possible.

Sometimes, however, we find ourselves in need of a solution that does not yet exist. As was the case when we wanted to create a tool to simplify the enrollment process for backup clients to our backup solution.

Safesprings backup solution is based on IBM Spectrum Protect fronted by Auwau’s Cloutility software. This combination provides a powerful enterprise-grade backup solution and Cloutility provides both customer portal and a rich API. However, we were unable to find an existing client library that could be used to consume the Cloutility API.

Important update regarding the EOL of the legacy platform in STO1

Tue, 18 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

As the legacy platform in STO1 is reaching its end of life, we hope that you're getting along with the migration to the new platform.

According to our project tracking, most of you have already migrated to the new platform or are in the progress of doing so.

For those who haven’t started yet, we would like to encourage you to do so as soon as possible and get in touch with us if you need any assistance. All steps necessary to migrate your instances can be found in our migration guide.

CLOUD Act and FISA 702

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The CLOUD Act (Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data Act) and FISA 702 (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Section 702) are U.S. laws that can create data protection and privacy risks when using U.S. cloud services.

Both laws can affect companies and organizations outside the United States, including European organizations that handle sensitive data such as personal data and patient data.

In practice, this can mean that a European organization using U.S. cloud services may be exposed to requests or surveillance from U.S. authorities. That can create legal uncertainty and potential conflicts with GDPR, especially when data is sensitive or when the organization needs to demonstrate control over where data is processed and who can access it.

Repartitioning Root Filesystem on NVMe Instances

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 13:58:58 +0100

The default root filesystem on an NVMe instance in the l2-series on Safespring's platform comes with an ext4 filesystem, but in some cases, users may need to create additional partitions or use a different filesystem.

Sometimes you would like to repartition this disk into several partitions if the application you want to run demands a separate partition or a certain filesystem that is not the default ext4 that the root filesystem from the cloud image is running by default. One application that demands this is MongoDB so if your aiming at setup a MongoDB cluster you will need to perform this on your cluster nodes.

Important Update Regarding Retirement of Legacy Platform in STO1

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Dear valued customers, We would like to inform you that our legacy platform in sto1 will be shut down on May 1st.

You will not be able to create new instances on this platform after March 1st 2023 and there will only be best effort support available starting April 1st 2023. These are hard dates that we will be adhering to, so it is important that you take necessary steps to migrate to our new platform.

Safespring Backup: A complete rehaul of the user portal

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 13:58:58 +0100

Introduction

Safespring Backup is based on the very well-established Spectrum Protect from IBM. It has many strengths, such as high security, excellent scalability and data lifecycle automation.

Spectrum Protect can protect countless Terabytes of data with minimal administration effort.

Backups are encrypted in transit with TLS 1.2 but can also be configured to be encrypted client side for even higher security automatically.

Being a well-proven solution for large enterprises, Spectrum Protect definitely can handle the scale of large service provider setups such as Safespring’s. Where it somewhat lacks is flexible administration with the handling of user accounts and role assignments. Since backups generally are handled by a designated team in a large organisation, this drawback is something that is shared with many other backup solutions on the market and, therefore, not a specific problem for Spectrum Protect.

Useful (perhaps) Openstack API tricks for enabling more automation

Tue, 20 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Safespring promote as much automation as possible using standard tools like Terraform and Ansible. Sometimes, however, it is necessary to dig one step deeper in order to find some missing pieces of information in order to create a complete automation.

Introduction (Problem statement)

In the Safespring platform, the S3 compatible storage service and the OpenStack based compute service are now integrated. It means that once you have access to the compute platform you also can fetch credentials for accessing the integrated S3 service through the web GUI and/or the command line interface (CLI).

Using a jump host for persistent access to Safespring's APIs

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Using a jump host is good practice for increased security and a simple solution when you don’t have a fixed IP-adress but need access to Safespring’s APIs.

Automation tools like Terraform require access to several of OpenStack’s APIs which we’re currently exposing only to whitelisted IPs for security reasons. This is a practice we share with several other small and independent cloud providers like ourselves. With many engineers working remote and not having a fixed IP, submitting a support ticket each time your public IP changes might feel tedious and unnecessary in 2022. However, using a jump host is not only a simple solution to this problem but also good practice for most automation scenarios where security is critical.

Setting up a minimal Kubernetes cluster on Safespring using Kubespray

Mon, 22 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Kubespray is a comprehensive tool that covers a lot of different use cases. In this post we will focus on the necessary config to install a minimal K8S cluster for test and experiment on Safespring.

Prerequisites

This blog post assumes that you use the open source Terraform CLI. Terraform CLI is just a binary program that you download from the releases page, for your architecture/platform. Here you also find checksums for the files to verify their integrity. There is also the official Terraform documentation.
A basic understanding of Ansible playbooks and inventories is also necessary.
Some basic usage of the OpenStack CLI will also be required.

Kubespray introduction

Kubespray is a composition of Ansible playbooks, inventory, provisioning tools, and domain knowledge for generic OS/Kubernetes clusters configuration management tasks. It is widely used, has a lot of flexibility using parameters and is actively maintained.

From zero to continuous compliance with Terraform, Ansible and Rudder

Wed, 29 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This blog post will look at how we can build even further on previously demonstrated concepts to create sets of servers that are continuously monitored and kept in compliance using Rudder, a state of the art configuration management tool.

update

Updated to fix an inconsistency on 2022-08-22

If you found this post useful, be sure to check out the rest of the series on using Terraform and Ansible for resource provisioning and compliance. In particular, you might also enjoy:

Integrating Terraform and Ansible

Mon, 23 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is part three in the series about Safespring's Terraform modules. This blog post will look at how we can integrate Ansible and Terraform in order to configure services on top of the instances provisioned with Terraform, using Terraform state as Ansible inventory.

If you found this post useful, be sure to check out the rest of the series on using Terraform and Ansible for resource provisioning and compliance. In particular, you might also enjoy:

Flexible provisioning of resources with Safespring's new Terraform modules

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This is part two in the series about Safespring's Terraform modules. This blog post will look at the new and more general Safespring modules for compute instances and security groups.

We will also look at how we can use it to provision sets of instances in different configurations allowing only the necessary connections using security groups. The next post will be about using Ansible and from terraform/OpenStack to configure services on the provisioned instances.

The Safespring network model explained

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This blog post will explain the different aspects of the Safespring network stack from a user perspective.

If you come from other platforms that use the legacy «layer 2 bridging» approach (with software-defined switches, routers, floating IP addresses, etc.), please read the full post to understand the implications. It does not work the way you think :-). Prerequisites for understanding this post are basic knowledge of CIDR notation, IP protocols (TCP,UDP,ICMP), and IP-based access control.

SSH key best practices for OpenStack cloud instances

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

For Linux-/Unix-based cloud instances, the initial root access to the instances is enabled employing SSH keys. In this post, we'll go through some best practices and things to keep in mind when managing ssh-keys to enable root access to instances.

Summary (TL;DR)

The poorly named “OpenStack keypair” contains no secrets, only an SSH pubkey.
SSH keypairs are not the same as an OpenStack keypair.
SSH keypairs should be created in a trusted environment on the user’s computer. It should be of type RSA. The private key should be kept in an encrypted secret store and never be exposed outside the user’s local site/environment.
An “OpenStack keypair” is tied to the user creating it, not a specific project.
Nobody cares about SSH host keys, but they should.

Background

When you provision instances in any cloud platform, you get a virtual server with a base operating system like Centos, Ubuntu, Debian, FreeBSD, etc., based on which cloud image the instance is provisioned from. You can use images available in the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platform or upload your own, as long as the image is prepared for being used with the IaaS-platform you use. In Safespring’s case, the image must be made for the OpenStack IaaS.

Faster S3 and other news from Safespring

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

This article is a collection of the latest news from Safespring. Consider subscribing to our newsletter to get the latest updates directly to your inbox.

Kristian is our contact for everyone in the academic sector

Safespring is a significant supplier of infrastructure as a service to the academic sector in Norway and Sweden. Through customers such as prominent universities and colleges, we have gained extensive experience in secure projects focusing on cloud services such as virtual servers, Kubernetes, and large-scale storage.

CPU performance improvement on Windows

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In this blog post, we'll go through some virtual machine optimizations. We optimized CPU performance improvement on Windows due to poor application performance for one of our customers.

Background

We were recently contacted by a client using Windows 2019 server operating system. They experienced higher CPU load and slower response times when using our platform than other IaaS-solutions.

Our general internal experience with Windows is that it had stable performance across compute/hypervisor hosts and that it got better performance when we installed newer hardware (as expected). We had never tested against other cloud providers. Thus, we were unaware of the problem.

Dead easy provisioning using the Safespring Terraform modules

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In this blog post, we'll showcase just how easy it is by the example of our community Terraform modules.

It has never been easier to provision compute and block storage resources in Safespring’s infrastructure platform. Modules can be sourced directly from GitHub using a minimum of Terraform code.

If you found this post useful, be sure to check out the rest of the series on using Terraform and Ansible for resource provisioning and compliance. In particular, you might also enjoy:

Security advisory regarding the Log4j critical vulnerability

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +0000

A vulnerability in Log4j Log4j is a small internal module that handles logging for Java programs. was announced on the 10th of December 2021. Reports worldwide show that the vulnerability is used actively and successfully in attacks.

Log4j is a Java-based logging utility widely used in popular software systems.

Key Takeaways

This has no consequences for Safesprings systems.
Safespring customers should stop their services that might be affected.

What we’ve done so far

Fortunately, this has no consequences for our systems, and no services are down.

OpenShift runs smoothly on Safespring's platform

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 13:58:58 +0100

Containers require flexibility. Safespring's platform is created for scalability, high security and is optimized for OpenShift cluster resource requirements.

Safespring’s Compute service gives you all the resources you need to run OKD, the open source version of Kubernetes based on Red Hat OpenShift.

Are you running OpenShift on-prem today? With a Swedish cloud service as the basis for your OKD cluster, you get both the scalability and security of a managed infrastructure platform. Let your developers focus on OpenShift and pay only for the resources you consume.