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Welcome to Stakater Cloud Orchestrator Documentation#

Welcome to the public documentation for Stakater Cloud Orchestrator (SCO).

This documentation is organised around two external audiences:

  • Cloud consumers who use the platform to create projects, manage access, and provision services
  • Platform providers who host SCO, publish service APIs, and operate the platform for their customer organisations

What is SCO?#

Stakater Cloud Orchestrator is a Kubernetes-native orchestration platform that enables Managed Service Providers, Enterprises, and Cloud Providers to deliver "anything-as-a-service" to their customers. Built on standard Kubernetes APIs and CRDs, SCO provides complete infrastructure and platform services through a unified self-service portal.

Primary Platform: Red Hat OpenShift on bare metal (production-ready and tested) Compatibility: Kubernetes-agnostic design, supports any Kubernetes distribution

Key Capabilities#

Kubernetes-Native API Layer#

SCO provides a unified Kubernetes-native API surface with built-in multi-tenancy that abstracts physical clusters. Cloud users interact with a consistent API regardless of the underlying infrastructure.

  • Standard Kubernetes API compatibility
  • Isolated virtual workspaces per project
  • Multi-cluster orchestration capabilities
  • No direct cluster access required
  • True API-level multi-tenancy

Marketplace#

Built-in marketplace for publishing and consuming service offerings using Kubernetes-native CRDs.

  • Service Providers create solutions using standard composition tools (Crossplane, KRO, custom operators)
  • Cloud Users browse and provision services through self-service
  • Solutions appear as Kubernetes custom resources
  • Flagship offerings: Virtual Machines (compute.cloud.stakater.com) and OpenShift Clusters (kubernetes.cloud.stakater.com)
  • Extensible with custom solutions for databases, storage, and more

Multi-Access Methods#

Cloud users can interact with SCO using their preferred tools:

  • kubectl: Standard Kubernetes CLI with kubeconfig
  • Terraform: Using the Kubernetes provider
  • GitOps: ArgoCD, Flux, or other GitOps tools
  • Console UI: Web interface for clickops

Complete Isolation#

SCO provides strong isolation at multiple levels:

  • Organisations: Dedicated Keycloak realm per organisation
  • Projects: Combination of KCP workspace (virtual API) + MTO tenant (actual resources)
  • Network Isolation: Complete network separation between projects
  • No Host Cluster Access: Users never interact directly with host clusters

Who is SCO For?#

Platform Providers#

Platform engineers and administrators who create and manage service offerings.

Get Started: Platform Provider Documentation

Key Tasks:

  • Create solutions using Crossplane compositions
  • Publish solutions to the marketplace
  • Create organisations for customers
  • Manage the platform and infrastructure

Cloud Consumers#

Developers and teams who consume services from the marketplace.

Get Started: Cloud Consumer Documentation

Key Tasks:

  • Create projects for applications
  • Browse and provision solutions
  • Deploy applications
  • Manage resources via kubectl, Terraform, or GitOps

How It Works#

  1. SCO is installed on your Kubernetes cluster using the ksp up CLI command (tested on OpenShift 4.14+)
  2. Platform providers create solutions (e.g., VirtualMachine-as-a-Service, OpenShift-as-a-Service) using composition tools
  3. Solutions are published to the marketplace as Kubernetes custom resources
  4. Organisations are created with dedicated Keycloak realms for authentication isolation
  5. Cloud users create projects (isolated workspaces with dedicated tenants) within their organisation
  6. Users provision solution instances from the marketplace into their projects using standard Kubernetes APIs
  7. All services run in isolated environments with network and resource separation

Core Technologies#

SCO leverages proven, cloud-native technologies:

  • Kubernetes: Foundation for all orchestration (tested on OpenShift 4.14+)
  • Kubernetes CRDs: Native extension mechanism for solutions and services
  • Virtual Machine Management: KubeVirt-based (OpenShift Virtualization on OpenShift)
  • Hosted Control Planes: hypershift for OpenShift-on-OpenShift
  • Multi-Tenant Operator (MTO): Network and resource isolation
  • Keycloak: Authentication and authorization with realm isolation
  • External Secrets Operator: Centralized secrets management
  • Composition Tools: Supports Crossplane, KRO, and custom operators for solution definitions

For Platform Providers#

For Cloud Consumers#

Learn More#

Support and Community#

Need help or want to contribute?

What's Next?#

Choose your path:

I want to provide services → Platform Provider Documentation

I want to consume services → Cloud Consumer Documentation

I want to understand SCO → Overview | Architecture