--- title: Nova-LXD delivers bare-metal performance on OpenStack, while Ironic delivers NSA-as-a-Service description: With the release of LXC 2.0 and LXD, we now have a pure-container hypervisor that delivers bare-metal performance with a standard Linux guest OS experience. Very low latency, very high density, and very high control of specific in-guest application processes compared to KVM and ESX make it worth checking out for large-scale Linux virtuali […] url: https://canonical.com/blog/nova-lxd-delivers-bare-metal-performance-on-openstack-while-ironic-delivers-nsa-as-a-service?format=md --- 1. [Blog](https://canonical.com/blog) 2. Article --- [Mark Shuttleworth](https://canonical.com/blog/author/sabdfl "More about Mark Shuttleworth") on 13 April 2016 # Nova-LXD delivers bare-metal performance on OpenStack, while Ironic delivers NSA-as-a-Service [containers](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/containers) [docker](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/docker) [LXC](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/lxc) [LXD](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/lxd) Share on:* [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://www.canonical.com/blog/nova-lxd-delivers-bare-metal-performance-on-openstack-while-ironic-delivers-nsa-as-a-service "Share on Facebook") * [Twitter](https://twitter.com/share?text=Nova-LXD%20delivers%20bare-metal%20performance%20on%20OpenStack%2C%20while%20Ironic%20delivers%20NSA-as-a-Service&url=https://www.canonical.com/blog/nova-lxd-delivers-bare-metal-performance-on-openstack-while-ironic-delivers-nsa-as-a-service&hashtags=ubuntu "Share on Twitter") * [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://www.canonical.com/blog/nova-lxd-delivers-bare-metal-performance-on-openstack-while-ironic-delivers-nsa-as-a-service&title=Nova-LXD%20delivers%20bare-metal%20performance%20on%20OpenStack%2C%20while%20Ironic%20delivers%20NSA-as-a-Service "Share on LinkedIn") --- --- ## Newsletter signup Get the latest Canonical news and updates in your inbox. Work email: \*I agree to receive information about Canonical's products and services. By submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to [Canonical's Privacy Policy](https://canonical.com/legal/data-privacy). Sign up With the release of LXC 2.0 and LXD, we now have a pure-container hypervisor that delivers bare-metal performance with a standard Linux guest OS experience. Very low latency, very high density, and very high control of specific in-guest application processes compared to KVM and ESX make it worth checking out for large-scale Linux virtualisation operations. Even better, the drivers to enable LXD as a hypervisor in  OpenStack, are maturing upstream. That means you get bare metal performance on OpenStack for Linux workloads, without actually giving people the whole physical server. LXD supports live migration so you can migrate those users to a different physical server with no downtime, which is great for maintenance. And you can have all the nice Openstack semantics for virtual networks etc without having to try very hard. By contrast, Ironic has the problem that the user can now modify any aspect of the machine as if you gave them physical access to it. In most cases, that’s not desirable, and in public clouds it’s a fun way to let the NSA (and other agencies) install firmware for your users to enjoy later. NSA-as-a-Service does have a certain ring to it though. ## What next? Find out more about LXD at [ubuntu.com/cloud/lxd](http://www.ubuntu.com/cloud/lxd "LXD") Development happens on Github at: [github.com/lxc/lxd](https://github.com/lxc/lxd) Mailing-list support happens on: [lists.linuxcontainers.org](https://lists.linuxcontainers.org/) IRC support happens in: #lxcontainers on irc.freenode.net Try LXD online: [linuxcontainers.org/lxd/try-it](https://linuxcontainers.org/lxd/try-it) [Orginal article](http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1493) #### Related posts --- [Rhys Knipe](https://canonical.com/blog/author/rhysknipe) 7 July 2026 ### [Ubuntu Server: a platform made for enterprise scale](https://canonical.com/blog/ubuntu-server-a-platform-made-for-enterprise-scale) Cloud and Infrastructure Ubuntu tech blog A platform is an environment that allows software to run smoothly across the infrastructure, runtime, and application layers. The key word there is “smoothly”: a good platform connects those layers so well that you don’t notice it. 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