This document provides an overview of OpenStack, including: 1. It describes how OpenStack started from an email between engineers at NASA and Rackspace discussing building an open source cloud computing platform. 2. It defines OpenStack as an open source software platform for building private and public clouds that manages compute, storage, and networking resources. 3. It outlines the main OpenStack components - Dashboard, Keystone, Glance, Neutron, Nova, Cinder, Swift - and their functions in automating and orchestrating IT resources through a loosely coupled architecture.