PlanetLab is a global testbed for computer networking and distributed systems research. It enables experimenters to deploy containers to servers around the world.

PlanetLab is now in its third phase. It was founded in 2002 in the United States and grew into one of the most widely used research testbeds in networking (see PlanetLab History). In 2007, a European instance was launched and the two instances operated as a federated system, giving researchers access to nodes around the world. In 2020, the US instance closed, leaving the European instance – now called PlanetLab V3 – to carry on independently.