Red Hat OpenShift is an enterprise-ready Kubernetes platform with full-stack automated operations to manage hybrid cloud and multicloud deployments.
The platform is optimized to improve developer productivity and promote innovation. Red Hat OpenShift gives enterprises a foundation for container-based applications across environments: on-premises, across public/private/hybrid cloud infrastructure, and on VMware Software Defined Data Center (SDDC), with the level of control and security needed for enterprises.
IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat has presented great opportunities for deeper collaboration between our Red Hat and IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions portfolios. Several months ago, Red Hat and VMware announced a new development in their existing collaboration with a reference architecture to bring Red Hat OpenShift to the VMware SDDC stack in a supported fashion. This architecture includes VMware and Red Hat OpenShift software that supports Kubernetes and hybrid cloud deployments out of the box.
Automating deployment and modernizing applications
The IBM Cloud for VMware Solutions platform has taken this reference architecture a step further and automated its deployment on the public cloud. Now, Red Hat OpenShift can be deployed on top of the customers’ VMware virtual machines through automation so that they can begin modernizing parts of their existing applications or build new applications on containers alongside their virtual machines. Customers can take advantage of VMware’s support of Red Hat OpenShift in a scalable and automated cloud model.
With this foundation, customers can lift and shift VMware workloads to the IBM Cloud initially and then, over time, modernize their applications by deploying Red Hat OpenShift. Red Hat OpenShift can play an integral part in the application modernization journey because it is designed to reduce the complexity in adopting containers on top of virtual machines at scale since it deploys Kubernetes out of the box and is supported on VMware software. This solution set is designed to help customers achieve their digital transformation objectives at the infrastructure and application layer in a cost-effective, risk-averse, and less-complex manner.
Additionally, this solution integrates with NSX that provides a common network control plane and common security policies for virtual machines and containers. The entire stack is self-managed by the client so they can extend all of their security and governance policies into the cloud.
Learn more
Learn more about deploying Red Hat OpenShift for VMware on IBM Cloud by checking out the reference architecture and runbook. As we add automated provisioning later this year, we plan to update the architecture and runbook early in 2020 to include these advancements, along with additional technology integrations, like NSX-T.