Support policy for container delivery models

You can deploy IBM® Sterling Order Management System Software using a supported deployment model. The support policy differs depending on the model that you use. You can create your own containers or choose any of the supported deployment models.
Note: The IBM Certified Containers supports Intel/AMD architecture only. Effective September 2021, support for Power architecture is withdrawn.
Sterling Order Management System Software provides flexible and extensive support options for container deployments. The container support policy outlines the differences in the support policy for Red Hat® OpenShift® Container Platform and other Kubernetes platform.
  • IBM Certified Containers on any Kubernetes platform - An improvement to the custom approach is a more prescriptive model that delivers containers and the associated IBM Sterling Order Management System Software Operator that are built to be enterprise-ready production images. These containers are packaged with certified container editions and are validated for cloud deployment by using the certification tools that are provided by Red Hat. You can deploy the containers to any public or private cloud by using the cloud provider’s Kubernetes-based proprietary orchestration tools.
  • IBM Certified Containers on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform - This model is a further improvement of the previous model that allows to deploy the containers to any public or private cloud by using the IBM’s multi-cloud container orchestration tools (Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform) that provides a seamless technology coverage for all the elements of deployment.

The support policy considerations for each of these models are important for organizations to consider as they plan their investment in leveraging the power of container technologies to run their production workload.

The following diagram illustrates the various deployment models:

Container deployment models

Container delivery models

Each container delivery model of Sterling Order Management System Software has different components and package entitlements that are necessary for deployment. As each model is deployed with varying degrees of divergence from a prescriptive approach, the time to value the benefit for each of these models can vary significantly.

The following table explains the container delivery model of Sterling Order Management System Software:
IBM certified container by using proprietary Kubernetes IBM certified container by using Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
  • Download the Certified Container Edition after you receive the product entitlement.
  • Use the containers that are provided by the product, or extend the containers with specific customization packages as defined by the users. Then, deploy the packages into any cloud by using the proprietary Kubernetes such as Amazon EKS, Google GKE, Azure AKS, Pivotal PCF, or native Kubernetes.
  • Download the Certified Container Edition after you receive the product entitlement.
  • Download the required Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform after you receive the product entitlement. TheRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform license must be procured separately outside of the Sterling Order Management System Software.
  • Use the containers that are provided by the product, or extend the containers with specific customization packages as defined by the users. Then, deploy the packages into any private or public cloud by using Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. It abstracts and normalizes the deployment to be cloud agnostic, and is therefore multi-cloud ready.

Capability matrix for container delivery models

The capability features and tools that are provided for container deployment differ based on the delivery model and ownership of the container creation process.

The following table illustrates the capability matrix for various container delivery models:

Features IBM Certified Containers by using proprietary Kubernetes IBM Certified Containers by using Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
Sterling Order Management System Software (core product functionality) ✓ ✓
Basic documentation ✓ ✓
Deployment or orchestration (IBM Sterling Order Management System Software Operator) ✓ ✓
Prebuilt container images with secure certified prepackaged operating system ✓ ✓
Toolkit to generate customized images ✓ ✓
Upgrade path from non-container to container model ✓ ✓
Advanced documentation (Best practices, blogs, videos, and learning materials in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform) ✗ ✓
  • Security, compliance, and portability from OpenShift Container Platform
  • Fast-tracked security updates based on Red Hat advisories
 ✗ ✓

Support policy for container delivery models

The support policies for container delivery models are:

Support statement for IBM Certified Containers deployed on any Kubernetes platform
For users who choose to deploy the IBM certified containsers on any container orchestration tools (EKS, GKE, AKS, or PCF) on public cloud such as Amazon, Azure, Google, and so on, or in their private cloud by using native Kubernetes, the IBM Technical Support is limited to the base software, certified containers, Sterling Order Management System Software Operator, upgrades, deployment and continuous delivery updates. The non-conformant characteristics of such tools hinder the ability to assist users. For an outline of the difference in the capabilities when containers are deployed on any Kubernetes platform, see the capability matrix for container delivery models.
Support statement for IBM Certified Containers that are deployed by using Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
IBM certified containers are built to best deploy on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. This combination provides an end-to-end enterprise-grade Kubernetes-based container orchestration platform for a complete lifecycle management of the containers and operators. The product containers and deployment strategy are certified by IBM to be production ready, enterprise-grade, resilient, secure and compliant, and scalable in any public and private cloud by using Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. The IBM Technical Support fully supports this delivery model across the complete lifecycle management of IBM certified containers, IBM Sterling Order Management System Software Operator based orchestration, and any deployment pattern in Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. For more information about certified containers, see Installing certified container images.
Support statement for cloud database services
You can leverage database services offered by cloud providers such as IBM, AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure, for the database versions that are supported by Sterling Order Management System Software on Oracle, DB2, and PostgreSQL. For example, use DB2 on AWS RDS, PostgreSQL on AlloyDB, and ensure that the database versions match those supported by Sterling Order Management System Software.
Deprecation policy for certified container images
The container images that are released every month are certified for the supported versions of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and Kubernetes container platforms that are released. When the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and Kubernetes versions are not supported, the corresponding images are also deprecated. Therefore, ensure that you upgrade to the latest version of the supported container images.

For more information about the supported container images, see Software Product Compatibility Reports.