10 Reasons for OpenShift. A Comparison with Kubernetes

Graphic: Kubernetes and OpenShift

Plain Kubernetes

or
Enterprise-ready
OpenShift?

Kubernetes (K8s) or would you prefer OpenShift? If you want to operate a large number of containers and have modern requirements in terms of scaling and resilience, there is no way around operating a Kubernetes cluster.

However, Kubernetes itself only offers the basic functionality for operating containers and nodes. Infrastructure components that are essential for the operation of a cluster are not part of the original K8. These include, among others:

  • Storage (persistent data storage)
  • Network (for communication with the containers & the containers with each other)
  • Authentication and authorization (user and rights management)

Kubernetes offers interfaces for this, via which specialized components can be connected. However, setting up a Kubernetes cluster at this level offers countless pitfalls and is the domain of absolute experts: K8s the hard way.

OpenShift Kubernetes Comparison: 10 Reasons for OpenShift

When setting up a Kubernetes cluster, it is therefore advisable to use a well-coordinated overall package! The Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is a K8s distribution based on Kubernetes. We list 10 advantages of the platform for setting up and operating enterprise-ready Kubernetes clusters - whether in the public or private cloud or in your own data center. So “K8S the easy way”!

I. Simplified Installation

Setting up a Kubernetes cluster is a challenging task. If you move away from the absolute standards, you quickly end up with tedious manual rework. With OpenShift, installation is extremely simplified thanks to the Installer Provisioned Infrastructure (IPI) methodology. This is currently available for many platforms, even for classic bare metal installations. Special and customized installations can still be implemented using the UPI (User Provisioned Infrastructure) installation method.

II. Cluster Update

When updating a Kubernetes cluster, add-ons and plug-ins must be updated individually. There is no guarantee that all versions are compatible with each other. OpenShift offers a central update mechanism including upgrade paths for the entire platform. This also ensures the integrity of all components. The update logic has been improved in that the various services and components have been moved to the corresponding operators. Operators are software that masters operational knowledge in order to strive for a high degree of automation.

III. On Premise and Disconnected Installation promises Full Data Sovereignty

One very important aspect is the issue of data sovereignty. If you want to retain full control over your own data, you can operate clusters on your own premises on physical computers (bare metal) or virtual machines. Setting up a Kubernetes cluster on this basis is a challenge (as described above). With OpenShift as an enterprise container platform, such a setup is one of the main use cases and with an OpenShift Disconnected installation, your data remains secure and completely in your own data center. This means maximum control and protection of your sensitive information.

IV. Curated Image Registry

If you want to roll out an application or service in Kubernetes that you have not developed yourself, you usually access one of the numerous image registries on the Internet and download the desired image from there. You are forced to trust the operator of the image registry and the creator of the image. With OpenShift, you have access to an image registry curated by Red Hat. All images there are always kept up to date. Furthermore, the images are continuously checked for known weaknesses and, if necessary, new, bug-fixed versions are quickly made available. This registry offers an extensive set of images for all kinds of services (databases, middleware, builders, runtime environments).

V. Operator Hub

Operators are an increasingly popular concept for providing infrastructure and applications for a Kubernetes cluster with a high degree of automation. This includes installation, upgrade, scaling, backup/restore and the entire lifecycle management. The OpenShift web console provides the Operator Hub, a catalog of operators curated by Red Hat. Operators can be installed and then offer their capabilities through the developer catalog, allowing users to easily install and manage a service or application that a particular operator is responsible for.

VI. Logging, Monitoring & Observability

During the transformation into a cloud-native application, a classic monolithic application is split into a large number of containers running in parallel. Both the number of containers and the potentially volatile nature of the containers make comprehensive observability (central logging, monitoring, tracing, etc.) essential in order to better understand the state and behavior of a system through log files, metrics and traces. OpenShift offers ready-made solutions for this that are integrated into the platform:

  • Logging (Loki/Vector, Elastic/Fluentd)
  • Monitoring (Prometheus/Alertmanager)
  • Distributed Tracing (Jaeger/Tempo)
  • Telemetry (OpenTelemetry)
  • Network Observability (NetObserv)
  • Power Monitoring (Kepler) 

This allows problems in complex and distributed architectures to be identified and analyzed more quickly.

VII. User Experience

Kubernetes has a graphical, web-based interface, the so-called dashboard. However, this is of limited use. On the one hand, logging in is complicated (X509 client certificate). Secondly, the dashboard only shows the existing resources of the Kubernetes cluster and their status. No changes are possible (apart from the inconvenient and error-prone editing of YAML files). The web console is available in OpenShift. Simple login, all resources are displayed, modifications are possible (mostly form-based), new resources can be created. It is also easy to roll out new applications or services via the service catalog.

VIII. Developer Experience

Kubernetes does not offer any means to build images yourself. Images are loaded from the registry. How they get there is completely outside the responsibility of Kubernetes. In contrast, OpenShift provides a number of resources that allow developers to build and distribute their own images within OpenShift.

Builder images are special images that can be used to build new images. They are available as Docker builds (build images based on a Dockerfile) or source-to-image builds (build images completely from the sources of an application). The latter are provided by Red Hat for many common programming languages.

The integrated CI/CD solution OpenShift Pipelines (based on Tekton) makes it possible to implement cloud-native CI/CD pipelines, i.e. to automate the entire workflow: from checking out the sources to building the artifacts, analyzing the code, testing at various levels and automatically deploying the new images.
There is also OpenShift GitOps (based on ArgoCD) to implement/use the “everything as code” approach.

Both are integrated products in OpenShift - so there are no additional costs and you benefit from Red Hat support.

The integrated image registry is the place where the self-built images are stored before they are used for the deployment of updated containers. The images (i.e. their business-critical software) do not leave their cluster.

The odo tool has been available since OCP4 for extremely short round-trip times during development. Artifacts built on a developer's workstation can be injected directly into a running container and tested there immediately. This functionality is also available in the Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEs via corresponding plugins from Red Hat.

OpenShift Dev Spaces, based on Eclipse Che, brings developers even closer to where the action is (i.e. the pods). It offers a development environment that runs on your OpenShift cluster and is operated via the Internet browser. Preconfigured and versioned environment descriptions, such as programming languages or build frameworks, reduce the onboarding effort for developers to a minimum. Developers are free to choose which web-based IDEs they want to use in their cloud development environment: Microsoft Visual Studio Code or JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA.

OpenShift Local takes the opposite approach. This makes it possible to start a small OpenShift cluster locally on a developer's workstation and try out the work results there.

Last but not least, there is a dedicated developer console that offers an alternative view of the resources of an OpenShift project. The components of an application and how they relate to each other are presented in a graphically clear manner. The resources that make up the individual components are only accessed in the second step.

IX. Integrated OS for Reduced Operating Costs

With Red Hat OpenShift, you get Red Hat CoreOS, an operating system specifically optimized for containers that is seamlessly integrated into the platform. This means that no separate maintenance or upkeep of the operating system is required.

This means less complexity and no OS operating costs, as these are completely abstracted in the platform. For example, operating system updates are carried out automatically with an OpenShift update.

X. Extensibility: Smooth & without Compromise

In order to create added value, the OpenShift Container Platform can be easily extended as a solid basis. Integrated, coordinated and supported solutions are available for this purpose, e.g:

  • Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization:run virtual machines seamlessly on OpenShift
  • Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management (RH ACM):Efficient cluster management, policy-based compliance/governance, centralized deployment management and more
  • Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security (RH ACS): Strong security solutions for container workloads (build and run)
  • Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI):k8s-native AI and MLops platform for your AI/ML use cases
  • Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation (RH ODF):Integrated storage solution for scalable data requirements

The advantage: All solutions come from a single source from the manufacturer Red Hat and are optimally coordinated with each other, which enables smooth integration without “self-made workarounds”.

OpenShift Consulting. Our modular system for your success.

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Plain Kubernetes or Enterprise-ready OpenShift - any Questions?

Photo: Andreas Schilz

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Andreas Schilz

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