Amazon Red Hat OpenShift Announced For Public Cloud Kubernetes Users

Red Hat and Amazon Web Services (AWS) have long worked closely together. Now, with the release of Amazon Red Hat OpenShift, it's become easier than ever to run Red Hat's popular Kubernetes distribution on AWS. 

Amazon Red Hat OpenShift will be a jointly managed and jointly supported AWS enterprise Kubernetes service. This builds on Red Hat bringing OpenShift into AWS in 2017. 

According to Sathish Balakrishnan, Red Hat's VP of Hosted Platforms, this new take on OpenShift will be:

"A fully managed service that enables IT organizations to more quickly build and deploy applications in AWS on Red Hat's powerful, enterprise Kubernetes platform, using the same tools and APIs. Developers will be able to build containerized applications that integrate natively with the more than 170+ integrated AWS cloud-native services to enhance agility, innovation, and scalability. By blending Red Hat's and AWS' decades of enterprise IT knowledge and experience into Amazon Red Hat OpenShift, IT organizations will be able to launch cloud-native systems that can retain enterprise-grade security, be more agile and see improved performance while driving cost efficiencies."

Specifically, the new OpenShift enables customers to launch Red Hat OpenShift clusters with an AWS integrated experience for cluster creation and management; AWS Console listing, on-demand (hourly) billing model; single invoice for AWS deployments; and AWS support.

Amazon Red Hat OpenShift features include:

• Extensive, native integration with AWS services. AWS's robust portfolio of cloud services, from compute, storage, networking, database, analytics, and machine learning are directly accessible via Amazon Red Hat OpenShift, making it easier to build, operate, and scale globally on-demand through a familiar management interface.

• A clear path to hybrid cloud deployments through Red Hat OpenShift. Amazon Red Hat OpenShift delivers the production-ready Kubernetes that many enterprises already use on-premises today, simplifying the ability to shift workloads to the AWS public cloud as business needs dictate.

Balakrishnan explained: 

"Contrary to some industry vendors, we do not see enterprise Kubernetes as being truly successful if it's based on legacy virtualization infrastructure or layered into a Frankenstein's monster of proprietary technologies. Red Hat views the cloud-native platform for the enterprise as fully open and highly-scalable in a model that embraces upstream innovation safely for use in production. Bringing Amazon Red Hat OpenShift to the market alongside our long-time partner AWS pairs the enterprise leader in open source technologies, including Kubernetes, with the leader in public cloud infrastructure and services."

If this sounds familiar, it should. In 2018, Red Hat announced a similar Microsoft Azure service: Azure Red Hat OpenShift. Given Red Hat's vast experience with AWS and vice-versa, I expect this collaboration to work well for customers who prefer Red Hat's Kubernetes' take over AWS's Kubernetes on AWS and Amazon EKS. 

Amazon Red Hat OpenShift is currently preparing for an early access program. You can kick its tires in the tech preview soon. It's expected to go into general availability in the second half of 2020. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated are currently available on AWS if you want to use OpenShift on AWS today.

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• IBM paid $34B for this: Where Red Hat is taking OpenShift