CISCO WITH OPENSHIFT

Red Hat OpenShift is a multifaceted, open source container application platform from Red Hat Inc. for the development, deployment and management of applications.

Rearchitected during 2016 and 2017 to take advantage of advancements in cloud technology -- most notably, containers -- OpenShift provides developers with an integrated development environment (IDE) for building and deploying Docker-formatted containers, and then managing them with the open source Kubernetes container orchestration platform.

Red Hat OpenShift is available in four models:

• OpenShift Container Platform
• OpenShift Online
• OpenShift Dedicated
• OpenShift.io

Though the implementations and locations on which they run and the pricing models differ, the actual underlying OpenShift code and functionality are identical.

History of OpenShift

OpenShift originally came from Red Hat’s acquisition of Makara, a company with a proprietary PaaS solution based on Linux containers. Even though OpenShift was announced in May 2011, it was proprietary technology and did not become open-source until May of 2012. Up until v3, the container technology and container orchestration technology used custom developed technologies. This changed in v3 with the adoption of Docker as the container technology, and Kubernetes as the container orchestration technology. The v4 product has many other architectural changes, a prominent one being a shift to using CRI-O as the container runtime (and Podman for interacting with pods and containers), and Buildah as the container build tool, thus breaking the exclusive dependency on Docker.

Why use Red Hat OpenShift ?

As container use increases in app development and production, services such as OpenShift offer ways to manage and automate a large amount of containers. Doing so frees up developers from the manual management of containers.

Also, OpenShift can help IT organizations bridge legacy servers supporting traditional applications and modern, microservices-based work. These features feed into a mobile-first approach for companies that want to produce smartphone and tablet apps quickly. Finally, OpenShift's options promote continuous app development and common tools for development and operations teams. This approach is a cornerstone of DevOps efforts.

How Red Hat OpenShift works ?



According to Red Hat, the key to OpenShift lies in the combination of Docker containers and Kubernetes orchestration, both built on RHEL. By using Docker at its model, OpenShift enables any app created with it to run anywhere else that Docker containers are supported.

After developers push code to OpenShift either through software version control or continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) systems, OpenShift orchestrates how and when the apps run. It also enables dev teams to fix, fine tune and scale those apps as quickly as needed.

Containers associated with OpenShift can serve as web frameworks or stateful services, according to Red Hat.

In addition to enabling developers to create their own containers, OpenShift provides an online container catalog with contributions from Red Hat and third parties. Some popular categories include container management, mobile application development, operating systems, programming languages, logging and monitoring, and database management.

case study

OVERVIEW

To keep pace with customer demand, Cisco, a leading provider of networking solutions, must quickly deliver new IT products and solutions. The challenge is to keep its IT team engaged and productive to fuel innovation. With help from Red Hat, Cisco built its Lightweight Application Environment (LAE), which runs on Red Hat® OpenShift Container Platform, a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) technology formerly known as OpenShift Enterprise by Red Hat. Now provisioning times have gone from months to minutes, and the Cisco IT team can focus on strategic initiatives.

Challenge: Improve productivity and speed to market

Cisco’s success depends on its ability to quickly deliver innovative IT products and solutions to customers. Delays can cost the company business. To encourage speed to market and improve satisfaction, Cisco needed to keep its 1,000+ developers fully engaged in designing and building applications and guard against high employee turnover, low productivity, and slow response times.

Solution: Build a 1-stop shopping catalog

Cisco turned to Red Hat to design and build its LAE, a PaaS deployment that supports hundreds of apps that power a variety of business functions. The solution gives developers a self-service portal they can use to order the IT resources they need to develop apps, eliminating manual provisioning. “It’s a 1-stop shopping catalog … making the ordering process seamless and easier for developers to use,” said Sudha Agrahara, IT manager at Cisco.

Software & services

• Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
• Red Hat OpenStack Platform
• Red Hat JBoss® Enterprise Application Platform
• Red Hat Consulting

Hardware

• Cisco UCS servers
• Cisco networking equipment
• NetApp storage

Results: Move from months to minutes for faster innovation

Cisco developers used to wait as long as 3 months for projects to be provisioned. “[Now] the developers push a button and the service is delivered within a matter of … minutes,” said Agrahara. More productivity means customers get innovative products and services faster. The solution reduces demands on limited IT resources and gives developers more time to focus on creative projects, increasing employee satisfaction. “Having a strategic, forward-thinking partner like Red Hat that aligns with all of our priorities is a key part of Cisco’s success,” said Michael White, IT architect at Cisco. “We’re thankful to have Red Hat as our partner.”