We need to offer our customers flexible solutions that will help them succeed in the hybrid world as well. Efficient resource management, easier maintenance, and faster deployment. IBM's answer to this are called Cloud Paks (there are six of them) and Red Hat OpenShift to manage Kubernetes environments.
With the increasing shift towards the utilization of cloud services, computing power has become bulk goods. In theory, organizations could optimize IT costs by always moving workloads to where the cheapest capacity can be obtained at that very moment. This does not, of course, correspond to practical reality, as various cloud services require their own kind of expertise and moving workloads from one place to another is more challenging than the marketing material might suggest. However, we need to be able to offer our customers flexible solutions that will help them succeed in the hybrid world as well.
IT architecture should be assessed as an entity instead of many separate parts. The foundation is based on modern, platform-independent and intelligently controlled container implementation and the integrated application layer built on it – without forgetting security, of course.
Gartner predicts that by 2022, more than 75% of global organizations will be running containerized applications in production, up from less than 30% today.
Customers are thinking about these solutions now, so we should all be strongly involved in this discussion.So far there often are only a few container environments and/or they are driven on only one platform. Thus, their management is still possible without the use of OpenShift. In the longer term, however, this approach and relying too much on one cloud solution can create a new kind of vendor lock-in situation.
By lifting the control layer "higher", the necessary expertise can be better targeted, and the customer is left with more flexibility in terms of the platform itself – whether it is in the local data center, cloud or a hybrid model using several options.
IBM's answer to this are the Cloud Paks and Red Hat OpenShift to manage Kubernetes environments. OpenShift is a key component of the puzzle and brings significant added value to customers as they move to run applications in containers. This video briefly reviews how OpenShift significantly facilitates the work of app developers and IT administrators alike.