Modernization to secure microservices has improved uptime and observability for critical apps
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Red Hat OpenShift is that we had several security tools that we deployed to Red Hat OpenShift platform, specifically when we were migrating our applications from monolithic architecture to microservices, and our OpenShift platform was using some of the AWS VMs as master and worker nodes, so it was completely on AWS, and we actually set it up from scratch, setting up those projects to be used for our applications and then deploying them with Red Hat OpenShift version 4, which we started using five years back, as it was the latest at that point in time, and then we continued to operate and run our applications there.
A quick, specific example of an application I deployed on Red Hat OpenShift is a banking-based application which we moved from a monolithic architecture to a microservices architecture, and we completely deployed it end-to-end, split into 10 plus microservices, and then it was deployed to Red Hat OpenShift platform 4.
What is most valuable?
The best features that Red Hat OpenShift offers in my experience include being a pre-assembled product where Red Hat actually makes choices for you, which for example, as a CloudOps Engineer, means I don't have to explicitly go into CLI because the web-based UI is simple and helpful for debugging, and they've integrated the logging of the application within Red Hat OpenShift. I really appreciate the automated updates, built-in observability comes with pre-configured Prometheus and Grafana stack for monitoring our cluster health, and the native tooling it has such as Red Hat OpenShift GitOps, which is a Red Hat supported Argo CD, and the integration into clusters are based on role-based access control with security by default, where Red Hat OpenShift is quite secure out of the box, having those strict permissions and using Security Context Constraints, and especially the immutable OS and Red Hat OpenShift virtualization, which is something that is really helpful.
Red Hat OpenShift has positively impacted my organization primarily through observability, as for us, application uptime matters a lot when providing public-facing products consumed by customers, and hence, we're using that to keep refining our application and products through observability metrics and keeping pace with market trends, as we promised 99.99% uptime to our customers, and the observability in Red Hat OpenShift is really helping us a lot with that.
What needs improvement?
Areas where Red Hat OpenShift can be improved include the licensing being a bit complex and maybe expensive, as that is something in the hands of the organization's higher management, especially when those licensing agreements are done, and I think Red Hat OpenShift is quite resource-heavy because the control plane and default monitoring stack consume significant resources, meaning for small clusters, a large percentage of compute goes just to running Red Hat OpenShift itself, not our apps.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Red Hat OpenShift for close to six years across those different organizations.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Red Hat OpenShift is stable in my experience.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Red Hat OpenShift's scalability is really good.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support is really good because so far in our case, we have always received a prompt response, and they have been really helpful to us. I would rate the customer support a 10 out of 10.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use any other solution before Red Hat OpenShift.
How was the initial setup?
Red Hat OpenShift is deployed in my organization on AWS.
What was our ROI?
We have saved a lot of time with Red Hat OpenShift.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing would suggest that it was more into a high cost, but then again, I'm an engineer, so this is taken care of by the higher management, and I don't have any definitive answer.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate any other solution before choosing Red Hat OpenShift because we wanted to use a licensed product for Kubernetes that has enterprise support.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Red Hat OpenShift a 9 out of 10 overall. I choose a nine for Red Hat OpenShift because for such kind of tools, there is always room for improvement, as I already mentioned the things that can be improved in my previous answer. I would suggest that it's quite better if you're using Red Hat OpenShift for an enterprise solution, as it's really better to have the enterprise support which Red Hat OpenShift offers, and it's easy to use for Kubernetes-based applications.
Fantastic Dashboard, Needs Resource Optimization
What do you like best about the product?
I appreciate the fantastic dashboard offered by Red Hat OpenShift. Its intuitive design places all necessary functions in one location, creating an unparalleled user interface that simplifies orchestration tasks significantly. No other orchestration solution provides such a comprehensive and user-friendly console, making Red Hat OpenShift stand out in terms of usability and accessibility for managing deployments effectively.
What do you dislike about the product?
I find Red Hat OpenShift to be a bit costly, and it requires a lot of resources to start the deployment process. Additionally, the initial setup took some time to understand and get started with.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I use Red Hat OpenShift to simplify application deployment with auto-scaling, resource management, and orchestration, making operations efficient.
All-in-One Platform That Streamlines Kubernetes Workflows
What do you like best about the product?
I like how OpenShift bundles everything into one clean, integrated platform. It cuts the usual Kubernetes chaos and gives teams a smoother, more reliable path from code to production.
What do you dislike about the product?
ChatGPT said:
OpenShift can feel heavy and overly strict. It demands more resources than you’d expect, and its opinionated setup sometimes slows you down when you just want to get work done.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It simplifies running Kubernetes by giving a secure, stable, all-in-one platform. It reduces tool sprawl, avoids constant configuration headaches, and helps teams deploy apps faster without fighting the infrastructure every day.
Effortless Kubernetes Monitoring with OpenShift
What do you like best about the product?
What I appreciate most about OpenShift is that it serves as an advanced, out-of-the-box solution for monitoring our Kubernetes cluster. The range of options available for managing and viewing information is extensive, and the interface is very straightforward to use.
What do you dislike about the product?
One aspect I dislike about Openshift is that it does not offer straightforward support for ingress. Instead, it uses what it calls "routers," which are essentially just HA Proxy processes. I am not sure about SSO integration of Openshift, but it should be available.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
In my opinion, OpenShift has greatly streamlined the container orchestration process for Kubernetes. Few products offer the same combination of detail and user-friendly experience that OpenShift provides.
Openshift for data platform
What do you like best about the product?
Automating deploys of applications using helm charts
What do you dislike about the product?
Setting up authentication using htpasswd
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Long wait times to deploy a demo and test environment
Easiest platform to get started with, and to scale with your need
What do you like best about the product?
As a Red Hat partner, the ease of getting started with OpenShift makes it the perfect platform to bring to new and existing customers for modernizing their existing workload, or to deploy new cloud/native apps to.
What do you dislike about the product?
The continuing and never ending changing in subscriptions (CPU core count), and different products (OCP, Kubernetes engine, Virtualization etc) can make it extremely hard to predict how its going to be prices when its time to renew.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
OpenShift is the perfect platform for a "any cloud, anywhere, and on-prem" platform. Build in tools like s2i and gitops makes it the perfect self/service platform to developers.
Expanded the capacity to deploy applications
What do you like best about the product?
OpenShift pipelines improve the deployment capability of applications
What do you dislike about the product?
update process slow and problematic
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
orchestration
Best of both worlds - Containerization and Virtualization
What do you like best about the product?
Manageability and a single pane to handle.
What do you dislike about the product?
Sometimes its easy to get lost in the plethora of features. A steep learning curve.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
The challenge of having multiple products to manage VM's and containers. It also resolves having multiple support contracts.
Large scale applications
What do you like best about the product?
The OpenShift integrated platform allows us to scale our products seamlessly on either private or public clouds. Its configurability helps manage very diverse applications (front ends, back ends, ...),
What do you dislike about the product?
Sometimes too complex to configure. Requires initial training and ramp up of the operations team.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Red Hat Openshift gives us an abstraction above the different platforms and clouds, allowing us to configure our application once and run it everywhere.
OpenShift, best container orchestration platform
What do you like best about the product?
Easy to deploy in day 1 and ready for production application deployments within hour. Time to market is really key here.
What do you dislike about the product?
Nothing specific, still if I have to call out then they may increase more features of OPP in their base subscription
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Time to market is best available in current market compare to competition.
