Enhancements to Red Hat OpenShift Migration and Scaling on Google Cloud

Organizations transitioning from on-premises workloads to the cloud often grapple with maintaining architectural consistency. Red Hat OpenShift offers a solution to bridge these environments without necessitating a complete re-platforming. Google Cloud serves as a secure, reliable, and high-performance platform for OpenShift, enabling global scalability and unique cost-optimization features. Today, we are announcing several updates to our collaboration with Red Hat, including Google Cloud Cluster Services for Red Hat OpenShift, a revamped console experience, and the general availability of OpenShift Virtualization on OpenShift Dedicated.

Cost Optimization with Google Cloud Infrastructure

Google Cloud's infrastructure is designed for performance, scalability, and efficiency, making it an ideal foundation for critical applications. Numerous enterprises, including Deutsche Börse, Kohl’s, Salling Group, Amadeus, and UPS, leverage Red Hat OpenShift on Google Cloud for its reliability and security. By migrating to Google Cloud, organizations can utilize built-in technologies to lower their total cost of ownership (TCO) and tailor infrastructure to their workload needs:

Custom machine types: Tailor CPU and memory to avoid paying for unused resources.
Hyperdisk storage pools: Scale performance and capacity independently for cost optimization.
Axion processors: Leverage Google’s custom ARM-based processors for better price/performance and energy efficiency.

A recent IDC study indicates that organizations migrating Red Hat OpenShift to Google Cloud can expect an average annual benefit of $26.3 million, primarily from infrastructure savings.

Introducing Google Cloud Cluster Services for Red Hat OpenShift

Google Cloud Cluster Services for OpenShift simplifies operations by providing OpenShift-native integrations with core Google Cloud services. This service facilitates a cloud-native operating model while maintaining consistency with existing architectures. It allows for selective adoption of managed services, ensuring that customers do not have to commit to an all-or-nothing approach. These integrations are supported across all OpenShift editions available on Google Cloud, which is crucial for migrations requiring a self-managed OpenShift architecture.

Key offerings include:

Managed service integrations: Access services like Hyperdisk, Filestore, Cloud Monitoring, and more directly from familiar OpenShift interfaces.
Middleware and integration layer: A robust stack that includes plugins and extensions for industry standards to ensure seamless integration.

Additionally, configuration validation through Google Cloud Workload Manager will help maintain a healthy environment by checking integrations against best practices.

Streamlined Cluster Creation in Google Cloud Console

Creating new OpenShift clusters is now more intuitive with integration into the Google Cloud Console. Users can deploy their environments faster through a simplified interface that checks for prerequisites and redirects to the Red Hat Hybrid Console for completion.

Combining VMs and Containers with OpenShift Virtualization

The general availability of Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization on OpenShift Dedicated allows users to manage virtual machines alongside containers. This feature enables the migration of VMs from legacy systems into a modern Kubernetes-based control plane, utilizing Google Cloud's bare metal instances and Hyperdisk for enhanced flexibility and configurability.