OPENSHIFT : A CASE-STUDY

WHAT IS OPENSHIFT AND HOW DOES IT WORKS?

OpenShift is a cloud development Platform as a Service (PaaS) developed by RedHat. It is an open source development platform, which enables the developers to develop and deploy their applications on cloud infrastructure. It is very helpful in developing cloud-enabled services.

OpenShift is capable of managing applications written in different languages, such as Node.js, Ruby, Python, Perl, and Java. One of the key features of OpenShift is it is extensible, which helps the users support the application written in other languages.

OpenShift comes with various concepts of virtualization as its abstraction layer. The underlying concept behind OpenShift is based on virtualization.

WHAT IS VIRTUALIZATION?

Virtualization can be defined as the creation of a virtual system rather than physical or actual version of anything starting from system, storage, or an operating system. The main goal of virtualization is to make the IT infrastructure more scalable and reliable. The concept of virtualization has been in existence from decades and with the evolution of IT industry today, it can be applied to a wide range of layers starting from System level, Hardware level, to Server level virtualization.

BASIC ARCHITECTURE OF OPENSHIFT:-

OpenShift is a layered system wherein each layer is tightly bound with the other layer using Kubernetes and Docker cluster. The architecture of OpenShift is designed in such a way that it can support and manage Docker containers, which are hosted on top of all the layers using Kubernetes. Unlike the earlier version of OpenShift V2, the new version of OpenShift V3 supports containerized infrastructure. In this model, Docker helps in creation of lightweight Linux-based containers and Kubernetes supports the task of orchestrating and managing containers on multiple hosts.

COMPONENTS OF OPENSHIFT:-

The main components of OpenShift are Kubernetes Master and Kubernetes Node.

WHY WE HAVE TO USE OPENSHIFT?

OpenShift provides a common platform for enterprise units to host their applications on cloud without worrying about the underlying operating system. This makes it very easy to use, develop, and deploy applications on cloud.

One of the key features is, it provides managed hardware and network resources for all kinds of development and testing. With OpenShift, PaaS developer has the freedom to design their required environment with specifications.

WHAT ARE THE FEATURES OF OPENSHIFT?

• Multiple Language Support
• Multiple Database Support
• Extensible Cartridge System
• Source Code Version Management
• One-Click Deployment
• Multi Environment Support
• High Availability
• Dependency and Build
• Automatic Application Scaling
• Responsive Web Console
• Rich Command-line Toolset
• Remote SSH Login to
• Applications
• Rest API Support
• Self-service On Demand
• Application Stack
• Built-in Database Services
• Continuous Integration and
• Release Management
• IDE Integration

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF OPENSHIFT?

1. Innovate and go to market at faster rate.
2. Accelerate application development
3. Enterprise-grade, container-based platform with no vendor lock-in.
4. Enable DevOps and department-wide collaboration.
5. Self-Service provisioning.

WHAT ARE THE MAJOR VERSIONS OF OPENSHIFT?

OpenShift had three major versions are as follows:-

OpenShift Origin :- This was the community addition or open source version of OpenShift. It was also known as upstream project for other two versions.

OpenShift Online :- It is a pubic PaaS as a service hosted on AWS.

OpenShift Enterprise :- is the hardened version of OpenShift with ISV and vendor licenses.

Task Description:-

✍🏻 Research for industry use cases of Openshift and create a blog, Article or Video elaborating how it works.

Let's take an case-study on CISCO...

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 RedHat OpenShift Container Platform, a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) technology formerly known as OpenShift Enterprise by RedHat.

CHALLENGE:-

To 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:-

Need to build a 1-stop shopping catalog:-

Cisco turned to RedHat 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.

RESULT:-

Move from months to minutes for faster innovation:-

Cisco developers used to wait as long as 3 months for projects to be provisioned but now the developers push a button and the service is delivered within a minutes. 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.

And in this way Cisco get benefitted by using OpenShift as theis PaaS.

So like Cisco, there are many companies i.e. Lenovo, NetApp, Ford, etc. which overcome their challenges using Openshift as their PaaS.

Thanks for reading my article!! 😇

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