OpenStack vs Red Hat OpenShift

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

OpenStack

776
1.1K
+ 1
130
Red Hat OpenShift

1.5K
1.4K
+ 1
517
Add tool

OpenStack vs Red Hat OpenShift: What are the differences?

Introduction

OpenStack and Red Hat OpenShift are two popular open-source platforms used for cloud computing and container management, respectively. While both have overlapping functionalities, there are key differences that set them apart. In this article, we will explore the main differences between OpenStack and Red Hat OpenShift.

  1. Architecture: OpenStack is a cloud computing platform that provides Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) capabilities. It enables users to manage and provision virtualized infrastructure resources such as compute, storage, and networking. On the other hand, Red Hat OpenShift is a platform as a service (PaaS) solution that focuses on containerized applications and leverages Kubernetes for container orchestration. The architecture of OpenStack is more focused on infrastructure provisioning, while OpenShift is designed for application deployment and management.

  2. Scalability: OpenStack is designed to scale horizontally by adding more compute, networking, or storage nodes to the cluster, allowing it to handle large workloads. The scaling in OpenStack is done manually or through automated systems. In contrast, Red Hat OpenShift leverages the scalability features of Kubernetes, allowing applications to scale automatically based on predefined rules or metrics such as CPU usage or memory consumption. OpenShift provides a more dynamic and automated scaling mechanism for application workloads.

  3. Container Orchestration: OpenStack primarily focuses on the infrastructure layer and does not offer built-in container orchestration capabilities. While it is possible to run containers on OpenStack, managing the containers and their lifecycle is left to the users or can be integrated with other container orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes. On the other hand, Red Hat OpenShift is built on top of Kubernetes and provides a fully integrated and managed container orchestration platform. OpenShift simplifies the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications by providing built-in container orchestration features.

  4. Application Development: OpenStack provides a flexible platform for infrastructure provisioning and resource management, making it suitable for a wide variety of use cases and workloads. It is often used by cloud service providers to offer IaaS solutions to their customers. In contrast, Red Hat OpenShift focuses on application development and deployment. It provides a streamlined developer experience with features such as built-in CI/CD pipelines, source code integration, and built-in developer tools. OpenShift is designed to accelerate the application development and deployment process.

  5. Community and Vendor Support: OpenStack has a large and diverse community of contributors and users, with support from various vendors. It is backed by the OpenStack Foundation, which ensures the project's governance and promotes collaboration. Red Hat OpenShift also has a strong community and vendor support, with Red Hat being a leading contributor to the Kubernetes project, which forms the core of OpenShift. Red Hat provides enterprise support and additional features for OpenShift, making it a popular choice for organizations seeking a commercially supported container platform.

  6. Use Case Focus: OpenStack is more suited for organizations that require a highly customizable and scalable infrastructure platform for running virtualized workloads. It is commonly used by cloud service providers, telecom operators, and enterprises with large-scale infrastructure needs. On the other hand, Red Hat OpenShift is ideal for organizations that want a streamlined and managed platform for running containerized applications. It is useful for developers and teams focusing on application development, deployment, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.

In Summary, OpenStack is a cloud computing platform focused on infrastructure provisioning and scalability, while Red Hat OpenShift is a fully managed and integrated container platform for application deployment and management. OpenStack provides flexibility and broad use case support, while OpenShift streamlines the application development process with built-in CI/CD pipelines and developer tools. Both platforms have strong community and vendor support and are suited for different cloud computing and container management requirements.

Get Advice from developers at your company using StackShare Enterprise. Sign up for StackShare Enterprise.
Learn More
Pros of OpenStack
Pros of Red Hat OpenShift
  • 56
    Private cloud
  • 38
    Avoid vendor lock-in
  • 22
    Flexible in use
  • 6
    Industry leader
  • 4
    Supported by many companies in top500
  • 4
    Robust architecture
  • 99
    Good free plan
  • 63
    Open Source
  • 47
    Easy setup
  • 43
    Nodejs support
  • 42
    Well documented
  • 32
    Custom domains
  • 28
    Mongodb support
  • 27
    Clean and simple architecture
  • 25
    PHP support
  • 21
    Customizable environments
  • 11
    Ability to run CRON jobs
  • 9
    Easier than Heroku for a WordPress blog
  • 8
    Easy deployment
  • 7
    PostgreSQL support
  • 7
    Autoscaling
  • 7
    Good balance between Heroku and AWS for flexibility
  • 5
    Free, Easy Setup, Lot of Gear or D.I.Y Gear
  • 4
    Shell access to gears
  • 3
    Great Support
  • 3
    High Security
  • 3
    Logging & Metrics
  • 2
    Cloud Agnostic
  • 2
    Runs Anywhere - AWS, GCP, Azure
  • 2
    No credit card needed
  • 2
    Because it is easy to manage
  • 2
    Secure
  • 2
    Meteor support
  • 2
    Overly complicated and over engineered in majority of e
  • 2
    Golang support
  • 2
    Its free and offer custom domain usage
  • 1
    Autoscaling at a good price point
  • 1
    Easy setup and great customer support
  • 1
    MultiCloud
  • 1
    Great free plan with excellent support
  • 1
    This is the only free one among the three as of today

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of OpenStack
Cons of Red Hat OpenShift
    Be the first to leave a con
    • 2
      Decisions are made for you, limiting your options
    • 2
      License cost
    • 1
      Behind, sometimes severely, the upstreams

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    - No public GitHub repository available -

    What is OpenStack?

    OpenStack is a cloud operating system that controls large pools of compute, storage, and networking resources throughout a datacenter, all managed through a dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface.

    What is Red Hat OpenShift?

    OpenShift is Red Hat's Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering. OpenShift is an application platform in the cloud where application developers and teams can build, test, deploy, and run their applications.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    What companies use OpenStack?
    What companies use Red Hat OpenShift?
    See which teams inside your own company are using OpenStack or Red Hat OpenShift.
    Sign up for StackShare EnterpriseLearn More

    Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

    What tools integrate with OpenStack?
    What tools integrate with Red Hat OpenShift?

    Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

    Blog Posts

    PythonDockerKubernetes+14
    12
    2597
    Node.jsnpmKubernetes+6
    1
    1402
    What are some alternatives to OpenStack and Red Hat OpenShift?
    Cloud Foundry
    Cloud Foundry is an open platform as a service (PaaS) that provides a choice of clouds, developer frameworks, and application services. Cloud Foundry makes it faster and easier to build, test, deploy, and scale applications.
    Kubernetes
    Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers. It handles scheduling onto nodes in a compute cluster and actively manages workloads to ensure that their state matches the users declared intentions.
    Docker
    The Docker Platform is the industry-leading container platform for continuous, high-velocity innovation, enabling organizations to seamlessly build and share any application — from legacy to what comes next — and securely run them anywhere
    KVM
    KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V).
    Apache CloudStack
    CloudStack is open source software designed to deploy and manage large networks of virtual machines, as a highly available, highly scalable Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud computing platform.
    See all alternatives