OpenShift vs Kubernetes: Full Comparison

Kubernetes can be used to manage your containers, but did you know that OpenShift is built on top of Kubernetes? It’s an open-source enterprise-ready platform that small businesses use to become more Agile. Designing containerized applications is becoming a top priority for most organizations these days, so the debate between using Kubernetes or OpenShift is constantly ongoing. Kubernetes has been adopted by 60% of global enterprises and has 5.6 million developers using it. OpenShift has garnered significant interest from edge computing users, but its use cases have been less documented than Kubernetes’. In this guide, we’ll compare the differences between OpenShift vs Kubernetes and discuss their core features, use cases, applications, and more below.

What is OpenShift?

OpenShift is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering and a leading hybrid cloud app platform. It streamlines container app development and provides a set of tools and services to streamline application development lifecycles. OpenShift provides dedicated support and features a complete mix of integrated cloud-native, virtual, AI, and traditional solutions.

OpenShift has many self-managed deployment models to suit your application development and architectural needs.

What are the Key Features of OpenShift?

OpenShift delivers these critical features to developers:

• Secure container app development on any cloud
• Multi-tenant networking and fine-grained controls
• Service mesh capabilities, integrated container scanning, hybrid cloud support, and built-in application monitoring and logging
• It can run stateful apps thanks to its persistent storage management features.
• OpenShift includes the Operator Framework, which simplifies the management of Kubernetes-native apps and automates routine tasks for maintaining application health.
• Full encryption for network traffic control plane and FIPS 140-2 Level 1 compliance
• OpenShift can efficiently use your resources and offers an excellent user interface.
• OpenShift has several automated workflows that you won’t get in Kubernetes
• Its source-to-image feature pairs best with Docker Hub or Red Hat
• Offers seamless integration with CI/CD tools like Jenkins
• Provides role-based access controls (RBAC) and prevents account compromises
• Security rules like OAuth and IAM are created by default when you use OpenShift in your application environment. You don’t have to set everything up by yourself, as in the case of Kubernetes.

What is Kubernetes?

Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform that simplifies automating deployment, scaling, and managing application containers. It solves many issues related to scalability and ensures the smooth running of multiple containers simultaneously. Kubernetes clusters can be visualized as nodes or a control plane. Each node runs in its own Linux environment and features pods made up of containers.

One of the best benefits of Kubernetes is that it can run on any type of infrastructure. You can use Kubelet to continuously collect the status of your Docker containers and aggregate data on the control plane. Kubernetes can be used to manage and migrate legacy applications and cloud-native apps. You can also refactor these apps into microservices and meet changing business requirements.

What are the Key Features of Kubernetes?

Here are the key features of Kubernetes:

• Kubernetes can run on any infrastructure, whether on the cloud or locally. Developers can work with their operating system of choice, storage engines, container runtimes, and more. It gives them complete flexibility, and they can integrate their apps into Kubernetes APIs.
• Kubernetes can continually make repairs and has self-healing capabilities. It can address any failures that may impact an application’s integrity.
• You can schedule containers at scale, manage clusters, and care for your containers’ health over time.
• Kubernetes resolves issues tied to container proliferation and balances loads across pods.

4 Critical Differences between OpenShift and Kubernetes

OpenShift creates projects that are more than Kubernetes namespaces with extra features. Red Hat develops it and provides additional administrative controls. OpenShift can run on both on-premises and cloud environments. It can orchestrate and containerize Kubernetes workloads.

#1. Deployment Type

OpenShift facilitates automatic deployments, while Kubernetes implements deployment objects using controllers. Kubernetes deployment objects can handle multiple updates, while OpenShift can’t. The deployment processes are also different for each. For example, Kubernetes uses Helm, a YAML set used to simplify the deployment of containerized apps. OpenShift single pods don’t yield great results for more complex deployment scenarios.

#2. Integration Tools

A critical difference between OpenShift and Kubernetes is that OpenShift provides additional integrated development tools. It supports the entire application development lifecycle, from development to production. Kubernetes uses a third-party tool called CircleCI to build CI/CD flows.

#3. Integrated Image Registries

Kubernetes doesn’t have a built-in integrated image registry. OpenShift does, however, have an integrated image registry that can be used with Docker Hub via a console.

#4. Updates and Support

The OpenShift support team is very responsive and available 24/7. They are happy to answer all your queries. However, as Kubernetes is an open-source, community-based project, support is sometimes minimal. Kubernetes developers need to ask questions in the community forums and wait for responses from other members. However, the OpenShift team can help you out immediately.

OpenShift vs Kubernetes: Key Differences

In the debate between OpenShift vs Kubernetes, developers know that Kubernetes is more complex to set up. It is an object-based deployment system, whereas OpenShift uses DeploymentConfig (DC). OpenShift is a product, while Kubernetes is a community project. The other main difference between Kubernetes vs OpenShift is that OpenShift is subscription-based. It provides enterprise-level support policies, and Kubernetes features a large open-source support network.

Here are the critical differences between OpenShift vs Kubernetes:

What are the Key Advantages of OpenShift & Kubernetes?

OpenShift can bring you these advantages for cloud-native app development and containerization:

• OpenShift follows a build-once and deploy-anywhere model. You can manage your container applications across all cloud service platforms from the same web interface.
• OpenShift offers several automated workflows not available in Kubernetes. It supports programming languages like Java, PHP, Python, Ruby, Go, and Node.Js.
• OpenShift also provides many pre-created app templates for your convenience. Its orchestration architecture is highly secure and offers plenty of room for customization. It simplifies development so developers can focus more on writing code and delivering applications faster.

What are the Limitations of OpenShift & Kubernetes?

The following are the limitations of OpenShift:

• OpenShift can have compatibility issues, especially with tools not specifically designed for container orchestration or management. It may also not work with all third-party integrated solutions.
• There are licensing costs associated with using OpenShift. The platform requires expensive software and hardware to run, and you need a dedicated team of skilled professionals to operate it effectively.
• OpenShift is a proprietary Red Hat solution. It belongs to the RedHat product ecosystem and is subject to vendor lock-in. It would be best to buy a subscription, as it is not entirely free. Although OpenShift has trial plans and a free trial, you cannot access its advanced features without paying for them.

Here are the limitations of Kubernetes:

• Security teams cannot examine the internal states of Kubernetes containers. They need to collect telemetry data manually, such as metrics, logs, and distributed traces. They also cannot understand the context and relationships needed from data sources to identify critical application performance issues. As a result, enterprises are unable to scale up effectively.
• You need to deploy the user interface dashboard manually using commands, which can make the learning curve much steeper.
• Kubernetes can protect your interests as a developer and allow you to migrate across different cloud service providers.

When to Choose Between OpenShift vs Kubernetes?

Kubernetes may be the better option if your enterprise is on a budget. OpenShift is more premium and extends Kubernetes’ capabilities, but it will come at a cost. Kubernetes makes moving your containers across different cloud ecosystems very easy. It provides built-in security and encryption to secure container communications. OpenShift will help you support custom software application development lifecycles and protect your apps and data.

It can improve visibility and control for microservices-based applications, simplify operations, boost efficiency, and integrate with other tools and platforms like Ansible and Jenkins.

OpenShift vs Kubernetes: Use Cases

Here are different use cases for OpenShift vs Kubernetes:

OpenShift Use Cases

• OpenShift can containerize legacy apps and modernize them across multiple cloud environments. It can manage, deploy, and scale them.
• It automates the testing, deployment, and building processes of CI/CD pipelines.
• OpenShift can work with a wide variety of databases and data management tools. It is usable by companies of all sizes and industry verticals. Big brands like Barclays, Sprint, BMW, and UPS are using it to deploy their solutions quickly. It increases their application security and reduces infrastructure costs. Amadeus has decreased deployment times and improved its development process using OpenShift.

Kubernetes Use Cases

• Kubernetes can help you create your own serverless and PaaS platforms. You can build higher-level abstractions to deploy new apps, create templated cluster resources, and increase multi-cloud application portability.
• Kubernetes excels at executing CI/CD pipeline jobs and various DevOps processes. It is ultra-resilient and can scale up or down. Many developers can implement strong CI/CD practices using Kubernetes, which minimizes unnecessary changes.
• Using Kubernetes, you can manage various container workload compliance issues and solve regulatory challenges. It is great for many Artificial Intelligence (AI), deep learning, data analysis, and automation scenarios.
• It is stable, and Kubernetes clusters will support your custom business requirements. You can schedule jobs periodically and even import and retrain your models.
• Kubernetes eliminates the complexities of cloud networking and standardizes it across multiple cloud service providers. It offers ingress resources that define routes to your cluster services and automatically provision load balancers in your cloud-native account.

Why Do Organizations Need Both OpenShift and Kubernetes?

Organizations need both OpenShift and Kubernetes to unify container management and operations. Kubernetes encapsulates apps and enables consistency from development to deployment across various infrastructures. Teams can become more agile and efficient and build scalable cloud-native applications. Kubernetes is a container-as-a-service (CaaS) offering, while OpenShift is a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) product. Kubernetes is powered by the Origin Kubernetes Distribution (OKD), and OpenShift is built on Docker and Kubernetes. It offers more features than native Kubernetes.

Using both Kubernetes and OpenShift together can offer enhanced functionalities. Organizations can get access to advanced developer tools, better CI/CD pipeline integrations, container orchestration automation capabilities, and more. OpenShift can simplify Kubernetes cluster management and improve developer productivity. It has many security workflows and can run containers as non-root users by default. Its security policies are much stricter and this benefits a lot of industries.

Enterprises can use them to standardize deployments across different cloud infrastructures. They can use their GitOps and source-to-image (S2I) builds to shift their focus to coding more and less on infrastructure management. Developers can also leverage Kubernetes APIs and improve accessibility when managing their containerized and cloud-native apps using Kubernetes and OpenShift.

Conclusion

Kubernetes offers many features but requires manual configuration and can take considerable time to set up. OpenShift provides additional features and a more secure default setup. However, it does add increased complexity. Setting up, especially self-hosted Kubernetes, becomes challenging with no third-party integrations.

Instead of choosing between OpenShift vs Kubernetes, enterprises can select both and enjoy their benefits. Companies can avoid complicated container orchestration issues and save on operational costs long-term. If you’d like a holistic security solution that secures both OpenShift and Kubernetes ecosystems, try SentinelOne today.

OpenShift vs Kubernetes FAQs

1. Can OpenShift replace Kubernetes or vice versa?

OpenShift and Kubernetes cannot replace each other but serve as complementary solutions. OpenShift requires Kubernetes and is built on top of it to enhance its features. Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform used on various infrastructures. OpenShift adds enterprise-grade features like built-in monitoring role-based access control (RBAC), while Kubernetes offers excellent flexibility regarding deployments and configurations.

2. Can OpenShift and Kubernetes work together?

Yes, OpenShift and Kubernetes can work well together. It is based on Kubernetes, so it automatically supports all Kubernetes workloads and APIs. Security teams don’t have to worry much about managing the infrastructure and can focus more on application development. Using their microservices architectures, they can accelerate the rollout of cloud-native apps.

3. What are the differences between OpenShift vs Kubernetes?

Here is a list of the main differences between OpenShift vs Kubernetes for developers:

• Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration system for automating computer application deployment, scaling, and management. It provides a flexible framework that can be deployed on various infrastructures. OpenShift is an open-source container application platform by Red Hat, using Kubernetes as its foundation. It integrates additional features and tools to enhance the development and operational experience, making it a Platform as a Service (PaaS).
• Kubernetes is more challenging to set up and manage than requires much more manual configuration. It can be difficult for someone with no technical experience. It is mainly CLI (command-line interface) driven. OpenShift has a much more user-friendly interface, with an intuitive web console that allows users to deploy applications with just a few clicks. This simplifies management tasks significantly compared to Kubernetes.
• Kubernetes integrates well with various third-party tools but requires manual setup for CI/CD pipelines and other integrations. OpenShift has built-in CI/CD tools and can easily be integrated with other popular DevOps tools, making the development process much more efficient.
• Kubernetes can be installed on various platforms, including public clouds (like AWS and Azure) and any Linux distribution, providing greater flexibility in deployment options. However, it only runs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux(RHEL)/CentOS/Fedora, which kind of kills the deployment options for organizations not using those operating systems.
• Kubernetes provides basic security features but requires additional configurations for robust security measures. Users must implement their own authentication and authorization mechanisms. OpenShift has more restrictive security policies. Right out of the box, RBAC (Role-based access control) and more secure practices like Containers can’t run as root by default.

4. Which is better for my enterprise: Openshift or Kubernetes?

Whether you use OpenShift or Kubernetes will depend on your organization and budget. If you value customization and want complete control over it, use Kubernetes. If you prefer dedicated support and need commercial support for your mission-critical apps, use OpenShift.  OpenShift’s enterprise version will cost you money and has a more closed ecosystem. You can use Kubernetes with various ecosystems to support multiple integrations.