News

Red Hat OpenShift Platform Plus Now Includes OpenShift Data Foundation

• By John K. Waters
• February 4, 2022

IBM subsidiary Red Hat, one of the world’s leading providers of open-source solutions, announced this week the integration of its OpenShift Data Foundation (ODF) storage solution with its OpenShift Platform Plus Kubernetes container platform.

ODF is a software-defined, container-native storage solution launched in 2018 under the name OpenShift Container Storage and rebranded in 2021. Integrating the ODF with the OpenShift Platform Plus suite gives developers a consistent data platform with persistent storage that can span clouds and infrastructure, combined with data management capabilities for IT operations teams, the company says.

"As organizations diversify their applications to meet the evolving needs of the global economy, the need to quickly innovate at scale while still maintaining a strong IT security posture is paramount," said Joe Fernandes, VP and GM of Red Hat's Cloud Platforms group, in a statement. "Red Hat OpenShift Platform Plus provides the innovation of Kubernetes tailored for enterprise needs, along with a broad set of additional capabilities like management, enhanced security features and now storage out of the box, answering common production requirements that basic Kubernetes services cannot address."

Red Hat's OpenShift Platform Plus is a suite of solutions integrated to provide a consistent way to secure, protect and manage applications throughout the software lifecycle across Kubernetes clusters, including different cloud infrastructures. In addition to the ODF, the suite includes:

• Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, hybrid cloud foundation for building and scaling containerized applications built on Kubernetes.
• Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security for Kubernetes, a Kubernetes-native container security solution.
• Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes, a solution providing end-to-end visibility, management, and control of Kubernetes clusters.
• Red Hat Quay, a global and scalable container image registry. 
• Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation Essentials, which provides built-in cluster data management for containerized workloads across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

The latest version of the platform (v4.9) comes with some new multi-cloud object gateway namespace buckets, which resolve "data availability challenges," the company says, by offering a more flexible way to address data needs across different cloud locations. "Data can reside in a single location while also being made available on alternative locations where applications need access, without having to copy data over to the alternative location," the company says. There's also a new persistent volume encryption feature that makes it possible for users to manage and hold encryption keys separate from their cluster. The result is improved granularity along with flexibility that allows users to bring their own KMS keys.

Red Hat customers who have an active Red Hat OpenShift Platform Plus subscription receive ODF Essentials as part of their existing subscription. OpenShift Platform Plus with an the ODF Advanced bundle is also available now. The Advanced bundle adds advanced security features, multi-cluster workload support, disaster recovery, and standalone and mixed-use storage support to the capabilities in ODF Essentials.