In today’s dynamic world of containerization, Kubernetes OpenShift is the most preferred choice for managing and orchestrating applications in containers. A lot of the modern business scenario is leaning towards cloud-based architectures; hence, it is important here to know the difference between Kubernetes and OpenShift as cloud-native architectures are more likely to be adopted by companies in a few years. Whereas Kubernetes puts up to work in a more flexible, open-source way, OpenShift provides a complete enterprise-grade solution over Kubernetes by Red Hat, including extra features for scalability, security, and usability.
The significant difference between Kubernetes and OpenShift architectures lies in their level of functionalities. Kubernetes concentrates mainly on orchestrating container workloads, whereas OpenShift offers a superior experience by integrating additional layers of functionalities, such as development tools, in-built security, and enhanced performance management. As per some recent statistics, about 78% of organizations across the globe nowadays have container orchestration with Kubernetes, with more enterprises opting for OpenShift because it has more enterprise-level features.
Why OpenShift over Kubernetes? OpenShift is technologically advanced and has as integrated CI/CD pipelines for extensive development and automated scaling, as well as enhanced security capabilities. In contrast, Kubernetes is the core framework all organizations need for container orchestration, but more instruments are required to gain the functionality of OpenShift. So it is imperative to understand the way OpenShift is different from Kubernetes when adding when taking a call on enterprise container management solutions.
In this blog let us discuss some of the major differences between Kubernetes and OpenShift.
Table Of Content
What is OpenShift vs Kubernetes?
Kubernetes is a container-as-a-service (CaaS), open-source framework designed by Google more than ten years ago. What it does is convert a basic partition to a portable, open-source containerization system, enabling developers to run services and workloads. Its capabilities automate deploying and scaling applications and operations. Being a member of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, Kubernetes can encapsulate all the functions that application developers would want for self-monitoring, process automation, container balancing, orchestration of storage, and many more.
OpenShift is a suite of containerization software products, designed and marketed by the open-source software company, Red Hat. According to the company, Kubernetes is the kernel of distributed systems, while OpenShift is a distribution. Essentially, it is a cloud-based Kubernetes container platform that is recognized as a type of containerization software and a platform as a service (PaaS)-offered in some terms and partially built upon the famous Docker containerizer. OpenShift provides consistent security and built-in monitoring, centralized policy management, and compatibility with workloads based on Kubernetes containers. It’s quick, allows on-demand usage provisioning via self-service, and integrates with a variety of tools.
In simple terms, you can prevent vendor lock-in. Formerly known as Origin, the open-source platform, OpenShift OKD has no-cost use for developers to build, test, and deploy applications in the cloud. It also supports several languages from Go to Node.js and Ruby, Python, PHP, Perl, and Java.
Kubernetes versus OpenShift: Feature Comparison
Kubernetes Features
- Easy Availability: Kubernetes supports failover and load balancing; thus, applications stay available even when hardware or software fails.
- Self Healing: Kubernetes automatically performs health checks on applications and containers and can restart or replace containers that fail to guarantee uptime of the application.
- Portability: Kubernetes provides users with a portable, consistent environment in which they can run containerized applications on any infrastructure provider, be it a public cloud provider or a private data center.
- Extensibility: Extensibility is probably one of the key terms that best defines Kubernetes, which sets the basis for having its API richness that allows developers to create their own controllers and operators for automating their own infrastructure and application management.
OpenShift Features
- Multi-cloud Support: With OpenShift, organizations can deploy and manage applications on multiple clouds, including public, private, and hybrid cloud infrastructure.
- Developer-Friendly Experience: OpenShift enables environments that are quite friendly regarding development, including tools and workflows that ease the construction, testing, and delivery of applications by developers.
- Security: OpenShift has a collection of security features, including Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), image scanning, and container isolation that helps with the security of containerized applications.
- Automation: OpenShift provides a variety of automation features, such as automated scaling, rolling updates, and self-healing capabilities, to further simplify the management of containerized applications.
OpenShift vs Kubernetes
Both Kubernetes and OpenShift are robust and scalable software that develop applications on a large scale. Also, their deployment and management is simple because both are functional on the Apache 2.0. Don’t assume that one similarity means there are no differences among them. Below we have shared several differences.
1. Deployment
Kubernetes software is easy to install on any platform like Microsoft Azure or AWS and any Linux distros like Ubuntu and Debian. It is flexible to install because it has an open-source framework. Talking about OpenShift, it’s proprietor is Red Had. Thus, it requires Red Hat’s proprietary software RHELAH (Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host), Fedora and CentOS. So, businesses who are not using these platforms are unable to deploy OpenShift software on their system.
Related: Docker vs Kubernetes – Understand the Difference
2. Security
If you want to consider the rigidity of security policies, OpenShift here does not allow running containers as a root and also provides a default security option for more security. Whereas, Kubernetes does not come up with the built-in authentication or authorization capabilities. As a result, developers need to create bearer tokens and follow manual authentication procedures.
3. Support
Technical glitches are a must for software and applications. Kubernetes has a professional community of software developers and tech support members extending the assistance to all users. Moreover, it also supports multiple frameworks and computer languages which OpenShift misses. OpenShift has a small support community of Red Hat developers only.
Check Out Fully Managed Cloud Hosting Services for High-Performance!
4. User Experience and Interface
Kubernetes has a complicated web interface due to which many first time users will be unable to access that software. If you are a Kubernetes user and want to access its web graphics user interface (GUI), installing the Kubernetes dashboard and using kube-proxy is a must. Both of them help to cluster servers. Besides, to make authentication easier on Kubernetes, users need to create bearer tokens because there will be no login page available on the dashboard.
Comparatively, Openshift contains an intuitive web console and a one-touch login page within it. Due to the console, the simple form-based user-interface, users add, delete and modify resources in the application. All in all, OpenShift offers a distinctive user-friendly experience.
5. Releases and updates
On average, Kubernetes roughly releases four updates every year and supports multiple concurrent updates, whereas OpenShift releases 3 updates and does not support simultaneous updates.
6. Networking
Kubernetes itself has no networking solution but allows users to adopt a third-party network plug-in. OpenShift, on the other hand, has its own out-of-the-box networking solution called Open vSwitch, which consists of three native plug-ins.
7. Templates
With Kubernetes, you get to enjoy the great benefit of its very easy-to-use yet powerfully flexible Helm templates. OpenShift templates cannot even closely match those criteria.
8. Integrated CI/CD
Kubernetes is not a full-blown CI/CD system on its own, the entire CI/CD pipeline can be developed by integrating it with some automated monitoring, testing, and CI servers. Using third-party plugins like CircleCI, you can seamlessly build faster CI/CD pipelines within Kubernetes.
Unlike OpenShift, Kubernetes itself does not have complete CI/CD functionality, in a sense. Instead, OpenShift has a certified Jenkins container to act as a continuous integration server.
Related: What is Kubernetes Monitoring?
Open Shift vs Kubernetes: The Verdict
Kubernetes, as well as OpenShift, are both famous container orchestration tools, each defined by features and advantages that make them different from the other. While Kubernetes is centered around automating deployment, scaling, and management of applications, the OpenShift container platform complements Kubernetes in allowing the application to run very well. Contact us today for more information on several other well-known and most commonly used DevOps tools and their respective uses.
FAQs
What are the strategic advancements anticipated for Kubernetes OpenShift?
Better automation, new security features, tighter integration with DevOps tools, support for hybrid and multi-cloud environments, as well as advances in optimizing workloads for AI and machine learning, are some of the future strategic improvements concerning Kubernetes and OpenShift.
How will Kubernetes vs OpenShift platforms evolve in order to address the requirements of next-gen cloud-based applications?
Kubernetes and OpenShift will become more intelligent, more secure, and more scalable to meet the new demand for cloud-based applications. Kubernetes will transform the future-generation multi-cloud footprint and integrations into partner ecosystems; meanwhile, OpenShift will keep up its enterprise-ready offerings and performance improvements, to be embedded seamlessly with development tools and CI/CD processes, specifically for modern and complex workloads.
How does the pricing structure for Kubernetes vs OpenShift compare?
OpenShift is on top of Kubernetes but has licensing fees together with other additional features, which makes it quite expensive. On the other hand, Kubernetes is open-source and free, but at times needs additional tools and resources, leading to various implementation costs.
How is OpenShift different from Kubernetes in terms of learning curve?
OpenShift is more distorted in learning terms when compared to Kubernetes as it has more new features embedded like in-built CI/CD, out-of-the-box security, and developer tools. While Kubernetes revolves around container orchestration.
