Red Hat OpenShift is an enterprise Kubernetes platform developed and supported by Red Hat (an IBM company). It packages Kubernetes with integrated enterprise tooling — including CI/CD pipelines, a container registry, developer self-service environments, built-in security controls and automated cluster lifecycle management — and delivers them as a fully supported product that runs consistently across cloud and on-premise infrastructure.

OpenShift is used to deploy, manage and scale containerised applications in enterprise environments. Common use cases include microservices platforms, enterprise integration, AI and analytics, digital commerce, and application modernisation including migration from VMware. It is particularly well-suited to regulated industries where built-in governance, compliance and security controls are important.

OpenShift manages the full lifecycle of containerised applications: building, testing, deploying, scaling and monitoring. It provides automated cluster management, integrated CI/CD and GitOps tooling, a built-in container registry, developer self-service environments, enterprise security controls, and consistent operations across all deployment environments. It handles the platform-level complexity so your development and operations teams can focus on applications.

OpenShift is built on Kubernetes — it uses the Kubernetes API and is fully compatible with Kubernetes tooling. The difference is that OpenShift adds integrated enterprise capabilities on top: CI/CD pipelines, a container registry, developer self-service, automated cluster lifecycle management, more granular security controls (including Security Context Constraints), and enterprise vendor support from Red Hat. Kubernetes requires you to assemble and maintain these capabilities yourself.

Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) is the self-managed version of OpenShift, deployed on your own infrastructure (on-premise or in public cloud). It gives organisations full control over their OpenShift environment while receiving Red Hat support and updates. It’s distinct from managed offerings like ROSA or ARO, where the cloud provider manages more of the operational infrastructure.

Red Hat OpenShift virtualisation (built on KubeVirt) allows organisations to run virtual machines directly on the OpenShift platform alongside containerised workloads. It provides a migration path from VMware and other hypervisor platforms, enabling organisations to consolidate VM and container workloads on a single platform and progressively modernise VM-based applications over time.

Red Hat OpenShift Cloud Services are managed OpenShift offerings co-operated by Red Hat and cloud providers. They include ROSA (Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS), Azure Red Hat OpenShift (ARO) and OpenShift on IBM Cloud. These services provide fully managed OpenShift environments with the control plane operated jointly by Red Hat and the cloud provider, reducing operational overhead while maintaining the full OpenShift feature set.

For enterprises, the practical difference is the level of integration and operational simplicity. Kubernetes is a powerful foundation that requires significant additional work to be enterprise-ready. OpenShift delivers that enterprise readiness out of the box: integrated tooling, automated lifecycle management, enterprise security controls and vendor support. For organisations with dedicated platform engineering teams, vanilla Kubernetes may be sufficient. For most enterprise teams, OpenShift’s integrated capabilities and supported product model deliver real operational value.

Yes. OpenShift is designed to run on-premise, and many of the largest OpenShift deployments in the world run on private data centre infrastructure. It’s one of OpenShift’s most significant advantages over purely cloud-native Kubernetes platforms: the same platform runs on-premise, in private cloud and in public cloud, with consistent tooling and operations across all environments.

The starting point is understanding what you’re trying to achieve with OpenShift and what deployment model fits your organisation. From there, architecture design comes before deployment — the decisions made at this stage have long-term consequences for performance, security and cost. DeeperThanBlue provides initial advisory engagements to help organisations define the right OpenShift strategy before committing to a full deployment.