Cloud
Open source
October 7, 2020 By Chris Rosen 2 min read

Announcing hourly OpenShift clusters through Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud.

We’ve all been in the situation where you are tasked with what feels like an insurmountable challenge. On this day, your manager has asked you to validate OpenShift Builds (link resides outside IBM) as a feasible solution stack for an upcoming development project. Doing some research, you learn that OpenShift Builds can enable developers to build lean images from app source code and binaries using a variety of Kubernetes tools. Sounds very powerful, but this capability is in Developer Preview in OpenShift 4.4 and your companies on-prem OpenShift environment is running OpenShift 4.1 with no imminent plans to upgrade.

What do you do?

With new, flexible hourly pricing for the worker nodes and OpenShift deployed in a Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud cluster, you can deploy the required resources to run a pilot of OpenShift Builds. Hourly OpenShift licensing provides the flexibility to scale up and down based on resource requirements, while only paying for what you consume. In addition to the new hourly OpenShift model supported by IBM Cloud, Red Hat also announced a new pricing structure for OpenShift (link resides outside IBM).

What is Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud?

Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud (launched on August 1, 2019) is a managed service that simplifies deployment and configuration of OpenShift Container Platform. As a managed service, IBM will automate initial provisioning and on-going maintenance, including operating system patches, vulnerability remediation, and any updates in the OpenShift stack. Another key aspect of the managed service is building in operational efficiencies, enabling you to focus on delivering line-of-business objectives. We do that by supporting highly available (HA) master nodes in a multizone cluster, ensuring master and worker nodes are distributed evenly across three physically separate data centers (i.e., zones) within that region. Managed OpenShift supports your most critical workloads by providing an SLA of 99.99% on a variety of compute isolation choices, including bare metal. Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud also supports your regulated workloads with compliance, including PCI, HIPAA-ready, ISO, SOC1, SOC2, and SOC3.

What if I have an existing Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud cluster?

Your existing clusters will not automatically migrate from the old monthly pricing model to the new hourly pricing. You have two methods for leveraging hourly OCP pricing:

  • The first is to create a completely new cluster — which may only be possible for certain cluster use cases and workloads.
  • The second option is to create a second worker pool within the same cluster and then delete the earlier worker pool. The second option is available to both Classic IaaS and VPC infrastructure.

One consideration for either approach is that the old OpenShift billing model is monthly; deleting a cluster or worker pool earlier in the month does not pro-rate the OpenShift portion of the cluster.

Join the discussion

If you have questions or concerns, engage our team via Slack. You can register here and join the discussion in the #general channel on https://ibm-cloud-success.slack.com/ (link resides outside IBM).

Chris Rosen
Program Director, Offering Management

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