A secure, IBM-managed enterprise virtualization platform built for stability today and flexibility for tomorrow.
Overview
Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Service on IBM Cloud gives IT infrastructure leaders an IBM-managed, enterprise‑grade virtualization platform that simplifies operations and stabilizes costs. It delivers a predictable, compliant environment jointly engineered with Red Hat and supported by IBM’s global services team.
IBM handles upgrades, patching, remediation, and recovery, reducing manual effort and ensuring consistent platform health. Deep integration with IBM Cloud logging, monitoring, IAM, and key management provides unified governance across environments.
With IBM‑managed operational controls, organizations gain consistent compliance, reduced operational risk, and a reliable foundation for running large‑scale virtualization workloads.
Features
Enterprise‑Grade Platform Foundation for Critical Virtualization
A purpose‑built, enterprise‑grade platform delivering a stable, secure, and predictable foundation for running mission‑critical virtualization workloads across hybrid environments.
Managed Operations That Maximize Infrastructure Efficiency
A managed service with integrated automation and deep IBM Cloud operations that reduces manual effort, streamlines lifecycle management, and accelerates time to value.
Automation‑Driven Intelligence for Consistent Hybrid Management
An automation‑ and insight‑driven platform powered by Red Hat’s open‑source leadership, enabling consistent, policy‑based management across diverse VM environments.
Hardened Security Built for Regulated Enterprise Workloads
A hardened, compliance‑ready environment with unified governance, IAM integration, and a financially backed 99.99% SLA to protect and support enterprise and regulated workloads.
Use cases
- Migration
- Resilience
- Transformation
- Mission-Critical
- Automation
- Cloud-Native
Move off legacy virtualization—without the risk
Transform your virtualization foundation with a secure, high‑performance platform that delivers predictable cost and smooth migration from aging or expensive legacy solutions. Run your workloads with confidence on IBM Cloud backed by Red Hat technology.
Capabilities:
- Managed Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Service on IBM Cloud
- Predictable TCO with enterprise‑grade infrastructure
- Built‑in migration tooling to streamline VM‑to‑VM transitions
- IBM engineering, support, and lifecycle management
Protect your data with enterprise grade resilience
Strengthen business continuity with modern backup, disaster recovery, and cyber‑recovery solutions. IBM Cloud provides a secure, scalable landing zone to safeguard critical data and keep your business running—no matter what. This resilient foundation also positions organizations to support more data‑driven or AI‑informed initiatives over time, without changing current VM operations.
Capabilities:
- IBM Cloud designed for resilience, isolation, and recovery readiness
- Support for hybrid and multi‑site data protection strategies
- High availability infrastructure with financially backed SLAs
- Integrated options for backup and DR tooling
Accelerate digital transformation and AI-ready innovation
Transform mission-critical applications while establishing the foundation to explore AI opportunities through IBM’s enterprise grade cloud and AI infrastructure. Get the flexibility and expertise you need to evolve your application strategy when the business is ready.
Capabilities:
- Access AI‑capable infrastructure optimized for inferencing and high throughput when needed
- Support for Private AI, open models, and hybrid cloud AI workflows as optional extensions
- Proven expertise across modernization and transformation programs
- Flexible cloud foundation with Red Hat’s open, consistent platform
Run mission critical and regulated workloads with confidence
Meet strict security, compliance, and governance requirements with a platform designed for the most demanding industries. Benefit from enhanced controls, auditability, and a financially backed SLA for always‑on operations.
Capabilities:
- Security‑rich architecture with IAM, audit logging, and policy controls
- Meets strict industry requirements for regulated workloads
- 99.99% financially backed availability SLA
- Consistent governance across hybrid environments
Automate operations and reduce complexity at scale
Simplify and streamline how you manage large VM environments. With built‑in automation and consistent lifecycle management, teams can eliminate manual work, reduce operational cost, and focus on higher‑value innovation. These automation patterns also help prepare organizations for future adoption of cloud‑native or AI‑oriented workflows, should they choose to explore them later.
Capabilities:
- Automation via Ansible Automation Platform
- Advanced Cluster Management for consistent cross‑cluster control
- “Hands‑off” platform operations with IBM‑managed upgrades and patching
- Scales effortlessly across large VM estates
Transform on your terms: from VMs to Cloud Native
Run virtual machines today with a clear, low‑risk pathway to containers, Kubernetes, DevOps practices, and AI‑ready architecture. Transform at your pace—without disrupting your existing workloads.
Capabilities:
- Kubernetes‑based virtualization with Red Hat OpenShift
- Seamless coexistence of VM and container workloads
- Option to adopt GitOps, CI/CD, and cloud‑native tools anytime
- Transformation without disrupting existing operations
Specifications
Choose the right Openshift Offering
| Feature | RedHat Openshift Virtualization Service on IBM Cloud | Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform on IBM Cloud |
FOUNDATIONAL (Platform core, enterprise grade infrastructure, virtualization, fundamental hosting layers) | ||
| Enterprise Secured Kubernetes | X | X |
| Hosted Control Plane | X | X |
| Operator Lifecycle Manager | X | X |
| Administrator Web Console | X | X |
| OpenShift Virtualization | X | X |
| Virtual Machine-based Workload Hosting | X | X |
| Containers-based Infrastructure Workload Hosting | X | X |
| Container-based User Application Hosting | X | |
| RHL Guest and Hosted Virtual OpenShift Subscriptions Included | X | |
EFFICIENT (Automation, operations simplification, deployment acceleration, resource efficiency, cost optimization) | ||
| Fully Automated Installers | X | X |
| Metering and Cost Management SaaS Service | X | |
| App Platform Features (Serverless, Pipelines, Service Mesh, etc) | X | |
| Developer Application Catalog | X | |
AI-DRIVEN (Automation, policy‑driven operations, GitOps, insights, observability intelligence) | ||
| OpenShift GitOps | X | X |
| User Workload Monitoring | X | X |
| Platform Logging | X | X |
SECURE (Security, compliance, integrity, regulated workloads) | ||
| Compliance and File Integrity Operators | X | X |
Case study
IBM CIO
The IBM CIO organization deployment of Red Hat OpenShift on IBM Cloud enabled IBM to replace costly, slow VM environments with a unified container platform reducing operations work by 50% and enabled rapid, secure application updates by default.
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