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Red Hat's OpenShift Container Platform openly shifts storage into the hands of devs

Dynamically allocate without an admin over your shoulder

Enterprise Linux biz Red Hat has revised its OpenShift Container Platform to include support for dynamic storage provisioning in local and remote applications.

The software is an on-premises platform-as-a-service product that allows organizations to run applications using Kubernetes orchestration and Docker containers.

The latest iteration of the software, OpenShift Container Platform 3.4, provides on-the-fly container-native storage through Red Hat Gluster Storage, a software-defined file storage system for on-premises and public cloud installations.

The software now allows developers to allocate storage as needed and to deploy it with minimal effort.

In a statement, Ashesh Badani, VP and general manager of OpenShift at Red Hat, said the update addresses "the growing storage needs of both stateful and stateless applications across the hybrid cloud, allowing for coexistence of modern and future-forward workloads on a single, enterprise-ready platform."

Joe Fernandes, senior product manager for OpenShift, in a phone interview with The Register, explained that OpenShift Container Platform has supported stateful applications and storage since the company transitioned to its software to support Kubernetes and Docker a year and a half ago.

Previously, said Fernandes, adding storage required the involvement of an administrator. "Dynamic provisioning means being able to spin up the storage for each application when the developer configures it in real time," he said.

The update also improves multi-tenancy capabilities, made possible through Kubernetes namespaces, which subdivide clusters. Development teams can now separately search for project details and manage project membership through a revised web console.

What's new, said Fernandes, is the multi-tenant management through OpenShift. "It eases the burden on the administrator who is configuring the system for an organization," said Fernandes. "For our largest customers, they may have hundreds of tenants on the platform. They don't want to set up different clusters for each group."

Customers will also have access to reference guides for running the software on different infrastructure, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Engine, Microsoft Azure, and OpenStack.

"What we want to do is provide more details on the best way to manage and install the software on different providers," said Fernandes.

Fernandes said Red Hat is working on implementing Kubernetes federation, to simplify the management of multiple clusters. When the API is more mature, he anticipates it will appear in a future update.

OpenShift Container Platform 3.4 is expected to be available through the Red Hat Customer Portal. ®

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