Red Hat is launching OpenShift Virtualization Engine, a simplified edition of OpenShift for managing and migrating virtual machines, with integrations for automation and central management. The solution is relevant for those seeking a new virtualization strategy.
Red Hat inthrusts the OpenShift Virtualization Engine. That’s a new edition of OpenShift aimed specifically at virtualization. It provides a simplified way to manage and scale virtual machines (VMs) without features irrelevant to virtualization.
OpenShift Virtualization Engine builds on the existing virtualization features within OpenShift and uses the KVM hypervisor. The solution is compatible with on-premises hardware that supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and bare-metal cloud services such as AWS Bare Metal Instances.
Demand in the market
Red Hat is responding to the changing virtualization market, in which organizations are looking for cost-effective and efficient alternatives for managing their VMs. Despite the growth of container technology, VMs remain an essential part of IT infrastructure, especially for mission-critical applications.
What Red Hat does not mention, but no doubt also factors in, is Broadcom’s role since its acquisition of VMware. Broadcom raised prices, made licensing more complex and cut into the partner landscape, so a lot of customers would be only too happy to migrate. One European cloud provider last year managed to pull 12,000 VMs away from VMware and migrate to a KVM hypervisor. Red Hat itself offers a VMware alternative with the OpenShift Virtualization Engine for those looking for one.
Migration and automation
To simplify migration, OpenShift Virtualization Engine includes access to Red Hat’s Migration Toolkit for Virtualization. This tool helps organizations migrate from other virtualization platforms (including VMware), with the goal of minimizing downtime and maintaining operational continuity. In addition, Red Hat offers a Virtualization Migration Assessment, an interactive workshop in which specialists analyze an organization’s migration needs.
OpenShift Virtualization Engine also integrates with Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, allowing IT teams to automate VM migrations and daily management. This ensures more efficient and consistent operations at scale.
In addition, to further centralize virtualization management, Red Hat is introducing Advanced Cluster Management for Virtualization. That solution provides organizations with a management tool for VM provisioning, monitoring and compliance within hybrid IT environments.