After understanding the architecture and business benefits of Red Hat's open hybrid cloud platform, organizations often face the crucial question: "How do we actually implement this in our environment?" This comprehensive guide addresses that question, providing a practical roadmap for organizations at any stage of their hybrid cloud journey.
Implementing a hybrid cloud platform is not merely a technical endeavor—it's a transformational initiative that touches people, processes, and technology. Whether you're migrating from a traditional infrastructure, consolidating multiple cloud environments, or building a new hybrid cloud from scratch, this guide will help you navigate the journey successfully.
Implementation Strategy: A Phased Approach
Successful hybrid cloud implementations typically follow a phased approach that allows organizations to realize incremental value while managing risk. Let's explore a recommended implementation framework:
Phase 1: Assessment and Strategy
Before diving into implementation, it's essential to develop a clear understanding of your current state and desired outcomes. This phase involves:
- Conducting an application portfolio assessment
- Identifying workload placement criteria
- Defining hybrid cloud KPIs and success metrics
- Establishing governance requirements
- Creating a high-level migration roadmap
Create a workload placement decision matrix that considers factors like data gravity, latency requirements, compliance needs, and cost. This tool will help streamline decisions about where each application should reside in your hybrid cloud environment.
Phase 2: Pilot Implementation
Start with a controlled pilot that validates your approach and builds organizational confidence. This phase typically includes:
- Selecting appropriate pilot applications
- Implementing a minimal OpenShift cluster
- Establishing CI/CD pipelines
- Testing connectivity across environments
- Training key team members
When selecting pilot applications, look for "Goldilocks" candidates—not too simple (to ensure you test real-world scenarios) but not so complex that they introduce unnecessary risk. Good candidates often include:
- Non-critical internal applications with moderate usage
- Applications already containerized or with simple architectures
- Applications whose teams are enthusiastic about the migration
Phase 3: Foundation Building
With lessons learned from the pilot, this phase focuses on establishing the core infrastructure and operational patterns. Key activities include:
- Implementing production-grade OpenShift clusters
- Configuring multi-cluster management
- Establishing security policies and controls
- Implementing monitoring and observability
- Building automated deployment pipelines
During the foundation building phase, it's crucial to adopt infrastructure-as-code practices. Here's an example of how you might define an OpenShift cluster using Terraform:
module "openshift_cluster" {
source = "terraform-aws-modules/openshift/aws"
version = "~> 1.0"
cluster_name = "production-cluster"
cluster_version = "4.11"
vpc_id = module.vpc.vpc_id
subnet_ids = module.vpc.private_subnets
master_count = 3
worker_count = 5
worker_instance_type = "m5.2xlarge"
tags = {
Environment = "production"
Department = "IT"
}
}
Phase 4: Scale and Optimize
With the foundation in place, this phase focuses on scaling the implementation and continuously optimizing. Key activities include:
- Migrating additional workloads
- Implementing advanced capabilities (service mesh, serverless, etc.)
- Optimizing resource utilization
- Refining operational processes
- Expanding to additional deployment environments
Application Migration Strategies
When migrating applications to Red Hat's hybrid cloud platform, organizations can choose from several strategies based on the application's characteristics and business requirements:
Rehost
Lift-and-shift VMs to OpenShift virtualization
Replatform
Containerize with minimal code changes
Refactor
Modernize architecture for cloud-native benefits
Rebuild
Recreate from scratch using modern patterns
The approach you choose should be based on a thorough assessment of each application. Consider factors such as:
- Business value: Higher-value applications may justify more investment in refactoring.
- Technical debt: Applications with significant technical debt might benefit from rebuilding.
- Time constraints: When speed is critical, rehosting or replatforming might be more appropriate.
- Application lifecycle: Applications nearing end-of-life may not warrant significant modernization.
Use the "6R" framework (Rehost, Replatform, Refactor, Repurchase, Retire, Retain) to categorize your entire application portfolio. This provides a holistic view of your migration journey and helps prioritize efforts.
Technical Implementation Details
1. Setting Up Red Hat OpenShift Clusters
The foundation of your hybrid cloud implementation will be your OpenShift clusters. When setting up clusters across different environments, consider these best practices:
- Cluster sizing: Right-size your clusters based on workload requirements, with room for growth. For production environments, use at least 3 master nodes for high availability.
- Network design: Implement proper network segmentation and ensure connectivity between clusters. Use Global Load Balancers for traffic distribution across clusters.
- Storage configuration: Implement appropriate storage classes for different workload needs. Consider using Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation for consistent storage across environments.
- Node roles: Use dedicated infrastructure nodes for platform services and worker nodes for application workloads. Consider adding specialized node types for workloads with specific requirements (e.g., GPU nodes for AI/ML workloads).
apiVersion: machine.openshift.io/v1beta1
kind: MachineSet
metadata:
name: gpu-worker
namespace: openshift-machine-api
spec:
replicas: 2
selector:
matchLabels:
machine.openshift.io/cluster-api-cluster: production-cluster
machine.openshift.io/cluster-api-machineset: gpu-worker
template:
metadata:
labels:
machine.openshift.io/cluster-api-cluster: production-cluster
machine.openshift.io/cluster-api-machineset: gpu-worker
spec:
providerSpec:
value:
instanceType: p3.2xlarge
nodeLabels:
node-role.kubernetes.io/worker: ''
node-role.kubernetes.io/gpu: ''
2. Implementing Multi-Cluster Management
As you scale to multiple clusters across different environments, effective management becomes crucial. Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes (RHACM) provides a unified management plane:
- Cluster lifecycle management: Centrally deploy, update, and manage the lifecycle of OpenShift clusters.
- Policy-based governance: Define and enforce policies across clusters to ensure compliance and security.
- Application lifecycle management: Deploy applications consistently across multiple clusters.
- Observability: Gain insights into the health and performance of all clusters from a single dashboard.
Implement GitOps principles using tools like ArgoCD to maintain consistency across environments. Store all configuration as code in Git repositories, making your infrastructure and applications self-documenting and enabling automated drift detection.
3. Implementing Security and Compliance
Security should be built into your hybrid cloud implementation from the ground up. Key security implementations include:
- Identity and access management: Integrate with enterprise identity providers (e.g., LDAP, Active Directory) and implement role-based access control (RBAC).
- Network segmentation: Use network policies to control communication between applications and services.
- Image security: Implement vulnerability scanning and signing for container images.
- Runtime security: Deploy container security monitoring to detect and prevent security threats at runtime.
- Compliance automation: Implement compliance scanning and automated remediation for regulatory requirements.
Red Hat OpenShift Platform Plus includes Advanced Cluster Security (ACS), which provides comprehensive security capabilities across the container lifecycle:
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: NetworkPolicy
metadata:
name: db-network-policy
namespace: application
spec:
podSelector:
matchLabels:
app: database
ingress:
- from:
- podSelector:
matchLabels:
app: backend
ports:
- protocol: TCP
port: 5432
Operational Considerations
Building a Platform Team
Successful hybrid cloud implementations typically involve establishing a dedicated platform team responsible for:
- Managing the OpenShift infrastructure
- Providing self-service capabilities to development teams
- Establishing operational standards and best practices
- Managing security and compliance
- Supporting application teams in their cloud-native journey
This team should include roles such as platform architects, infrastructure engineers, security specialists, and developer advocates who can bridge the gap between infrastructure and application development.
Monitoring and Observability
Implement a comprehensive monitoring and observability strategy:
- Infrastructure monitoring: Track the health and performance of underlying infrastructure components.
- Platform monitoring: Monitor the OpenShift clusters and core services.
- Application monitoring: Track application performance and user experience.
- Distributed tracing: Implement distributed tracing to understand request flows across microservices.
- Cost monitoring: Track resource utilization and associated costs across environments.
Implement the RED method (Rate, Errors, Duration) for service-level monitoring and the USE method (Utilization, Saturation, Errors) for resource monitoring. This provides a comprehensive view of both service and infrastructure health.
Cost Management
One of the challenges of hybrid cloud environments is managing costs effectively. Implement these practices:
- Resource quotas: Implement namespace-level quotas to control resource consumption.
- Autoscaling: Use horizontal and vertical pod autoscaling to match resources with demand.
- Cost allocation: Implement tagging and labeling strategies to attribute costs to teams and applications.
- Rightsizing: Regularly analyze resource utilization and adjust allocations accordingly.
- Cost optimization tools: Implement tools like Red Hat Cost Management to gain visibility into cloud spending.
Real-World Implementation Examples
Example 1: Financial Services Organization
A global financial services organization implemented Red Hat's hybrid cloud platform to support their digital transformation initiatives. Their approach included:
- Infrastructure: OpenShift clusters on-premises in three data centers and across two public clouds (AWS and Azure).
- Management: Advanced Cluster Management for centralized governance and application deployment.
- Network: Global load balancers for traffic routing and service mesh for microservices communication.
- Migration approach: Prioritized customer-facing applications for modernization, with back-office systems migrated using a lift-and-shift approach.
- Results: 40% reduction in infrastructure costs, 60% faster application deployment, and improved developer satisfaction.
Example 2: Healthcare Provider
A healthcare provider implemented a hybrid cloud strategy to support both patient-facing applications and internal systems:
- Infrastructure: OpenShift clusters on VMware for sensitive workloads and on AWS for public-facing services.
- Data management: OpenShift Data Foundation for consistent storage across environments with data replication for compliance.
- Security: Advanced security measures including encryption, network segmentation, and comprehensive monitoring.
- Migration approach: Strangler pattern for modernizing legacy applications incrementally.
- Results: Improved patient experience, 50% reduction in outages, and enhanced HIPAA compliance posture.
Common Implementation Challenges and Solutions
Implementing a hybrid cloud platform comes with challenges. Here are common issues and approaches to address them:
Skill Gaps
Challenge: Many organizations lack the skills required for cloud-native technologies and containerization.
Solution: Invest in comprehensive training programs, consider Red Hat training and certification paths, and supplement with external expertise where needed. Create internal enablement teams to support knowledge transfer.
Cultural Resistance
Challenge: Traditional IT teams may resist the shift to new technologies and ways of working.
Solution: Focus on change management, demonstrate early wins, involve teams in decision-making, and provide clear career growth paths in the new environment.
Legacy Integration
Challenge: Integrating legacy systems with modern cloud-native applications.
Solution: Implement API management platforms, use service mesh for connectivity, and consider patterns like the strangler pattern for incremental modernization.
Operational Complexity
Challenge: Managing multiple environments increases operational complexity.
Solution: Embrace automation and GitOps, implement consistent tooling across environments, and leverage Red Hat's management capabilities like Advanced Cluster Management.
Implementation Roadmap Template
To help you plan your implementation, here's a high-level roadmap template that you can adapt to your organization's specific needs:
-
Months 1-2: Assessment and Planning
- Application portfolio assessment
- Skills gap analysis
- Initial architecture design
- Business case development
-
Months 3-4: Pilot Implementation
- Initial OpenShift cluster deployment
- Team training
- Pilot application migration
- Initial CI/CD pipeline setup
-
Months 5-6: Foundation Building
- Production cluster deployment
- Security and compliance implementation
- Monitoring and observability setup
- Developer self-service portal
-
Months 7-12: Initial Scale
- First wave of application migrations
- Operational process refinement
- Advanced capability implementation
- Multi-cluster expansion
-
Year 2: Enterprise Scale
- Broad application migration
- Advanced use case enablement
- Optimization and refinement
- Innovation acceleration
Conclusion
Implementing Red Hat's open hybrid cloud platform is a journey that requires careful planning, technical expertise, and organizational alignment. By following a phased approach, focusing on both technical and organizational aspects, and learning from real-world examples, organizations can successfully navigate this transformation.
The key to success lies in treating this implementation not just as a technology project but as a strategic business initiative that enables greater agility, efficiency, and innovation. With the right approach, Red Hat's open hybrid cloud platform can provide a foundation for your organization's digital future.
Ready to begin your hybrid cloud implementation journey? Start with a detailed assessment of your current environment and business objectives, then develop a roadmap tailored to your organization's specific needs and constraints.