When to use Red Hat on Azure
Decision criteria
The following criteria can help you decide if Red Hat on Azure is right for your use case:
- Type of application
- App development strategy
- Programming language
- Infrastructure environment
| Decision criteria | Considerations |
|---|---|
| Type of application | Red Hat has decades of experience working with the largest enterprise software vendors like Oracle, SAS, and SAP to certify their applications on Red Hat products. With these strong partnerships, Red Hat makes a great choice for migrating SAP or SAS applications to Azure. If you primarily use another Linux vendor, such as SUSE, you might want to first explore whether they offer a package to support your specific application in Linux. |
| App development strategy | The Azure Red Hat OpenShift service supports a containerized approach to building modern applications. The platform includes all the tools required for the complete software development lifecycle. If you run DevOps or DevSecOps, Azure Red Hat OpenShift provides the features you need to build and deploy applications in OpenShift, including implementing security best practices and scanning at any stage of the CI/CD pipeline. If you’re using another Kubernetes engine for container management, such as Amazon Kubernetes Service or Docker, Azure Red Hat OpenShift is a more feature rich choice for you. |
| Programming language | If you have a Java-based development organization and want a cloud-friendly, fully supported enterprise Java application server, you should consider JBoss EAP. JBoss EAP is great for quickly modernizing your Java application, as it provides a flexible application server that you can use to simplify your cloud migration plan. It’s optimized for deployments across public, private, hybrid, and multicloud infrastructures. If you’re using Spring Boot for your standalone, JBoss might not be the best choice. |
| Infrastructure environment | Red Hat offerings deliver a consistent, intelligent operating foundation for modern IT and enterprise hybrid cloud deployments. Consistency across infrastructure allows you to deploy applications, workloads, and services using the same tools, regardless of location. Red Hat and Azure meet compliance for many security standards, including FIPS, Common Criteria, HIPPA, and PCI. They can help you ensure compliance with corporate, regulatory, and industry requirements while also protecting your systems from the latest security threats. If you run primarily in a competitors’ cloud or if you want to manage your own infrastructure, Red Hat on Azure might not be the right solution for your workloads. |
Example scenario
In the example scenario, the online retailer you work for runs its Java-based website on Red Hat hosted in an on-premises datacenter. To build new capabilities for the website and improve the customer experience, you suggested using Red Hat solutions on Azure. You also suggested starting fast by selecting tested and trusted images through Cloud Access or from the Azure Marketplace.
Since the retailer already uses Red Hat on-premises, Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Azure is a logical choice because it offers familiar functionality. Choosing Azure also means getting help staying on top of PCI standards, which your team is required to meet to handle customer’s personal payment information. You suggest using Red Hat OpenShift to help the team adopt a more modern application development strategy. OpenShift helps remove roadblocks for developers, and enables continuous delivery and deployment of applications at speed with low maintenance. Lastly, JBoss EAP makes an excellent choice for modernizing the app itself since the website uses Java as its primary programming language.