Powering innovation: How ROSA provides a fully-integrated AWS-native application platform

Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA) is a managed Red Hat OpenShift service running natively on AWS that allows you to quickly and easily build, deploy and manage Kubernetes applications on a turnkey application platform in the AWS cloud.

What is an application platform and why is it important?

An application platform includes capabilities that help simplify modernizing existing applications, developing new applications and adding intelligence to applications. At its core, an application platform is an integrated technology stack that natively includes many integrations with the technology ecosystem (in this case, AWS). Your DevOps teams and platform engineers want an application platform to help accelerate the development and deployment of cloud-native applications in a consistent way. 

What does it mean for ROSA to be native to AWS?

Being cloud-native means that the application is designed and built specifically to operate in a cloud computing environment, in this instance, AWS. Kubernetes alone is a container orchestration engine that has to be manually integrated with application services, data services, developer tools, security management and observability capabilities.

With ROSA being a jointly-managed and AWS-native application platform, users are able to have the simplicity of a fully managed platform and also take advantage of AWS-based services and architectures. ROSA takes advantage of the power and flexibility of AWS to deliver a more seamless user experience to help you meet your business needs. 

Five benefits of ROSA being an AWS-native application platform

1. Focus on building applications with integrated development tools 

ROSA allows you to use both OpenShift and AWS developer tooling. Your DevOps teams are able to choose the tooling that best suits their needs.  With fully-integrated tools and consistent interfaces, your developers can get more done and reduce friction within your team during development, deployment and operations.

Access to fully integrated tools means that your team can focus on building innovative applications instead of building and maintaining their own application platform. The graphic below shows some of the developer and management tools your DevOps teams can use from AWS and OpenShift. 

Find out more about AWS Developer Tools and Management products.

2. Get started quickly from the AWS Management Console 

ROSA  is accessible from the AWS console. Not only does this simplify managing your platform, it also lets you use a platform you’re already familiar with.

Beyond ROSA, you also get access to 170+ cloud-native services for compute, database, analytics, machine learning, networking, mobile and more. Using the AWS console also means that you can quickly spin-up clusters and begin using ROSA right away with self-service capabilities. Here's a demo that shows you how to deploy a ROSA cluster.

3. Optimize operational efficiency with spending and billing mechanisms

Using an AWS-native product means that you’re able to use your AWS committed spend. You're also able to use the AWS portal tools that make cost management and billing easier. For example, use the AWS Cost explorer to see patterns in spending over time and to project future costs. The AWS budget tool lets you set budgets that will alert you when cost or usage exceeds a budgeted amount. With a variety of tools available for reporting and cost optimization through AWS, and only having a single bill between Red Hat and AWS, you’re able to streamline your billing process. 

4. Enhanced IT security at scale

We understand that security is a top concern when considering a hybrid cloud environment. With the combination of OpenShift and AWS security tools you can mitigate risks and proactively look for solutions. Our teams continually monitor for common vulnerabilities and exposures (CVEs) and work to quickly identify fixes. Other key security features include private cluster management and ingress endpoints, multi-availability zone clusters, single sign-on with your identity provider, and full control for administrators. For more questions around security, check out this FAQ

5. Reduce complexity with joint support and engineering 

ROSA features an integrated support experience where you can contact either company with a single support ticket, which can reduce your wait time for a resolution and mitigate potential interruptions on your teams’ hybrid cloud projects. Also, since Red Hat and AWS are both working with customers, new features are created jointly to better meet evolving customer needs. With 24x7 support and a 99.95% service level agreement (SLA), your development environment is (almost) always up and running. 

Also, with a global site reliability engineering (SRE) team that manages the full stack—from infrastructure to daily operations—any issues that do arise will be dealt with as quickly as possible. The SRE teams also enable self-service and automated tasks, allowing for faster application deployment. Learn more about who manages what and how to submit support tickets in this video: 

Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS helps you build and ship software faster. Using a native application platform, developers can focus on high-value innovative projects, rather than having to spend time managing infrastructure. This integrated support experience, paired with Red Hat’s global SRE team, means your teams don’t have to worry about day-to-day management and rest assured  that issues will be solved as quickly as possible.