Bridging legacy and cloud-native: A new path with Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated deployed on Google Cloud and Google Cloud NetApp Volume

Organizations are facing difficult decisions on choices of how to accelerate cloud-native innovation without sacrificing the stability of existing business critical applications and systems. Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization running on Red Hat OpenShift Dedicated provides the answer, offering a unified foundation that runs both containerized applications and virtual machines (VMs) on the same infrastructure to provide a gradual, risk-mitigated path to cloud-native modernization. 

Today, we're excited to announce that Google Cloud NetApp Volumes (GCNV) is now certified as a supported storage provider for OpenShift Virtualization, running as a self-managed operator on Google Cloud. This follows the initial announcement of OpenShift Virtualization availability on OpenShift Dedicated on Google Cloud. This powerful combination brings together Red Hat's industry-leading OpenShift platform with NetApp's proven enterprise data management capabilities, delivering the advanced storage features that production VM workloads demand. 

The IT leader’s challenge: Modernize and migrate without disruption

Most organizations today operate in parallel reality that creates a constant internal friction:

• A rapidly growing footprint of modern, cloud-native applications built on containers
• A large, critical footprint of legacy VM workloads that power the core business
• The need to quickly migrate VMs away from their traditional virtualization infrastructure to a more modern, cost-effective platform  

Traditionally, these distinct environments required separate platforms, isolated teams, and divergent skill sets. This operations model does more than just increase overhead; it creates fragmentation, increasing complexity and significantly slowing down the pace of digital transformation. 

The key challenge for IT leaders is no longer just about moving to the cloud. It’s about how to modernize at pace without introducing operational risk or embarking on a premature, forced replatforming of stable assets. At the same time, leaders need to find a short-term solution to VM migration with one that delivers immediate relief from legacy infrastructure costs and complexity while laying the groundwork for long-term modernization. 

Emergence of a unified strategy 

With the introduction of support for VMs in OpenShift Dedicated running on Google Cloud, Red Hat and Google Cloud deliver a truly unified infrastructure strategy. This integration allows organizations to move beyond the “containers vs. VMs” debate, offering a single environment where:

• VMs and containers are managed side-by-side on the same platform, reducing tool sprawl, skill gaps, and integration overhead—enabling the same teams to manage both container and virtualization workloads together.
   
• Teams can adopt a single operational model based on Kubernetes best practices, applying GitOps and CI/CD patterns to VMs and containers alike.
   
• As a fully managed service, Red Hat handles the underlying complexity of managing the platform, significantly reducing internal operational overhead and allowing teams to focus on high-value business needs.
   
• Consolidating infrastructure improves resource use and allows duplicate platforms to be retired over time, letting each organization define its own modernization timeline.

This unified approach provides organizations with a standardized platform strategy that does not demand an immediate, costly application rewrite to capitalize on the cloud.

Instead of being forced to choose between maintaining legacy systems or rushing into modern refactoring, enterprises can now run both intentionally and efficiently. Integrated migration tooling such as the migration toolkit for virtualization and Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform also helps organizations quickly and easily migrate their VMs to a new platform. By bringing VMs into the OpenShift Virtualization running on Google Cloud, you gain the agility of the cloud today while building a sustainable bridge to the containerized future of tomorrow. 

Google Cloud NetApp Volumes: Enterprise-grade storage via GCNV

Until now, storage has often been viewed as a constraint for enterprise migration to the cloud. Google Cloud NetApp Volumes (GCNV) plays a critical role in this transformation through:

• Proven enterprise data management capabilities (e.g., snapshots, replication, resilience).
• High-performance, scalable file storage suitable for stateful and VM workloads.
• Support for shared access patterns, which are essential in legacy architectures.

By pairing GCNV with OpenShift Dedicated deployed on Google Cloud, organizations can take advantage of a consistent, enterprise-grade storage layer for both VM and container workloads. 

Conclusion

We are witnessing the convergence of virtualization, container orchestration, managed cloud services, and enterprise storage into a single, cohesive operating model. With OpenShift Dedicated running on Google Cloud and GCNV, that model is no longer theoretical—it’s operational. 

For IT leaders evaluating the next phase of their cloud strategy, this development offers a compelling proposition:

• Maintain stability for existing, high-value workloads
• Enable innovation for new, cloud-native applications
• Reduce operational complexity across the portfolio

In an era where transformation is often paralyzed by legacy dependencies and technical debt, this partnership provides a unified strategy. It uses your existing skills, reduces costs, and provides a standardized platform ready for the future to support your business. 

Resources to get started: 

• Explore the Red Hat Virtualization Migration Assessment
• Read the 15 reasons to modernize VMs with Red Hat OpenShift on Google Cloud ebook
• Visit the Red Hat booth at Google Cloud Next
• Stop by the NetApp booth at Google Cloud Next
• Dig deeper into the documentation