Understanding Openshift Cost and Total Cost of Ownership

Calculating the cost of using OpenShift can be a complex task, but it's essential to understand the total cost of ownership to make informed decisions.

OpenShift offers a free tier, but it's limited to 12 months and 100MB of storage. You'll need to upgrade to a paid plan if you require more resources.

The cost of OpenShift is based on the resources you use, including CPU, memory, and storage. According to the pricing model, the cost is calculated per hour, with discounts for long-term commitments.

To give you a better idea, the cost of a single application on OpenShift can range from $0.005 to $0.10 per hour, depending on the resources required.

You can directly procure Red Hat OpenShift from Alibaba Cloud Marketplace, making it easier to manage costs.

The cost of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is determined by the number of worker nodes and the specifications of ECS instances used. Alibaba Cloud will push a dedicated marketplace offer to you based on these factors.

To get a dedicated marketplace offer, you'll need to contact Alibaba Cloud to determine the scale of the OpenShift Container Platform cluster and the specifications of ECS instances to be used.

The cost of the dedicated marketplace offer is the price of the OpenShift Container Platform subscription, which you'll pay directly to Alibaba Cloud.

In addition to the subscription cost, you'll also need to consider ongoing costs like maintenance, upgrades, and operations. These costs can add up quickly, so it's essential to factor them into your total cost of ownership.

Here are some of the costs you might incur with Red Hat OpenShift:

Understanding costs is crucial when it comes to OpenShift. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a financial estimate that helps determine the direct and indirect costs of a product or system. In the context of OpenShift, TCO accounts for not just the purchase price or subscription cost, but also ongoing costs like maintenance, upgrades, operations, and the cost of downtime.

TCO includes licensing or subscription costs, infrastructure costs, personnel costs, support and maintenance, and the cost of future upgrades. The subscription cost for OpenShift can range from $50,000 to $130,000 per year, as seen in the example of OpenShift TCO, which includes a subscription cost of $50,000 per year.

To further break down TCO, consider the costs associated with personnel, including salaries, training, and overtime or contractor costs. Additionally, account for support and maintenance costs, including premium support plans and routine maintenance tasks. The cost of downtime can also be a significant factor, with estimates ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 per year.

Here's a breakdown of the costs included in TCO:

Red Hat Container Platform Subscription is a great option for businesses looking to deploy a trusted Kubernetes application platform. You can directly procure Red Hat OpenShift from Alibaba Cloud Marketplace.

To subscribe to Red Hat OpenShift, you'll need to contact Alibaba Cloud to determine the scale of the OpenShift Container Platform cluster and the specifications of ECS instances to be used. This will help you understand the costs involved.

The cost of the subscription will be based on the number of vCPUs of the worker nodes and the price of OpenShift Container Platform subscription. Alibaba Cloud will push a dedicated marketplace offer to you based on this information.

The user pays for the dedicated marketplace offer, which includes the cost of OpenShift Container Platform subscription and the required cloud services. The cost of the cloud services includes ECS, SLB, NAT Gateway, EIP, Privatezone, etc.

Here's a breakdown of the costs involved:

Alibaba Cloud will deliver OpenShift Container Platform deployment and ongoing managed service during the subscription period. This means you can focus on your business while Alibaba Cloud takes care of the technical aspects.

OpenShift is a self-service containerization platform built by Red Hat for enterprise use.

It enables engineers to build, deploy, and maintain container-based applications with ease.

OpenShift leverages features from both Kubernetes and Docker, providing a powerful alternative.

As part of Red Hat's open project, OpenShift OKD, it delivers out-of-the-box enterprise security and other efficiencies.

Here are the different deployment options provided by Red Hat OpenShift:

These options offer a consistent, cloud-like experience across various environments.

Docker comes in two versions: the Community Edition (CE) is an open-source project, and the Enterprise Edition (EE) is a paid product with enterprise-level support.

If you're a team that wants to focus on your code instead of configuring an open-source platform, Docker EE will be ideal.

The Kubernetes project is open-source and free, but it requires investment in its infrastructure, including plugins and support services.

With Kubernetes and Docker CE, you need to download, install, set up, and oversee everything yourself, which requires skill and time.

A large support and networking community is available to help you out with both Kubernetes and Docker CE.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a financial estimate that helps you determine the direct and indirect costs of a product or system. It's essential to consider TCO when choosing a technology, as it provides a clearer picture of the financial implications over the lifespan of the platform.

TCO accounts for more than just the purchase price or subscription cost; it also includes ongoing costs like maintenance, upgrades, operations, and the cost of downtime.

The costs associated with Kubernetes platforms can be broken down into several categories:

Indirect costs, such as personnel costs for maintaining and operating the platform, should also be factored into your TCO calculation. This includes salaries, training costs, and any overtime or contractor costs associated with maintenance or upgrades.

Consider the example of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, where the total cost of ownership might include:

Remember to account for support and maintenance costs, including any premium support plans, and the cost of routine maintenance tasks. Additionally, factor in the cost of downtime, which can be incredibly costly, especially for businesses that rely on their applications to generate revenue.

Autoscaling in OpenShift can help maintain application availability and improve cost efficiency. It supports several types of autoscaling, including HPA, VPA, Cluster Autoscaling, and Machine Autoscaler.

Cluster Autoscaling adjusts the size of the cluster itself, increasing the number of nodes when there are pods that failed to schedule, and reducing the number of nodes when some nodes are underutilized. This is done using the Kubernetes Cluster Autoscaler.

To set up Cluster Autoscaling, you need to set up appropriate resource requests and limits for your pods, which the Cluster Autoscaler makes decisions based on. You should also monitor the autoscaler's decisions to ensure it's behaving as expected.

Cluster Autoscaling is useful for applications that can benefit from scaling out beyond the capacity of a single node, such as large-scale machine learning training jobs.

Here are the main types of autoscaling in OpenShift:

VPA is beneficial for workloads with unpredictable memory or CPU usage, such as data processing applications. It can adjust resources allocated to pods to prevent out-of-memory errors.

Machine Autoscaler is crucial for configuring compute resources for workloads that periodically require additional resources, such as machine learning training workloads. It allows meeting compute requirements on-demand while minimizing cost when specialized instances are not needed.

Calculating the costs of using OpenShift is crucial to understanding its total cost of ownership. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a financial estimate that helps determine direct and indirect costs of a product or system.

Direct costs for OpenShift include the subscription cost, which provides access to OpenShift software, updates, and support. This cost can vary depending on the deployment model.

Infrastructure costs are another significant component of direct costs. If you're deploying OpenShift on-premise, the infrastructure costs will be different from deploying it on a cloud provider like AWS or Google Cloud.

To accurately calculate direct costs, you need to consider both the subscription cost and the infrastructure cost. This will give you a clear picture of the expenses involved in using OpenShift.

Here's a breakdown of the direct costs involved in using OpenShift:

In addition to direct costs, it's essential to consider indirect costs such as personnel costs, support and maintenance, and the cost of future upgrades. These costs can add up quickly and should be factored into your overall cost calculation.

Indirect Costs are a significant part of the overall cost of using OpenShift. They include the personnel cost for maintaining and operating the platform, which can add up quickly.

The salaries of dedicated personnel are a major indirect cost, and you need to factor these costs into your overall budget. This includes not just the base salary, but also benefits, bonuses, and other perks.

Training staff to use OpenShift is another indirect cost that should be considered. This can include instructor-led training, online courses, and other educational resources.

Overtime and contractor costs associated with maintenance or upgrades are also indirect costs to consider. These costs can add up quickly, especially if you're dealing with complex issues or unexpected outages.

Here are some examples of indirect costs to consider:

Managed Services can be a cost-effective alternative to self-managed OpenShift.

Comparing managed services to self-managed OpenShift can help you understand the costs involved.

A simplified example of creating a TCO model for managed Kubernetes services like Amazon EKS can be done using a similar approach to OpenShift.

Managed Kubernetes services like Amazon EKS can be a viable option for companies looking to reduce their Kubernetes management costs.

You can use a TCO model to compare the costs of managed services to self-managed OpenShift and make an informed decision.

The costs of managed services can be broken down into predictable monthly costs, eliminating the need for upfront capital expenditures.