Chapter 3. IBM Cloud Paks: Middleware anywhere 41
3.1.3  Core Services 
IBM Cloud Paks use a common set of operational services by default. These services are 
called Core Services (see Figure 3-3) and are a layer on top of Red Hat OpenShift, which is 
responsible for security and identity services, logging, monitoring, and auditing. Core 
Services can easily monitor workload performance and general logs by using a consistent 
dashboard view, regardless of the IBM Cloud Pak.
Figure 3-3   Core Services
Core Services contain a collection of services that provides essential capabilities that are 
needed by most enterprise applications. Red Hat tests and certifies each Core Service 
component to provide the necessary updates and security fixes as needed. For more 
information, see the following web pages:
/SM590000Red Hat Middleware Core Services Collection datasheet 
/SM590000IBM Cloud computing news: What are IBM Cloud Paks?
3.1.4  Production-ready Containers Images
Containers are the key for modular cloud solutions, which allows integrating multiple vendors 
by isolating pieces of software so they can run independently. All IBM container images that 
are provided in IBM Cloud Paks follow a set of well-defined best practices and guidelines, 
which ensures support for production use cases and consistency across the IBM software 
portfolio. 
IBM Cloud Paks employs Kubernetes resources to deploy, manage, and monitor the 
workloads. Configurations are pre-built but easily customized by using the Kubernetes 
operators during deployment. Upgrades can be easily rolled out or rolled back. 
IBM Cloud Paks are certified by IBM and Red Hat for the OpenShift Container Platform; the 
container images that are included in IBM Cloud Paks are required to complete Red Hat 
container certification, which is complementary to IBM certification process.