4 Red Hat OpenShift and IBM Cloud Paks on IBM Power Systems: Volume 1
1.1  Introduction
Most companies started or are contemplating their journey to cloud. Although in recent years 
the adoption of cloud became much more common place, the scope of what a cloud is or can 
be also increased. This broadening of possibilities unfortunately added confusion and can 
result in companies being unsure of how their existing application estate can change to 
integrate with the cloud model. 
As such, doubts still exist around how to start and progress on this journey. It is also true that 
although people understand traditional enterprise applications and more modern 
cloud-hosted applications, the integration or co-existence of both can prove equally confusing 
and contradicting. 
Recent industry trends, combined with the new partnership between Red Hat and IBM, seek 
to bring some clarity to the landscape while providing new modernization opportunities for 
existing enterprise applications and familiar environments. 
The main focus of this IBM Redbooks publication relates to IBM Cloud Paks and Red Hat 
OpenShift, which is hosted on IBM Power Systems. Although individually much can be written 
about either topic, the relationship this publication highlights is between Red Hat OpenShift 
and IBM Power Systems. 
We show what Red Hat OpenShift brings to the IBM Power Systems platform specifically 
discuss how it can be deployed and added into existing familiar Power System environments, 
and the benefits that integration and co-existence can provide from an existing enterprise 
application viewpoint. 
This publication is a first volume in a planned multi-volume publication over the next 12 - 18 
months. Within this initial volume, we explain the fundamental perspective (which is accurate 
as of the time of this writing) while providing pointers to future direction that will be discussed 
in future volumes. 
1.2  Red Hat and IBM
On July 9th, 2019, IBM closed its acquisition of Red Hat, a leader in enterprise Linux and 
open source technology.
This acquisition puts Red Hat and IBM in a unique position to unlock the true value of hybrid 
cloud for your business. By combining the power and flexibility of Red Hat’s open hybrid cloud 
technologies with the scale and depth of IBM innovation and industry expertise, you now have 
the tools to accelerate your cloud journey.
IBM and Red Hat worked together for more than 20 years in making open source a 
competitive advantage for businesses on x86, IBM Power Systems, and IBM z Systems®. 
Together, we are both on a mission to improve open source technology and help your 
companies capture the business value of the cloud.
Note: This initial publication relates to Red Hat OpenShift 3.11, because this release was 
the current OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) release for IBM Power Systems at the 
time of this writing. IBM and Red Hat intend to deliver Red Hat OpenShift 4 for IBM 
POWER® to accelerate agility for enterprise clients through integrated tooling and a 
feature-rich Kubernetes container platform for cloud-native development on POWER9 and 
IBM POWER8® processor-based servers.