Free PaaS Compared : OpenShift Versus IBM BlueMix

Both RedHat OpenShift and IBM BlueMix Are Individually Great. In this Article OpenShift Versus IBM BlueMix, We Have Pointed to Utilize Both of Them, Together. Both are great, IBM BlueMix is definitely one of the best Cloud Computing service right now. There is basically no meaning of only criticizing which one has and another does not have, instead at this quality of service, we can combine to get most out of them at lesser cost. We would badly compare if they were pure Cloud Computing IaaS. We can not get rid off an IaaS so easily.

Free PaaS Compared : OpenShift Versus IBM BlueMix

RedHat OpenShift brought many things in the PaaS arena. Most important features are 3 x 1 GB units (gears) free of cost with one plan which has no running cost and does not restart. OpenShift has lot of cartridges. IBM BlueMix on the other hand, has GB/Per Hour calculation based charge.

RedHat OpenShift has one weakness – there is no IP address. So, we basically can not point a naked domain so easily using the standard DNS services which includes free CloudFlare.

There is practically no huge quality difference between these two. Way to deploy a common web app is actually the same. We will only think to compare them, when we are using upper tier of paid services. We have lot of configuration management and orchestration tools, which re usable on both.

There is basically no meaning of comparing Red Hat’s OpenShift and Pivotal’s Cloud Foundry from a platform users point of view. OpenShift uses Puppet and it is compatible with the others. Cloud Foundry uses a different BOSH configuration management tool. OpenShift uses Git and also allows to deploy the binary packages. Cloud Foundry only takes only binaries.

OpenShift Versus IBM BlueMix : Using Both of Them to Leverage Application Development and Deployment

The advantage of comparing is combining them to get most out of them with a domain name. It is not hidden feature – this is basically one of the reason why IBM BlueMix is for – they focus on integration more than the other providers.

We can easily use IBM BlueMix and point a Naked Domain using their 128MB container. We are getting one IP address fully free of cost. We can easily run 3-4 websites on a 128MB IBM BlueMix container. Whether we will use it for running the main website or use for 301 redirection, that depends on planning. IBM BlueMix is becoming the “default” PaaS.

Red Hat OpenShift is offering us some advantages, IBM BlueMix is also offering some advantages. In the future articles and guides, we will show how to combine both to create a scalable web application. Many advanced readers already can guess what we are going to do.