Docker vs OpenShift

Overview

Red Hat OpenShift

Stacks1.6K

Followers1.4K

Votes517

GitHub Stars885

Forks510

Docker

Stacks194.2K

Followers143.8K

Votes3.9K

Docker vs OpenShift: What are the differences?

Introduction

Docker and OpenShift are both containerization platforms that enable developers to package and deploy applications. While they share some similarities, there are several key differences between the two. In this article, we will explore these differences in detail.

Docker: Docker is an open-source containerization platform that allows developers to build, package, and distribute applications within containers. It provides a lightweight and portable runtime environment for applications, ensuring consistency across different environments. Docker enables efficient resource utilization and scalability, making it popular among developers for its ease of use and flexibility.
OpenShift: OpenShift, on the other hand, is a containerization platform that is built on top of Docker. It is a Kubernetes-based platform developed by Red Hat that provides a complete container management solution. OpenShift offers additional features and tools that enhance Docker's capabilities, such as advanced orchestration, automated scaling, and integrated DevOps tools. OpenShift also provides a more streamlined and user-friendly interface for managing containerized applications.
Orchestration and Scaling: Docker provides basic container orchestration capabilities through tools like Docker Compose and Docker Swarm. However, OpenShift offers more advanced orchestration features through its integration with Kubernetes. OpenShift allows for automated scaling of applications based on demand, load balancing, and easy deployment of multiple containers across a cluster. This makes OpenShift a preferred choice for large-scale applications that require robust orchestration and scaling capabilities.
Security and Access Control: Docker provides basic security measures, such as namespace isolation and resource limitations, to ensure the security of containers. However, OpenShift offers additional security features, such as Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), that allow for fine-grained access control and authentication mechanisms. OpenShift also provides built-in support for implementing secure container registries and image signing, making it a more secure option for enterprise-grade applications.
Integrated CI/CD Pipeline: OpenShift provides built-in integration with Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) tools, such as Jenkins, making it easier to set up automated build, test, and deployment pipelines for containerized applications. Docker, on the other hand, does not have built-in support for CI/CD pipelines and requires additional tooling and configuration to set up a similar workflow.
Platform and Infrastructure Management: Docker is primarily focused on providing a container runtime environment, while OpenShift aims to provide a complete container management platform. OpenShift offers features for managing underlying infrastructure, such as monitoring, logging, and resource allocation. It also provides a centralized dashboard for managing clusters, applications, and components. This makes OpenShift a more comprehensive solution for organizations that require a platform for managing both their containers and infrastructure.

In summary, Docker is a lightweight and flexible containerization platform, while OpenShift builds on top of Docker to provide advanced orchestration, security, integrated CI/CD, and platform management capabilities. OpenShift is a more holistic solution for organizations that require a complete container management platform.

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Advice on Red Hat OpenShift, Docker

Florian

IT DevOp at Agitos GmbH

Oct 22, 2019

Decided

lxd/lxc and Docker aren't congruent so this comparison needs a more detailed look; but in short I can say: the lxd-integrated administration of storage including zfs with its snapshot capabilities as well as the system container (multi-process) approach of lxc vs. the limited single-process container approach of Docker is the main reason I chose lxd over Docker.

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Detailed Comparison

Red Hat OpenShift	Docker
OpenShift is Red Hat's Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering. OpenShift is an application platform in the cloud where application developers and teams can build, test, deploy, and run their applications.	The Docker Platform is the industry-leading container platform for continuous, high-velocity innovation, enabling organizations to seamlessly build and share any application — from legacy to what comes next — and securely run them anywhere
Built-in support for Node.js, Ruby, Python, PHP, Perl, and Java (the standard in today's Enterprise);OpenShift is extensible with a customizable cartridge functionality that allows developers to add any other language they wish. We've seen everything from Clojure to Cobol running on OpenShift;OpenShift supports frameworks ranging from Spring, to Rails, to Play;Autoscaling- OpenShift can scale your application by adding additional instances of your application and enabling clustering. Alternatively, you can manually scale the amount of resources with which your application is deployed when needed;OpenShift by Red Hat is built on open-source technologies (Red Hat Enterprise Linux- RHEL);One Click Deployment- Deploying to the OpenShift platform is as easy a clicking a button or entering a "Git push" command	Integrated developer tools; open, portable images; shareable, reusable apps; framework-aware builds; standardized templates; multi-environment support; remote registry management; simple setup for Docker and Kubernetes; certified Kubernetes; application templates; enterprise controls; secure software supply chain; industry-leading container runtime; image scanning; access controls; image signing; caching and mirroring; image lifecycle; policy-based image promotion
Statistics
GitHub Stars 885	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 510	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 1.6K	Stacks 194.2K
Followers 1.4K	Followers 143.8K
Votes 517	Votes 3.9K
Pros & Cons
Pros 99 Good free plan 63 Open Source 47 Easy setup 43 Nodejs support 42 Well documented Cons 2 Decisions are made for you, limiting your options 2 License cost 1 Behind, sometimes severely, the upstreams	Pros 823 Rapid integration and build up 692 Isolation 521 Open source 505 Testability and reproducibility 460 Lightweight Cons 8 New versions == broken features 6 Unreliable networking 6 Documentation not always in sync 4 Moves quickly 3 Not Secure
Integrations
No integrations available	Java Docker Compose VirtualBox Linux Amazon EC2 Container Service Docker Swarm boot2docker Kubernetes Docker Machine Vagrant

What are some alternatives to Red Hat OpenShift, Docker?

Heroku

Heroku is a cloud application platform – a new way of building and deploying web apps. Heroku lets app developers spend 100% of their time on their application code, not managing servers, deployment, ongoing operations, or scaling.

Clever Cloud

Clever Cloud is a polyglot cloud application platform. The service helps developers to build applications with many languages and services, with auto-scaling features and a true pay-as-you-go pricing model.

Google App Engine

Google has a reputation for highly reliable, high performance infrastructure. With App Engine you can take advantage of the 10 years of knowledge Google has in running massively scalable, performance driven systems. App Engine applications are easy to build, easy to maintain, and easy to scale as your traffic and data storage needs grow.

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Once you upload your application, Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles the deployment details of capacity provisioning, load balancing, auto-scaling, and application health monitoring.

Render

Render is a unified platform to build and run all your apps and websites with free SSL, a global CDN, private networks and auto deploys from Git.

Hasura

An open source GraphQL engine that deploys instant, realtime GraphQL APIs on any Postgres database.

Cloud 66

Cloud 66 gives you everything you need to build, deploy and maintain your applications on any cloud, without the headache of dealing with "server stuff". Frameworks: Ruby on Rails, Node.js, Jamstack, Laravel, GoLang, and more.

Jelastic

Jelastic is a Multi-Cloud DevOps PaaS for ISVs, telcos, service providers and enterprises needing to speed up development, reduce cost of IT infrastructure, improve uptime and security.

Dokku

It is an extensible, open source Platform as a Service that runs on a single server of your choice. It helps you build and manage the lifecycle of applications from building to scaling.

LXD

LXD isn't a rewrite of LXC, in fact it's building on top of LXC to provide a new, better user experience. Under the hood, LXD uses LXC through liblxc and its Go binding to create and manage the containers. It's basically an alternative to LXC's tools and distribution template system with the added features that come from being controllable over the network.

Related Comparisons

Docker vs OpenShift: What are the differences?

Introduction

Docker: Docker is an open-source containerization platform that allows developers to build, package, and distribute applications within containers. It provides a lightweight and portable runtime environment for applications, ensuring consistency across different environments. Docker enables efficient resource utilization and scalability, making it popular among developers for its ease of use and flexibility.
OpenShift: OpenShift, on the other hand, is a containerization platform that is built on top of Docker. It is a Kubernetes-based platform developed by Red Hat that provides a complete container management solution. OpenShift offers additional features and tools that enhance Docker's capabilities, such as advanced orchestration, automated scaling, and integrated DevOps tools. OpenShift also provides a more streamlined and user-friendly interface for managing containerized applications.
Orchestration and Scaling: Docker provides basic container orchestration capabilities through tools like Docker Compose and Docker Swarm. However, OpenShift offers more advanced orchestration features through its integration with Kubernetes. OpenShift allows for automated scaling of applications based on demand, load balancing, and easy deployment of multiple containers across a cluster. This makes OpenShift a preferred choice for large-scale applications that require robust orchestration and scaling capabilities.
Security and Access Control: Docker provides basic security measures, such as namespace isolation and resource limitations, to ensure the security of containers. However, OpenShift offers additional security features, such as Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), that allow for fine-grained access control and authentication mechanisms. OpenShift also provides built-in support for implementing secure container registries and image signing, making it a more secure option for enterprise-grade applications.
Integrated CI/CD Pipeline: OpenShift provides built-in integration with Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) tools, such as Jenkins, making it easier to set up automated build, test, and deployment pipelines for containerized applications. Docker, on the other hand, does not have built-in support for CI/CD pipelines and requires additional tooling and configuration to set up a similar workflow.
Platform and Infrastructure Management: Docker is primarily focused on providing a container runtime environment, while OpenShift aims to provide a complete container management platform. OpenShift offers features for managing underlying infrastructure, such as monitoring, logging, and resource allocation. It also provides a centralized dashboard for managing clusters, applications, and components. This makes OpenShift a more comprehensive solution for organizations that require a platform for managing both their containers and infrastructure.

Docker vs OpenShift

Overview

Docker vs OpenShift: What are the differences?