Case Study of OpenShift

What is OpenShift ?

OpenShift is a cloud development Platform as a Service (PaaS) hosted by Red Hat. It’s an open-source, cloud-based, user-friendly platform used to create, test, and run applications, and finally deploy them on the cloud.

OpenShift can manage applications written in different languages, such as Ruby, Node.js, Java, Perl, and Python. One of the key features of OpenShift is extensible, which helps the users support the application written in other languages.

OpenShift helps organizations move their traditional application infrastructure and platform from physical, virtual mediums to the cloud.

Feature of OpenShift

1.Code and push

Develop container-based applications in the cloud or locally using the Red Hat CodeReady Containers, or OpenShift command line tools to create a fully-functioning OpenShift instance on your local machine. Then, deploy your work to any OpenShift cluster.

Deploying to OpenShift is as easy as clicking a button or entering a git push command. OpenShift is designed to reduce or eliminate many of the systems administration headaches related to building and deploying containerized applications. OpenShift also allows you to fully control the deployment lifecycle.

2.Streamline the delivery process

Standardizing workflows, supporting multiple environments, enabling continuous integration, and managing builds — OpenShift gives you tools for the complete development lifecycle.

3.Self-service, on-demand application stacks

Develop your apps with the language and tools you want. Red Hat OpenShift includes pre-created quick start application templates that allow you to build and deploy your favorite application languages, frameworks, and databases with one click — Java, Node.js, .NET, Ruby, Python, PHP and more.

4.Docker container and runtime packaging

Built around a standardized container model powered by Red Hat application programming interfaces (APIs) for the Docker format, applications created on Red Hat OpenShift can easily run anywhere that supports Docker-formatted containers.

Case Study

MACQUARIE TRANSFORMS DIGITAL BANKING WITH RED HAT OPENSHIFT

Macquarie is a global financial services provider with headquarters in Australia and offices in 28 countries. Its Banking and Financial Services Group provides a diverse range of personal and business banking solutions, as well as wealth management products and services, to retail customers, advisers, brokers, and business clients. To develop its new digital banking offering, Macquarie looked beyond financial services to the digital companies leading in customer experience.

“We’re a digital-first business, and therefore our offering has to be the best it possibly can be,” said Richard Heeley, head of technology at Macquarie’s Banking and Financial Services Group. “We knew we had to transform it. We wanted a fast, efficient experience.”

However, initial work created IT complexity. “We started breaking down our monolithic applications into microservices about two years ago,” said Rajay Rai, head of digital engineering at Macquarie’s Banking and Financial Services Group. “That process created a complex ecosystem that was hard to manage.”

In addition, Macquarie’s IT teams require efficient development and release processes to iteratively deliver software and collect feedback in shorter cycles. “Our biggest challenge is continuing to meeting customer expectations. They are looking for mobility and real-time information,” said Luis Uguina, chief digital officer at Macquarie’s Banking and Financial Services Group.

USING MICROSERVICES AND CONTAINERS TO MODERNIZE I.T.

Macquarie evaluated several Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions before choosing to deploy Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform as a public cloud implementation in a datacenter run by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

“We evaluated a lot of PaaS solutions. Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform is a semistructured PaaS that provides the flexibility to move our monolithic applications and services, as well as our modern microservices, to the cloud,” said Rai. “We can iteratively modernize our legacy applications and deploy microservices in containers to streamline and automate their life cycles.”

TRANSFORMING I.T. SYSTEMS TO IMPROVE DEVELOPER AND CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Greater scalability and faster time to market for better customer experience

Macquarie now uses Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform across several availability zones in AWS to deliver new features and updates without customer interruption. With release time cut from hours to minutes, Macquarie can release software multiple times a day and go to market faster.

“We can change any product in real time, without any customer impact, and test changes on a limited number of customers,” said Uguina.

Using its new Red Hat technology, Macquarie has enhanced its online banking platform to better serve its users. The new digital banking experience includes innovative user features that are the first of their kind in Australian banking, including “search the way you speak” technology, as well as the ability to tag and track transactions, upload receipts and warranties, set saving and spending goals, and automatically categorize spending.

In addition, hosting OpenShift Container Platform on its public AWS cloud offers elastic infrastructure that lets Macquarie scale based on traffic demand, significantly improving provisioning efficiency and costs.

“We can support peaks and high volumes of customers on the system — and grow — without drama,” said Uguina. “It’s a worry-free approach where everything works as expected, and we can monitor it all.”

More efficient, agile development

As part of this project, Macquarie transitioned to an agile DevOps model, including gaining business stakeholder buy-in to speed operations. This approach includes continuous development and rapid iteration in shorter cycles. Macquarie can now deliver updates to improve its services and respond to feedback faster

“We have a solution on Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform where an entire digital environment can be set up in 10 minutes. Before, such tasks would take weeks or even months,” said Heeley.

With support for DevOps through Red Hat’s PaaS offering, Macquarie’s developers can focus on innovation and asset delivery, rather than routine yet complex tasks. Macquarie used Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform to standardize application delivery workflows for its containers and platform, reduced time to incorporate new software, and gained more efficient management — for example, by creating modular, highly portable applications.

“Red Hat technology and a DevOps culture help innovation thrive,” said Rai. “With greater automation and the tools to efficiently deliver software, our engineers are spending less time on repeated, mundane activities and focusing on creating innovative solutions. We can focus on building assets that really differentiate us.”

As a result of these changes, Macquarie’s developer productivity has improved by more than 50%. “We can iterate faster through our software development life cycles. We can provision end-to-end environments for each developer and maximize server use by increasing container density,” said Rai.

Enterprise-grade security

All of Macquarie’s new innovations must go through rigorous testing before being released to production for customer use. To help ensure its services and IT systems are properly secured against risk and external threats, Macquarie uses Red Hat CloudForms to gain insights into the security of Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and its cloud environments.

“OpenShift Container Platform comes with a docker-compliant container registry,” said Rai. “This feature lets us give our developers images in a secure manner, which is paramount in our regulated environment, as opposed to open source images that may have a lot of software vulnerabilities.”

Done

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