I'm trying to understand the cost differences between OpenShift licensing and using AWS EKS with bare metal instances. It seems like the licensing fees for OpenShift are way more expensive than the actual server hardware. Is it true that the per-CPU cost for OpenShift licenses is higher than just going with c8gd.metal-48xl instances on AWS EKS over the same period? I'm struggling to see the justification for these costs and what advantages OpenShift might offer that would make it worth it for a new deployment.
5 Answers
It really depends on what you need to compare. EKS is similar to OpenShift Dedicated (OKE), but OpenShift has a lot of extra features that can be invaluable for enterprise setups. If you want a more integrated platform that just works, OpenShift could be the better option. EKS might be suitable if you’re okay customizing everything yourself.
Licenses have always been higher than hardware prices, so that’s nothing new. But if you're considering OpenShift for managing virtual machines, keep in mind that metal instance types on AWS can be pricey compared to standard types!
Overall, OKE is way cheaper than OCP and still offers enterprise support. If your goal is just to run Kubernetes workloads efficiently, you may want to lean towards a pure Kubernetes distribution like Rancher or similar solutions instead.
If you're okay without some of the RedHat operators, you might want to check out OKD, which is a free alternative. The lower price tag is definitely attractive when considering your options.
From my experience, licensing for OpenShift on-prem is generally pricier than running it on Azure. But, don't forget to include hardware costs when making that comparison! Also, when I last checked Rancher pricing, it ended up being more for on-prem licenses than running OpenShift on Azure, which was interesting.
Wow, just saw that OpenShift changed their pricing model from per socket to a per-core basis—yikes! I’m getting some serious sticker shock and need to double-check if I’ve understood all these costs right.
Yeah, there are free operators available in other hubs too; just keep an eye on the version compatibility, since older free versions might not have all the latest features.