Portworx & Red Hat launch solution to simplify VM on Kubernetes

Portworx by Pure Storage and Red Hat have launched Portworx for KubeVirt, a software-defined storage solution designed to facilitate the deployment and management of virtual machine (VM) workloads on Kubernetes using the Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Engine.

Portworx for KubeVirt is intended to offer enterprises a more cost-effective and simplified approach to modernising their application infrastructure by enabling the migration and operation of applications within Kubernetes environments at their own pace.

The combination of Portworx and the Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Engine aims to optimise functionality for enterprises while reducing total cost of ownership. According to data from Portworx, customers using Red Hat OpenShift and the OpenShift Virtualization platform have achieved estimated cost savings of approximately 30% to 50% over the past year compared to their previous virtualization expenditure.

The new offering gives organisations the flexibility to continue running applications in VMs on Kubernetes, allowing them to refactor or develop new cloud-native applications when suitable for their current resources and business timelines. This reduces the need for abrupt migrations and gives businesses the ability to modernise incrementally.

Portworx for KubeVirt with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Engine allows customers to plan VM migrations to Kubernetes infrastructure across various deployment environments. Migration can take place on-premises, in the public cloud, at the edge, or in hybrid arrangements wherever Red Hat OpenShift is supported.

The Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Engine is focused solely on VM workloads and is designed to offer the core virtualization capabilities of Red Hat OpenShift for simplified VM deployment, management, and scaling. Integrating Portworx aims to add enterprise data management features, simplifying VM workload migration and management on a unified platform.

Ajay Singh, Chief Product Officer at Pure Storage, said: "Red Hat is the perfect partner for our mission as more companies are looking to go cloud-native. Many companies are leveraging Portworx with OpenShift to not only migrate and manage their workloads, but also power innovative application development. We are proud of the success from this Red Hat partnership and look forward to what the next year holds."

Ashesh Badani, Senior Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Red Hat, commented: "While organizations are increasingly migrating to cloud-native containerized workloads, many still rely heavily on virtualization solutions to support their public and private cloud environments. With Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Engine, we are able to meet organizations where they are, to modernize at a pace that best suits their business requirements, with a more cost-effective, streamlined solution. We are pleased to collaborate with Portworx to bring their expertise and data management capabilities to Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Engine as an optimized offering, making it even easier for organizations to deploy and manage virtualized workloads."

The announcement reflects the ongoing trend of enterprises seeking ways to modernise their infrastructure without disrupting current operations, allowing use of existing virtual machines as well as adoption of cloud-native technologies.