Shift into high gear with OpenShift for your PaaS
Updated July 14, 2014
Shift into high gear with OpenShift for your PaaS
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
FreeShift
Modules Used
- Aerogear
- MySQL
Overall Satisfaction with OpenShift
We are currently using OpenShift to host Aerogear's Unified Push Notification server from Red Hat. Aerogear is installed as a plugin which is called a cartridge in OpenShift terminology. One of the dependencies for Aerogear is MySQL. It is also bundled as a cartridge and is selected as part of the Aerogear cartridge install.
- Cartridge Architecture - The ability to install existing cartridges from the community as well as ones you create makes it really easy to get a PaaS up and running quickly
- Source Control - OpenShift provides the ability to control changes to your software thru a Git repository. This allows you to effectively manage your software.
- RedHat Console - RedHat provides some nice Ruby based tools that allow you to interact with your server. You can tail logs, restart the server, ssh in and change JBoss configuration settings for example.
- Auto Scaling - There is the ability to auto scale an application. However, you have to decide on this up front. There doesn't seem to be a way to change this after the application is created.
- Upgrading Cartridges - You can upgrade cartridges thru the source code repository provided. However, it would be nice if you could just select a new version in the UI.
- Free Version - If you have an application running in the free pricing model and have not accessed it in over 24 hours, the application goes into a pending status. The first request after the 24 hour period will fail while your application starts up. The pricing model is really inexpensive so this really is not a big deal however.
- Cost - OpenShift is extremely inexpensive. I use a free account for Dev and QA. For production, I am planning on using a low cost paid subscription.
- Time - You can get your application up and running in minutes so if you find that the service is not for you, you don't have much to lose.
OpenShift is the first PaaS provider that I have used directly. However, if you use more traditional providers and pay extremely high monthly fees, I believe OpenShift should be given a chance to compete.