The value of Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization partner ecosystem
Introduction
In today’s shifting virtualization landscape, businesses face decisions about evolving their infrastructure to meet modern demands.
Many are looking for solutions to move their virtual machines (VMs) to unified platforms where those VMs can sit beside containers and cloud-native architectures. Red Hat® OpenShift® Virtualization technologies, included in Red Hat OpenShift solutions, address these needs by combining the proven Red Hat OpenShift platform with strong virtualization capabilities.
Yet with the move away from traditional virtualization platforms, many organizations may worry about the maturity of more modernized alternatives, such as OpenShift Virtualization, and if the solutions from their preferred partners are available and compatible.
OpenShift Virtualization is well-established, and has steadily matured alongside a global ecosystem of independent software vendor (ISV) partners. The Red Hat Global Independent Software Vendors Program brings specialized expertise in areas such as storage, networking, and disaster recovery, helping businesses navigate transitions without starting from scratch. By supporting a broad range of ISV technologies, OpenShift Virtualization offers a flexible toolkit for companies to expand their infrastructure with solutions they know and trust.
Certified ISV partners play a vital role in making sure an organization shifting its VMs has a smooth migration, bridging gaps and simplifying complex processes. This collaborative partner ecosystem helps businesses deploy comprehensive solutions that meet their specific goals, creating a strong foundation for growth in a cloud-native world.
What is Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization (and how can I access it)?
OpenShift Virtualization refers to the virtualization functionality in all editions of Red Hat OpenShift, including:
Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization Engine, for organizations looking to migrate from their existing traditional virtualization platform or who only need to support VMs. OpenShift Virtualization Engine doesn’t include containerization and application modernization capabilities, but is compatible with the extensive ISV ecosystem supporting OpenShift Virtualization.
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Plus, for organizations who need a complete set of integrated tools and services for cloud-native, artificial intelligence (AI), virtual, and traditional workloads. Red Hat OpenShift offers both self-managed and fully managed cloud service editions.
Chapter 1: Flexibility and choice with Red Hat and ISV partners
Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization’s ecosystem of ISV partners provides businesses with flexibility in designing and managing their virtualization solutions.
Instead of being constrained to a single overarching solution, OpenShift Virtualization allows companies to build environments that suit their unique requirements without constraining them to a particular vendor’s tools or technologies. This freedom empowers organizations to build the solution tailored to their particular needs and shift more rapidly as needs change, and simplifies their path to a containerized infrastructure.
With a network of certified ISV partners, OpenShift Virtualization allows companies to continue using trusted technologies they already know and are comfortable with. Many organizations find this valuable when migrating from traditional virtualization platforms. Familiar tools in storage, networking, backup, and security are often already present in their infrastructure, and the ability to integrate these existing solutions with OpenShift Virtualization removes much of the complexity that often accompanies large-scale technology transitions. Certified partners help simplify the migration process, allowing organizations to move more quickly without sacrificing quality or stability.
By combining virtualization solutions from Red Hat with specialized ISV expertise, businesses can configure their virtualization solution to meet specific operational requirements. For example, a company focused on high-performance data handling might incorporate a storage solution from a partner such as Portworx (more on Portworx and the other partners mentioned here in the next chapter). Another organization with strong security needs might prioritize networking solutions from partners such as Tigera. This choice-based approach gives each business the ability to tailor its virtualization environment with tools and capabilities that best fit its priorities.
Red Hat and its ISV partners offer businesses the power to build a virtualization solution that reflects their individual goals and requirements. This flexibility in choosing technology partners also helps accelerate adoption of new tools, as teams can rely on their existing knowledge and expertise. The partner ecosystem available to organizations using Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization not only provides a robust foundation for current needs but also positions businesses to scale and adapt in the future.
Chapter 2: Partner expertise in critical areas
Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization supports crucial aspects of enterprise IT through Red Hat’s network of specialized ISV partners.
These partners bring expertise in storage, networking, backup, disaster recovery, security, monitoring and workloads, which provide businesses with tools to tackle complex migration and operational challenges. This chapter explores how Red Hat’s certified ISV partners help organizations transition smoothly and maintain reliable, high-performance virtualized environments.
Storage
You can run, scale, and help protect business-critical applications on Red Hat OpenShift with the integration of storage software partners.
ISV partners specializing in storage, such as NetApp and Portworx, provide container-native solutions that streamline data migration and management. Storage partners simplify the process of moving critical data from traditional environments with OpenShift Virtualization, reducing downtime and operational disruption. By integrating container-friendly storage options, these ISV partners also help organizations that have migrated to a Red Hat OpenShift solution in modernizing their workflows. They also offer solutions for scalable storage, allowing organizations to grow their data capacity alongside their virtualized environments.
Networking
Networking software partners for OpenShift Virtualization offer a high-performance, scalable networking solution that creates segmentation and provides centralized management of different security levels within an organization’s infrastructure.
Networking-focused ISVs such as Cisco and Tigera bring robust network management capabilities to OpenShift Virtualization. Networking partners enhance OpenShift Virtualization’s scalability, allowing companies to expand and safeguard their environments without sacrificing performance. By addressing key concerns around network traffic and data flow, these ISVs play an essential role in creating stable virtualized environments.
Backup and disaster recovery
Backup and disaster recovery software partners help customers ensure their data is protected as they transition from another virtualized environment to a Red Hat OpenShift solution.
Veritas, Veeam Kasten, and Trilio provide tools for safeguarding data during and after migration. Backup partners focus on transferring data and recovering it efficiently in case of an unexpected event. In migration scenarios, backup solutions minimize the risk of data loss, providing organizations with peace of mind as they transition. Post-migration, these solutions allow businesses to maintain regular backups and disaster recovery protocols, supporting data integrity and operational continuity.
Monitoring and security
High availability and security are crucial for any virtualized environment, and Red Hat Global ISV Partners in this area contribute significantly to workload integrity. Security-focused partner solutions strengthen data protection measures, detect vulnerabilities, and maintain compliance. Monitoring tools provided by these partners help IT teams track performance, detect potential issues early, and keep systems running smoothly. By embedding a security and availability focus into the virtualized environment, Red Hat and its global ISV partners support ongoing operational stability.
The partner for your solution
Red Hat’s software partners provide organizations with the choice and flexibility that best suits their business needs and helps them extend, augment, and take advantage of the virtualization solutions available in Red Hat OpenShift. They can rely on Red Hat Global ISV Partners for specialization and depth of capabilities without fear of vendor lock-in.
Chapter 3: Putting it all together with services partners and OpenShift Virtualization
Services partners and systems integrators play a crucial role in uniting the strengths of Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization with those of its ISV partners, helping organizations create cohesive, high-performing platforms.
By working closely with both Red Hat and ISV partners, services partners understand the unique demands of each organization’s environment, making sure that solutions operate smoothly within OpenShift Virtualization.
OpenShift Virtualization’s mature network of systems integrators bring specialized expertise in managing complex environments, which is vital when combining multiple technologies. They guide businesses through the complex technical and operational steps of planning, configuring, and implementing virtualization with Red Hat OpenShift and its partner solutions. With this support, organizations can streamline deployment, reduce potential disruptions, and achieve optimal results across their virtualized environments.
As businesses expand and adopt hybrid, edge, or multicloud strategies, systems integrators provide ongoing support that keeps these environments aligned with business objectives. By facilitating collaboration between Red Hat Global ISV Partners, integrators help deliver tailored solutions that create efficiency, flexibility, and future readiness. Together, Red Hat, its ISV partners, and systems integrators form a powerful team, positioning organizations to realize the full potential of OpenShift Virtualization in a way that scales with their needs.
Success story
How MultiChoice modernized aging video-on-demand infrastructure with LSD Open and OpenShift Virtualization
When MultiChoice’s video-on-demand infrastructure was reaching the end of support, it had a choice: replace it like-for-like or modernize its whole environment. With help from Red Hat and LSD Open, MultiChoice decided to build its business on Red Hat technologies,migrating to Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform to take advantage of its virtualization features. The company also adopted DevOps, Red Hat Ansible® Automation Platform, and upskilled its team.
Chapter 4: Unlocking future potential with OpenShift Virtualization
After migrating to an OpenShift Virtualization solution, organizations can explore new paths to modernization that go beyond traditional VM environments.
With VMs operating alongside containers in a cloudnative setting, businesses gain the flexibility to evolve their infrastructure based on changing demands. This cloud-native setup opens opportunities for hybrid cloud, edge, and multicloud strategies, allowing companies to extend workloads across environments. OpenShift Virtualization’s design as part of Red Hat OpenShift aligns with these approaches, making it easier to move applications and data where they’re needed most, whether in a private datacenter, at the edge, or across multiple cloud platforms.
ISV partners play an essential role in these advanced use cases, providing specialized tools and services that support expansion and optimization. Storage partners, for example, help organizations handle data at scale, while networking partners facilitate smooth, security-focused connections across distributed environments. Partners focused on monitoring and security offer critical insights that keep performance high and workloads protected as infrastructure grows.
As businesses scale their OpenShift Virtualization environments, they gain the ability to modernize applications incrementally. Running VMs alongside containers allows for gradual adoption of cloud-native practices, letting teams innovate without disrupting existing operations. Red Hat’s ISV partners strengthen this transition, helping organizations make full use of OpenShift Virtualization as a long-term platform for growth and modernization.
Conclusion
Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, alongside a robust ecosystem of ISV partners, provides organizations with a powerful path to modernize their infrastructure and streamline migrations from more traditional virtual environments.
Through a combination of containerized operations and tailored support in critical areas such as storage, networking, backup, and disaster recovery, OpenShift Virtualization solutions deliver the flexibility businesses need to adapt and grow. By working alongside certified ISV partners, companies gain tools that simplify migration and build a foundation for innovation within a cloud-native architecture.
As you consider your next steps, OpenShift Virtualization offers the opportunity to create a comprehensive environment that meets today’s demands and scales for tomorrow’s goals. With the support of certified ISV partners, your organization can adopt solutions that protect data, optimize network management, and strengthen system performance. We encourage you to evaluate your broader infrastructure needs and explore how Red Hat OpenShift products and Red Hat’s ISV partners can support business-critical workloads in a unified, adaptable environment.
Embarking on this journey with Red Hat sets the stage for greater flexibility and modernization, unlocking future potential across hybrid, edge, and multicloud deployments.
Find more solutions in the OpenShift Virtualization ecosystem catalog.
Featured partner index
Find these partners and more in the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog.
Portworx powers enterpriseclass storage capabilities such as high availability, performance, backup, and disaster recovery for both VMs and containers running in Red Hat OpenShift.
Tigera’s Calico, integrated with Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, delivers comprehensive networking and a security focus across containers, VMs, and bare metal in hybrid and multicloud environments.
Veeam Kasten is a Kubernetes-native, enterprise-class data management platform that provides a scalable and security-focused system for backup and restore, disaster recovery, and application mobility of Kubernetes applications.
Trilio is a leading provider of cloud-native data protection for the open infrastructure market. Its certified operator-based technology is used for multi-cluster backup and disaster recovery, migration, and application mobility of cloud-native applications, with native support for Red Hat OpenShift and Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization.
Combined with OpenShift Virtualization, Veritas NetBackup delivers a powerful solution that helps simplify management, elevates a security focus, and provides enhanced scalability and reliability of IT infrastructure.
IBM Fusion is an integrated application hybrid cloud platform for Red Hat OpenShift that offers a single, simple management interface to run containers side-by-side with VMs.
F5’s comprehensive suite of products, including BIG-IP and Distributed Cloud Services, delivers robust solutions tailored for migrating workloads to Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization.
Cohesity offers multiple Red Hat integrations to deliver value to joint customers. DataProtect offers an end-to-end backup and recovery solution with unlimited scalability for enterprise data across on-premise, cloud, and edge workloads.
NetApp is a certified Red Hat OpenShift ISV that simplifies hybrid cloud management. Along with Red Hat, NetApp helps customers develop, manage, safeguard, and protect containerized workloads and virtualized applications.
Combining Rubrik Security Cloud with OpenShift Virtualization delivers a security-focused integrated solution that simplifies cyber resilience, supports quick data recovery, and ensures the reliability of the overall IT infrastructure.
See a full list of virtualization partner solutions in the Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog.
