Red Hat Summit Red Hat and Microsoft today tore the wraps off a jointly managed public OpenShift service running on Azure.

The deal will let customers run Kubernetes-container-based applications on either on-premises servers or the Azure cloud, and manage them through OpenShift. Both vendors are planning to offer support for the service, with Microsoft handling the cloud portion and Red Hat the Kubernetes container side.

The two firms say the managed OpenShift service will be the first of its kind to run via a public cloud. The combined offering will also offer hybrid networking services, and will work with Microsoft's Azure Stack private cloud.

For Red Hat, the joint service will help push the company's hybrid cloud gospel, letting companies shift their container-based applications over to Azure when on-prem hardware isn't quite cutting it without having to make significant adjustments in the process.

"By extending our partnership with Microsoft, we’re able to offer the industry’s most comprehensive Kubernetes platform on a leading public cloud, providing the ability for customers to more easily harness innovation across the hybrid cloud without sacrificing production stability," bragged Paul Cormier, president of products and technology at Red Hat.

Contain thyself

Microsoft, meanwhile, gets to boast yet another vendor tie-in for Azure, and also gains extended support for SQL Server on RedHat OpenShift containers, as well as OpenShift support for Azure Cosmos DB, Machine Learning, and SQL DB.

"Microsoft and Red Hat are aligned in our vision to deliver simplicity, choice and flexibility to enterprise developers building cloud-native applications," said Microsoft cloud and enterprise group executive VP Scott Guthrie.

"Today, we’re combining both companies’ leadership in Kubernetes, hybrid cloud and enterprise operating systems to simplify the complex process of container management, with an industry-first solution on Azure."

Rollout of the partnership will occur in two phases, with Azure support for OpenShift Container Platform and Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Azure and Azure Stack available now. The jointly managed OpenShift on Azure project is slated to go into its preview phase "in the coming months."

Meanwhile, Red Hat is also looking to extend its partnership with IBM. Monday saw the announcement of IBM Cloud Private and IBM Cloud Private for Data becoming Red Hat Certified Containers, making it easier for both of the IBM middleware offerings to run in OpenShift containers.

Plus, Kubernetes Operators are being plugged into OpenShift as well as CoreOS, which Red Hat bought in January. ®