OpenShift: Develop, Host, and Scale Your Apps in the Cloud - Introduction

OpenShift Online | Source: www.openshift.com

What is OpenShift?

OpenShift is Red Hat's Cloud Computing Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering. OpenShift is an application platform in the cloud where application developers and teams can build, test, deploy, and run their applications.

OpenShift takes care of all the infrastructure, middleware, and management and allows the developer to focus on what they do best: designing and coding applications.

What is Read Hat?

Red Hat is a leading software company in the business of assembling open source components for the Linux operating system and related programs into a distribution package that can easily be ordered and implemented.

Red Hat was one of the first companies to realize that "free" software could be sold as a product. After examining the successful marketing campaign of Evian water, Red Hat concluded that to achieve success, the company had to create more Linux users and brand Red Hat as the Linux name that customers preferred. Today, the "Red Hat Plan" is discussed as a model in business schools.

Read Hat's History | Source: www.redhat.com 

How do I use OpenShift?

For a Developer to use OpenShift to take advantage of the power and elasticity of the Cloud, they need only do the following:

1. Sign up for free :  https://www.openshift.com/
2. Create an "Application" in OpenShift (With the command-line or via their IDE)
3. Code the application (in Vi, TextMate, Eclipse, Visual Studio, or whatever)
4. Push the application code to OpenShift (again, with the command-line or from their IDE)
5. Code anything

OpenShift takes a No-Lock-In approach to PaaS by providing built-in support for:

1. Node.js
2. Ruby
3. Python
4. PHP
5. Perl
6. Java

In addition, OpenShift is extensible with a customizable cartridge functionality that allows enterprising developers to add any other language they wish. We've seen everything from Clojure to Cobol running on OpenShift.

In addition to this flexible, no-lock-in, language approach, OpenShift supports many of the popular frameworks that make a developer's life easier including frameworks ranging from Spring, to Rails, to Play. OpenShift is designed to allow Developers to work the way they want to work by giving them the languages, frameworks and tools they need for fast and easy application development.

Getting Started with OpenShift Online

It’s easy to get up and running on OpenShift, but you have a lot of choice when it comes to your preferred environment. Below you’ll find the information you need to get started creating and managing applications on OpenShift.

Installing the Client Tools on Windows

Installing the client tools (rhc) on Windows requires three steps:

Step 1: Install Ruby with RubyInstaller
Step 2: Install Git version control
Step 3: Install the rhc Ruby gem

https://developers.openshift.com/en/getting-started-windows.html