AI and data platforms on OpenShift

Role of OpenShift in AI and Data Platforms

OpenShift sits between raw Kubernetes and full-featured AI/data platforms. It provides:

• A standardized, enterprise Kubernetes foundation (security, multi-tenancy, networking, storage).
• A consistent way to run AI/ML and data stacks across on‑prem, cloud, and edge.
• Integration points for GPUs, accelerators, and HPC‑style workloads (covered elsewhere).

In practice, OpenShift is rarely the AI platform itself; it is the substrate on which higher-level AI and data platforms run, often as Operators or tightly integrated products.

Key patterns:

• AI platforms on OpenShift: MLOps stacks, notebooks, training pipelines, model serving frameworks.
• Data platforms on OpenShift: databases, data lakes, streaming systems, analytics engines.
• Integrated data+AI platforms: unified systems for data ingestion, feature engineering, training, and serving.

Types of AI Workloads on OpenShift

AI workloads on OpenShift tend to fall into several categories:

• Interactive exploration: JupyterLab/RStudio notebooks, data discovery, ad‑hoc model experimentation.
• Batch training: scheduled or on‑demand training jobs, large‑scale distributed training (GPU/CPU).
• Model serving:
• Real‑time, low‑latency inference via HTTP/gRPC.
• Batch inference on large data sets.
• Pipelines and automation:
• End‑to‑end ML workflows for data prep → train → validate → deploy.
• Continuous training and re‑training using CI/CD and MLOps practices.
• Auxiliary services:
• Feature stores, experiment tracking, artifact/model registries, data catalogs.

OpenShift provides the runtime, scheduling, autoscaling, and multi‑tenancy; specialized AI tooling is typically layered on top.

AI Platform Building Blocks on OpenShift

Notebook and Development Environments

Interactive environments are usually provided via:

• Jupyter-based platforms:
• Multi‑user JupyterHub/JupyterLab installations packaged as Operators.
• Per‑user notebooks running as pods, with persistent storage and network isolation.
• IDE integrations:
• VS Code/JetBrains remote containers targeting OpenShift clusters.
• Resource‑bound environments:
• Quotas, limits, and GPU allocation per project/user.
• Automatic idle timeout and cleanup for cost control.

Distinctive OpenShift aspects:

• Use of Projects/Namespaces to isolate teams or users.
• Enforcement of Security Context Constraints (SCCs) to control container privileges.
• Integration with enterprise authentication and RBAC for user access to notebooks.

Training Jobs and Pipelines

AI training on OpenShift typically uses:

• Custom resources for training jobs:
• Framework‑specific CRDs such as TFJob, PyTorchJob, MPIJob (via Operators or frameworks like Kubeflow Training Operator).
• Native Job and CronJob for simpler or one‑off training runs.
• Pipeline frameworks:
• Operator‑based solutions (e.g., Kubeflow Pipelines or other pipeline engines) running entirely on OpenShift.
• Integration with OpenShift Pipelines (Tekton) for CI/CD‑style ML pipelines.

OpenShift‑specific considerations:

• Training pods can request GPUs and node‑affinity to GPU nodes.
• Use of persistent volumes for training data and checkpoints.
• Integration with object storage (S3‑compatible, cloud storage) via credentials and Secrets.

Model Serving Architectures

On OpenShift, model serving is typically implemented using:

• Model serving Operators:
• Frameworks such as KServe, Seldon, or vendor‑specific model serving, using CRDs like InferenceService or SeldonDeployment.
• Rollout and versioning patterns:
• Blue‑green or canary deployments for new model versions.
• Traffic splitting using Services and Routes/Ingress.
• Autoscaling:
• Horizontal Pod Autoscaler based on CPU/latency or custom metrics for QPS.
• In some stacks, scale‑to‑zero and event‑driven serving.

Distinct OpenShift services:

• Native Route/Ingress integration for secure external access (TLS, hostname routing).
• Built‑in monitoring and logging integration for inference metrics and traces.
• OpenShift’s security features (SCC, NetworkPolicies) for isolating model endpoints.

Data Platforms and Storage for AI on OpenShift

AI workloads are only as good as the data pipelines feeding them. On OpenShift, data platforms are usually deployed as Operators or Helm‑based stacks.

Relational and NoSQL Databases

Common patterns:

• Database Operators manage lifecycle (deploy, backup, upgrade) for:
• Relational systems (PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, etc.).
• NoSQL and document stores (MongoDB, Cassandra, etc.).
• Application‑oriented data: typically smaller, transactional, and tied to specific apps or microservices that feed or use models.

OpenShift‑specific aspects:

• Use of persistent volumes and StorageClasses for stateful database pods.
• Pod anti‑affinity and multi‑zone spread for higher availability.
• Backup/restore integrated with OpenShift backup solutions.

Data Lakes and Object Storage

For large‑scale AI:

• Object storage:
• S3‑compatible stores (on‑prem or cloud) used for:
• Raw data.
• Pre‑processed datasets.
• Model artifacts and checkpoints.
• Lakehouse and big‑data engines:
• Spark, Trino/Presto, or other query engines running on OpenShift, reading/writing from object storage and HDFS‑like systems.

OpenShift‑focused concerns:

• Using PVCs only when necessary; preferring object storage for scalability and throughput.
• Managing credentials for object storage via Secrets and workload annotations.
• Running large, distributed compute engines as Kubernetes workloads with resource quotas and scheduling.

Streaming and Real-Time Data

Many AI systems rely on streaming data for:

• Online feature calculation.
• Real‑time recommendations and anomaly detection.

On OpenShift, this is typically provided by:

• Kafka and streaming Operators:
• Cluster management, topic configuration, and user access via CRDs.
• Streaming applications:
• Flink, Kafka Streams, Spark Streaming, etc., deployed as containerized apps.
• Feature streaming:
• Real‑time features served to models via dedicated microservices or feature stores.

OpenShift influence:

• Multi‑tenancy and network policies to isolate teams and topics.
• Integration with external messaging (cloud‑native services) where OpenShift runs in public clouds.

Integrated AI and Data Platforms on OpenShift

Several integrated platforms bundle development, data, training, and serving:

• Enterprise AI platforms:
• Multi‑tenant solutions offering:
• Workspace management (projects, teams).
• Notebook servers.
• Pipelines and experiments.
• Model catalog and registry.
• One‑click deployment to production endpoints.
• End‑to‑end data+AI environments:
• Combine:
• Data ingestion and transformation (batch + streaming).
• Feature engineering and feature store.
• Training, evaluation, and governance.
• Model serving and monitoring.

Key OpenShift characteristics:

• Platforms are usually packaged as one or more Operators, which:
• Automate upgrades and configuration.
• Manage complex dependencies (databases, message brokers, storage).
• They take advantage of:
• Projects for tenant isolation.
• Cluster‑wide Operators for shared platform services.
• Built‑in monitoring/logging for platform observability.

MLOps and DataOps Patterns on OpenShift

OpenShift supports a consistent approach to operating AI and data workloads:

• Reusable container images:
• Standard base images for data science environments (Python/R, CUDA, frameworks).
• Policy enforcement via image registries and scanning.
• Config as code:
• Storing platform configuration, pipelines, and deployments in Git.
• GitOps Operators to reconcile desired AI/data platform state.
• Pipelines integrated with CI/CD:
• Model training and evaluation triggered from Git changes or data events.
• Automated promotion of models through environments (dev → test → prod).
• DataOps:
• Managing data ingestion and transformation as versioned, testable code.
• Using OpenShift resources (Jobs, Pipelines, Operators) for repeatable data workflows.

These patterns rely on OpenShift primitives (Projects, RBAC, Operators, CI/CD integration) rather than bespoke AI tooling.

Governance, Security, and Compliance for AI/Data on OpenShift

AI and data platforms involve sensitive data and complex compliance requirements. OpenShift contributes by:

• Multi-tenant isolation:
• Strict namespace boundaries for teams, environments, and business units.
• NetworkPolicies and SCCs to restrict cross‑tenant communication and privileges.
• Data access control:
• Integration with enterprise identity providers for authentication.
• Fine‑grained access to data platforms through RBAC and platform‑level permissions.
• Auditability:
• Cluster audit logs plus higher‑level logs from AI/data platforms.
• Traceable lineage of data and models via platform features and Git history.
• Policy enforcement:
• Admission policies to control container images, resource usage, and allowed configurations.
• Security scanning for images and runtime to protect AI workloads.

For regulated environments, these capabilities form the foundation for AI governance frameworks built on top.

Performance and Resource Management Considerations

Running AI and data platforms effectively on OpenShift requires:

• Cluster sizing and capacity planning:
• Distinct node pools for:
• GPU‑intensive training and inference.
• CPU‑bound data processing and databases.
• System and control plane workloads.
• Scheduling strategies:
• Node affinity and taints/tolerations to guide workloads to appropriate hardware.
• Pod priority classes to ensure critical serving workloads preempt less important batch jobs.
• Storage performance:
• Matching storage backends to workloads:
• High IOPS and low latency for databases.
• High throughput for data lakes and checkpoints.
• Avoiding contention by separating high‑traffic, stateful workloads.
• Cost and efficiency:
• Autoscaling worker nodes where supported.
• Using quotas and limits to prevent runaway resource consumption by experiments.

These practices allow multiple teams and workloads to share a cluster without interfering with each other’s performance.

Emerging Directions for AI and Data on OpenShift

AI and data platforms on OpenShift are evolving quickly. Notable directions include:

• Larger models and generative AI:
• Hosting and serving large language models with specialized inference runtimes.
• Hybrid patterns where heavy training is done off‑cluster (e.g., cloud or dedicated HPC), while fine‑tuning and serving run on OpenShift.
• Event‑driven and serverless AI:
• Event triggers (messages, file arrivals, API calls) invoking short‑lived inference workloads.
• Integration with serverless runtimes for scale‑to‑zero model endpoints.
• Unified data/AI governance:
• Tight integration of data catalogs, feature stores, and model registries with OpenShift’s policy and audit structures.
• Heterogeneous hardware:
• Expanding beyond GPUs to other accelerators (e.g., NPUs, specialized inference chips) managed via Kubernetes device plugins on OpenShift.
• Cross‑cluster and hybrid platforms:
• Federated data and AI services spanning multiple OpenShift clusters across on‑prem, public cloud, and edge.
• Data locality‑aware scheduling, where training jobs run close to the data.

In all these trends, OpenShift remains the consistent, enterprise‑grade platform on which specialized AI and data stacks are deployed, operated, and evolved.