A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN VANILLA KUBERNETES AND RED HAT OPENSHIFT FOR ENTERPRISE CONTAINER ORCHESTRATION

This article presents a comparative analysis between Vanilla Kubernetes and Red Hat OpenShift as container orchestration platforms adopted in corporate environments. The study is based on a bibliographic and documentary research approach, supported by technical literature and institutional reports from internationally recognized organizations. The findings indicate that Kubernetes has become the global technological standard for container orchestration, due to its architectural flexibility, extensibility and strong open-source ecosystem. Red Hat OpenShift, in turn, is characterized as an enterprise platform built on top of Kubernetes, distinguished by its integrated security policies, governance mechanisms, automation resources and vendor support, which make it particularly suitable for highly regulated or mission-critical environments. The analysis demonstrates that the decision between the two platforms goes beyond technical aspects and involves strategic, operational and economic variables, such as organizational maturity, total cost of ownership, regulatory compliance and risk management. It is concluded that Kubernetes and OpenShift are not mutually exclusive solutions, but complementary approaches that respond to different corporate contexts. The study contributes to informed decision-making and to academic debate on cloud-native infrastructure.