第1章 Introducing RHEL on public cloud platforms

A cloud instance of RHEL runs as a VM on a cloud platform, which means a cluster of remote servers maintained by the cloud service provider. Therefore, on the software level, allocating hardware resources to the instance is easily customizable, such as a specific type of CPU or storage.

In comparison to a local RHEL system, you are also not limited by the capabilities of physical host. Instead, you can select from a variety of features, based on selections offered by the cloud provider.

You do not need to own any on-premise servers to host cloud workloads. This avoids the space, power, and maintenance requirements associated with physical hardware.

Instead, on public cloud platforms, you pay the cloud provider directly for using a cloud instance. The cost is typically based on the hardware allocated to the instance and the time to use it. Therefore, you can optimize your costs based on the requirements.

You save the entire configuration of a cloud instance as data on the cloud platform and control it with software. Therefore, you can easily create, remove, clone, or migrate the instance. You also operate a cloud instance remotely in a cloud provider console, and it connects to remote storage by default.

In addition, you can back up the current state of a cloud instance as a snapshot at any time. Afterwards, you can load the snapshot to restore the instance to the saved state.

Similarly to a local VM, the RHEL guest operating system on a cloud instance runs on a Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM). This kernel is separate from the host operating system and from the client system that you use to connect to the instance.

Therefore, you can install any operating system on the cloud instance. This means that on a RHEL public cloud instance, you can run RHEL-specific applications not usable on your local operating system.

In addition, even if the operating system of the instance becomes unstable or compromised, it does not affect your client system.