What is the difference between Red Hat Cloud Access and Red Hat Enterprise Linux on-demand subscriptions in a public cloud?

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Red Hat allows existing customers to access their images of Red Hat products from a Certified Cloud and Service Provider (CCSP) in an offering called “bring your own subscription (BYOS).” This means you can access Red Hat products in a saved image state any time you need them. This is not the same as an on-demand offering.

Understanding the differences

Red Hat Cloud Access On-demand Red Hat products
Procurement Customers pay Red Hat for their subscriptions, which should be enabled for Red Hat Cloud Access before deploying to the public cloud. Customers pay the cloud provider directly for the on-demand Red Hat product on a pay-as-you-go model.
Usage Customers can upload their own images to the cloud provider repository or use an image developed by the cloud provider and Red Hat. Customers access images for their workloads made available from the provider’s repositories.
Support Red Hat provides first-line support for customers running Cloud Access-enabled images on Red Hat CCSPs and works closely with providers when necessary to resolve customer issues. CCSPs provide support for customers running on-demand Red Hat products. This varies by provider and is defined in the service-level agreement in the partner’s subscription.
Updates Customers receive updates for the products from Red Hat directly. Specially developed images from Red Hat are configured to receive updates via the Red Hat Update Infrastructure at launch but may be registered to receive updates from Red Hat directly instead. Customers receive updates from the cloud provider via the Red Hat Update Infrastructure.

What is an on-demand offering?

On-demand images are purchased from cloud service providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, or IBM Cloud. These images can be used only within the cloud environment and are for cloud instances. Red Hat supplies updates to these images to the provider, who makes them available to their customers via Red Hat Update Infrastructure. On-demand customers should not register these images with Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM). If you want to host images in the cloud with your Red Hat subscriptions, you would purchase the necessary subscriptions from Red Hat directly and enable them for Red Hat Cloud Access.

What is Red Hat Cloud Access?

Enabling your eligible Red Hat product subscriptions for Red Hat Cloud Access allows you to use those products on CCSPs. In this model, the terms of your subscription with Red Hat, including pricing, remain the same. You work directly with Red Hat. With Cloud Access, you can:

  • Upload images of Red Hat products to which you are subscribed to a CCSP

  • Access your images through the applicable web console

  • Maintain your pricing and support services with Red Hat directly

Why am I getting double-billed?

If you have previously used an on-demand offering in the past with your cloud service provider and have then enrolled in Red Hat Cloud Access, you must cancel your on-demand Red Hat products with the cloud provider. Otherwise, you will be charged for both.

In this scenario, you should review your subscription details in Red Hat Subscription Management and then cancel any unnecessary, extraneous subscriptions to another cloud provider.

Note: IBM Cloud Bare Metal offering does not require Cloud Access.

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