Home > Workload Solutions > Container Platforms > Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform > Archive > Design Guide—Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.2 > Introduction to use cases
The term “use case” is often used interchangeably with the term “workload.” This guide makes a clear distinction between these two terms. Here, a use case represents a situational environment, whereas a workload represents an instance of use within a situational environment.
For example, a truck that is designed to carry a large object is analogous to a device that is designed to enable handling a situational environment. This truck might be used to pick up a carton of milk from a store, or it might be used to convey a large machine part from point A to point B. Using a large truck (the situational environment tool) might be considered inappropriate for the task of picking up a carton of milk; however, it might be considered highly appropriate for the transportation of a large machine part—the design of the truck and its use are a good match for this purpose.
Kubernetes containers are component tools that are generally used within a situational environment (use case) so that a particular application (workload) can be handled efficiently and cost-effectively. A use case defines platform environment needs, while a workload is a task that has dependencies that must be provisioned so that the use case has the capacity and ability to accommodate the workload.
Containers are vehicles that carry and enable the development and execution of cloud-native software. Generally, they employ the new “declarative” software design model as part of a distributed-computation platform environment. Here are some key considerations in answer to the frequently asked question, “How can I move my workload to containers?”:
The following use-case examples are minimal and are intended only to show you some of the decisions that you might face with your unique container-ecosystem use cases.