Integrating cloud concepts in every software industry is becoming a vital part. Thus, to keep up with these changes, platforms like Google Cloud continue to offer various services and expand.
One search service is Google Anthos – a service that helps ease the complexity of managing workloads across multiple clouds.
What is the Google Cloud Anthos, and how does it work?
Anthos is the first-ever multi-cloud platform backed by a major cloud provider- Google. With Anthos, you can now run Kubernetes, Istio, Knative, and other workloads consistently across various public clouds and on-premises data centers.
With native support for Google Cloud, Amazon, and on-premises deployments, Anthos provides you with the flexibility and freedom to run your applications on any infrastructure you choose.
What are the main use cases of Google Cloud Anthos?
Google Anthos can fit various scenarios to help you streamline your cloud network and handle workloads consistently on multiple networks. Let’s look at some use cases to help you understand better how Anthos works.
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A flexible hybrid cloud solution for container orchestration and management
Anthos provides a consistent experience for the deployment and management of Kubernetes clusters, with a common set of tools and services hosted in the cloud. This enables you to scale your container workloads to the cloud for extra, on-demand capacity.
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Upgrade Your CI/CD Process with Anthos
By leveraging Anthos, you can modernize your application configuration, policy management, deployment automation, and continuous integration with the help of your company's skilled Kubernetes and Google Cloud engineers.
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Migrate Cloud Foundry Applications with Kf
It helps to embark on a phased migration journey in two phases. The first phase concentrates on standardizing the application platform while the latter focuses on modernizing the applications.
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Upgrading existing Java applications through Anthos
Anthos can modernize existing Java applications through a three-stage process. It involves lifting and modernizing compatible applications from running on VMs to running on containers without the need to rewrite any code.
What are the key features of Google Cloud Anthos?
What are the Building Blocks of Google Cloud Anthos?
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GKE On-Prem
GKE On-Prem allows fully managed Kubernetes clusters in your data center, alongside cloud-based clusters in the GCP console.
Designed for on-premises deployment on VMware vSphere, it supports additional hypervisors, Kubernetes version upgrades, and security patches are taken care of.
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Google Kubernetes Engine
Anthos is centered on GKE, which manages Kubernetes clusters and applications, monitors them, and allows load switching between on-premises and the cloud.
GKE lets you allocate compute resources, scale deployment and integrate UnionFS, control groups, and namespaces.
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Istio
Istio allows for creating a unified service mesh that connects GCP, third-party clouds, and databases and provides load balancing, traffic management, and cluster monitoring.
It includes features such as circuit-breakers, retries, and fast failure recovery, and simplifies cluster creation and operations.
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GKE Hub
GKE Hub, networking component of Anthos, facilitates the connection between Google Cloud Services Platform, other cloud providers, and on-premises data GKE clusters. With GKE, you can access data across a multi-cloud deployment and monitor all Kubernetes clusters on a single interface.
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Anthos config management
Anthos Config Management simplifies the deployment and maintenance of Kubernetes clusters in different environments, providing enterprise-level security through a centralized Git repository.
It supports Kubernetes configuration formats and allows the management of multiple clusters while streamlining configuration policy processes.
Anthos vs. Kubernetes: key differences and similarities?
Differences
Similarities
Factors for choosing between Kubernetes and Anthos
The choice between Anthos and Kubernetes depends on the number of resources and clusters needed.
Anthos is suitable for organizations with numerous clusters in hybrid and multi-cloud environments. At the same time, Kubernetes is a simple solution for small companies with a few clusters on the same cloud platform.
Google Anthos vs. AWS Outposts vs. Azure Stack: Which platform is better?
When it comes to hybrid cloud offerings, the major cloud providers offer Google Anthos, AWS Outposts, and Azure Stack. Let's take a closer look at the differences between these products:
Multi-Cloud Support
Hardware Options
Deployment Effort
A step-by-step guide to set up and configure Anthos on Google Cloud
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First, you need to log onto your GCP account.
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Create a new project or select an existing one.
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Ensure that the project has billing enabled.
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Navigate to the API section and enable the Anthos API.
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Next step is to register the cluster to the fleet in the Cloud Console. Go to the Anthos Clusters page to display all your registered clusters.
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Click on “Register existing cluster”
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To add an unregistered cluster to your fleet, click the "Register" button next to it.
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Lastly, configure Anthos to use the features you want to enable, such as Anthos Service Mesh, Anthos Config Management, and Anthos Identity and Access Management.
What are the different pricing models offered by Google Anthos?
Google Cloud Anthos is available on two pricing models: pay-as-you-go and monthly subscription, both of which offer commitment-based discounts.
What are the benefits and limitations of Google Cloud Anthos?
Benefits
Limitations
Best practices to get the most out of Google Cloud Anthos for your business
Key Takeaways
As organizations mature in the cloud, multi cloud and hybrid architectures are becoming the norm rather than the exception.
Thus, Anthos and similar services offered by AWS and Azure are paving the way for the next phase of cloud computing.
This new era will prioritize the development of resilient containerized applications that can be deployed across various environments, focusing on abstracting deployment environments.
