Cloud-Based Platform for Managing and Running Applications Across Multiple Environments, Developed by Google.

Anthos: Google's Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Kubernetes Platform

Anthos, developed by Google, is an open, Kubernetes-based platform designed to manage containerized applications consistently across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. This platform builds on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and offers a scalable and flexible solution for deploying and managing applications in on-premises, Google Cloud, or other public clouds such as AWS and Azure [2].

At its core, Anthos utilizes Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) for container orchestration and management across environments. Other key components include Anthos Config Management, which ensures policy enforcement and configuration consistency across clusters, and the Istio Service Mesh, a secure and efficient means of service-to-service communication, traffic management, and observability [2][5].

Anthos offers a range of tools tailored to different roles within an organization. Developers can benefit from seamless application development, while service operators/SRE and infrastructure operators can leverage tools for managing and securing their workloads [1].

One of the unique features of Anthos is Anthos Config Management, which allows for syncing configurations across clusters on-premises and in the cloud, continuous enforcement of policies, and security and auditability through policy-as-code [1].

For applications that might be suitable for containerization, a discovery tool called Migrate for Anthos can be used to determine potential candidates. However, not all applications can be migrated using this method [1].

Anthos also supports zero-touch provisioning and device onboarding for edge deployments, making it easier to scale and manage distributed edge environments [3].

In addition to its cloud capabilities, Anthos has an on-premises counterpart known as GKE On-Prem, which runs on vSphere within an organization's environment, offering benefits like automated deployment on vSphere and easy upgrades to the latest Kubernetes release [2][5].

Anthos does not require the use of Google Cloud Platform for modernization and is compatible with other public clouds such as Microsoft Azure and AWS [2]. The GCP Marketplace offers certified software to run on GCP, including on Kubernetes clusters, through collaboration with Google and third-party vendors [2].

Migrate for Anthos converts Virtual Machines into containers, making container images smaller and releasing the operating system security burden, while maintaining critical application elements [1].

Stackdriver provides logs, monitoring, application performance management, application debugging, and incident management across entire estates when Istio and GKE are enabled [2]. Knative, an open-source serverless framework, is also compatible with Anthos, enabling serverless deployment on Kubernetes [2].

Cloud Run for Anthos allows deployment of containers on GKE clusters, offering the freedom to run Cloud Run anywhere, such as on-premises environments [2]. Anthos was initially developed in 2019 to help modernize applications within on-premises and datacenter environments before moving to the cloud [4].

Finally, Anthos Hub is a centralized management tool for hybrid and multi-cloud infrastructure and workloads, allowing management of on-prem GKE and other Kubernetes environments from the cloud console [1]. This tool simplifies the management of complex, hybrid infrastructure, making it easier for organizations to adopt and manage Anthos across their environments.

In summary, Anthos provides a consistent, scalable platform for managing Kubernetes-based workloads across diverse infrastructures while integrating advanced networking, security, and operational tooling originating from Google's expertise in cloud-native technologies.

References: 1. Google Cloud - Anthos 2. Google Cloud - Anthos Overview 3. Google Cloud - Anthos for Edge 4. TechTarget - Anthos: Google's hybrid cloud platform 5. Red Hat - Anthos on VMware

Cloud-Based Platform for Managing and Running Applications Across Multiple Environments, Developed by Google.