Anthos for application management in hybird & multi-cloud environments

According to Accenture, approximately 92% of organizations are in some form of cloud environment, either cloud-native, hybrid, or multi-cloud[1]. Traditionally the number of computing resources available to a business was limited by its hardware infrastructure. Cloud computing fundamentally changed that. The cloud makes computer system resources available on-demand without the need for additional hardware. Cloud technologies deliver computing resources to end-users over the internet. The services delivered include but are not limited to:

1. Data storage
2. Servers
3. Databases
4. Networking
5. Software
6. Analytics
7. Intelligence, etc

Typically these services have a pay-as-you-use service model. This can significantly reduce a business's operation costs, investment in hardware, and wastage of resources. As a business grows cloud solutions make it easier for them to scale and gain access to required computing power without top-heavy investments.

Some examples of cloud solutions used by businesses are office suites like Microsoft 365 or Google Suite, software as a service (SaaS) solutions like Salesforce, services for file and data storage like Dropbox, among others.

See also: Data protection handbook for cloud apps

Google suite usage

Launched in 2006 as Google Apps, Google's cloud solution was recently rebranded as Google Workspace. Google Workspace is a collection of cloud computing, collaboration, and productivity tools. It includes popular Google apps like Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, etc. In October 2020, Google shared that Workspace had 2.6 billion monthly active users[2]. Workspace has an impressive number of end-users and businesses on its platform and has become a serious competitor to Microsoft 365.

What is Anthos

Anthos is a solution that has been developed by Google Cloud, Google's partners, customers, and an independent community of researchers, academics, and open-source developers. The solution allows you to build and manage hybrid applications using the on-premise infrastructure you have already invested in or in the public cloud. The solution was launched in 2018. Anthos provides businesses with consistent development and operations experience across different environments. Anthos makes it possible for businesses to bring the benefit of cloud, containers, and service mesh to their applications - both legacy as well as cloud-native.

Generally, organizations opt for a multi-cloud environment in order to avoid getting locked in with specific vendors. It allows them to take advantage of the best providers of specific solutions. However, managing applications that are on different clouds is not easy and comes with its own challenges. Through a centralized control panel, Anthos created a unified model that businesses can use to manage applications across different clouds, for computing and networking.

Download this white paper "Anthos under the hood" to learn more about Anthos and how it can help your business. Subscribe to Whitepapers.online for useful resources and information from the world of technology.

Sources:
1. Mar 2021, "25 cloud trends for 2021 and beyond", Accenture, [available online] available from: https://www.accenture.com/nl-en/blogs/insights/cloud-trends [accessed May 2021]

2. Oct 2020, E. Protalinski, "G Suite is now Google Workspace because ‘work is no longer a physical place’", Venture Beat, [avaialbe online] available from: https://venturebeat.com/2020/10/06/g-suite-google-workspace-gmail-calendar-drive-docs-sheets-slides-meet/ [accessed May 2021]