Google caused a stir in the tech world earlier this year when they officially announced the launch of Anthos, a hybrid cloud and workload management service that makes use of the Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and GKE On-Prem. This combination allows their customers to run applications on-premise, in the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and, in a notably groundbreaking move, on other cloud service providers like Azure and AWS.

Write once, run anywhere

Anthos is Google’s promise to developers everywhere to “write once, run anywhere” as it allows applications to run on their on-prem hardware as well as in the public cloud. Its support of open-source Kubernetes is the beginning of a new standard in hybrid, unified cloud services that can truly service customers whose gripes revolve around getting locked into one provider because of varying environments and APIs per cloud service.

The revolutionary platform uses a combined GKE and GKE On-Prem system that allows customers to monitor and enforce policies across multiple clusters both in the cloud and on-premise consistently across different cloud service providers. On top of that, the service provides updates, security patches, and the latest Kubernetes versions without any downtime for its clients.

The future of cloud

With cloud technology on the rise, more and more businesses are migrating their data to reap the many benefits of the cloud — such as increasing efficiency, accessibility, and lowering business costs. Maryville University‘s management information systems program points to a surge in demand for information systems experts, as they become more attractive to industries looking to upgrade their data systems and move to the cloud. But even with experts working with these companies, business owners know how difficult cloud migration can be, as InfoWorld notes that cost and security are the two major problems encountered by companies. That doesn’t even take into consideration streamlining legacy systems, psychological barriers, and overwhelming choices in the market that block many from taking the big leap.

While Anthos doesn’t solve all of these problems completely, it does make it easier for customers, administrators, and developers by giving them the freedom to manage their applications on any cloud service provider, without the need to learn different environments or APIs. This means a reduction in training costs and no forced stack refresh, as customers can get applications running on existing hardware. As an added bonus, Anthos customers also have access to Google’s hardware and software partners, which include major players in the industry like Cisco, HPE, Dell EMC, and VMware. Google has also been partnering with application vendors like Portworx, Tigera, and Datastax in an effort to provide state-of-the-art data management capabilities and support enterprise applications that run on Anthos.

Only time will tell how much Anthos will impact the cloud service industry on a macro level, but we can expect that its innovations in the industry will definitely help in smoothing out the fabric of the cloud. In the meantime, navigating the existing obstacles in the cloud is still a very real challenge for your business that our experts can help you overcome. That said, Techolution will save you time, money, and effort, as we can provide you customized solutions from picking the right cloud service to responding quickly to crashes and errors. Indeed, the cloud doesn’t have to be an obstacle when you let us do the heavy lifting for your company and your tech team. Consult with us today and get started on your hybrid cloud transformation.

Technology Editorial written by Karen Bench for techolution.com