Google Anthos

  • Author: Ronald Fung

  • Creation Date: 8 June 2023

  • Next Modified Date: 8 June 2024


A. Introduction

Google Anthos is a hybrid and multi-cloud platform that allows organizations to build, manage, and deploy applications across their on-premises data centers, Google Cloud, and other cloud platforms, such as AWS and Azure. Anthos provides a consistent and secure platform for managing applications and workloads across different environments, using a single set of tools and APIs.

Anthos is built on Kubernetes, the popular open-source container orchestration platform, and provides a number of features and services to help organizations manage and scale their applications in a hybrid and multi-cloud environment. These features include:

  1. Anthos Config Management: This allows organizations to manage their Kubernetes configurations across multiple clusters and environments, ensuring consistency and compliance across the entire infrastructure.

  2. Anthos Service Mesh: This provides a unified and secure way to manage microservices across different environments, using Istio, an open-source service mesh platform.

  3. Anthos Security: This provides a set of security features and services to help organizations protect their applications and data, including identity and access management, data encryption, and threat detection.

  4. Anthos Migrate: This provides a way to migrate existing workloads to a containerized environment, using tools and services that automate the migration process.

  5. Anthos GKE on-prem: This allows organizations to run GKE on their own infrastructure, using the same tools and APIs that are used in the cloud.

Anthos provides a number of benefits to organizations, including increased flexibility, scalability, and security, and reduced complexity and costs. With Anthos, organizations can build and manage applications across different environments, using a single set of tools and APIs, and can easily scale their resources up or down based on demand. Additionally, Anthos provides a secure and consistent platform for managing applications and workloads, regardless of where they are running.


B. How is it used at Seagen

Seagen can use Google Anthos to manage and deploy their applications and workloads across their on-premises data centers, Google Cloud, and other cloud platforms, such as Azure. Here are some steps to get started with Anthos:

  1. Create a Google Cloud account: Seagen can create a Google Cloud account in the Google Cloud Console. This will give them access to Anthos and other Google Cloud services.

  2. Install Anthos: Seagen can install Anthos on their existing infrastructure, including their on-premises data centers and other cloud platforms. Anthos provides a consistent platform for managing applications and workloads across different environments, using a single set of tools and APIs.

  3. Deploy applications: Seagen can deploy their containerized applications on Anthos, using Kubernetes YAML files or Helm charts. They can manage their applications and workloads across different environments, using a single set of tools and APIs.

  4. Manage configurations: Seagen can use Anthos Config Management to manage their Kubernetes configurations across multiple clusters and environments, ensuring consistency and compliance across their entire infrastructure.

  5. Manage security: Seagen can use Anthos Security to manage their security policies and configurations, including identity and access management, data encryption, and threat detection.

  6. Migrate workloads: Seagen can use Anthos Migrate to migrate their existing workloads to a containerized environment, using tools and services that automate the migration process.

Overall, by using Anthos, Seagen can manage and deploy their applications and workloads across different environments, using a single set of tools and APIs. With its consistent platform, security features, and migration tools, Anthos is an excellent choice for businesses and individuals who need to manage their applications and workloads in a hybrid and multi-cloud environment.


C. Features

Deploy containerized apps from Google Cloud Marketplace

Kubernetes applications from Google Cloud Marketplace are enterprise-ready containerized solutions with prebuilt deployment templates, featuring portability, simplified licensing, and consolidated billing.

Bringing serverless everywhere

Cloud Run for Anthos provides a flexible serverless development platform and allows you to deploy your workloads to Anthos clusters, all with the same consistent experience. Cloud Run for Anthos is Google’s managed and fully supported Knative offering, an open source project that supports serverless workloads on Kubernetes.

Bringing the power of containers to your existing workloads

Migrate to Containers minimizes the manual effort required to move and convert existing applications into containers. Analyze your entire application portfolio with the Fit Assessment tool. Migrate your current workloads to containers on secure and managed landing zones, including Google Compute Engine, Google Cloud VMware Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine (including Autopilot mode), and Cloud Run.

Accelerate adoption of day 2 operations

For day 2 operations, save on labor and costs associated with maintaining, patching, and updating VMs and physical servers by switching to modern CI/CD pipelines, image-based management, and desired-state configuration with Anthos.

Toil-free traffic management for your service mesh

Traffic Director is a fully managed traffic control plane for service mesh. With Traffic Director, you can easily deploy global load balancing across clusters and VM instances in multiple regions, offload health checking from service proxies, and configure sophisticated traffic control policies.

Monitor, troubleshoot, and improve application performance

Google Cloud’s operations suite (formerly Stackdriver) provides visibility into the performance, uptime, and overall health of cloud-powered applications. Collect metrics, logs, and traces across Google Cloud and your applications. Use built-in out-of-the-box dashboards and views to monitor the platform and applications.

Eliminate the dependency on hypervisors when modernizing apps

Anthos on bare metal is a deployment option to run Anthos on physical servers, deployed on an operating system provided by you, without a hypervisor layer for better performance. Anthos on bare metal lets you extend Anthos to new scenarios such as edge locations and support for your mission critical applications.

Anthos multicloud

Anthos Multicloud API enables you to provision and manage GKE clusters running on AWS and Azure infrastructure through a centralized Google Cloud backed control plane. This means that your team can have a consistent experience to create, manage, and update GKE clusters, regardless of which public cloud you’re using.

Anthos for VMs

Anthos for VM in preview, supports development teams that want to standardize on Kubernetes but have existing workloads running on virtual machines that cannot be easily containerized. Anthos for VMs lets you modernize virtual machine workloads with the power of Kubernetes. We also provide a fit assessment tool to identify which of your VMs are the best candidates to Shift or Attach.


D. Where Implemented

LeanIX


E. How it is tested

Testing Google Anthos involves ensuring that the applications and workloads are running correctly and efficiently across different environments, using a single set of tools and APIs. Here are some steps to test Anthos:

  1. Create a test environment: Create a test environment that mimics the production environment as closely as possible, including creating test data, configuring Anthos, and setting up test infrastructure.

  2. Install Anthos: Install Anthos on the test environment, including on-premises data centers and other cloud platforms, using the Anthos installation guide.

  3. Deploy applications: Deploy containerized applications on Anthos, using Kubernetes YAML files or Helm charts. Ensure that the applications are running correctly and that data is being processed correctly.

  4. Test scalability: Test the scalability of Anthos by simulating high traffic and load on the application. Use Anthos’ auto-scaling and load balancing features to scale the resources up or down based on demand.

  5. Test high availability: Test the high availability of Anthos by simulating hardware failures or other issues. Verify that the application continues to run correctly and that users can access the application without interruption.

  6. Monitor performance: Monitor the performance of Anthos using Anthos Service Mesh, which provides a unified and secure way to manage microservices across different environments. Analyze the data to identify any performance issues or bottlenecks and optimize Anthos accordingly.

Overall, testing Anthos involves creating a test environment, installing Anthos, deploying applications, testing scalability and high availability, and monitoring performance. By thoroughly testing Anthos, users can ensure that their applications and workloads are running correctly and efficiently across different environments, using a single set of tools and APIs. Additionally, users can reach out to Anthos support for help with any technical challenges they may encounter.


F. 2023 Roadmap

????


G. 2024 Roadmap

????


H. Known Issues

While Google Anthos is a powerful and flexible platform for managing applications and workloads in a hybrid and multi-cloud environment, there are some known issues that users may encounter. Here are some of the known issues for Anthos:

  1. Upgrade issues: Users may encounter issues when upgrading their Anthos clusters to a new version. This can occur if there are compatibility issues with the applications or if there are issues with the underlying infrastructure.

  2. Networking issues: Users may encounter issues with networking in Anthos, such as issues with load balancing or issues with pod-to-pod communication. This can occur if the network configuration is incorrect or if there are issues with the underlying networking infrastructure.

  3. Security issues: Users may encounter security issues with Anthos, such as issues with identity and access management or data encryption. This can occur if the security configuration is incorrect or if there are issues with the underlying security infrastructure.

  4. Performance issues: Users may encounter performance issues with Anthos, such as issues with resource utilization or latency. This can occur if the Anthos cluster is not configured correctly or if there are issues with the underlying infrastructure.

  5. Compatibility issues: Users may encounter compatibility issues with Anthos, such as issues with the applications or workloads running on different environments. This can occur if the Anthos cluster is not configured to support the specific applications or workloads.

Overall, while these issues may impact some users, Anthos remains a powerful and flexible platform for managing applications and workloads in a hybrid and multi-cloud environment. By carefully monitoring their Anthos clusters and reviewing their usage reports and logs, users can ensure that their Anthos resources are secure and accessible, and that they are only paying for the resources they use. Additionally, users can reach out to Anthos support for help with any known issues or other technical challenges they may encounter.


[x] Reviewed by Enterprise Architecture

[x] Reviewed by Application Development

[x] Reviewed by Data Architecture