Anthos - Detailed Review

Frequently Asked Questions about Google Cloud Anthos

1. How do I get started with Anthos for development?

To get started with Anthos for development, you can use the Anthos Developer Sandbox, which is a free, guided environment that requires only a Google account. This sandbox includes tools like Cloud Shell Editor, Cloud Code, and Cloud Build Local, allowing you to develop, debug, and test your applications without incurring any fees. For a more comprehensive setup, you can create a new Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster with Istio enabled in your Google Cloud Platform (GCP) project. If you’re deploying on-premises, you can download and install GKE On-Prem and register it with your GCP account.

2. How does Anthos support hybrid AI workloads?

Anthos now supports hybrid AI capabilities, allowing you to run AI workloads on-premises or in the cloud. This feature enables you to keep your AI workloads near your data while maintaining data security and compliance. You can deploy AI models as containers to any GKE or Anthos cluster, and the models can be efficiently run with minimal resources.

3. What developer tools are available in Anthos?

Anthos provides several developer tools to streamline your development process. These include Cloud Shell Editor, a cloud-based development workstation; Cloud Code, which offers IDE enhancements for cloud-native development with tools like Skaffold and Minikube; and Cloud Build Local, which allows you to run Cloud Build builds locally without an active GCP project. Additionally, Anthos integrates with Cloud Run for Anthos, enabling you to build serverless applications directly from IDEs like VS Code and IntelliJ. This integration includes automated re-deploys and local debugging capabilities.

4. How does Anthos help with application modernization?

Anthos speeds up application modernization by allowing you to deploy existing applications unmodified across multiple environments. You can define custom workflows for building, testing, and deploying applications without changing the code. Anthos also offers Cloud Run on GKE, which brings serverless benefits like automatic scaling and eventing to your applications. The Google Cloud App Modernization Program (Google CAMP) is another initiative that helps fast-track application modernization by providing structured approaches and tools to modernize your applications efficiently.

5. How does Anthos ensure security across different environments?

Anthos integrates security into every stage of the application lifecycle, from development to deployment. It implements security best practices as default settings and configurations, such as disabling Kubernetes dashboards. Anthos also provides a zero-trust environment with authenticated and encrypted service-to-service communications using mutual TLS (mTLS). Additionally, it offers centralized policy enforcement and configuration management through Anthos Config Management, ensuring consistent policies across on-prem and cloud environments.

6. Can Anthos be used with bare metal servers?

Yes, Anthos supports bare metal servers through Anthos for bare metal, which is a lightweight, cost-effective platform. This feature allows you to run computationally intensive applications like GPU-based video processing and machine learning on bare metal servers while benefiting from centralized management, increased flexibility, and developer agility. It supports operating systems like CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and Ubuntu.

7. How does Anthos facilitate multi-cloud and hybrid environments?

Anthos provides a unified model for computing, networking, and service management across multiple clouds and data centers. It uses configuration as code via Anthos Config Management, which deploys the Anthos Config Management Operator to your GKE or GKE On-Prem clusters. This approach ensures real-time configuration management and central governance, reconciling desired state with actual resources running across your on-prem and multi-cloud environment.

8. What are the benefits of using Anthos Attached Clusters?

Anthos Attached Clusters allow you to manage clusters from other cloud providers or on-premises environments as if they were part of your Anthos fleet. This feature provides a single, unified view and management interface for all your clusters, regardless of their location. It simplifies resource management and ensures consistency across different environments.

9. How does Anthos support observability and monitoring?

Anthos enhances observability and monitoring by providing increased metrics and telemetry across your hybrid environment. It allows for zero-downtime upgrades, canary releases for services, and Kubernetes cluster version upgrades. Additionally, Anthos integrates with Google Cloud Operations (formerly Stackdriver) for centralized logging and monitoring.

10. Are there any specific AI capabilities available in Anthos?

Yes, Anthos includes specific AI capabilities, such as hybrid AI workloads that can run on-premises or in the cloud. For example, the Speech-to-Text On-Prem application can be deployed efficiently with models that are less than 1 GB in size and consume minimal resources. This application supports multiple languages and is integrated with Istio and Google Cloud Operations to ensure that it follows a logical structure based on the content.