On April 9, 2019, Google introduced Anthos, an open application platform based on its managed Kubernetes service, GKE. The announcement presented a software-based approach to running applications across environments, with existing infrastructure rather than a forced hardware refresh as part of its pitch. [shared-4766b8e376972cf736f3e43c012c9b8533bc273afb83260875dc90e5ee744fc6]
Google said hybrid functionality was generally available on Google Cloud through GKE and in customers’ data centers through GKE On-Prem. The company described Anthos as using existing hardware and leveraging open APIs. These were the provider’s descriptions of the platform, not independently measured cost reductions. [shared-4766b8e376972cf736f3e43c012c9b8533bc273afb83260875dc90e5ee744fc6]
Google separately announced Anthos Migrate as coming soon to beta. It described a tool for moving virtual machines from on-premises systems or other clouds directly into GKE containers. That was a planned beta, not general availability. The announcement describes Google’s proposed approach to portability; it is not independent evidence of lower switching costs. [shared-4766b8e376972cf736f3e43c012c9b8533bc273afb83260875dc90e5ee744fc6]