Google Anthos
by Google
Hybrid and multi-cloud Kubernetes platform, launch date not verified here; superseded by GKE Enterprise (2023, per Google blog).
Superseded
Google brought Anthos and GKE together as GKE Enterprise, announced 2023-11-07 and generally available 2023-11-15 (Google Cloud blog). The off-Google-Cloud parts continue under Google Distributed Cloud and GKE multi-cloud naming. A secondary source (search-result excerpt quoting Google documentation, not fetched from Google directly) reports that in September 2025 the separate GKE Enterprise tier was folded into a single GKE offering, with Config Sync, Policy Controller and fleet features included in GKE; treat that as unconfirmed (see Open items). (Statement checked against the cited blog on 2026-10-05.)
What Anthos was
A Kubernetes-based platform for running and managing applications consistently across Google Cloud, on-premises data centres and other clouds. Typical building blocks (as the original product was described):
- Fleets: register clusters from any environment for shared inventory, policy and RBAC.
- Config Management: Git-backed declarative config (Config Sync) and policy enforcement (Policy Controller).
- Service Mesh: Istio-based traffic management, telemetry and mTLS.
- Clusters outside Google Cloud: on-premises (VMware, bare metal) and on AWS and Azure.
- VM modernisation tooling and Cloud Run for Anthos (names changed over time).
What GKE Enterprise added (2023 announcement)
Per the Google blog: fleet team management (dedicated clusters, policy guardrails, delegated management), security features (Advanced Vulnerability Insights, GKE Security Posture dashboard, governance and policy controls), a unified console with in-context observability, and a managed service mesh.
Where to look now
- Current Kubernetes platform: Google Kubernetes Engine
- Parent: Google Cloud
- Serverless alternative: Cloud Run
- Comparable hybrid platforms (names only, not researched): Red Hat OpenShift, VMware Tanzu, AWS EKS Anywhere, Azure Arc-enabled Kubernetes.
AI features
None specific to Anthos. As of 2026-10-05 Google’s GKE documentation positions GKE around AI/ML workloads (GPU/TPU support); see the GKE note for details.
Sources
Fetched 2026-10-05.
- GKE Enterprise is now GA (Google Cloud blog, 2023): https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/containers-kubernetes/gke-enterprise-is-now-ga
- TechCrunch, GKE Enterprise introduction (2023-08-29, secondary): https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/29/google-introduces-gke-enterprise-to-help-companies-manage-complex-kubernetes-environments/
- Search-result excerpt on the 2025 consolidation (unconfirmed): https://cloud.google.com/anthos/pricing
Open items
- The September 2025 single-offering consolidation was not confirmed on a fetched Google page.
- Current names of the on-prem and multi-cloud products (Google Distributed Cloud variants) and Anthos Migrate’s successor were not verified.
- Pricing deliberately omitted; see the GKE pricing page.