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Google Anthos VS Google Kubernetes Engine

Compare Google Anthos VS Google Kubernetes Engine and see what are their differences

Google Anthos logo Google Anthos

Anthos is an open application platform that can help you accelerate app development, and enables consistency across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Google Kubernetes Engine logo Google Kubernetes Engine

Google Kubernetes Engine is a powerful cluster manager and orchestration system for running your Docker containers. Set up a cluster in minutes.
  • Google Anthos Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-26
  • Google Kubernetes Engine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-02-05

Google Anthos features and specs

  • Hybrid and Multi-cloud Support
    Anthos provides a unified platform to manage Kubernetes clusters both on-premises and across multiple cloud providers, offering flexibility and performance optimization by enabling workload distribution based on business needs.
  • Consistent Experience
    With Anthos, organizations can achieve a consistent development and operational experience across environments, minimizing the learning curve and operational overhead traditionally associated with managing different environments.
  • Enhanced Security
    Anthos includes robust security features like service mesh integration and configuration management, helping organizations enforce security policies consistently across all clusters and reduce the risk of misconfigurations.
  • Streamlined Application Management
    The platform allows for easy monitoring and management of applications and services, offering tools for logging, monitoring, and tracing to enhance visibility and operational efficiency.
  • Open Source Foundation
    As Anthos is based on open-source projects such as Kubernetes, Istio, and Knative, organizations benefit from community-driven innovation and avoid vendor lock-in associated with proprietary solutions.

Possible disadvantages of Google Anthos

  • Cost Implications
    The comprehensive nature of Anthos can lead to high implementation and operational costs, particularly for smaller organizations or those with limited cloud budgets.
  • Complexity
    Managing a hybrid or multi-cloud environment using Anthos can introduce significant complexity, requiring skilled personnel who are proficient in Kubernetes and cloud-native operations.
  • Initial Setup and Migration
    Setting up Anthos and migrating existing workloads to a hybrid or multi-cloud environment can be time-consuming and challenging, necessitating careful planning and execution.
  • Dependence on Kubernetes
    Organizations without existing Kubernetes expertise may face a steep learning curve, as Anthos heavily relies on Kubernetes for orchestration and management.
  • Limited Customization
    Despite its flexibility, some organizations may find that Anthos requires adaptations to fit into certain specialized use cases, which could limit its applicability in niche scenarios.

Google Kubernetes Engine features and specs

  • Managed Service
    GKE is a fully managed service, which means Google takes care of tasks like provisioning, maintenance, and updates of the cluster, reducing the operational burden on users.
  • Scalability
    GKE offers robust scalability options, allowing you to easily scale your applications up or down based on demand. This is facilitated through auto-scaling features for both nodes and pods.
  • Integration with Google Cloud Services
    GKE integrates seamlessly with other Google Cloud services such as Cloud Storage, BigQuery, and more, providing a streamlined experience for leveraging multiple cloud tools.
  • Security
    GKE offers advanced security features like private clusters, and integrates with Google Cloud IAM, which allows for fine-grained access control, helping to secure your Kubernetes environment.
  • Ease of Use
    GKE's comprehensive dashboard, command-line interface, and supporting documentation make it easy to deploy, manage, and monitor Kubernetes clusters.
  • Global Reach
    With GKE, you can deploy clusters across multiple regions and zones, giving you the ability to build highly available, geographically dispersed applications.

Possible disadvantages of Google Kubernetes Engine

  • Cost
    While GKE offers extensive features, it can be more expensive compared to other Kubernetes solutions, especially when additional services and high-availability features are utilized.
  • Limited Customization
    As a managed service, GKE has some limitations in terms of customization and control over the underlying infrastructure compared to self-managed Kubernetes environments.
  • Complexity
    Despite its ease of use features, GKE still requires a certain level of expertise to efficiently manage Kubernetes clusters, which can be a steep learning curve for beginners.
  • Dependence on Google Cloud
    Using GKE ties you to the Google Cloud ecosystem, which may limit flexibility if you decide to migrate to a different cloud provider or adopt a multi-cloud strategy.
  • Resource Constraints
    Like all cloud services, GKE nodes can be subject to resource limits and quotas imposed by Google Cloud, which can impact performance if not properly managed.
  • SLA and Downtime
    While Google Cloud offers Service Level Agreements (SLAs), there is still a risk of downtime which could affect your applications. Additionally, relying on a third-party provider means issues may take time to resolve.

Analysis of Google Kubernetes Engine

Overall verdict

  • Overall, many users find GKE to be a powerful and reliable platform for container orchestration, especially when leveraging other Google Cloud Platform services.

Why this product is good

  • Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is considered good because it is a managed environment for deploying, managing, and scaling containerized applications using Google infrastructure. It offers seamless integration with other Google Cloud services, robust cluster management, strong security features, auto-scaling capabilities, and a strong focus on performance and reliability. It also benefits from Google's expertise in Kubernetes, as Google was a primary contributor to the Kubernetes project.

Recommended for

  • Organizations adopting a microservices architecture.
  • Developers looking for a managed Kubernetes solution.
  • Teams that need seamless integration with other Google Cloud services.
  • Companies aiming to efficiently scale their applications with auto-scaling features.
  • Enterprises that require robust security features and compliance with industry standards.

Google Anthos videos

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Google Kubernetes Engine videos

Getting Started with Containers and Google Kubernetes Engine (Cloud Next '18)

More videos:

  • Review - Optimize cost to performance on Google Kubernetes Engine
  • Tutorial - Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) | Coupon: UDEMYSEP20 - Kubernetes Made Easy | Kubernetes Tutorial

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Google Anthos and Google Kubernetes Engine)
DevOps Tools
17 17%
83% 83
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Continuous Integration
100 100%
0% 0
Cloud Computing
13 13%
87% 87

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Google Anthos and Google Kubernetes Engine

Google Anthos Reviews

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Google Kubernetes Engine Reviews

Top 12 Kubernetes Alternatives to Choose From in 2023
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is a prominent choice for a Kubernetes alternative. It is provided and managed by Google Cloud, which offers fully managed Kubernetes services.
Source: humalect.com
11 Best Rancher Alternatives Multi Cluster Orchestration Platform
Google Kubernetes Engine is a CaaS (container as a service) platform that lets you easily create, resize, manage, update, upgrade, and debug container clusters. Google Kubernetes Engine, aka GKE, was the first managed Kubernetes service, and therefore, it is highly regarded in the industry.
Top 10 Best Container Software in 2022
If you need a speedy creation of developer environments, working on micro services-based architecture and if you want to deploy production grade clusters then Docker and Google Kubernetes Engine would be the most suitable tools. They are very well suited for DevOps team.
7 Best Containerization Software Solutions of 2022
If youโ€™re looking for a managed solution to help you deploy and scale containerized apps on your virtual machines quickly, Google Kubernetes Engine is a great choice.
Source: techgumb.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Google Kubernetes Engine should be more popular than Google Anthos. It has been mentiond 50 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Google Anthos mentions (8)

  • HarperDB with Anthos on GKE
    Anthos is a service from Google cloud using which we can deploy and manage workloads using various options such as cloud run, GKE, self managed clusters, hybrid cloud clusters, edge based workloads and so on. In this post, we would focus on the autopilot GKE based cluster and deploy HarperDB on it with a Helm chart. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Setting up GCP in an organisation - Things I should be mindful of as a 1st time user?
    It might be worth your time to evaluate it as well: https://cloud.google.com/anthos. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Kubernetes from Scratch in 2022
    Google Kubernetes Engine provides a similar experience in the context of Google Cloud Computing. Itโ€™s a completely managed Kubernetes platform, with emphasize on auto scaling, security features such as container scanning, and a marketplace for prebuild Kubernetes applications. An additional addon is Google Athos, a management environment that allows GKS applications to run in non-Google environments, including... - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
  • Sudden disturbing moves for IT in very large companies, mandated by CEOs. Is something happening? What would cause this?
    Google's Anthos will run on GCP, AWS, Azure, or your own equipment. Doesn't seem that expensive, actually. Source: about 3 years ago
  • The Cost of Managed Kubernetes - A Comparison
    When using GKE, you pay an administration fee of $0.10 per hour per cluster, and otherwise, you only pay for the underlying resources. However, this administration fee can be waived by running GKE on-prem, with the help of Anthos. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
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Google Kubernetes Engine mentions (50)

  • Maximizing Efficiency with Dev Containers: A Developer's Guide
    In this section, we'll explore the scenario of connecting to a container that's running within a Kubernetes cluster pod. For demonstration purposes, we're using the Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) service. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Google Cloud Unveils A4 VMs with NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs for AI
    Integration with Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), which supports up to 65,000 nodes per cluster, facilitating robust AI infrastructure. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Deploy Gemini-powered LangChain applications on GKE
    In my previous post, we explored how LangChain simplifies the development of AI-powered applications. We saw how its modularity, flexibility, and extensibility make it a powerful tool for working with large language models (LLMs) like Gemini. Now, let's take it a step further and see how we can deploy and scale our LangChain applications using the robust infrastructure of Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and the... - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
  • Securing Applications Using Keycloak's Helm Chart
    Kubernetes cluster: You need a running Kubernetes cluster that supports persistent volumes. You can use a local cluster, like kind or Minikube, or a cloud-based solution, like GKE%20orEKS or EKS. The cluster should expose ports 80 (HTTP) and 443 (HTTPS) for external access. Persistent storage should be configured to retain Keycloak data (e.g., user credentials, sessions) across restarts. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Simplify development of AI-powered applications with LangChain
    In a later post, I will take a look at how you can use LangChain to connect to a local Gemma instance, all running in a Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Google Anthos and Google Kubernetes Engine, you can also consider the following products

Hex.pm - Hex.

Kubernetes - Kubernetes is an open source orchestration system for Docker containers

AWS Outposts - Application and Data, Build, Test, Deploy, and AWS Tools

Docker - Docker is an open platform that enables developers and system administrators to create distributed applications.

Red Hat Ansible - Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform comes as an extensive foundation for operating and building automation across an organization.

Amazon ECS - Amazon EC2 Container Service is a highly scalable, high-performanceโ€‹ container management service that supports Docker containers.