AWS Outposts vs Google Anthos: What are the differences?

AWS Outposts and Google Anthos are both hybrid cloud solutions that extend the capabilities of their respective cloud platforms to on-premises environments. Let's explore the key differences between them.

1. Cost Model: AWS Outposts follows a traditional pricing model, where you pay for the infrastructure and services you consume on-premises and in the cloud separately. On the other hand, Google Anthos offers a unified pricing model that includes the infrastructure and services, making it easier to manage costs.

2. Cloud Provider Dependency: AWS Outposts is tightly integrated with the AWS ecosystem, meaning it primarily supports and integrates with AWS services. In contrast, Google Anthos is designed to be multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud compatible, providing support for Google Cloud Platform (GCP), AWS, and even on-premises environments.

3. Management and Control Plane: AWS Outposts is managed and operated by AWS, requiring customers to rely on AWS for management, updates, and maintenance. In the case of Google Anthos, customers have more control as they are responsible for managing and operating the Anthos environment, giving them greater flexibility and control over their infrastructure.

4. Container Orchestration: Google Anthos has a stronger focus on container orchestration using Kubernetes and offers advanced capabilities for managing and automating containerized applications across different environments. While AWS Outposts also supports Kubernetes, its container management features are not as extensive as Anthos.

5. Integration with Cloud Services: AWS Outposts tightly integrates with various AWS cloud services, allowing you to seamlessly extend your on-premises infrastructure with AWS services. Google Anthos, on the other hand, provides a broader range of managed services and integrations with GCP, giving you more options for building and deploying applications across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

6. Marketplace and Ecosystem: AWS Outposts has a mature marketplace and ecosystem with a wide variety of third-party software offerings and integrations, enabling customers to leverage the extensive AWS partner network. Comparatively, Google Anthos has a smaller marketplace and ecosystem, with fewer third-party offerings and integrations available.

In summary, AWS Outposts follows a traditional cost model and is tightly integrated with AWS services, while Google Anthos offers a unified cost model, multi-cloud compatibility, and more control over the infrastructure management. Anthos also focuses on container orchestration, has a broader range of managed services, and a smaller marketplace and ecosystem compared to AWS Outposts.