At Google’s Cloud Next ’21 event in San Francisco, the hyperscaler has announced the launch of Google Distributed Cloud. It’s a portfolio of solutions consisting of hardware and software that extends Google’s cloud hosting infrastructure to the edge and into customers’ data centers.
Google Distributed Cloud is an open-source platform based on Anthos, that combines on-site, edge and various public clouds to unify the management of cloud hosting infrastructure and applications across these environments.
Organizations can operate Google Distributed Cloud across various locations depending on their needs including:
- Customer data centers – Supporting customer-owned data centers and colocation facilities to fulfill rigorous data security and privacy standards, and to modernize installations onsite, whilst complying with regulations
- Google’s network edge – Allows clients to benefit from more than 140+ Google network edge sites worldwide
- Operator edge – Enabling clients to use an operator’s edge network and to take advantage of 5G/LTE services from Google’s top CSPs. Optimized to support low-latency situations, the operator edge supports clients’ edge applications with strict latency and bandwidth requirements
- Customer edge – Support for the customer’s edge or remote sites such as retail shops, factory floors or branches that require localized calculation and processing right at the edge
Google Distributed Cloud leverages the hyperscaler’s highest levels of performance, availability, and security infrastructure, while Anthos running on Google-managed hardware at a client data center or edge location provides a services platform for securely and remotely running an organization’s applications.
Using Google Distributed Cloud, clients may move or modernize applications with Google Cloud services, such as databases, machine learning, data analytics, and container management. Clients may also utilize services from “leading” third-party suppliers within their own environment. At launch, a range of partners are available to deliver their services through Google Distributed Cloud, including Cisco, Dell, HPE, and many more.
Google Distributed Cloud ‘Edge’ and ‘Hosted’
The products initially launched under the Google Distributed Cloud umbrella include Google Distributed Cloud Edge and Google Distributed Cloud Hosted.
Designed to execute sensitive tasks, Google Distributed Cloud Hosted builds on the concept of digital sovereignty. It serves organizations in the public sector as well as businesses with tight data residence, safety or data protection needs.
To address the data sensitivity and compliance needs across Europe, Google is also developing trusted partner offerings. The first partner offerings being announced include those with Thales, T-Systems, and OVHcloud.
Google Distributed Cloud Hosted is expected to be available in preview in the first half of 2022.
Built on Google’s telecommunications offerings, Google Cloud Edge is a fully managed solution that enables organizations to run 5G Core and radio access network (RAN) at the edge on NVIDIA and Intel technologies, alongside enterprise applications. Google Distributed Cloud Edge is now available in preview.
To learn more about Google Distributed Cloud, visit Google’s website here.
