Google is introducing the Google Distributed Cloud, a portfolio of solutions consisting of hardware and software that extend its infrastructure to the edge and into company data centres. This announcement was made at Google Cloud Next ’21.
Depending on the organisation’s needs, Google Distributed Cloud can run across multiple locations, including:
- Google’s network edge – Allowing customers to leverage over 140+ Google network edge locations around the world.
- Operator edge – Enabling customers to take advantage of an operator’s edge network and benefit from 5G/LTE services offered by our leading communication service provider (CSP) partners. The operator edge is optimised to support low-latency use cases, running edge applications with stringent latency and bandwidth requirements.
- Customer edge – Supporting customer-owned edge or remote locations such as retail stores, factory floors, or branch offices, which require localised compute and processing directly in the edge locations.
- Customer data centres – Supporting customer-owned data centres and colocation facilities to address strict data security and privacy requirements, and to modernize on-premises deployments while meeting regulatory compliance.
Google Distributed Cloud is built on Anthos, an open-source-based platform that unifies the management of infrastructure and applications across on-premises, edge, and in multiple public clouds, all while offering consistent operation at scale.
Using Google Distributed Cloud, customers can migrate or modernize applications and process data locally with Google Cloud services, including databases, machine learning, data analytics and container management.
Customers can also leverage third-party services from leading vendors in their own dedicated environment. At launch, a diverse portfolio of partners, including Cisco, Dell, HPE, and NetApp, will support the service.
The first products under this portfolio include Google Distributed Cloud Edge and Google Distributed Cloud Hosted.
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Google Distributed Cloud Edge is a fully managed product that brings Google Cloud’s infrastructure and services closer to where data is being generated and consumed.
Google Distributed Cloud Edge empowers you to run 5G Core and radio access network (RAN) functions at the edge, alongside enterprise applications, to support mission-critical use cases such as computer vision and Google AI edge inferencing.
Designed to run sensitive workloads, Google Distributed Cloud Hosted builds on the digital sovereignty vision Google outlined last year, and supports public-sector customers and commercial entities that have strict data residency, security or privacy requirements.
Google Distributed Cloud Hosted provides users with a safe and secure way to modernize an on-premises deployment.
Google Distributed Cloud Hosted does not require connectivity to Google Cloud at any time to manage infrastructure, services, APIs, or tooling, and uses a local control plane provided by Anthos for operations. Google Distributed Cloud Hosted will be available in preview in the first half of 2022.
