Google is attempting to disrupt the cloud with the launchOpens a new window of Anthos, a platform that makes it easy for businesses to move apps between their own data centers and different cloud providers.
The platform will help enterprises that use more than one cloud provider for their workloads and simplify the hybrid cloud approach that runs some operations in the internet’s cloud and others on-premise in their data centers.
Announcing the launch of Anthos at the annual Google Cloud Next conference this week, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said the cloud is one of Google’s most important areas for innovation. “Most enterprise computing still happens on premise,†he explained. “It hasn’t moved to the cloud yet because the path forward is complex and daunting and full of difficult decisions. How do you modernize in place without having to jump completely to the cloud? How do you bridge incomparable architectures while you transition? And how do you maintain flexibility and avoid lock-in?â€
The answer to each of these questions, he said, is Anthos.
Google Cloud lags far behind Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, the market’s runaway leaders, in attracting cloud clients. Just 9% of cloud customers use Google Cloud, according to the CanlysOpens a new window  research service, compared to AWS’s 32% and Azure’s 16%.
With Anthos, Google signals that it while it struggles to compete for scale with the two leaders, it can help clients move workloads between cloud providers.
At the heart of the Anthos platform is the ability for businesses to  separate applications from the overarching software architecture and put them into what are known as containers. These discrete pieces of interconnected software operate separately from the monolithic IT infrastructure and run from their own self-contained environments.
This allows engineers and technicians to move the apps around with ease. The development of Anthos has been compared to the rise of shipping containers, which make it easier for corporations to ship goods worldwide in boxes.
Containerized apps can move easily from a company’s own data center and on to Google Cloud, AWS, Azure or other cloud platforms. Without containers, moving apps to the cloud is a slow and difficult process, causing IT specialists to reconfigure workloads for different environments and APIs.
Containers boost hybrid cloud strategies. With Anthos, the specialists can move workloads to a cloud provider with the press of a button. No need for rewriting lines of code or changing configurations.
Google originally developed containers to help itself overcome these challenges. It then launched the open-source Kubernetes system, which manages containers and is now popular with developers. Last year, Google launched the Cloud Services Platform, which uses Kubernetes to manage containers on premise and in the cloud.
But Kubernetes still lacked the ability to shift containers between different cloud providers. Anthos updates Cloud Services, allowing both hybrid and multi-cloud management of containers.
The move allows businesses to avoid getting locked into a single cloud provider. Their IT teams may consider moving to a different supplier too arduous, involving rewriting code and changing over the configurations. Anthos offers an easy way around these hurdles.
Google has beatenOpens a new window Amazon in launching a hybrid offer. AWS has announced a service called AWS OutpostsOpens a new window , which is expected to be made available later this year. On pricing, Anthos can be used on a monthly subscription basis at $10,000 a month on blocks of 100 virtual CPUs.
Google has long struggled in the enterprise market, having built its global business in search engines and disrupting advertising markets. Google Cloud has hired former Oracle executive Thomas Kurian as its chief executive, and the company is becoming more IT focused.
At the Next conference, Kurian was joined on stage by executives from Cisco and VMWare who were among dozens of organizations announcing partnerships with Google Cloud.
Some analysts see the Anthos launch as an echo of the strategy used by IBM, which last year bought the open source software company Red Hat. Both Google and IBM have lost out in the race to become significant cloud providers, so they are instead positioning themselves as enablers who help businesses to move among cloud companies.
For many executives nervous about getting locked in to AWS or Azure, this is a welcome move. But it also underlines the weakness of Google in the enterprise market.