Comparing Cloud Infrastructure Services: GCP Anthos vs Azure Arc vs AWS Outposts

Introduction

Hybrid and multi-cloud environments are no longer a future trend—they’re the present reality for enterprises seeking flexibility, compliance, and performance at scale. However, managing workloads seamlessly across on-premises data centers, public clouds, and edge environments requires robust solutions designed for unification.

Three leading players dominate this landscape—Google Cloud Anthos, Microsoft Azure Arc, and AWS Outposts. Each offers a unique approach to hybrid cloud management, but their strengths, limitations, and ideal use cases vary significantly.

1. GCP Anthos: A Multi-Cloud First Approach

Anthos by Google Cloud is a modern hybrid and multi-cloud platform built around Kubernetes. It enables organizations to build, deploy, and manage applications across on-premises, Google Cloud, and even third-party clouds like AWS and Azure—all from a single management console.

Key Features

• Multi-Cloud Native – Unlike many competitors, Anthos was designed to work seamlessly beyond Google Cloud, providing a true multi-cloud control plane.
  
• Kubernetes-Centric – Built on GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine), Anthos offers a container-first model that enhances workload portability.
  
• Config Management & Policy Control – Anthos Config Management (ACM) provides GitOps-style configuration and policy enforcement across environments.
  
• Service Mesh Integration – Anthos Service Mesh (based on Istio) offers advanced observability, security, and traffic management for microservices.
  

Best For

• Organizations with diverse cloud footprints.
  
• Teams that prioritize containerization, DevOps, and Kubernetes adoption.
  
• Enterprises seeking strong multi-cloud support with minimal vendor lock-in.
  

IDC survey shows 64% of enterprises consider avoiding vendor lock-in as a top reason for adopting hybrid/multi-cloud solutions.

2. Azure Arc: Extending Azure Everywhere

Microsoft Azure Arc extends the Azure ecosystem to on-premises infrastructure, other cloud providers, and edge locations. It allows enterprises to bring Azure services—like Azure SQL, Azure Machine Learning, and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)—to virtually any environment.

Key Features

• Unified Resource Management – Provides a single pane of glass for managing resources across environments via the Azure portal.
  
• Kubernetes & Server Management – Brings Azure policy enforcement, monitoring, and security capabilities to Kubernetes clusters and servers outside Azure.
  
• Integration with Azure Security & Compliance – Leverages Azure Defender, Sentinel, and built-in compliance frameworks for regulated industries.
  
• Data Services Anywhere – Enables deployment of managed Azure SQL and PostgreSQL services on-premises or in other clouds.
  

Best For

• Enterprises heavily invested in Microsoft’s ecosystem.
  
• Organizations requiring strong security, compliance, and governance across hybrid environments.
  
• Companies aiming to leverage Azure’s AI/ML and database services outside the cloud.
  

3. AWS Outposts: Extending AWS to On-Premises

AWS Outposts is Amazon’s fully managed solution that brings AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools to on-premises data centers or edge locations. Unlike Anthos and Arc, Outposts focuses on delivering AWS services locally rather than managing across multiple clouds.

Key Features

• Native AWS Experience – Provides the same hardware, services, APIs, and management tools as AWS cloud but in an on-premises environment.
  
• Low-Latency Applications – Designed for workloads requiring near-zero latency, such as financial trading platforms, real-time analytics, and healthcare imaging.
  
• Service Integration – Supports core AWS services including EC2, ECS, EKS, and RDS running locally.
  
• Consistent Operations – Extends AWS monitoring, security, and IAM capabilities to on-premises workloads.
  

Best For

• Organizations deeply invested in AWS.
  
• Businesses requiring real-time processing or low-latency applications.
  
• Enterprises that prefer a cloud-first but on-premises deployment strategy.
  

4. Feature Comparison: Anthos vs Arc vs Outposts

Feature	GCP Anthos	Azure Arc	AWS Outposts
Multi-Cloud Support	Strong (GCP, AWS, Azure)	Moderate (Primarily Azure & On-Prem)	Limited (AWS + On-Prem only)
Kubernetes Management	Kubernetes-native (GKE, Istio)	AKS Anywhere + Policy Control	EKS Local + AWS-native tools
Compliance & Security	Config Mgmt, Anthos Service Mesh	Deep Azure Security Integration	AWS-native Security & IAM
Data & AI Services	Integrates with BigQuery, Vertex AI	Azure ML, SQL Managed Instances	Limited AI/ML (Relies on AWS Cloud)
Best For	Multi-cloud flexibility	Azure-centric enterprises	AWS-heavy workloads requiring low latency

5. Cost Considerations

Pricing for these platforms is complex and depends on usage, licensing, and hardware deployment.

• GCP Anthos – Subscription model; based on vCPU usage across managed clusters.
  
• Azure Arc – Pay-as-you-go for Azure-enabled services and additional charges for Kubernetes and server management.
  
• AWS Outposts – Hardware purchase or subscription plus usage fees for AWS services running locally.
  

Pro Tip: Evaluate not just the platform cost but also operational overhead, team expertise, and vendor lock-in risks.

6. Choosing the Right Solution

• Pick Anthos if multi-cloud flexibility and Kubernetes portability are top priorities.
  
• Choose Azure Arc if your organization already relies on Azure and you want seamless hybrid integration with strong compliance features.
  
• Opt for AWS Outposts if latency-sensitive workloads and deep AWS integration are critical.
  

Conclusion

The hybrid and multi-cloud era demands infrastructure solutions that are flexible, secure, and performance-driven. GCP Anthos, Azure Arc, and AWS Outposts all excel, but their differences are significant. Gartner predicts that by 2025, over 75% of enterprises will operate in multi-cloud or hybrid cloud environments

Selecting the right solution depends on your existing cloud investments, compliance requirements, application architecture, and future scalability goals. Enterprises that choose wisely will gain not only operational efficiency but also a competitive edge in leveraging cloud innovation—anywhere.