Canonical today announced Anbox Cloud, a platform that containerizes workloads using Android as a guest operating system enabling enterprises to distribute applications from the cloud. Anbox Cloud allows enterprises and service providers to deliver mobile applications at scale, more securely and independently of a device’s capabilities. Use cases for Anbox Cloud include cloud gaming, enterprise workplace applications, software testing, and mobile device virtualization.
The ability to offload compute, storage, and energy-intensive applications from devices (x86 and Arm) to the cloud enables end-users to consume advanced workloads by streaming them directly to their device. Developers can deliver an on-demand application experience through a platform that provides more control over performance and infrastructure costs, with the flexibility to scale based on user demand.
“Driven by emerging 5G networks and edge computing, millions of users will benefit from access to ultra-rich, on-demand Android applications on a platform of their choice,” said Stephan Fabel, Director of Product at Canonical. “Enterprises are now empowered to deliver high performance, high density computing to any device remotely, with reduced power consumption and in an economical manner.”
With cloud gaming adoption on the rise, Anbox Cloud enables graphic and memory intensive mobile games to be scaled to vasts amounts of users while retaining the responsiveness and ultra-low latency demanded by gamers. By removing the need to download a game locally on a device, Anbox Cloud creates an on-demand experience for gamers while providing a protected content distribution channel for game developers.
Anbox Cloud enables enterprises to accelerate their digital transformation initiatives by delivering workplace applications directly to employee’s devices, while maintaining the assurance of data privacy and compliance. Enterprises can reduce their internal application development costs by providing a single application that can be used across different form factors and operating systems.
Developers can also utilise Anbox Cloud as part of their application development process to emulate thousands of Android devices across different test scenarios and for integration in CI/CD pipelines.
Anbox Cloud can be hosted in the public cloud for infinite capacity, high reliability and elasticity or on a private cloud edge infrastructure, where low latency and data privacy are a priority. Public and private cloud service providers can integrate Anbox Cloud into their offering to enable the delivery of mobile applications in a PaaS or SaaS-model. Telecommunication providers can also create innovative value-added services based on virtualised mobile devices for their 4G, LTE and 5G mobile network customers.
