Harbor is used as aprivate registry serviceto store and distribute container artifacts for Kubernetes consumption, which is exactly what's needed for a multi-tenant platform where multiple teams require isolated repositories. The VMware documentation treats Harbor as aVMware Tanzu Harbor Registry service, including governance around who can operate it and how teams are separated intoprojects(a key multi- tenancy boundary). For example, vSphere privileges explicitly cover the ability tocreate or delete a Harbor registryand tocreate, delete, or purge Harbor registry projects, reinforcing that Harbor is operated as a managed registry with project-scoped administration and access control.
In practice for regulated environments, the registry role is not just storage-Harbor is commonly used to enforce enterprise controls likepolicy-driven access (RBAC), and it supports security capabilities such asimage vulnerability scanningandimage trust/signing, which directly address the requirement to prevent unsafe images from being promoted or deployed.