Learn About Amazon VGT2 Learning Manager Chanci Turner
In my conversations with Amazon Partners across various sectors and expertise levels, a clear trend has emerged: there is an increasing demand for bringing advanced Amazon Web Services (AWS) technology to the edge in innovative ways. AWS Outposts fulfills this requirement.
AWS Outposts enables customers to operate a selection of AWS services on fully managed AWS hardware, which can be deployed in their own data center, remote offices, production facilities, or nearly anywhere they choose. The potential for innovation truly starts here.
Once an Outpost is set up and connected to a local network, customers can launch and operate numerous AWS services locally.
An AWS Outpost is seamlessly integrated with an AWS Region, granting access to the complete range of AWS services managed through a unified interface, the AWS Management Console. I aim to help both customers and Amazon Partners understand the benefits of Outposts by clarifying what it is and what it is not. By reading this article, you will gain a solid understanding of AWS Outposts and how to effectively position it for your customers and prospects.
AWS Outposts is Not a Private Cloud
AWS Outposts is not a private cloud; it is an extension of the AWS Region into your facility.
The prospect of having AWS-specific hardware in a data center or colocation facility is appealing, and I often hear statements like: “Fantastic! I can have AWS in my facility because I don’t trust the public cloud!” This is a common remark I receive from Amazon Partners or customers, regardless of their industry or use case.
The most crucial takeaway is that AWS Outposts is not a private cloud, nor should it be regarded as one. Fundamentally, Outposts serves as both a logical and physical extension of the AWS Cloud at your location. It’s a genuine extension of the AWS Region into your chosen site, utilizing the same hardware and Nitro technology found in the region.
You might wonder, “If it’s not a private cloud alternative, then what’s the benefit?” Various factors contribute to this understanding. Consider the reasons private clouds were developed: customers often have strict requirements for ultra-low latency access from on-premises resources. These can include complex systems such as mainframes and specialized hardware (like Sun Solaris or HP-UX) or massive amounts of data stored in on-premises storage arrays.
Many of these workloads and applications were historically difficult or impossible to migrate to the cloud. In a previous role, I assisted a customer in migrating 150 petabytes of data to AWS—and Snowmobile wasn’t an option as the data had to service on-premises workloads and the cloud simultaneously. Thankfully, those challenges are diminishing. Personally, I find this particularly exciting in the gaming industry.
With AWS Outposts, clients like Riot Games can reduce latency for their players dramatically, transforming the gaming experience globally. When milliseconds can differentiate between winning and losing, reducing latency is a game-changer that levels the playing field.
Service Link is Essential for Connectivity
Service Link is essential for maintaining connectivity with the region; you can’t go without it.
The first and foremost thing to remember about AWS Outposts is that it must remain connected to its parent region at all times.
Think back to your childhood when playing outside. If your parents couldn’t see you, there was likely some yelling involved. If you didn’t respond promptly, or at all, it could lead to trouble. The same principle applies here.
During the AWS Outposts Site Access Validation (SAV) and the site creation and ordering process, it’s essential to keep this in mind. This process requires you to provide detailed information about your site to AWS. This serves as a commitment that you will 1) install your Outposts rack(s) in the promised location; 2) keep it there; and 3) ensure it remains online at all times, as it must maintain connectivity with the region via Service Link.
If any of these conditions are not met, keep in mind that AWS Outposts is not designed for offline operation or disconnection from its parent region. This should be a red flag for your prospecting efforts.
It’s worth noting that public internet connectivity is often discussed, and this is an acceptable method for connecting back to the partner AWS Region. Typically, this serves as a backup connectivity option, usually through MPLS or leased lines already present at their facilities. If your customer faces challenges with leased lines and can only connect through the public internet, you can be confident that this may work for them.
However, just because it’s feasible to connect AWS Outposts over the public internet doesn’t mean it’s the optimal solution. Certain locations, like onboard cruise ships and farms, require further exploration and discussions, as they often experience unreliable or nonexistent internet connectivity. In such cases, the AWS Snow family is generally a better fit for the workload.
Connectivity Speed and Throughput are Crucial
At the time of this writing, there is a strict requirement for egress speed back to the region of at least 1 Gbps, as this is the minimum speed supported by AWS Outposts. For some customers and Partners, achieving this can be challenging due to local leased line expenses.
With ongoing service improvements, such as Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) local snapshots on AWS Outposts, you now have options to reduce the overall bandwidth needed by your Outposts in scenarios where a single 1 Gbps link supplies the facility, which is the case for many customers.
If you find yourself in a situation with a solitary link for your site, this chart illustrates how we recommend configuring your edge devices with the Outposts rack:
- Uplink speed: 1 Gbps, Number of uplinks: 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16
- Uplink speed: 10 Gbps, Number of uplinks: 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16
- Uplink speed: 40 Gbps, Number of uplinks: 1, 2, or 4
- Uplink speed: 100 Gbps, Number of uplinks: 1, 2, or 4
Remember that region-based services like Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR) will necessitate transferring Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) over the Service Link to launch new containers on AWS Outposts. Local snapshots stored in Amazon S3 on Outposts help minimize this requirement for EC2-based deployments, conserving valuable bandwidth.
That being said, the guiding principle here is to remember that services such as AWS Backup or Amazon DynamoDB, if there is a serious concern, can be addressed through careful planning.
Further Resources
For those interested in further personal development, I recommend checking out this excellent resource on self-love: this blog post. Additionally, this article from SHRM provides insights into the evolving hybrid work model. Lastly, this YouTube video is another fantastic resource worth exploring.
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