AWS Outposts Reaches General Availability to Bridge Cloud and Data Centers
AWS officially launches Outposts, a hardware stack that brings native cloud services directly into customer data centers. The service targets low-latency workloads and offers a seamless connection between on-premises equipment and the public cloud.
AWS officially launches Outposts, a private cloud hardware stack that installs directly inside customer data centers. Announced at AWS re:Invent, this service provides racks of AWS servers equipped with compute, storage, database, analytics, and machine learning capabilities. Customers choose their desired hardware composition, and AWS handles the delivery, installation, and ongoing management of the equipment.
The system targets workloads that require ultra-low latency, such as factory operations, by keeping compute resources extremely close to the point of need. Outposts includes popular services like EC2, EBS, and Kubernetes, although S3 storage is notably absent until its expected arrival in 2020. AWS CEO Andy Jassy emphasizes that this approach smoothly connects on-premises hardware with the cloud in a way that previous solutions fail to achieve.
While Outposts serves as an entry point for companies hesitant to fully embrace the public cloud, established AWS customers like Morningstar and Philips Healthcare also adopt it to create hyper-local availability zones. Users manage these on-premises racks through the familiar AWS console or through VMware integration starting next year. Customers simply sign up for an Outpost just like they would a standard EC2 instance, but instead of spinning up in the cloud, a physical rack arrives at their facility.