Amazon Web Services offers various services to its customers as a pay-as-you-go model. Various businesses use AWS services inside their software products, and they deploy their applications in various regions that AWS offers. Some businesses want to use services offered by AWS, but because of latency and data loss concerns, they hesitate to use those services and avoid AWS. Here, AWS Outpost comes into the picture.
What are AWS Outposts?
AWS Outposts is a service provided by AWS. Outposts offers the AWS cloud to users in an on-premises location so that users can access their applications with low latency. Outposts give the same AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools present in the AWS cloud to any on-premises facility. Outposts use the same hardware and software that is used in AWS public data centers.
How Does AWS Outposts Work?
Amazon Web Services Outposts are specifically engineered to function with a continuous and uniform connection between your on-premise Outpost and an AWS Region. In order to establish a link between the nearest AWS Region and the local workloads in your on-premises environment, it is necessary to connect your Outpost to your on-premises network. Your local network must have the capability to connect to the wide area network (WAN) in order to access both the Region and the internet. Additionally, it should offer LAN or WAN connectivity to the local network where your on-premises workloads or applications are located.
Why We Use AWS Outposts?
AWS Outposts give a smooth connection between local infrastructure and the AWS cloud, providing enterprises the flexibility to expand AWS services to their own co-location sites. Customers can use Outposts to address low-latency applications and the local data-processing requirements of their applications.
Some Industry Use Cases For Outposts
- Manufacturing Automation: In process control systems, some applications require low latency in communication. So, we can integrate this application with on-premise Outposts.
- Healthcare: Data locality requirements of some AWS services for analysis and machine learning.
- Telecommunications: Use cloud services and tools to orchestrate, update, scale, and manage the lifecycle of cloud and on-premises networks.
- Media And Entertainment: Support live and real-time event streaming applications that require low latency.
- Financial Services: Deliver banking, payment, and processing in real-time with low latency to customers.
- Retail: Establish a connected store with real-time data sharing with low latency.
Planning Your AWS Outposts Deployment
If you are planning to set up AWS Outposts on-premise, you have to consider this:
- Evaluation Of Workloads: You need to take a look at your current workloads and decide which ones would gain the most from being hosted on AWS Outposts.
- Network Connectivity: You have to ensure fair network connectivity between your on-premises system and the AWS Outposts instance. This may involve setting up VPN connections or leveraging AWS Direct Connect for dedicated network lines.
- Power And Cooling: You have to meet the power and cooling requirements at the deployment site to accommodate the AWS Outposts rack. Ensure that the infrastructure can handle the extra load without compromising performance or reliability.
- Security And Compliance: Since this is on-premise, you will need to follow best practices for security to keep your data and equipment safe.
- Allocating Resources: You need to figure out what computing, storage, and networking resources your AWS Outposts setup needs based on how much work you expect it to do and how fast you want it to do it.
Outpost Racks: Specification
- Racks have 80 inches height, 24 inches width, 48 inches deep, and can weighs between approximately 1,400 lbs (635 kg) and 2,400 lbs (1,089 kg).
- They arrive fully assembled and roll in on casters.
- They are ready for connection to power and networking.
Deploying AWS Outposts
After planning the deployment of AWS Outposts, these are the ideal steps to consider for a successful deployment of AWS Outposts.
- Ordering And Delivery: After planning, place an order for your AWS Outposts instance through the AWS Management Console or call AWS Sales. Upon confirmation, AWS will coordinate the delivery and installation of the Outposts rack at your chosen location.
- Installation And Configuration: AWS will deploy and install the Outposts rack at your site. At the time of delivery, one electrician and your network engineer should be present. Because the AWS Outpost team does not do power connections, and to know the network configuration done by the Outpost team, a network engineer should be there. Once installed, configure the Outposts instance using the AWS Console or APIs, setting networking, security, and other parameters. Outposts will now connect to the closest AWS region.
- Integration With Existing Infrastructure: Integrate AWS Outposts with your existing infrastructure, if any, and provide seamless connectivity and interoperability between on-premises tools and AWS services.
- Workload Migration: Now you can migrate your tasks to the AWS Outposts instance using AWS services.
- Monitoring And Management: Implement robust monitoring and management techniques to monitor the health, performance, and security of your AWS Outposts deployment. Use AWS tools such as AWS CloudWatch and AWS Config for constant monitoring and compliance of outposts.
Implementation Of Creating An AWS Outpost: A Step-By-Step Guide
- Visit the AWS Outposts console and log in with your credentials.
- Click on “Place Order”.
- Now you have to choose configuration. There will be a two options: servers and racks.
- The following details in screenshots are the open configurations of AWS Outposts
- For this article, we will choose One Server Configuration and click on Next.
- Now we have to select Outpost. Here we will create new Outpost and fill in the required details. At last, we have to select Site. If you created a site, then select that or choose the option “Create new Site.“
- Now Create a new site by giving name to the site and an operating address, then click on Next.
- Define the operating addresses that are asked in the following screenshot.
- Now select “Contract term,” “Payment Option,” and fill in the proper shipping address, and click on Next.
- Now review the details and place an order.
After placing an order, the AWS Outpost team will contact you for confirmation and ask for a visit date for installation. According to your conversation and follow-up, the AWS Outpost team will visit your location for installation. At the installation time, there must be an electrician available, as well as your network engineer.By following these steps, customers can plan AWS Outposts deployment and know how AWS Outpost is deployed on-premises.
Planning And Deploying AWS Outposts – FAQ’s
What Is AWS Outposts?
AWS Outposts is a service by AWS that brings the AWS cloud infrastructure to on-premises locations, allowing users to access apps with low latency.
Why Use Aws Outposts?
AWS Outposts addresses latency concerns and local data-processing needs, allowing users to leverage AWS services in their on-premises environments.
What Are Some Business Use Cases For Aws Outposts?
Use cases include manufacturing automation, healthcare data analysis, telecommunications network management, live event streaming, real-time banking services, and connected retail stores.
What Type Of Cloud Model Does AWS Outposts Belong To?
AWS Outposts is a Hybrid Cloud Model.