AWS Outposts: Building the new hybrid cloud

Editor’s Note: A version of this article was originally published on the Onica blog.

Businesses are embracing the cloud to drive growth, foster innovation and enhance customer experiences. But sometimes you need to keep certain workloads on-premises — such as when you need low-latency access, local data processing or local data storage. In those situations, how can you tap into the benefits of the cloud, while keeping those workloads on-premises?

The primary solution has been to create a hybrid environment — where you connect your on-premises workloads to the public cloud. This gives you the control of on-premises, with the scalability and elasticity of the cloud, for a best-of-both-worlds solution.

But AWS is taking hybrid to a new level. With AWS Outposts, AWS brings its AWS cloud to you — directly into your on-premises facility or data center of your choice. From AWS infrastructure to AWS services, APIs and tools, it’s all included in this cloud-native approach to hybrid.

A powerful hybrid enabler

AWS Outposts unlocks the power of the AWS-powered platform, regardless of location, for a truly consistent hybrid experience. We call this approach, “Hybrid 2.0,” and it’s being powered by the introduction of AWS Outposts.

Here are three ways we see customers using AWS Outposts for their on-premises workloads:

1. Build-once, deploy anywhere

Businesses are using AWS Outposts to create application consistency. Since you get the same hardware and software infrastructure and a consistent set of services and tools across your environments — you can build and run modern, cloud-native applications anywhere. This means you can develop once, and then deploy in the AWS cloud or on-premises, without compatibility issues.

2. Prepare for cloud adoption, on your terms

AWS Outposts can also serve as a stepping-stone to the cloud. For example, if your infrastructure is complex and tightly woven, you can use AWS Outposts to understand how it could operate in the cloud before committing to the switch. This puts you in control.

3. Build on-premises first

AWS Outposts also allows you to build portable, automated, cloud-native solutions on-premises while getting used to new programming and management models. Then, you can easily port it out to the AWS cloud, a hybrid or even an Outpost in a different local zone when you’re ready. It’s like having cloud-native “training wheels” before making the jump to putting your workloads out in the field.

Start your AWS Outposts journey

Learn more about AWS Outposts and whether it’s the right fit for you. In our on-demand webinar, “Redefining Hybrid: Cloud Native On-Premises with AWS Outposts,” our experts share best practices for all aspects of your AWS Outposts adoption, including pricing models, location, implementation, optimization and more.