Coming soon: AWS Outposts brings the cloud to your datacenter

AWS is finally bringing its cloud to on-premises company datacenters. Announced as AWS Outposts, the surprise was unveiled at the industry event AWS re:Invent in Las Vegas. The word is that AWS Outposts will hit the scene with “white glove” treatment – where AWS delivers, installs, maintains, and repairs the technology on premises. The first deployments arrive in the latter half of 2019 when local native AWS or VMware environments begin bridging over to the AWS public cloud. The announcement marks a significant, even historical shift — AWS has traditionally been a public cloud-only platform. The development also marks a competitive line-crossing into Microsoft Azure’s territory, opening up an entirely new customer horizon.

According to Amazon, “AWS Outposts bring native AWS services, infrastructure, and operating models to virtually any data center, co-location space, or on-premises facility for a truly consistent and seamless hybrid cloud.”

What AWS Outposts hybrid option means

AWS cloud
Amazon Web Services

And so, the AWS juggernaut keeps churning, keeps adapting, and it keeps finding every possible nook in which to compete. Since AWS first emerged, the hybrid cloud gap has always been a stopping point for the enterprise. Sensitive data, network configuration, control, resiliency, and consumption are among the top concerns that have kept critical applications on-premises and on bare metal. That customer demographic now has a viable AWS-based option.

From the outside looking in, it would seem that AWS realized that pent-up demand is too significant to ignore any longer. It’s also possible that the company grew tired of losing significant deals to Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. To boot, AWS is describing this as a “truly consistent” hybrid solution, leaving the collective mind to fill in the gaps.

Cloud Wars 28.0

Before most people knew it, the cloud wars are back on – at the very least, we’re looking at a heavy new battle. In one corner, Microsoft and its compelling Azure platform. Incentivized to migrate, enterprise license migration policies, extended support for EOL systems, a hybrid history, and a full complimentary stack of cloud features grace the Azure proposition. AWS has its base of advocates, a full spectrum of services and features, and a legacy of cloud market leadership.

At the very least, AWS is going to move a lot of deals. For all those reasons mentioned above, but also because AWS sales teams are aggressive in the field. Meanwhile Azure will continue to deploy what they have been doing, quietly rolling in the mid-market and getting significant wins in the enterprise.

Featured image: Amazon Web Services

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