AWS Compute
Outposts
Run AWS services on-premises using the same hardware as AWS data centers
AWS Outposts is a fully managed service that extends AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools to any on-premises location. AWS ships physical rack-mounted servers (Outposts racks, 1U/2U servers) to your facility, installs them, and maintains them. From a developer perspective, the AWS Console, CLI, and SDKs work identically for Outposts resources and cloud resources.
Form Factors
| Form Factor | Size | Use Cases |
|---|---|---|
| Outposts Rack | 42U standard rack (1-96 racks) | Full datacenter extension, high compute/storage, manufacturing floors, hospital data centers |
| Outposts Servers (1U) | 1U rack | Edge locations, retail stores, small deployments with limited space |
| Outposts Servers (2U) | 2U rack | Branch offices, industrial sites, telecom edge |
Supported AWS Services on Outposts
- Compute: EC2, ECS, EKS
- Storage: EBS (gp2), S3 on Outposts (object storage with S3-compatible API, data stays on-premises)
- Database: RDS (MySQL, PostgreSQL), ElastiCache
- Networking: VPC subnets, ALB, Local Gateway (LGW) for on-premises network connectivity
- App Integration: App Mesh
- Monitoring: CloudWatch Container Insights, CloudTrail
Not all AWS services are available on Outposts. The control plane (IAM, CloudFormation, console) always runs in the parent AWS region - Outposts requires a reliable network connection back to AWS.
Networking and Connectivity
An Outpost is associated with one parent AWS Region and one specific Availability Zone. It is an extension of that AZ into your facility.
- Service Link: dedicated, encrypted VPN over your internet or Direct Connect to AWS for the control plane
- Local Gateway (LGW): connects the Outpost to your on-premises network, enabling low-latency access from local machines to Outpost resources
- Local network interface: for workloads that need to communicate directly with on-premises systems without going through AWS
- Data residency: data on Outposts stays physically in your facility - useful for regulatory compliance (GDPR, HIPAA, sector-specific requirements)
When to Use Outposts
- Data residency requirements: regulations prohibiting certain data from leaving a country or facility
- Ultra-low latency: applications requiring <2ms latency to on-premises systems (e.g., factory automation, trading)
- Local data processing: process large datasets locally before sending summarized results to the cloud
- Hybrid consistency: run the same AWS APIs on-premises so teams use one toolchain for both cloud and on-premises
Interview Focus Points
- 1What problem does Outposts solve that Direct Connect alone cannot?
- 2What happens to Outposts workloads if the connection to the parent AWS region is lost?
- 3S3 on Outposts vs S3 in the region - key differences
- 4Outposts vs Local Zones vs Wavelength - when would you choose each?