Cloud Comparison

AWS Edge Strategy - The Hybrid Future Shaped by Outposts, Local Zones, and Wavelength

We explain the hybrid and edge strategy AWS deploys through three edge services - Outposts, Local Zones, and Wavelength - comparing them with Azure Stack and GCP Distributed Cloud to highlight differences in breadth of options and design philosophy.

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Not All Workloads Can Move to the Cloud

The benefits of public cloud are widely recognized, but in reality, not all workloads can be migrated to public cloud regions. There are use cases that public cloud regions alone cannot address: data sovereignty regulations requiring data to be kept within specific facilities, real-time processing demanding ultra-low latency, edge processing at factories and retail locations, and mobile applications requiring 5G network integration. AWS addresses this challenge by offering three different edge services: Outposts, Local Zones, and Wavelength. Each is optimized for different use cases, allowing users to select the appropriate service based on their requirements. This approach of providing multiple specialized edge services for different purposes differs from the design philosophy of Azure and GCP.

Outposts - Bringing All of AWS On-Premises

AWS Outposts is a service that extends AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools to the customer's on-premises environment. AWS-designed and manufactured racks are installed in the customer's data center, enabling the use of services like EC2, EBS, S3, RDS, ECS, and EKS through the same APIs as an AWS region. The core value of Outposts is consistency. Using the same APIs, same tools (CloudFormation, CDK), and same operational procedures across on-premises and cloud dramatically reduces the operational complexity of hybrid environments. Developers rarely need to be aware of whether the deployment target is a region or Outposts. Outposts operates on an AWS-owned and managed model, where all hardware maintenance, software updates, and security patching are handled by AWS. Customers only need to provide power, network, and physical space. This operational model is suited for requirements where you want to be freed from on-premises hardware management but need to control the physical location of your data.

Design Philosophy Differences with Azure Stack

Azure's hybrid solution consists of three offerings: Azure Stack Hub, Azure Stack HCI, and Azure Stack Edge. Azure Stack Hub is closest in positioning to Outposts, but there are important differences in design philosophy. Azure Stack Hub runs Azure services on hardware that the customer purchases and owns. Hardware procurement, installation, and maintenance are the customer's (or partner's) responsibility, contrasting with Outposts' "AWS-owned and managed" model. Additionally, the services available on Azure Stack Hub are limited to a subset of Azure's full offering. API compatibility is also not complete, and there are cases where templates that work in Azure regions don't work as-is on Azure Stack Hub. Azure Stack HCI is a Windows Server-based hyperconverged infrastructure managed through Azure Arc. While it has high affinity with existing Windows Server environments, it doesn't match Outposts in terms of consistency with AWS services. GCP offers Google Distributed Cloud Edge and Google Distributed Cloud Hosted as its Distributed Cloud offering, but compared to Outposts and Azure Stack, its market track record is limited.

Local Zones - Ultra-Low Latency Locations as Extensions of Regions

AWS Local Zones is a service that extends AWS regions to specific cities. Unlike a region's AZs, they are placed close to the center of major metropolitan areas, achieving single-digit millisecond latency with end users. Local Zones are suited for workloads extremely sensitive to latency, such as real-time gaming, live video streaming, AR/VR, and financial trading. They complement latency requirements that cannot be met by a region's AZs due to physical distance constraints. A key feature of Local Zones is that they can be used by extending the parent region's VPC. There's no need to create a new VPC - you simply add a subnet to your existing VPC to start using Local Zones resources. Management services like IAM, CloudWatch, and CloudTrail are also integrated with the parent region, maintaining operational consistency. Neither Azure nor GCP has a service that directly corresponds to Local Zones. Azure's Extended Zones (formerly Azure Edge Zones) is a similar concept, but it falls short of Local Zones in the number of deployed cities and the range of available services.

Wavelength - Cloud Running Inside the 5G Network

AWS Wavelength is a service that places AWS computing and storage within telecom carriers' 5G networks. Mobile device traffic can access AWS services without leaving the carrier's network, dramatically reducing latency compared to routing through the internet. Wavelength use cases are applications that leverage 5G ultra-low latency: real-time decisions for autonomous vehicles, industrial IoT in factories, remote surgery support in telemedicine, and cloud gaming - areas where millisecond-level latency is required. AWS has partnered with major global telecom carriers including KDDI, Verizon, Vodafone, and SK Telecom to deploy Wavelength Zones. In Japan, Wavelength Zones are established in Tokyo and Osaka through the partnership with KDDI. While Azure and GCP also have 5G edge initiatives, AWS leads with the approach of placing cloud infrastructure directly within the carrier's network, as Wavelength does.

Choosing Among the Three Edge Services

Outposts, Local Zones, and Wavelength are each optimized for different use cases. Choose Outposts when data sovereignty or compliance requirements mandate keeping data within a specific facility, or when low-latency connectivity with on-premises systems is needed. Choose Local Zones when you want to provide single-digit millisecond latency to end users in a specific city - complementing latency requirements that a region's AZs can't meet due to distance. Choose Wavelength when you want to provide ultra-low latency to mobile devices on 5G networks, where processing completes within the carrier's network, eliminating internet transit latency. Having these three options is AWS's strength. Azure covers some of this with Azure Stack and Extended Zones, but the maturity of a Wavelength equivalent for 5G edge is low, and it doesn't match AWS's approach of covering three use cases with a unified API and operational model. To learn about edge computing design patterns, related books (Amazon) can also be helpful.

Summary

AWS's edge strategy consists of three specialized services: Outposts (on-premises extension), Local Zones (metropolitan low latency), and Wavelength (5G edge). All can be used with the same APIs, same tools, and same operational model as AWS regions, minimizing the complexity of hybrid environments. Azure Stack uses a customer-owned model with API compatibility challenges. GCP's Distributed Cloud has limited market track record. As demand for edge computing grows, AWS's approach of providing multiple purpose-optimized edge services in a unified manner represents a structural advantage that others don't have.

Related Services

AWS OutpostsA hybrid cloud service that extends AWS infrastructure and services to on-premises locationsAWS Local ZonesInfrastructure that places computing resources in cities close to end users for low latencyAWS WavelengthPlace compute resources at the edge of 5G networks for ultra-low-latency applicationsAmazon EC2A compute service that provides virtual servers in the cloudAmazon CloudFrontA CDN service that delivers content at high speed from edge locations around the world

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