Megaport Simplifies AWS Outposts Networking

By Misha Cetrone, Vice President

Combining AWS Outposts Rack with Direct Connect optimizes performance for demanding enterprise workloads. Megaport’s Outposts Ready Direct Connect solution simplifies the networking side.

Combining AWS Outposts Rack with Direct Connect optimizes performance for demanding enterprise workloads. Megaport’s Outposts Ready Direct Connect solution simplifies the networking side.

AWS Outposts has changed the way enterprises network for challenging workloads.

The Outposts Rack offering has been in the market now for a few years, and there are a handful of enterprise use cases emerging which give insight into the power and flexibility of modern edge and hybrid cloud architectures.

But the combination of geographic proximity and compute power requirements from organizations has created a number of new enterprise use cases and the need for new levels of performance when using AWS Outposts. These use cases are typically driven by applications dependent on low latency, local data processing workflows, and data residency regulatory compliance requirements.

New compute architectures can also present new networking challenges for organizations, creating an opportunity to optimize throughput, latency, and resiliency.

When combining Outposts Rack with AWS Direct Connect, organizations gain private access to the AWS edge for optimal performance and security within their IT environments. How these Outposts networks are deployed can make a big impact to the procurement, costs, management and lead time to run workloads.

This is where a Megaport Outposts Ready Direct Connect solution comes in by simplifying Outposts network deployments. Megaport reduces physical infrastructure needs and opens the door to a range of architecture options, from low latency and local data processing to multicloud capabilities.

Below, we take a look at some of the leading enterprise use cases taking advantage of Outposts rack site deployments.

About AWS Outposts

AWS Outposts is a suite of solutions which enables a hybrid architecture by delivering AWS infrastructure and services to on-premises and edge locations. According to AWS, with AWS Outposts rack you can:

• Bring fully managed AWS infrastructure and services to on-premises environments
• Write once and deploy anywhere for a consistent hybrid experience
• Securely store and process customer data that needs to remain on premises for regulatory reasons
• Reduce the time, resources, operational risk, and maintenance downtime required for managing IT infrastructure.

AWS Outposts delivers AWS infrastructure and services to on-premises locations in more than 50 countries and territories.

About AWS Direct Connect

AWS Direct Connect (DX) is the alternative to using the public internet for access to AWS resources, instead providing a private network connection between your enterprise facilities and AWS. Using DX for AWS Region connectivity can reduce costs, increase throughput, and deliver a more reliable and secure network experience than what an internet-based connection can provide.

How do AWS Outposts Rack and AWS Direct Connect work together?

Just like customer-owned and managed infrastructure, DX can be utilized for the required Outposts Rack region connectivity with a service link. The service link connection to the AWS Region is a critical consideration for any Outposts Rack deployment, where redundancy is highly recommended for business continuity and resiliency.

By using an AWS DX virtual interface (VIF) to connect to AWS, an enterprise can create high-performance, highly available architectures. Generally speaking, private network connectivity will typically outperform VPN technologies over the public internet in areas of latency and throughput.

An Outposts rack comes equipped with redundant Outposts networking devices (ONDs), power supplies, and two top-of-rack patch panels, so resiliency is built into the platform. Region connectivity via dual redundant DX paths for the service link connection will safeguard your architecture, and leverage the resiliency options already included in the rack.

See how NASDAQ has leveraged Direct Connect with Outposts Rack for an ultra-low latency architecture.

What about Megaport, AWS Outposts, and AWS Direct Connect?

Megaport’s DX solution has been validated by the AWS Service Ready program, and Megaport is the first AWS DX partner designated as AWS Outposts Ready (read our press release). This means you can now bring AWS infrastructure and services to your on-premises locations and leverage DX with more confidence.

Megaport’s Software Defined Network provides a resilient private connectivity solution for the critical communication link between Outposts and AWS Regions. For workloads with low latency and high availability requirements, the solution has been tested and validated for Outpost Rack deployments.

Interface in any one of 780+ Megaport enabled data centers globally, directly to the Outposts top of rack switches for resilient AWS Region connectivity via the Outposts Service Link.

Megaport Direct Connect for AWS Outposts Rack

Broadly, this solution simplifies DX deployment for your Outposts Rack installation – simply connect to the Megaport network and we’ll handle the required infrastructure. When planning your rack deployment, you should consider a number of other aspects:

• Service Ready – the Service Ready designation means the solution has been tested & validated so you can expect private, secure, and high-performance connectivity for hybrid cloud infrastructures.
• Choice – choose the desired data center operator and location for Outposts Rack installation with fewer restrictions, plus a wider range of options across 100+ data center operators and 750+ third-party data center locations.
• Flexibility – build optimal cloud-adjacent routes to your infrastructure to benefit from the intrinsic value of being adjacent to your home AWS Region.
• Virtual routing support – when you don’t want to deploy a router or dedicate space and power to Direct Connect peering, use Megaport Cloud Router (MCR) for virtual routing and remove the need for extra hardware.
• Network resiliency – choose from a range of redundant architecture options.

Read the AWS Outposts High Availability Design and Architecture Considerations whitepaper.

What can I do with Megaport, Outposts, and Direct Connect?

What is your current network configuration, and what are you hoping to accomplish? It may be possible (and optimized) with Outposts, Direct Connect, and Megaport. For any Outposts Rack deployment, there are two networking paths to consider. And as shown, we solve for required service link connectivity.

But a second area of interest is the Outposts Local Gateway path – this is where Megaport Cloud Router (MCR) and Megaport Virtual Edge (MVE) unlock a range of architectures which can be tailored to your specific workload and networking requirements.

These include:

• Connect to your other private network and compute assets
• Connect end users from a secured internet transit path
• Connect to other public cloud platforms
• Connect from remote branch locations via SD-WAN.

Reference architecture for Outposts Rack Service Link and Local Gateway options

When combined with Outposts Local Gateway capabilities, MVE acts as a virtual network platform to host your third-party NFV applications from a range of partners including Fortinet, VMware, Aruba, Cisco, and Versa Networks.

MVE and Outposts Local Gateway Architectures

Let’s look at a couple of examples where the MVE platform can solve for a number of Outposts Rack deployment scenarios.

Example use case: secure internet to Outposts Rack

For public-facing workloads and SaaS applications, an enterprise can enable access to Outposts Rack workloads more effectively via the public internet using MVE’s resilient internet transit capabilities, secured with a third-party NFV security appliance.

In the world of gaming, for example, it’s increasingly important to deliver a low latency and highly responsive experience for users. Latency is often a symptom of internet access affecting performance to the application. To mitigate this, the Outposts Rack solution allows deployment of your gaming application platform close to users – even when they’re not close to an AWS Region.

Reference architecture for secure internet access to Outposts architecture

With MVE, user access can be routed more directly for an optimized experience. In many instances, an MVE (the internet transit destination), and your Outposts Rack platform can be co-located in (literally) the same building.

For improved resiliency, MVE can be used as your primary user access route with a secondary failover internet path configured via the AWS Region.

See how AWS Outposts is helping FanDuel stay ahead of the competition.

Example use case: SD-WAN access to Outposts Rack from branches and remote sites

Connecting an Outposts Rack to Megaport with MVE allows organizations to build secure SD-WAN tunnels from their sites to access Outposts-hosted applications. For example, SD-WAN-enabled retail stores within a particular region may connect to point-of-sale and inventory management applications hosted on their AWS Outposts rack (also within the same region).

This solution provides a more efficient network topology between remote stores and the Outposts Rack in scenarios where the geographic distance to the AWS parent region can present latency challenges.

Again in this example, the Megaport MVE solution could be configured as either a primary or backup internet path for Outposts workload access, with the alternative path routed via the AWS home region.

Reference architecture for branch-to-Outpost retail setup

Get smarter retail stores with Outpost Rack.

How do I get started with AWS Outposts and Megaport?

Hosting your AWS Outposts rack in a Megaport-enabled data center helps reduce costs and complexity by reducing physical data center and hardware resources. Only the Outposts rack needs data center space and power, while the full network stack is handled by Megaport. This eliminates the need to provision more physical network devices, third-party circuits, and additional rack space and power.

To get started, simply order fiber cross connects from the Outposts rack to Megaport and start building the network connectivity you need using Megaport’s Software Defined Network.

Get started

• Read the full press release.
• Access the Megaport Direct Connect for Outposts Rack deployment guide.
• Learn how Megaport can optimize your AWS setup or chat with one of our experts.