Run Your Infrastructure Where You Want

Amazon Web Services (AWS) continues to expand the full breadth of its hybrid cloud solutions with the launch of EKS Anywhere, making AWS’s Kubernetes service available on-premises for customers. Amazon EKS Anywhere enables enterprises to deploy and orchestrate Kubernetes clusters outside of the cloud, on any infrastructure — on-premises, including virtual machines (VMs), and Equinix Metal™.

Equinix and AWS have a long-standing partnership of connecting customers to the AWS Cloud via 38 AWS Direct Connect sites worldwide, supporting both dedicated and hosted connections. Since 2019, when Equinix became a strategic AWS Outposts partner, Equinix has enabled access to AWS Services in proximity to customers in many of our 230+ data centers around the world. Earlier this year Equinix announced the expansion of our partnership to enable AWS Elastic Container Service (ECS) Anywhere to run on Equinix Metal, our bare metal-as-a-service (BMaaS) offering.

Today Equinix is pleased to be a launch partner of Amazon EKS Anywhere, the deployment option that runs on-premises on customer infrastructure utilizing Equinix Fabric™ and Equinix Metal interconnected, automated single-tenant BMaaS on Platform Equinix®. Together, AWS EKS Anywhere and Equinix make it easier for digital leaders to get their workloads and data closer to wherever they need to be, enabling true end to end hybrid cloud solutions.

EKS Anywhere

Developers need more flexibility on where they run their most sensitive and mission-critical applications. While they can use Amazon EKS to run Kubernetes in many environments, there have been certain limitations, such as not being able to manage Kubernetes on-premises as customers begin their digital transformation journey, converting legacy applications to the cloud.

Amazon EKS Anywhere on Equinix Metal transforms the developer experience by delivering a reliable Kubernetes environment on-premises with simplified and automated Kubernetes cluster management, lower support costs, and eliminating the redundancy of using multiple open source or 3^rd party tools to operate Kubernetes clusters. With EKS Anywhere, it’s possible to manage workloads across on-premises and the cloud consistently and cost-effectively. Developers use the EKS Anywhere installable software package to create and operate Kubernetes clusters on-premises and automation tooling for cluster lifecycle support.

Similar to EKS on AWS, EKS Anywhere builds on the strengths of Amazon EKS Distro open source Kubernetes distribution to bring a consistent AWS management experience to the data center. EKS Anywhere removes the complexity of buying or building management tooling to create EKS Distro clusters, configure operating environments, update software, and handle backup recovery. Leveraging the EKS console provides a comprehensive view of all Kubernetes clusters — wherever they are running.

Choosing where to run EKS Anywhere

It’s all about using EKS Anywhere to deploy Amazon EKS on any infrastructure the customer chooses — wherever it is positioned. Whether on-premises, on Platform Equinix via AWS Direct Connect and Outposts, or Equinix Metal, integrating EKS Anywhere can help businesses build solutions closer to the edge and eliminate barriers to cloud adoption by democratizing the consumption of cloud.

EKS Anywhere brings a consistent AWS management experience – whether on-premises or at an Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center. When you need to expand or reduce the workloads running on the cloud, AWS Direct Connect on Platform Equinix offers the flexibility to scale the amount of storage and compute to only use what you need. Equinix Fabric leverages private and secure interconnection to quickly deploy hybrid multicloud infrastructures and connects private IT infrastructure to AWS within minutes over high-speed, low-latency virtualized connections.

When businesses need to manage computing in a data center where they currently have or will have a presence, Equinix Metal BMaaS offers the best solution to get physical servers up and running in minutes and utilizing Equinix Fabric cloud on-ramps in 45 metros worldwide. Customers can launch their containers on-demand onto Platform Equinix whenever they need low-latency connectivity and to meet data sovereignty and local data processing requirements where proximity matters. Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company™ for over 10,000 customers, helping them bring together and interconnect their public, hybrid, and private cloud environments.

Customers can also utilize Network Edge services from Equinix to deploy virtual networking devices, including SD-WAN, router and firewall services from leading providers, helping companies route and secure traffic between AWS and on-premises servers. Network Edge saves time and money when deploying virtual devices such as SD-WAN gateways and cloud routers.

EKS Anywhere Use Cases

Four key use cases can benefit from the EKS Anywhere deployment option.

1. Low Latency/High Throughput Applications benefit from having compute closer to the user or other systems that require immediate responses.
2. Data Residency & Sovereignty regulations by governments and industries such as healthcare require data to be stored locally. Or a company may be working on a long-term project that may not require migration to the cloud for two to three years but still requires the data to be close to the workloads and processing.
3. Local Data Processing may, by necessity, be required to run close to an on-premises location, or at the edge.
4. Data Transformation allows customers to host legacy containers and data on-premises while migrating to EKS Anywhere and EKS in the AWS Cloud.

Industries such as gaming, healthcare, financial services, media and entertainment, manufacturing, and government can benefit from using EKS Anywhere to manage workloads and store data close to where the compute is running.

Learn more about how EKS Anywhere on Equinix Metal makes it easier for digital leaders to bring their Kubernetes-based workloads from the cloud to the edge.

You may also be interested in reading:

Amazon EKS Anywhere Now Generally Available to Create and Manage Kubernetes Clusters On-Premises

Amazon EKS Anywhere Partner Page

To get the latest thinking about the critical role of local cloud architectures, download “IDC InfoBrief – AWS Outposts & Equinix: Strategic Business Impact of Local Clouds.”