AWS is taking the fight to on-prem hardware vendors

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Amazon Web Services (AWS) is looking to hit on-premises hardware vendors where it hurts with a new set of products and services.

The cloud hosting giant is adding support for its Dedicated Hosts platform to its on-premises cloud-in-a-box solution Outposts.

In addition, AWS is making a move into the “pre-cloud” space by making its Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance available via third party resellers.

What does this mean?

AWS Outposts is a managed device that brings Amazon cloud services into user’s own data centers.

The added support for Amazon EC2 Dedicated Hosts allows users to keep using eligible software licenses from vendors such as Microsoft and Oracle on Amazon EC2, but retain the benefits of public cloud, such as scalability.

As Amazon EC2 Dedicated Host is a physical server fully dedicated for the use of one organization, this could help address corporate compliance requirements, for example in jurisdictions where organizations are forced to keep their data in servers in certain physical locations.

The added support can also potentially help save firms money, allowing them to keep using licenses for expensive software such as Windows Server, SQL Server, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, or other software licenses that are bound to VMs, sockets, or physical cores, subject to existing license terms.

AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance also will now for the first time be on sale from third party resellers.

The appliance is physical, standalone, validated server configuration for on-premises deployments, prebuilt with AWS Storage Gateway.

Now users can procure the hardware appliance through the reseller of their choice, leveraging existing purchasing agreements.

AWS has partnered with TD Synnex, a global IT distributor, to offer the appliance, which is supported in 16 AWS Regions.

To learn more, visit the AWS Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance product page, or online documentation.

Will McCurdy has been writing about technology for over five years. He has a wide range of specialities including cybersecurity, fintech, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, cloud computing, payments, artificial intelligence, retail technology, and venture capital investment. He has previously written for AltFi, FStech, Retail Systems, and National Technology News and is an experienced podcast and webinar host, as well as an avid long-form feature writer.