Delivery and installation are performed through secure channels. Furthermore, any replacement parts are delivered through these same secure channels. Note that replacements are always provided in the event of failed hardware – no network switches or servers will be repaired after installation, only replaced.
Using AWS Outposts Server
AWS Outposts servers are designed in smaller 1U and 2U form factors that fit inside standard 19” full-width racks and provide access to the same AWS services, infrastructure, tools, and APIs as AWS Outposts racks. While AWS takes ownership of the Outposts rack installation, for Outpost servers, they provide customers with an easy-to-use installation interface so that they can handle the physical installation of the Outposts server themselves.
Ordering
Once a customer receives an Outposts server, they will be responsible for racking it, providing it power and network connectivity, powering it on, and connecting to the server via an included USB cable for initialization and authorization.
The server options have fewer power draw requirements than Outposts racks but do come with both DC and AC connectivity options. The network throughput requirements are also less than AWS Outposts Rack deployments but both server options come with 10 Gbps networking capabilities. The EC2 instances are still AWS Nitro backed and contain the Nitro Security Key.
The 1U option weighs 26 pounds and is 1.75” tall, 17.5” wide, and 30” deep and provides C6gd compute-optimized EC2 instances running Arm-based AWS silicon called Graviton2 with up to 64 vCPUs, 128 GiB of RAM, and 2x 1,900 GiB NVMe SSD. The 2U option doubles the vCPUs, RAM, and NVMe at 36 pounds and 30” deep. It provides C6id compute-optimized EC2 instances using the Intel Xeon Ice Lake processor.
Customers can choose from different configurations available for Outposts servers, such as storage and EC2 configurations. Customers are required to install and maintain the installation of the Outposts servers so that AWS does not charge the customer for that. There are all upfront, partial upfront, and no upfront options for a 3-year commitment term. Monthly charges will occur for the partial and no upfront payment options. The agreed-upon upfront charges get counted 24 hours after the Outposts server is provisioned for use.
Customers looking to leverage Outposts’ capabilities in a scenario that requires less in the way of compute and storage capacity or in a scenario that does not allow for a full-size rack install can consider using one of the two Outposts server form factors. Customers that have a workload need for limited AWS resources and have space available in an existing server rack make good use cases for Outposts servers. Also, the fact that Outposts servers can be combined for additional throughput back to the AWS region is a feature that allows customers to expand their Outposts server footprint to add additional throughput, resource capacity, and resilience.