• About Us
  • Partnership Opportunities
  • Privacy Policy

Data Center Frontier

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing.

  • Cloud
    • Hyperscale
  • Colo
    • Site Selection
    • Interconnection
  • Energy
    • Sustainability
  • Cooling
  • Technology
    • Internet of Things
    • AI & Machine Learning
    • Edge Computing
    • Virtual Reality
    • Autonomous Cars
    • 5G Wireless
    • Satellites
  • Design
    • Servers
    • Storage
    • Network
  • Voices
  • Podcast
  • White Papers
  • Resources
    • COVID-19
    • Events
    • Newsletter
    • Companies
    • Data Center 101
  • Jobs
You are here: Home / Edge Computing / How AWS Cloud Customers Are Using Local Zones for Edge Computing

How AWS Cloud Customers Are Using Local Zones for Edge Computing

By Rich Miller - September 4, 2020

How AWS Cloud Customers Are Using Local Zones for Edge Computing

Amazon Web Services is beginning to expand its Local Zones for edge computing. (Image: AWS)

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

For the world’s largest cloud computing players, the edge is taking shape around big cities and specific use cases. As it extends its Internet architecture beyond its massive server farms, Amazon Web Services is focused on Los Angeles and its concentration of film and gaming companies.

AWS is now adding a second Local Zone in Los Angeles, providing single-digit millisecond latency to AWS customers. Last year LA was the site of the first AWS Local Zone, which features Amazon’s cloud computing infrastructure deployed at local colocation centers, rather than a huge Amazon data center campus. As it doubles down in LA, AWS is providing some insights into how its customers are using Local Zones.

Amazon operates a massive global network of data centers to power its cloud computing platform, with most of its capacity focused on clusters of large campuses in key network hubs like Northern Virginia. With Local Zones, AWS is creating a more distributed infrastructure to support edge computing and low-latency applications.

The building block for Amazon’s edge ambitions is AWS Outposts, which are racks filled with turn-key AWS cloud infrastructure. Outposts were introduced to allow enterprises deploy hybrid clouds in their on-premises data centers, but will also drive Amazon’s push into edge computing in Local Zones.

It’s not an accident that Los Angeles is the first market for the AWS edge rollout. The AWS Local Zone in Los Angeles targets the market for computer animation and rendering for games and movies. These applications require fast connections between data storage and compute, and the Local Zone allows developers to shift capacity off-premises to AWS and retain low-latency access.

The Los Angeles local zones can also be used to transform TV and film production, changing the way huge video files are managed and shared in the filing and editing process.

How AWS Customers Are Using Local Zones

“You can now design your applications to run in both Local Zones in LA to achieve high availability and even greater fault-tolerance,” AWS Senior Technical Evangelist Steve Roberts said in a blog post. “Both Local Zones in LA are interconnected with high-bandwidth, low-latency networking, over fully redundant, dedicated metro fiber providing high-throughput, low-latency networking between them.”

An Amazon Web Services Outposts rack, which will serve as the building block for extending the AWS cloud to provide edge computing at on-premise data centers, colocation facilities and telco networks. (Image: Amazon Web Services)

An Amazon Web Services Outposts rack, which will serve as the building block for extending the AWS cloud to provide edge computing at on-premise data centers, colocation facilities and telco networks. (Image: Amazon Web Services)

Roberts said customers who combine Local Zones with AWS Direct Connect are achieving sub-1.5ms latency communication between their AWS infrastructure and  applications in on-premises data centers in the LA metro area.

“These enterprises have workloads that currently run in existing on-premises data centers in the Los Angeles metro area and it can be daunting to migrate these application portfolios, many of them interdependent, to the cloud,” said Roberts, who added that Local Zones allow these customers to “establish a hybrid environment that provides ultra-low latency communication between applications running in the Los Angeles Local Zone and the on-premises installations without needing a potentially expensive revamp of their architecture. As time progresses, the on-premises applications can be migrated to the cloud in an incremental fashion, simplifying the overall migration process.”

Another use scenario for AWS edge is virtual desktops for rendering and animation workloads. “For these workloads, latency is critical and the addition of a second Local Zone for Los Angeles gives additional failover capability, without sacrificing latency, should the need arise,” Roberts writes.

Free Resource from Data Center Frontier White Paper Library

virtualization
Content & Digital Media Infrastructure
Media and entertainment companies are now at a digital media infrastructure crossroads thanks to the rise of streaming services during the pandemic. Iron Mountain Data Centers explores the current challenges, drivers, and opportunities for entertainment, content and media infrastructure.
We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

Get this PDF emailed to you.

Digital Delivery as an LA-Centric Opportunity?

AWS doesn’t offer details on its Local Zone customers. But it’s no secret that Netflix is a major AWS customer.

“Netflix uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) for nearly all its computing and storage needs, including databases, analytics, recommendation engines, video transcoding, and more—hundreds of functions that in total use more than 100,000 server instances,” AWS says in a case study.

We recently reported on Netflix’ interest in using edge computing to bring new efficiencies to TV and film production, changing the way huge video files are managed and shared. Like many production companies, Netflix often winds up using courier services to move digital files, including “dailies” – the unedited raw footage shot during the making of a motion picture or TV series. The video is shot in high resolution, creating large files that are difficult to move across a network. Footage is often transported on storage tape by specialized courier services or even FedEx, with a significant volume of that activity focused on Los Angeles and the Hollywood entertainment industry.

Edge computing can perform “data thinning” to distill large datasets down to smaller files to be sent across the network for review. In TV and film production, that means transcoding, which converts large files into a format more suitable for digital transport. Edge computing can bring processing power onto remote sets, allowing transcoding to take place on location.

“We are shooting content at 8K, and that’s about 12.5 gigabytes a minute compressed,” said Dave Temkin, Vice President of Networks at Netflix, in a January presentation at PTC. “The ability to transcode something quickly on location, to go from 8K down to a daily – which doesn’t even need to be HD – that  you can get off the set or off location very quickly, that’s really important to us.”

LinkedinTwitterFacebookSubscribe
Mail

Tagged With: Amazon Web Services, Edge Computing, Edge Data Centers, Gaming

Newsletters

Stay informed: Get our weekly updates!

Are you a new reader? Follow Data Center Frontier on Twitter or Facebook.

About Rich Miller

I write about the places where the Internet lives, telling the story of data centers and the people who build them. I founded Data Center Knowledge, the data center industry's leading news site. Now I'm exploring the future of cloud computing at Data Center Frontier.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Voices of the Industry

Mitigate Risk, Improve Performance and Decrease Operating Expenses through Data Center Self-Performance

Mitigate Risk, Improve Performance and Decrease Operating Expenses through Data Center Self-Performance If a vendor conducts the actual work in your data center, then you or your operator aren’t maximizing your current operating resources and are experiencing incremental cost and risk. Chad Giddings of BCS Data Center Operations, explains the importance of your data center provider having a high-degree of self-performance.

White Papers

Cloud computing

Intel MCA+MFP Helps JD Stable and Efficient Cloud Services

A new white paper from Intel explores how Intel MCA Recovery  + MFP has helped JD Cloud provide efficient and stable services to their more than 2,500 partners.

Get this PDF emailed to you.

We always respect your privacy and we never sell or rent our list to third parties. By downloading this White Paper you are agreeing to our terms of service. You can opt out at any time.

DCF Spotlight

Data center modules on display at the recent Edge Congress conference in Austin, Texas. (Photo: Rich Miller)

Edge Computing is Poised to Remake the Data Center Landscape

Data center leaders are investing in edge computing and edge solutions and actively looking at new ways to deploy edge capacity to support evolving business and user requirements.

An aerial view of major facilities in Data Center Alley in Ashburn, Virginia. (Image: Loudoun County)

Northern Virginia Data Center Market: The Focal Point for Cloud Growth

The Northern Virginia data center market is seeing a surge in supply and an even bigger surge in demand. Data Center Frontier explores trends, stats and future expectations for the No. 1 data center market in the country.

See More Spotlight Features

Newsletters

Get the Latest News from Data Center Frontier

Job Listings

RSS Job Openings | Pkaza Critical Facilities Recruiting

  • Electrical Commissioning Engineer - Los Angeles, CA
  • Data Center Construction Project Manager - Ashburn, VA
  • Critical Power Energy Manager - Data Center Development - Dallas, TX
  • Data Center Facilities Operations VP - Seattle, WA
  • Senior Electrical Engineer - Data Center - Dallas, TX

See More Jobs

Data Center 101

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center 101: Mastering the Basics of the Data Center Industry

Data Center Frontier, in partnership with Open Spectrum, brings our readers a series that provides an introductory guidebook to the ins and outs of the data center and colocation industry. Think power systems, cooling, solutions, data center contracts and more. The Data Center 101 Special Report series is directed to those new to the industry, or those of our readers who need to brush up on the basics.

  • Data Center Power
  • Data Center Cooling
  • Strategies for Data Center Location
  • Data Center Pricing Negotiating
  • Cloud Computing

See More Data center 101 Topics

About Us

Charting the future of data centers and cloud computing. We write about what’s next for the Internet, and the innovations that will take us there. We tell the story of the digital economy through the data center facilities that power cloud computing and the people who build them. Read more ...
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

About Our Founder

Data Center Frontier is edited by Rich Miller, the data center industry’s most experienced journalist. For more than 20 years, Rich has profiled the key role played by data centers in the Internet revolution. Meet the DCF team.

TOPICS

  • 5G Wireless
  • Cloud
  • Colo
  • Connected Cars
  • Cooling
  • Cornerstone
  • Coronavirus
  • Design
  • Edge Computing
  • Energy
  • Executive Roundtable
  • Featured
  • Finance
  • Hyperscale
  • Interconnection
  • Internet of Things
  • Machine Learning
  • Network
  • Podcast
  • Servers
  • Site Selection
  • Social Business
  • Special Reports
  • Storage
  • Sustainability
  • Videos
  • Virtual Reality
  • Voices of the Industry
  • Webinar
  • White Paper

Copyright Endeavor Business Media© 2022