Integrating Edge Solutions with AWS Outposts Rack, AWS Local Zones, and Megaport

By Len Gomes, Partner Solutions Architect – AWS
By Bennett Borofka, Partner Solutions Architect – AWS
By Paul McGuinness, Head of Solutions – Megaport EMEA
By Sherlock Doris, Cloud Alliance Director – Megaport EMEA

Megaport

Customers who want to use AWS Outposts rack to build out their own hybrid edge infrastructure face complexity, as they need to prepare their environment to accommodate the router, switches rack, and power to connect their Outposts.

This can bring additional overhead as customers need to go through a procurement process, purchase additional rack space, and define secure remote management practices.

AWS Outposts rack offers the same Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure, AWS services, APIs, and tools to any on-premises data center or colocation space for a truly consistent hybrid experience. It’s ideal for workloads that require low-latency access to on-premises systems, local data processing, data residency, and the migration of applications with local system interdependencies.

AWS Outposts rack is delivered as an industry-standard 42U rack and fully managed by AWS. Customers can select an Outposts rack configuration from a catalogue of options, and AWS delivers it to your preferred physical site fully assembled and ready to be rolled into final position. It’s installed by AWS personnel or AWS-validated partner, and the rack just needs to be plugged in to power and your network.

Megaport is an AWS Networking Competency Partner and leading network-as-a-service provider transforming the way businesses connect to the AWS Cloud. Megaport is also the first AWS Direct Connect Partner to receive the AWS Outposts Ready specialization.

In this post, we explain how AWS Outposts rack customers can use many, but not all, of the deployment options to connect Megaport’s Fabric and Network edge to Outposts. These use cases remove barriers, simplify edge connectivity, and eliminate the need for additional customer networking devices for hybrid solutions.

AWS Outposts Rack with Direct Connect via Megaport Port

Megaport offer global reachability to AWS services and simplifies private connectivity options for hybrid solutions. Moreover, Megaport solutions for Outposts rack allow customers to choose the desired data center operator and location with fewer restrictions. Choose from over 100 data center operators and 800+ locations globally.

Megaport reduces physical infrastructure needs and opens the door to a range of architecture options, from low latency and local data processing to multi-cloud capabilities. Megaport edge networking can be provisioned rapidly through an easy-to-use portal or open API.

Customers of Megaport and AWS Outposts can use their own network equipment, such as routers and switches, inside the data centers where their Outposts racks are deployed. Customers can create a network connection from their port to AWS with virtual cross connections (VXCs) and AWS Direct Connect. Customers can choose from three different AWS Direct Connect models: hosted virtual interfaces, hosted connections, or dedicated connections.

Figure 1 – Megaport port and AWS high-level architecture.

Deployment steps can be found in the Megaport documentation for all three AWS Direct Connect model. Demo videos are also available for each model.

AWS Outposts Rack with Megaport Cloud Router

Alternatively, use Megaport Cloud Router (MCR), a virtual routing service with dynamic Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routing to AWS Direct Connect.

When combining Outposts Rack with Megaport, you’ll have simplified, scalable connectivity options based on your on-premises requirements, including private or public Direct Connect interconnection to your Outposts with or without layer 3 network hardware, opening up new possibilities for virtualized networking.

Figure 2 – High-level architecture routers deployed and managed by Megaport.

Note that AWS Outposts does not peer directly to AWS Direct Connect. MCR’s virtual routing solution eliminates the need for the customer to provide their own router in the data canter to support the necessary peering with AWS Direct Connect. You only need to order cross connect to Megaport.

Subsequent provisioning, BGP peering, and private connectivity to AWS Direct Connect is facilitated via the Megaport Portal or APIs.

Megaport Virtual Edge MVE

A third area of interest is the Megaport Virtual Edge (MVE), a hybrid network and compute platform that hosts network function virtualization (NFV) on Megaport’s software-defined network (SDN). MVE provides the edge computing framework that hosts partner SD-WAN technology directly on Megaport’s global SDN.

MVEs are strategically located to allow customer traffic to enter the Megaport network as quickly as possible.

Figure 3 – High level architecture with SD-WAN connectivity.

MCR and MVE unlock a range of architectures which can be tailored to your specific workload and networking requirements:

• 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.
• Build virtual connectivity hubs with virtual firewall and virtual routing.

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, Palo Alto Networks, and Versa Networks. Licenses must be purchased from partners.

AWS Local Zones and Megaport

AWS Local Zones allows customers to deploy workloads using select AWS services closer to large populations and industry centers. This is essential for customers running workloads at the edge, closer to end users of latency-sensitive applications.

There are currently over 30 Local Zones locations that globally support compute, storage, and network services. Review a full list of services available in each Local Zone, and note that AWS plans to launch over 20 additional Local Zones in 18 countries.

Most Local Zones also support AWS Direct Connect, allowing customers to add private, high-performance network connectivity between Local Zones resources and on-premises data centers or corporate offices. Network traffic between the Direct Connect and Local Zones locations takes the shortest available path, keeping latency minimal.

Some customers may have a hybrid workload running across multiple, colocated data centers within a metro area and want to extend or migrate the workload to an adjacent Local Zones location. You may opt to set up circuits and routers between the various collocated data centers and a Direct Connect location in the area, forming a dedicated connection to bridge the network between these on-premises workloads and the nearby Local Zones resources.

In these situations, customers must choose from the available Direct Connect port speeds (1 Gbps, 10 Gbps, or in some cases 100 Gbps). A virtual private gateway (VGW) is used to establish the connection into Direct Connect and the Local Zones VPC.

Megaport can simplify this approach with broad support for 800+ locations around the globe, many of which cover data center facilities within metro areas that contain Direct Connect and Local Zones locations. For data centers that are Megaport-enabled, adding low-latency, high performance network connectivity to Local Zones is simpler and faster with a Direct Connect hosted connection.

Rather than deploy circuits and routers at the Direct Connect location, customers can opt for a virtual cross connect between their edge router and Megaport’s running in the same on-premises facility, and leverage Megaport’s Port and MCR products to connect via their fabric into Direct Connect and the Local Zones location. Additionally, customers can opt for more granular, variable-rate metro bandwidth pricing ranging between 50Mbps to 10Gbps.

Figure 4 – Megaport-enabled datacenters within the same metro area as Local Zones.

Ordering and Deployment

The following steps outline how you can order and execute an AWS Outposts deployment supported by network edge. For in-depth overview and steps, open the hyperlinks.

Prerequisites

• An AWS Outpost site is the physical location for your Outpost equipment. Verify that your site meets the requirements for AWS Outposts.
• You must have an AWS Enterprise Support plan.

Steps

• Determine the Outposts configurations for your order.
• Work with Megaport through its channels to architect the best connectivity model and get site details in your desired location.
• Order your Outpost in the AWS Outposts console. Ensure you are ordering from the correct AWS region.
• Order your solution model in the Megaport console:
  • Port – AWS Direct Connect: Hosted virtual interfaces, hosted connections, or dedicated connections
  • Megaport Cloud Router (MCR)
  • Megaport Virtual Edge (MVE)
• To fulfil the order, AWS will schedule a date and time with you for physical installation. You will also receive a checklist of items to verify or provide before the installation

Conclusion

In this post, we discussed different connectivity models to build your hybrid edge infrastructure with AWS Outposts, AWS Local Zones, and Megaport, avoiding operational complexity.

AWS and Megaport have worked together to improve the efficiency of deploying hybrid edge connectivity options, helping customers reduce costs and complexity by reducing physical data center and hardware resources.

Megaport’s connectivity specialists can provide design and support worldwide to AWS users. Contact Megaport to optimize your AWS setup.

To learn more about AWS Outposts, including information on common use cases and deployment practices, review the AWS Outposts documentation. To learn more about Megaport Cloud Connectivity options, review the Megaport documentation.

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