AWS Outposts Takes On New Levels of Flexibility with External Storage Array Boot Support
Seattle, WA – July 17, 2025 – Amazon Web Services (AWS) today announced a significant enhancement to AWS Outposts, its fully managed service that brings AWS infrastructure and services to virtually any datacenter, colocation space, or on-premises facility. Effective immediately, AWS Outposts now supports booting Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances directly from external storage arrays. This new capability promises to unlock a new era of flexibility and efficiency for organizations leveraging AWS services on-premises.
For businesses that have invested in existing, robust storage infrastructure, or have specific data residency or sovereignty requirements that necessitate the use of their own storage hardware, this update is particularly welcome. Previously, Outposts EC2 instances were primarily provisioned using EBS volumes attached to the Outposts compute instances. While this offered the familiar AWS experience, it presented a hurdle for organizations deeply integrated with their on-premises storage solutions.
The introduction of external storage array booting directly addresses this by enabling customers to seamlessly integrate their existing storage hardware with AWS Outposts. This means that organizations can now leverage their familiar storage arrays to provide the underlying storage for their EC2 instances running on Outposts. This can lead to several compelling benefits:
- Optimized Existing Investments: Companies can continue to utilize their existing, high-performance storage hardware, maximizing their return on investment and avoiding the need for immediate hardware refreshes. This is especially advantageous for those with specialized storage needs or significant capital already allocated to their storage infrastructure.
- Enhanced Data Management and Governance: For organizations with stringent data governance policies or specific compliance mandates, the ability to keep data on their own trusted storage arrays while still benefiting from the AWS Outposts experience provides a powerful advantage. This can simplify audit processes and ensure adherence to evolving regulatory landscapes.
- Simplified Hybrid Cloud Architectures: This new feature further streamlines the creation of cohesive hybrid cloud environments. By allowing Outposts EC2 instances to tap into existing on-premises storage, the complexity of data synchronization and management between cloud and on-premises environments can be significantly reduced.
- Increased Operational Efficiency: For IT teams already proficient in managing their specific storage arrays, this integration offers a familiar operational model. The learning curve for managing storage for Outposts instances is reduced, potentially leading to faster deployment and easier maintenance.
The implementation of this feature is designed to be straightforward, allowing customers to configure their external storage arrays to be compatible with AWS Outposts. While specific configuration details will be available in the AWS documentation, the underlying principle is to provide a well-defined interface that enables Outposts to discover and utilize the storage provided by these external arrays.
This evolution of AWS Outposts underscores AWS’s commitment to providing customers with the flexibility and control they need to build and operate hybrid cloud solutions tailored to their unique requirements. By bridging the gap between AWS compute services and existing on-premises storage infrastructure, AWS Outposts continues to empower businesses to innovate at the edge and drive digital transformation with confidence.
This latest advancement is a testament to the ongoing development and expansion of AWS Outposts, solidifying its position as a leading solution for organizations seeking to extend the power of the AWS cloud to their own facilities.
AWS Outposts now supports booting Amazon EC2 instances from external storage arrays
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Amazon published ‘AWS Outposts now supports booting Amazon EC2 instances from external storage arrays’ at 2025-07-17 17:47. Please write a detailed article about this news in a polite tone with relevant information. Please reply in English with the article only.