Amazon Web Services (AWS) added local clusters to its Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) on Outposts platform, bolstering the reliability of applications running in edge environments.

The cloud giant explained the move allows users to deploy Amazon EKS-managed clusters completely on the Outposts platform. This includes hosting the Kubernetes control plane and nodes.

This compares to the legacy model where a user would set up the EKS clusters and control plane in the centralized AWS cloud environment and then instantiate nodes in Outposts or other edge environments. This meant those nodes needed to be connected to the centralized cloud to transmit or receive data.

“Customers told us the main challenge they have in this scenario is to manage site disconnections,” AWS explained in a blog post. “This is something we cannot control, especially when you deploy Outposts on rough edges: areas with poor or intermittent network connections.”

It noted nodes and pods don’t need that constant connectivity to operate in a on-premises local environment, but Kubernetes may take that lack of connectivity as a sign the pod or node is flawed and try to spin up a replacement. This would result in a healthy application potentially being taken down.

EKS is AWS’ Kubernetes-focused container platform that allows for more flexibility by tapping into the broader Kubernetes ecosystem.

Outposts is AWS’ on-premises option that involves data center equipment being installed at an enterprise facility. It uses AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools to support a hybrid cloud service. Verizon is offering several form factor options of Outposts, include 1U and 2U deployments.

AWS initially launched Outposts in late 2019. “Instead of building this funky bridge between two things,” on-premises data centers and the cloud, Outposts brings native AWS services into on-premises data centers while “seamlessly connecting to AWS’s broad array of services in the cloud,” AWS CEO Andy Jassy explained at the time.

Outposts supports a number of AWS’ edge efforts, including its multi-access edge computing (MEC) focused Wavelength platform.

Outposts is similar to competing offers like Microsoft’s Azure Arc, Google’s Anthos, and IBM’s Cloud Satellite.