EKS-Distro moves AWS into hybrid cloud. What will that mean for the market?

ISVs and service providers welcome the release of Amazon's open source Kubernetes distro, although some foresee more lock-in

The AWS re:Invent 2020 announcement that caused the biggest waves was that of EKS-Distro (EKS-D), an open source, freely deployable version of the Kubernetes distribution on which AWS bases its cloud-based Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).

The announcement was significant because it means that running a hybrid cloud model with local clusters synchronised with AWS-hosted ones should be much more straightforward for EKS customers - and EKS is probably the largest Kubernetes-as-a-Service offering on the market.

It has always been possible to run Kubernetes clusters on-premises, but until now enterprises wanting to do so as part of a hybrid cloud setup have had to check continually that their in-house clusters are running the same versions of dependencies and add-ons as those in the cloud, and that security patches are properly applied across all environments. As an upstream, open source distribution, EKS-D includes all the same updates that flow into the EKS ecosystem so on-prem and cloud versions are always compatible.

Competitors like OpenShift already offer hybrid cloud Kubernetes, but the popularity of EKS and the fact that EKS-D is free and will therefore be trialled by many teams has given the hybrid cloud containers market a sudden shot in the arm.

The development was broadly welcomed by the ISVs and service providers we spoke to, including Jon Shanks, CEO of cloud native consultancy Appvia, who said he's been waiting for the market to shift in this direction.

"We've been looking to move into the [hybrid] space and trying to compete with the other container platforms that are out there, especially the OpenShifts of the world," Shanks said.

"We're quite confident that we're seeing the right things in the market now with the on-premise solutions. EKS-D is something we were hoping would happen rather than us having to create our own on-premise flavour. There's a risk in that, so we've been sitting and waiting for the big three [to make this kind of move]. Luckily for us the momentum has picked up, so it means we can offer our value proposition on top of cloud, which is always what we wanted to do."

Blair Lyon, VP cloud experience at cloud service provider Linode, was also enthusiastic.

"This move is one that we should all welcome - it should make it easier for customers to implement hybrid, and potentially more multi-cloud deployments over time. It provides customers with more choice and more flexibility, which everyone should be in favour of," he said.

Patrick McFadin, VP developer relations at data management firm DataStax, was a little more guarded in his welcome.

"This is great for enterprises as it does help them run hybrid cloud, in that you can use container images across your internal data centre environment and public cloud instances," he said. "However, it does potentially tie them to AWS's implementation of Kubernetes rather than being fully open. For ISVs and service providers, this could effectively link their customers more to AWS. For those customers that are still running on-premises, this could be an effective way to prepare for a cloud migration that includes containers."

Analyst Philbert Shih, founder of Toronto-based Structure Research, said it shows that AWS's strategy continues to be ubiquity.

"AWS ... sees the value in allowing end users to manage containers in whatever deployment model or underlying infrastructure form factor is preferred or makes sense from an operations perspective. This could be at the edge, on-premise or on the AWS cloud. The key is to let developers make that choice and provide a consistent user experience across deployment models so that they have maximum flexibility."

The other public cloud providers will doubtless follow suit with hybrid cloud container platforms of their own, however, this does not mean smaller players will be pushed out. As they grow and diversify, the megaclouds become increasingly difficult to navigate by smaller companies, which is where the more specialised providers will continue to find success in their own niches.

"Small to mid-sized organizations have more standardised needs and value ease of use, simplicity and a more personal and interactive customer service relationship," Shih said.

It's a point on which Lyon agreed. For smaller organisations the focus is less on hybrid cloud and more about simplicity and price-point, with an interest in the kind of flexibility promised by multi-cloud, he said.

"SMBs are not looking for the huge spread of services, they are more likely to want those staple services that are effectively getting commoditised. At that point, companies are more likely to look for clearer pricing, direct support and easier migration with no hidden costs around data transfer."

The EKS-D announcement in December was one of a number related to containers. Others included EKS Anywhere (EKS-A) and Elastic Container Services Anywhere (ECS-A) - deployment models that extend EKS and ECS to the edge, both expected later this year - and EKS Console which provides a UI to visualise cluster configurations and API resources, released in December.

The edge is currently the land of cloud opportunity, explained Shih, saying he expects to see much more action there from all the big vendors, with AWS's recent moves pointing the way.

"AWS has expanded its Local Zones and Wavelength products, added new edge form factors and is managing this with a consistent toolset and API. The moves have the potential to push the reach of the AWS cloud out deep to the edge, while maintaining operating efficiency and further contributing to its scale," he said.