Amazon Web Services announced AppStream and WorkSpaces. AppStream provides developers with the ability to stream resource intensive applications, such as 3D games or interactive HD applications, from the cloud. With Amazon AppStream, content is rendered in the cloud, yet the end-user is still able to enjoy a responsive, fluid and high-definition experience on their device. Amazon AppStream allows developers the flexibility to stream their entire application, or only the parts of their application that need additional cloud resources.
With Amazon AppStream, developers can create content that takes advantage of the vast compute and storage resources available in AWS, and then make their applications and games. “Developers have told us that it is frustrating to build and deliver high-end applications for mass-market devices given their hardware constraints. They want to provide spectacular graphics, and responsive, fluid experiences to the largest possible audience regardless of the device a person chooses to use,” said Mike Frazzini, General Manager of Amazon Games. “Amazon AppStream frees developers from these limitations by allowing them to stream their applications to low-end devices as if these consumers were using high-end devices.”
Amazon WorkSpace, a fully managed desktop computing service in the cloud, allows customers to easily provision cloud-based desktops that allow end-users to access the documents, applications and resources they need with the device of their choice, including laptops, iPad, Kindle Fire,and Android tablets. With a few clicks in the AWS Management Console, customers can provision a high-quality desktop experience for their users at less than half the cost of most traditional virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions. “Over the past couple years, the new service customers have requested most frequently is a virtual cloud desktop service,” said Gene Farrell, General Manager of Amazon WorkSpaces. “They’ve been frustrated by the available options – traditional desktops that are hard to manage and keep secure, or virtual desktops that are expensive and deliver inconsistent performance. Amazon WorkSpaces aims to address these issues by offering secure, easy-to-manage, high-performance desktops in the cloud at a fraction of the price of traditional VDI.”
“Our enterprise customers have been asking for us to deliver a virtual desktop solution that is simple to manage, scales up and down as needed and doesn’t require large capital investment or heavy operational support. Until now that solution has not existed,” said Robert Groat, Chief Technology Officer, Smartronix. “We’re very excited to see a solution for virtual desktops done the ‘Amazon Web Services way.’ With Amazon WorkSpaces, users pay only for the WorkSpaces you launch. There is no up-front commitment and you can delete WorkSpaces at any time. WorkSpaces are billed on a monthly basis. The monthly fee for Workspaces includes both the infrastructure (compute, storage, bandwidth for streaming) and the software applications.