AWS Gives its App Streaming Service a GPU Boost

Amazon Web Services (AWS), users can now stream even the most graphic-intensive desktop applications to customers’ browsers with a recent update of the AWS AppStream 2.0 service.
AppStream 2.0 was unveiled at the AWS reInvent conference last year. It allows users to leverage AWS’ infrastructure and stream their Windows apps directly to their customers’ desktop browsers using the NICE DCV streaming protocol. The service is designed to replace traditional on-premises streaming environments. ISVs can also use it to stream their apps to the cloud, without having to rewrite any code.
AWS announced Monday that it added GPU-optimized instances in AppStream 2.0. This allows users to stream more graphics-heavy apps, such as those geared toward media, engineering, and design.
According to Jeff Barr, AWS evangelist, the update also extends AppStream 2.0 support for “applications that almost always require shared, read-write accessibility to large amounts sensitive data that is best stored and processed in the cloud.”
Graphics Desktop is the new GPU streaming instance, and Graphics Pro is Graphics Pro. Both instances are based on AWS’ G2 instance family. Both the G2 instances and the G3 are optimized for GPU computing.
Graphics Desktop instances start at $0.50 an hour, though pricing varies depending on where you are located. They come with 15GiB memory and eight virtual CPUs. Barr stated that it is “designed for desktop applications that render using the CUDA or DirectX graphics engines.”
Graphics Pro is available for $2.05 an hour and can be configured with 16 to 64 virtual CPUs, 122GiB or 488GiB memory. Barr says this instance type is for high-end, high performance applications that can access large amounts of memory and/or use the NVIDIA APIs.
The new instances are available immediately from AWS’ regions in Northern Virginia and Oregon, Ireland, Ireland, and Tokyo.