Posted On: Nov 19, 2021
Starting today, Amazon AppStream 2.0 introduces Elastic fleets, a serverless fleet type that lets you stream applications to your end users from an AWS-managed pool of streaming instances without needing to predict usage, create and manage scaling policies, or create an image. Elastic fleets are designed for customers that want to stream applications to users without managing any capacity or creating AppStream 2.0 images.
Elastic fleet streaming instances rely on applications that are installed to virtual hard disks saved within an Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) bucket in your account. When your user chooses their applications to launch, the virtual hard drive is downloaded to an Elastic fleet streaming instance, and launched. With Elastic fleets, you simply install your applications to virtual hard drives, upload them to an S3 bucket in your account, then assign them to a new Elastic fleet to start streaming applications to your users. You no longer need to create scaling policies, or create and manage any AppStream 2.0 images. The billing rate is determined by the instance type and size and operating system that you choose when creating the fleet, and you’re charged per second only for the duration of your users streaming session. For each end user who launches a streaming session on a Microsoft Windows Server-based fleet instance, you will be charged a Microsoft RDS SAL for the month in which the streaming session occurred.
Elastic fleets are designed for applications that can be run from virtual hard disks without being configured, and optimized for use cases with sporadic usage patterns such as software trials, trainings, and sales demos, or converting a desktop application to a software-as-a-service delivery model.
To get started, install your application to a virtual hard disk, then upload it to an S3 bucket. Once your application is packaged, you can create a new Elastic fleet and associate it to your application. To learn more, see Create and Manage App Blocks and Applications for Elastic Fleets and Create a Fleet in the Amazon AppStream 2.0 Administration Guide.
You can create Elastic fleets in all AWS Regions where AppStream 2.0 is offered. AppStream 2.0 Elastic fleets offers pay-as-you-go pricing. Please see Amazon AppStream 2.0 Pricing for more information, and try our sample applications.