Amazon AppStream 2.0 features

Amazon AppStream 2.0 enables you to quickly and easily install, test, and update your applications using the image builder. Any application that runs on Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022, Amazon Linux 2, Rocky Linux, or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 is supported and you don’t need to make any modifications. When your testing is complete, you can set application launch configurations, configure default user settings, and publish your image for users to access. Using managed AppStream 2.0 image updates, you can keep your images up to date with the latest operating system updates, driver updates, and AppStream 2.0 agent software.

Amazon AppStream 2.0 supports multiple operating systems including Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022, Amazon Linux 2, Rocky Linux 8, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.

 AppStream 2.0 multi-session capability allows multiple users to share compute, memory, storage, and system software associated with a given instance, while continuing to enjoy the ability to auto-scale resources based on actual usage. This helps reduce solution cost and maximize resource utilization. Multi-session capability gives IT administrators the ability to adjust the number of user sessions per instance based on ther equirements of the individual users—allowing support for a wide range of user types without over provisioning. For multi-session fleets, IT admins can use out-of-the-box AppStream2.0 / Amazon CloudWatch consoles to monitor performance of user sessions and utilization of underlying resources. In an On-Demand fleet, AppStream 2.0 multi-session capability reduces the average time it takes for users to set up their sessions on a given multi-session instance. Multi-session functionality is supported only for Windows configurations of Always-On and On-Demand fleets. Multi-session instances are charged on an hourly basis, regardless of the number user sessions running per instance. See pricing page for more detail.

Amazon AppStream 2.0 supports federated sign-in using SAML 2.0. Users can sign in to AppStream 2.0 using their existing credentials, and start streaming applications. As an administrator, you can use your existing user directory to control end-user access to applications available via AppStream 2.0. You can quickly add or remove access for users or groups, restrict access based on user locations, and enable multi-factor authentication. You can enable federated access and controls via any SAML 2.0 compliant identity provider. For a passwordless login experience, Amazon AppStream 2.0 supports certificate-based authentication for deployments that are joined to your Active Directory.

Your Amazon AppStream 2.0 Always-On and On-Demand fleet streaming instances and image builders can connect to your Microsoft Active Directory (AD) domain. This allows you to apply your existing AD policies to your streaming instances, and provides your users with single sign on access to Intranet sites, file shares, and network printers from within their applications. Your users are authenticated using a SAML 2.0 provider of your choice, and can access applications that require a connection to your AD domain.

Your users can use their Personal Identity Verification (PIV) and Common Access Card (CAC) smart card, and other types of smart cards, to sign in to a Windows OS based AppStream 2.0 streaming instance that is joined to a Microsoft Active Directory domain. Smart cards are also supported for in-session authentication for streaming applications. When this feature is enabled and your user streams using the Windows native client, AppStream 2.0 redirects smart card requests from the streaming instance to a smart card reader that is connected to the user’s local computer. The smart card and smart card reader remain accessible to both the streaming instance and the user’s local computer.

Amazon AppStream 2.0 offers a variety of fleet options, allowing you to configure the optimal solution for your specifc requirements. The table below provides a high-level overview of each available fleet type.

Elastic fleets are a serverless fleet type that allows you to deliver your applications to end users without needing to predict concurrency, create or manage auto scaling policies, or create any images. Your applications are stored within virtual hard disks that are downloaded to streaming instances on user request simplifying how you deliver streaming applications to users. Elastic fleets allow you to focus on delivering your application rather than managing fleet capacity and are best suited for delivering portable applications and when usage patterns may not be constant, like delivering trials, trainings, and demos, or converting your traditionally delivered desktop application to a software as a service.

AppStream 2.0 includes applications manager. Applications manager is designed to help you package and mobilize Windows applications across environments, without affecting the underlying base image or operating system. After launching an app block builder instance, simply install your application(s) and create a self-contained and sharable application image. This application image is sharable across multiple AppStream 2.0 elastic fleets provisioned across different AWS Regions

With Always-On and On-Demand fleets, you can use auto scaling policies to adjust the number of instances that are running to reduce your streaming costs. Each new Always-On and On-Demand fleet you create is configured default scale out and scale in policies, which you can customize to meet your user requirements. You can also create your own scaling policies for each of your Always-On and On-Demand fleets. You can use schedule-based, usage-based, or both types of policies to optimize the number of instances your fleet has.

With Elastic fleets, AppStream 2.0 manages the size of the fleet for you without needing to use autoscaling policies.

Amazon AppStream 2.0 allows you to monitor the utilization of your AppStream 2.0 fleet resources using Amazon CloudWatch metrics. With Elastic fleets, you can track the number of instances that are being used over time. With Always-On and On-Demand fleets, you can see the size of your fleet, the number of instances you have running, and the available capacity for new connections. You can also track utilization over time, which helps you ensure that your fleet is the correct size. Using CloudWatch, you can set alarms to notify you when there is insufficient capacity to support your users, and to react to changes in your Always-On and On-Demand fleet.

Amazon AppStream 2.0 includes APIs that you can use to easily integrate and extend the service. The APIs enable you to create, update, and delete AppStream 2.0 resources, and provide detailed information about resource states. You can create URLs for administrators to connect to their image builders to install applications, and create URLs for users to access their AppStream 2.0 applications.

Amazon AppStream 2.0 allows you to access your desktop applications from HTML5-capable browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge. No plug-ins are needed. You can also access your desktop applications using the AppStream 2.0 Windows Client to use dual monitors and USB peripherals such as 3D mice. The Windows Client also supports keyboard shortcuts, such as Alt + Tab, clipboard shortcuts, and function keys. The Windows Client and Chromium-based web browsers support real-time audio-video (AV) when connecting to AppStream 2.0 sessions.

Amazon AppStream 2.0 offers multiple options for persistent file storage to allow users to store and retrieve files between their application streaming sessions. You can use a home folder backed by Amazon S3, Google Drive for G Suite, or Microsoft OneDrive for Business. Each of these are accessed from the my files tab within an active AppStream 2.0 streaming session, and content can be saved or opened directly from the File menu in most apps.

You can enable persistent application and Windows settings for your users on AppStream 2.0. Your users' plugins, toolbar settings, browser favorites, application connection profiles, and other settings will be saved and applied each time they start a streaming session. Your users' settings are stored in an S3 bucket you control in your AWS account.

Amazon AppStream 2.0 offers an intuitive user interface, making it easy to control your experience. You can run multiple applications and easily switch and interact with them. You can also listen to audio output from applications, and control the bandwidth and fidelity for the experience. With the AppStream 2.0 Windows Client, your applications integrate with your local machine, providing a seamless experience between locally installed applications and remote applications from AppStream 2.0.

Amazon AppStream 2.0 uses Amazon DCV technology to provide secure, high-performance access to your applications. Amazon DCV delivers a fluid interactive experience for business, design, engineering, and software development applications. It delivers a secure pixel stream to your end users and always adjusts to network conditions to provide an optimal end-user experience. Amazon DCV secures both pixels and end-user inputs using end-to-end AES-256 encryption.

With Amazon AppStream 2.0, your application streams and user input flows through a secure streaming gateway on AWS over HTTPS. Streaming instances are not directly accessible from the internet, and users can only access their applications through the streaming gateway after being authenticated.

Amazon AppStream 2.0 is available in multiple AWS regions globally. You can host your AppStream 2.0 resources in multiple AWS regions, and direct users to the closest AWS region for the best end-user experience.

With Amazon AppStream 2.0, your desktop applications can be launched inside an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). You can use VPC security groups to provide granular access control to streaming instances, and to manage users' access to the resources in your VPC, such as your databases, file shares, license servers, and application servers. You can also specify how your desktop applications access the public internet, just as you would with any other resource in your VPC.