Amazon Web Services unveiled a significant development at its re:Invent conference today: the introduction of Mac mini instances to its cloud platform. These new EC2 Mac instances are currently available for general use, although they represent a premium offering.

The initial focus is on developers requiring cloud-based environments for building and testing applications designed for Mac and iOS. However, the availability of a complete Mac mini within the cloud environment opens up possibilities for a wide range of applications that developers are likely to explore.

Currently, the hardware utilized by AWS consists of i7 machines featuring six physical and 12 logical cores, coupled with 32 GB of memory, reflecting the recent M1 Mac mini launch. AWS integrates these machines with its Nitro System through the Mac’s standard networking capabilities, ensuring rapid network and storage performance. This integration allows for the attachment of AWS block storage to these instances.

The AWS team is also preparing to incorporate Apple’s newer M1 Mac minis into its data centers, with a planned rollout in “early next year,” specifically within the first half of 2021. Both AWS and Apple anticipate continued demand for Intel-based machines, as many developers will likely want to maintain compatibility with Intel processors for testing purposes.

David Brown, Vice President of EC2 at AWS, clarified that the Mac minis are entirely unmodified, with only Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functionality disabled. He noted the convenient fit of the minis within a 1U rack.

“The design allows for integration into a service sled, with our necessary components fitting around the Mac mini and connecting through its existing ports,” Brown explained. He acknowledged the unique challenges presented by this service, emphasizing that utilizing Apple’s hardware was the only viable approach.

It’s important to understand that AWS is not employing virtualization for these instances. Users receive complete access to a dedicated device, not a shared resource. “Our goal was to provide the same Mac Mini experience a customer would receive when purchasing directly from the Apple Store,” Brown stated.

Unlike other EC2 instances, launching a new Mac instance requires a commitment for the initial 24 hours. Following this period, billing is calculated per second, consistent with other AWS instance types. [update: AWS PR argues that it’s not really pre-paying but committing]

AWS will charge $1.083 per hour, with billing based on actual usage. This equates to just under $26 for a 24-hour period. This pricing is notably higher than that of smaller Mac mini cloud providers, who typically offer entry-level plans for around $60 per month, with comparable i7 machines and 32GB of RAM costing two to three times that amount.

Prior to this announcement, Mac mini hosting represented a specialized segment of the hosting market, with companies like MacStadium, MacinCloud, MacWeb and Mac Mini Vault competing for market share.

AWS’s entry into this market introduces a significant competitor, though existing providers can still compete on price. AWS highlights its ability to provide developers with access to its extensive suite of cloud services as a key differentiator.

“The speed and granularity of service access offered by other Mac mini cloud providers are not comparable to those of a large cloud provider like AWS,” Brown said. “Provisioning a machine with other providers can take days, requiring manual setup and a minimum monthly commitment. With AWS, machines can be launched in minutes, scaling to hundreds as needed. Furthermore, the integration with over 200 other AWS services provides a substantial advantage.”

Brown also emphasized Amazon’s support for various machine images, currently including macOS Mojave and Catalina, with Big Sur support planned for future release. Developers also have the flexibility to create and reuse custom images tailored to their specific software requirements.

“The majority of our customers have some level of need to support Apple products and the Apple ecosystem, including iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV,” Brown said. “We are addressing the need for customers who have migrated their server-side workloads to AWS and want to extend that to their build workflows, eliminating the need to maintain Mac minis in their own data centers or offices.”

Intuit, Ring, and mobile camera app FiLMiC are among the initial customers utilizing the new service.

“EC2 Mac instances, with their familiar EC2 interfaces and APIs, have enabled us to seamlessly migrate our existing iOS and macOS build-and-test pipelines to AWS, further improving developer productivity,” said Pratik Wadher, Vice President of Product Development at Intuit. “We‘re experiencing up to 30% better performance over our data center infrastructure, thanks to elastic capacity expansion, and a high availability setup leveraging multiple zones. We’re now running around 80% of our production builds on EC2 Mac instances, and are excited to see what the future holds for AWS innovation in this space.”

The new Mac instances are currently available in several AWS regions, including US East (N. Virginia), US East (Ohio), US West (Oregon), Europe (Ireland), and Asia Pacific (Singapore), with additional regions planned for future availability.