DC CORE
AWS provides a very broad global cloud platform and granular infrastructure building blocks. DC Core provides a narrower managed operating model in which infrastructure, access, monitoring and recovery responsibilities can be designed and run together.
SHORT ANSWER
AWS offers large-scale regional choice, extensive automation and multiple compute purchasing models. It is well suited to teams with cloud engineering capability that need fine-grained control, global deployment or services beyond conventional managed VMs.[4][9]
DC Core can take responsibility for the agreed hosting, hardening, network controls, monitoring, patching and recovery layers, while leaving the customer in control of its application and business data.[1]
DETAILED COMPARISON
AWS offers the building blocks for all of these controls. The practical distinction is normally who selects, configures and operates them.
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| Area | DC Core managed cloud | AWS EC2-centred design |
|---|---|---|
| Service model | Managed infrastructure and connectivity delivered against a workload-specific responsibility boundary.[1] | EC2 is IaaS under AWS's shared-responsibility model. AWS operates the underlying cloud; the customer manages the guest OS, applications and configurations. AWS Managed Services is a separate enterprise operations service.[3][8] |
| Provisioning | Discovery and design establish dependencies, access paths, backup and ownership before build or migration.[1] | Customers provision through the console, APIs and infrastructure-as-code tooling, choosing instance, image, network, storage and Region. AWS Regions provide multiple Availability Zones for resilient designs.[9] |
| Management responsibility | DC Core can manage guest infrastructure operation, hardening, network controls, monitoring and patching inside scope. Application and data responsibilities are explicitly separated.[1] | For EC2, AWS states that the customer manages the guest OS, updates and patches, application software and security-group configuration.[3] |
| Networking architecture | DC Core can use private addressing, secured ingress and outbound-agent connections through a tenant-aware relay platform.[2] | Amazon VPC gives instances private addresses and optional public addresses. Customers assemble subnets, routing, security groups, load balancers, NAT, endpoints and other controls for their design.[5] |
| Private admin access | Approved agents normally establish outbound platform connections, so inbound SSH/RDP openings are not normally required.[2] | AWS Systems Manager Session Manager also supports node administration without open inbound ports, bastion hosts or SSH-key management. It uses IAM policies for central access control.[6] |
| Backups and DR | Encrypted backup and recovery controls are included where agreed, with retention and service-specific RPO/RTO documented for the workload.[1] | AWS Backup can centralise and automate protection policies across supported AWS and on-premises resources. The customer must configure plans, select resources, monitor jobs and validate that the design meets its recovery need.[7] |
| Location and scale | The standard managed design places production tenancy data in London with disaster-recovery capacity in France, unless another arrangement is agreed.[1] | AWS provides many global Regions. Its public infrastructure guide lists UK, Ireland, France and other European Regions, with at least three Availability Zones per Region.[9] |
| Support | Operational support follows the managed service boundary and can include investigation and remediation work inside that scope. | Basic Support covers account/billing questions, service quotas and self-service resources. Paid plans add technical support and faster response. Platform support should not be assumed to include operating the customer's EC2 guest OS or application.[8] |
| Pricing model | Scoped quote covering selected infrastructure and the agreed management, monitoring, backup and support work. | Component consumption pricing. EC2 supports On-Demand, Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, Spot and Dedicated Hosts; storage, data transfer, public IPv4 and other services can be separate line items.[4][5] |
| Best suited for | Buyers that want a UK-led operator and a defined service around a bounded set of business workloads. | Cloud engineering teams that need global reach, extensive service choice, elastic automation or control over a complex multi-service architecture. |
A fair caveat: AWS can deliver private access, automated backup and managed operations. Session Manager and AWS Backup are direct examples, while AWS Managed Services offers ongoing infrastructure management. The buyer still needs to select the correct AWS services or partner/AMS engagement and confirm the responsibility boundary.
Published by DC Core. Material AWS claims are based on AWS product pages and documentation. DC Core claims link to DC Core's own service descriptions.
Important: competitor information is based on publicly available documentation and may change. This page does not compare every AWS product, partner service, AWS Managed Services engagement or negotiated contract. Amazon Web Services, AWS and Amazon EC2 are trade marks of their respective owners. AWS is not affiliated with DC Core and has not endorsed this comparison. Verify current features, pricing, availability and terms directly with AWS before purchasing.
Ask for the instance family, CPU allocation, attached storage, transfer assumptions and operational ownership in both proposals. A managed EC2 deployment through a partner is a different comparison from operating EC2 yourself.
DC Core includes a Central device licence with every VM ordered from us, with all Central software features including supported relay modes. Standard monitoring, administration and interactive remote access are included in standard connectivity; bulk transfer, dedicated connectivity, backup consumption and managed work follow the agreed scope. Read the included device licensing and service boundaries.
| Proposal item | What to request from either supplier |
|---|---|
| Resources and performance | VM count, CPU allocation, RAM, usable storage, disk performance and network capacity. Similar core counts alone do not establish equivalent application performance. |
| Software and access | OS and database licensing, monitoring tools, remote access and relay or VPN requirements. Identify what is included and what requires another subscription. |
| Operational ownership | Name the owner of patching, alerts, incident response, application administration and restores. Confirm support hours and escalation arrangements. |
| Recovery and location | Production and recovery regions, backup frequency, retention, restore testing and workload-specific RPO/RTO commitments. |
| Full cost and exit | Separate recurring resources, usage, management and one-off migration charges. Confirm data export, contract terms and responsibilities at exit. |
List the AWS services your application depends on, not just its EC2 instances. Identify identity policies, object storage, databases and event integrations that would remain in AWS or need an alternative.
Build a provider-agnostic hosting requirements report with VM resources, network needs, recovery objectives and operational ownership. Save it locally or print a PDF to use with either provider.
For DC Core’s service scope and hosting locations, see managed cloud hosting. This comparison is published by DC Core; use the linked provider sources and your written proposals to evaluate both options.
COMPARE THE OPERATING MODEL
We will map the customer-owned work, identify where DC Core could fit and say plainly when AWS remains the stronger choice.