AWS re:Invent 2025 - Modernize Apple platform development with AWS and EC2 Mac (CMP334)

Modernizing Apple Platform Development with AWS EC2 Mac

Overview

This presentation covers how AWS's EC2 Mac service helps customers modernize their Apple platform development workflows. It features insights from two AWS customers, Riot Games and Supercell, on their journeys to adopting EC2 Mac and the benefits they've realized.

Challenges with Traditional Apple Development

• Dependency on physical Mac hardware for Xcode and Apple platform development
• Infrastructure overhead of managing on-premises Mac fleets
  • Challenges with hardware maintenance, scaling, and automation
• Inability to easily scale resources to match development workloads
• Compatibility issues as Apple moves away from Intel-based Macs

Introduction to EC2 Mac

• AWS's solution to enable Apple platform development on the cloud
• Provides access to Mac hardware (Intel and Apple Silicon) hosted in AWS data centers
• Allows for automated provisioning, scaling, and management of Mac build infrastructure

Riot Games' Journey with EC2 Mac

• Riot's initial on-premises Mac fleet faced issues with hardware failures, cooling, and storage
• Inability to easily scale or maintain the on-premises infrastructure
• Decided to migrate to EC2 Mac to address these challenges
• Key benefits:
  • 3x increase in build time performance after migrating to EC2 Mac
  • 2x increase in signing time performance
  • Ability to easily scale resources to match development workloads
  • Improved automation and reduced operational overhead
• Future plans:
  • Explore shared capacity and elastic fleet management
  • Migrate more workloads to the latest M4/M4 Pro instances
  • Improve asset caching and storage performance

Supercell's Approach with EC2 Mac

• Supercell's on-premises Mac fleet faced similar challenges with hardware failures and scaling
• Decided to leverage EC2 Mac along with virtualization using Parallels
• Key components of their solution:
  • EC2 Mac instances as the underlying hardware
  • Parallels-based virtual machines (Tart VMs) for development environments
  • Automated provisioning and management using Terraform, Packer, and custom tooling
• Benefits:
  • 10x increase in daily build jobs (from 150 to 1,800)
  • 3x increase in number of Macs needed to support the workload
  • Reduced operational overhead from 5-7 people to 1.5 people
• Future plans:
  • Leverage larger M4/M4 Pro instances with 2TB local NVMe storage
  • Implement dynamic auto-scaling based on build queue size
  • Expand to additional AWS regions to support global development teams

Upcoming EC2 Mac Announcements and Sessions

• Tune in to AWS CEO Matt Garman's keynote for additional EC2 Mac updates and announcements
• Hands-on workshop (CMP306) to explore EC2 Mac features like SIP and root volume replacement
• Session on running ML/inference workloads on EC2 Mac with GPUs (CMP346)
• Live demo of using EC2 Mac with GitHub Actions/CI tools (CMP344)

Key Takeaways

• EC2 Mac enables scalable, automated, and cloud-based Apple platform development
• Customers see significant performance improvements and reduced operational overhead
• Flexibility to match resources to development workloads and leverage the latest Mac hardware
• Allows teams to focus on building great apps rather than managing infrastructure