AWS re:Invent 2025 - Rivian: Modernize mission-critical manufacturing applications with AWS (HMC217)

AWS re:Invent 2025 - Rivian: Modernize Mission-Critical Manufacturing Applications with AWS

Overview

• Rivian, an electric vehicle manufacturer, shares their journey of modernizing their mission-critical manufacturing applications using AWS Outposts.
• The presentation covers the challenges Rivian faced with their legacy infrastructure, their initial attempts with AWS Outposts, and their eventual successful implementation of Outposts Generation 2.

Rivian's Background and Challenges

• Rivian is a technology-focused electric vehicle manufacturer, with a strong emphasis on software and connected experiences.
• Key priorities for Rivian include technology leadership, demand generation, cost efficiency, and enabling sustainable experiences.
• Rivian's challenges with their legacy infrastructure included:
  • Reliance on a VM-based stack in on-premises data centers
  • Inability to leverage Rivian's Kubernetes expertise due to the legacy stack
  • Difficulty maintaining availability and coordinating patches on the legacy system
  • Running critical manufacturing workloads like MES, industrial automation, and AI/ML-powered processes

Initial Attempts with AWS Outposts

• Rivian's first attempt at using AWS Outposts involved simply migrating their existing VMs and RDS instances to the Outposts.
• However, this approach faced several challenges:
  • Lack of network resilience, as Outposts require reliable connectivity to the AWS region
  • Absence of a comprehensive application recovery strategy
  • Lack of standardization, as Rivian's goal was to move to a more modern, container-based architecture

Lessons Learned and Pivoting to Outposts Generation 2

• Rivian realized that they had not properly architected their Outposts deployment for resilience and efficiency.
• They decided to take a step back and re-evaluate their approach, building a "Manufacturing Compute Platform" (MCP) using a combination of vendor tools.
• However, this approach also faced challenges, including:
  • "Ticket hell" due to the disparate components and vendors involved
  • Difficulty with capacity planning and procurement lead times
  • Lack of standardization, making it hard to port workloads between the cloud and on-premises environments

Rivian's Successful Outposts Generation 2 Implementation

• Rivian ultimately decided to go "all-in" on AWS Outposts Generation 2 for their manufacturing workloads.
• Key aspects of their successful Outposts implementation:
  • Leveraged direct connect for reliable, redundant, and secure connectivity to the AWS region
  • Adopted Amazon EKS to benefit from their Kubernetes expertise and feature parity
  • Focused on architectural resilience, capacity management, and efficient VPC sharing
• This approach provided Rivian with the desired benefits of consolidation, portability, low latency, and operational simplification.

Lessons Learned and Recommendations

1. Architect for resilience: Ensure reliable network connectivity and comprehensive application recovery strategies when deploying Outposts.
2. Manage capacity proactively: Monitor Outposts capacity utilization and plan ahead for expansion to avoid disruptions.
3. Optimize resource utilization: Leverage shared VPCs to reduce operational overhead and make efficient use of Outposts resources.
4. Earn and maintain trust: Carefully manage the transition to Outposts, as trust is easily lost and difficult to regain with internal stakeholders.

Key Takeaways

• Rivian's journey demonstrates the importance of proper planning and architecture when implementing mission-critical manufacturing applications on AWS Outposts.
• By learning from their initial challenges and pivoting to a more strategic Outposts Generation 2 deployment, Rivian was able to achieve the desired benefits of cost efficiency, operational simplification, and technology leadership.
• The lessons learned by Rivian, such as focusing on resilience, capacity management, and resource optimization, can serve as valuable guidance for other organizations looking to modernize their manufacturing infrastructure with AWS Outposts.