BUYER'S GUIDE · CHECKED 23 AUGUST 2026
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.
Scope: this guide compares DC Core managed cloud with a customer-operated AWS design centred on Amazon EC2 and VPC, plus AWS Backup and AWS Support. It is not a comparison with every AWS PaaS/SaaS service, an AWS partner engagement or the separately contracted AWS Managed Services offer.
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.
Swipe horizontally to compare all columns
| 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.
BUYING DECISION
You need global Regions, a deep managed-service catalogue, sophisticated elasticity or an architecture your cloud team will automate and own.
You need a supplier to design and run the surrounding VM, network, monitoring, patching and recovery controls under one agreed scope.
An approved DC Core agent or managed-infrastructure scope may be able to add private access or operational oversight to a customer-owned AWS environment.
Put a named supplier or internal role against every question. “The platform supports it” is not the same as somebody being responsible for doing it.
Who patches and reboots the guest OS, watches alerts and is authorised to make changes during an incident?
Who designs, reviews and maintains firewall policy, administrative access, identities and public exposure?
Which systems and data are protected, what are the agreed objectives, and who proves that a restore works?
Which migration, support, monitoring, backup, licensing, transfer and internal staffing costs sit outside the quote?
How to read the result: if your cloud team is equipped to own all four areas, AWS may remain the stronger platform. If those duties are the gap you are trying to remove, compare them with a defined DC Core operating scope.
Map the responsibility boundary →COMMON QUESTIONS
Validate the actual AWS architecture and operating team, not only the EC2 instance price.
No. EC2 instances can use private addresses, and Systems Manager Session Manager supports administrative access without inbound ports, bastion hosts or SSH keys. DC Core's outbound-agent model solves a related problem through its own relay platform.
Not by default under the core EC2 shared-responsibility model. AWS provides tooling and separately offers AWS Managed Services, but AWS's own shared-responsibility guidance assigns guest-OS updates and security patches to the EC2 customer unless another service or partner is engaged.
AWS Backup is a capable central policy and automation service. A complete recovery service additionally requires appropriate scope, monitoring, restore testing, dependencies and agreed RPO/RTO. Determine who owns each of those activities.
Raw EC2 and a managed operating service are different units. Model compute, disks, snapshots, data transfer, network components, support, monitoring, security tooling and the people needed to operate them before comparing total cost.
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.
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.