Enterprises using Equinix’s data centres in Singapore and Tokyo can now connect directly to Amazon’s public cloud service.
Through Amazon Web Services (AWS) Direct Connect, Equinix customers in the Asia-Pacific region can establish private network connections with Amazon’s cloud infrastructure, paying only for the network ports used and data transferred out of AWS. Data transfer into AWS is free.
Equinix, a global data centre operator, said the connectivity option will help companies cut network costs into and out of AWS, by lowering bandwidth commitments to ISPs and taking advantage of reduced data transfer rates.
Since the initial roll out to its Virginia data centre campus last year, Equinix has been extending AWS Direct Connect to other locations such as Silicon Valley to meet growing customer demand for hybrid environments.
Carpathia Hosting, a provider of managed hosting services, is using AWS Direct Connect in Equinix data centres to allow customers such as mobile app provider Urban Airship to use a mix of Amazon cloud infrastructure, along with Carpathia’s managed hosting services.
“More and more of our enterprise customers are demanding hybrid hosting solutions that combine the benefits of both dedicated infrastructure and cloud infrastructure,” said Jon Greaves, chief technology officer at Carpathia in a media statement Friday.
“For existing AWS customers, Carpathia Hosting uses AWS Direct Connect to deliver the benefits of having their dedicated infrastructure and AWS’s cloud services managed by a single provider,” he added.
Lydia Leong, research vice president at Gartner’s technology and service providers group, said the partnership between Equinix and Amazon is good for “obvious reasons”.
“For quite some time now, I’ve been evangelising the importance of carrier-neutral co-location as a ‘cloud hub’, envisioning a future where these providers facilitate cross-connect infrastructures between cloud users and cloud providers,” she said in a blog post last year.
Leong noted that widespread adoption of this model would allow an enterprise to say, get a single rack of network equipment at Equinix, and then cross-connect directly to all of their important cloud suppliers.
“It would drive cross-connect density, differentiation and stickiness at the carrier-neutral co-location providers who succeed in being the draw for these ecosystems,” she added.
