A Week Connecting the Cloud

April 30th, 2014 by · 5 Comments

Ok, I think it’s clear that one of this year’s main themes in the networking and colo worlds is going to be cloud connectivity. Everyone is jockeying for position, and this week we have at least three significant moves — one by Equinix just this morning in advance of earnings later, one yesterday from Level 3 and Digital Realty, and one the day before over at DuPont Fabros and tw telecom.

Equinix went all in on cloud interconnection just this morning, unveiling an ambitious new Cloud Exchange aimed at helping customers manage the connectivity needed for multi-cloud environments. Equinix has always had one of the most well developed ecosystems, which the new cloud exchange aims to build on. The two clouds initially targeted are of course Amazon’s AWS and MicroSoft’s Azure.

Meanwhile, Digital Realty and Level 3 have joined forces for cloud connectivity. The goal here is the same, i.e. providing direct connections to Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft’s Azure. But in this case it’s an alliance of a giant space wholesaler with a giant bandwidth wholesaler, which makes plenty of sense given how tightly connectivity and cloud computing infrastructure are becoming intertwined.

And the day before that it was DuPont Fabros teaming up with a network operator. They tapped tw telecom for direct connectivity to Amazon’s AWS from five of the company’s data center. The lucky facilities include four in northern Virginia (ACC4, ACC5, ACC6, VA3) and one in Chicago (DC1). tw telecom has been spending recent quarters building a highly automated network capable of doing great things for cloud connectivity for enterprises.

Of course, earlier this month we saw a global network operator rebrand itself entirely into the new vocabulary, as Reliance Globalcom became Global Cloud Xchange.  And there have been any number of other examples by companies large and small.  And to think cross connects and Ethernet private lines weren’t already sexy enough.

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Categories: Cloud Computing · Datacenter · Fiber Networks

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5 Comments So Far


  • Anonymous says:

    Where does Rackspace fit in to all of this… if at all?

  • disconnected says:

    This is nothing new @ Equinix, they are probably using their Ethernet Exchange and vlan-ing your highly overpriced “cloud port fee” to different cloud providers.

    DLR and Level 3 announcement is essentially a marketing press release, anyone can go to multiple providers (Level 3, masergy, TW Telecom, Zayo) and get direct connectivity to AWS.

    • Solace says:

      True, and the DC guys are not about to back up on their “neutrality” mantra. Meaning every carrier in the building can get to AWS.

      And with some “commercially reasonable” lack of net neutrality, maybe the internet will be good enough for enterprise cloud, after all.

      Differentiator: GONE

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