Interxion Gets Fast Links To AWS, Microsoft Clouds
Interxion, the Dutch cloud and datacenter services specialist, said its customers could link to Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure from any of its 37 datacenters.
The private connections are facilitated through Amazon's Direct Connect partners and Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute partners, Amsterdam-based Interxion said. Those services, running in conjunction with Interxion's "cloud hub," allow customers to establish private connections between cloud platforms and their private IT infrastructure.
The private connections improve performance by reducing latency and are considered more secure than Internet-based connections.
Interxion said the AWS and Azure connections would be available through network partners that include AT&T, British Telecom, Equinix, Level 3, TelecityGroup, and Verizon.
Interxion, which runs multi-tenant datacenters in 11 European countries, said customers in large European cities such as Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London and Paris would have at least six AWS Direct Connect and network partners for Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute.
Microsoft has been positioning Azure ExpressRoute as a way for customers to extend its network in the Azure cloud as part of a hybrid IT approach. Other potential scenarios envisioned by Microsoft include periodic data migration, replication for business continuity, disaster recovery and other high availability strategies.
ExpressRoute is designed to make it more convenient to transfer large datasets into and out of the cloud. Application developers can use connections to move large virtual machines between their development and test environment in Azure and an on-premises production environment.
Microsoft announced in April it was partnering with competing datacenter colocation service provider Equinix to deliver Azure ExpressRoute to international customers. That deal allows customers to connect directly to Azure ExpressRoute hybrid cloud services in 16 countries on four continents, the partners said.
That private network connection service was scheduled to be rolled out across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia throughout the rest of 2014, Equinix said. Hub cities with the highest priority are Hong Kong, London, and Singapore.
AWS Direct Connect services are delivered through a partner network divided into technology and consulting partners. Technology partners provide software and platform services.
Meanwhile, Interxion bills itself as a cloud- and carrier-neutral provider of colocation datacenter services, likely indicating that it has no plans to offer its own cloud services. Its "cloud hub" approach connects a growing number of cloud service providers with their customers to develop hybrid IT networks.
The European datacenter operator said it expects to expand its list of cloud service providers in the future, but provided no details.
The Dutch datacenter operator has also taken novel approaches to operating its facilities. For example, the company's datacenter in Stockholm uses chilled seawater rather than air economization, or free air cooling. That approach reduced the Stockholm datacenter's power usage effectiveness (PUE) metric to 1.09, which is well below the current industry average.
