Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud have launched a joint multicloud networking service that lets customers set up private, high speed links between the two clouds in minutes rather than weeks. The goal is to replace the old hardware focused process that often slowed cross cloud projects.
The companies created an open interoperability specification that other cloud and network providers can follow. Given recent outages, the new service has been “much anticipated”. The integration connects AWS Interconnect multicloud with Google Cloud’s Cross-Cloud Interconnect and is part of Google Cloud’s Cross-Cloud Network framework.
The solution hides the physical details of the connection, link local addressing, routing setup and security policy work. It provides automated provisioning through common cloud consoles and APIs. Both firms say tasks that once took weeks of ordering, installing and coordinating can now be done in minutes.
Robert Kennedy, AWS vice president of network services, called the move “a fundamental shift in multicloud connectivity”, saying it removes much of the manual work and lets customers enable private, highly available circuits on demand. Rob Enns, Google Cloud vice president and general manager for cloud networking, said the joint service “delivers on Google Cloud’s Cross-Cloud Network solution” by making it easier to move data and apps between providers.
The service is starting in Northern Virginia, Oregon, London and Frankfurt with plans to add more regions. Preview bandwidth begins at 1 Gbps and the offering is expected to reach 100 Gbps at full release. This scaling is meant for organisations that run delay sensitive applications or split AI tasks across different clouds.
Security and reliability are central to the design. Traffic between edge routers is encrypted with MACsec and keys are rotated automatically. The physical network uses four separate paths across different facilities and routers to avoid single points of failure. The providers also include active monitoring and matched maintenance plans to lower the chance of outages.
The managed approach reduces the many manual steps customers used to perform, such as setting up dedicated circuits, VLANs, BGP sessions, Autonomous System numbers and custom encryption. Instead, engineers use a single Google Cloud “transport” construct and an AWS acceptance step, which makes the connection feel more like standard cloud peering.
Leave a comment