We are excited to announce that AWS Direct Connect now provides private, high-bandwidth connectivity between AWS and our customers’ data centers, branch offices and digital infrastructure on Platform Equinix®. Native AWS Direct Connect 100 Gbps connections provide higher bandwidth, without the operational overhead of managing multiple 10 Gbps connections in a Link Aggregation Group (LAG). The increased capacity delivered by 100 Gbps connections is particularly beneficial to applications that transfer large-scale datasets, such as for broadcast media distribution, advanced driver assistance systems used for autonomous vehicles, and financial services trading and market information systems.
This is the first time AWS Direct Connect has offered 100Gbps dedicated connections to its customers. Across our global footprint, Equinix has the largest number of 100 Gbps offerings with AWS Direct Connect in several key metro markets including: Seattle, Silicon Valley, Washington D.C., Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo, with other markets coming online this year.
AWS on Platform Equinix
For customers in need of maximum performance and throughput, Dedicated AWS Direct Connect via Equinix provides 100Gbps capacity to support your private connectivity needs to AWS. These connections are available in key Equinix locations globally.
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Delivering fast interconnection to AWS
Enterprises in the automotive, connected vehicles, cybersecurity and financial institutions in 2021 are dealing with unprecedented volumes of data. Driven by AI/ML, high power compute, financial modeling, hardware in loop and other high intense workloads that require low latency and secure transfer to the AWS Cloud. 100 Gbps connections, along with worldwide interconnection to AWS Cloud via Equinix Fabric, provide the necessary throughput and performance required by these customers.
Deploying hybrid cloud infrastructure by directly and securely connecting to cloud service providers, such as AWS, is also becoming increasingly important for our global customers, as digital transformation fuels the need for on-demand access to cloud-based services. Equinix is a long-time AWS Direct Connect provider, supporting both Dedicated Connections and Hosted Connections in Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers globally. With AWS Direct Connect, companies can privately interconnect their customer-owned and managed infrastructure to AWS in Equinix IBX facilities, reducing costs, increasing performance, and delivering consistent reliability.
Equinix Fabric™ is an on-demand, software-defined interconnection service that allows any business on Platform Equinix to connect between its own and any other company’s distributed infrastructure, including the world’s largest network service and cloud providers. Equinix Fabric is the optimal solution for digital enterprises to interconnect with employees, customers, partners and clouds via multiple virtual connections through a single physical port, saving on connectivity provisioning time and costs. By providing a 100 Gbps offering to our AWS Direct Connect customers, we are giving them faster access to AWS Cloud and all the services they have to offer (see diagram below). This will greatly improve their quality of experience.
Ensuring security and resiliency when accessing AWS
Direct and private connectivity to strategic cloud service providers is essential as digital transformation fuels higher demand for localized digital services at the edge. For production workloads, AWS strongly recommends using connections in more than one AWS Direct Connect location to ensure resilience against device or colocation failure. Equinix Fabric provides dual ports to connect to redundant AWS Direct Connect links, creating high availability and disaster recovery zones between AWS instances within different Equinix IBX data centers in geographically distributed metros.
To get started, follow the resiliency best practices outlined in the Direct Connect Getting Started page to determine the best resiliency model to fit your use case. After selecting a resiliency model, the AWS Direct Connect Resiliency Toolkit can guide you through the process for ordering redundant connectivity. AWS also encourages you to use the Resiliency Toolkit failover test feature to test your configurations before going live.
Find out more about how AWS and Equinix are partnering to help enterprises deploy high-performance and resilient cloud infrastructures.
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