The evolving landscape of interconnected, hybrid multicloud infrastructures is spawning an ever-expanding marketplace of services, features and cloud deployment options. Service providers are launching capabilities and solutions tailored to the evolving needs of customers, whether those are private enterprises or public agencies.
The strategies for solving data-intensive storage, compute and communications requirements at scale are becoming increasingly tuned to specific deployment situations shaped by traffic type, geographic location and throughput requirements.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Equinix have developed multiple strategies and collaborative solutions to meet this evolving environment. This blog summarizes some of the key ongoing joint initiatives and new combined offerings announced just this year by these two digital infrastructure leaders.
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New AWS Direct Connect on Platform Equinix delivers fast cloud interconnection
In February, we announced that AWS Direct Connect now provides private, high-bandwidth connectivity between AWS and our customer 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 100-Gbps 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.
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 deliver faster access to AWS Cloud and all related services (see the following diagram).
For more about AWS Direct Connect on Platform Equinix, read our related blog “100 Gbps Direct Connection Opens High-Speed On-Ramp to AWS.”
Equinix simplifies secure access to Amazon S3 storage
In March, we announced that businesses can now securely access Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) through AWS Direct Connect on Platform Equinix® and AWS PrivateLink. The big news here is that businesses can now bypass the public internet and directly connect to Amazon S3 with end-to-end private, secure, low-latency connectivity.
With AWS PrivateLink for S3, customers can provision new private interface endpoints for S3 and other AWS services in their virtual private cloud (VPC) instead of connecting over the internet. The VPC interface endpoint enables private connectivity to services across the Amazon network through AWS PrivateLink. On-premises connectivity to the VPC is still federated via AWS Direct Connect. That means a customer can establish a single end-to-end private connection between their on-premises and S3 digital infrastructure via AWS Direct Connect and Equinix Fabric within minutes.
Learn more about how AWS Direct Connect on Platform Equinix and AWS PrivateLink combine to help deploy high-performance, agile hybrid multicloud infrastructures in our blog “Simplifying Secure Access to Amazon S3 Storage.”
Equinix optimizes Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) Anywhere deployment
Announced at Reinvent 2020, Amazon ECS Anywhere revolutionizes the use of containers in on-premises infrastructures by drastically simplifying the management of containers on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances at any scale.
By creating a new way to execute workloads, ECS enables developers to now deploy cloud native workloads to an on-premises infrastructure. This means that physical servers, virtual machines or even a laptop or a Raspberry Pi computer can run containers—taking the operation and management from the control plane running on Amazon ECS.
For details about how our Equinix Fabric™, Equinix Metal™, and Network Edge services help optimize deployment of this vital new capability, read our related blog “Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) Anywhere Accelerates Digital Business.”
Businesses in Asia-Pacific leverage clouds in transformational journey
The Global Interconnection Index (GXI) Volume 4, a study published by Equinix, predicts that Asia-Pacific will lead in private connectivity bandwidth growth for cloud and IT Services globally, with a 51% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2019 and 2023. This is a strong indication that companies in the region are turning to cloud. To help customers accelerate their digital transformation journeys, AWS has validated the Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) in 20+ metros to ensure redundant power, cooling, and network connectivity along with sufficient physical security and rack support.
For more about how Equinix and AWS collaborate to enable a hybrid multicloud approach and promote a reliable, AWS-adjacent hybrid infrastructure, read our related blog “Realizing the Benefits of Local Clouds with Equinix and AWS.
Equinix Data Centers and AWS Outposts combine to optimize operational availability
The consistency, reliability and security of Equinix Data Centers enable you to deploy AWS Outposts to our global IBXs faster. AWS Outposts is a fully managed service from AWS that extends AWS infrastructure, services, APIs and tools to the customer on-premises. For “hard to shift” infrastructure applications that require security, compliance, local data processing and low latency, it is increasingly common for organizations to adopt AWS Outposts with Equinix when rehosting or rearchitecting systems. Local clouds, such as AWS Outposts, allow you to skip the service provider component and to manage applications on-premises or at the Equinix location. By leveraging AWS Outposts at Equinix, enterprises can achieve maximum availability ꟷ on-premises and in the cloud ꟷ for a truly consistent hybrid experience. We’ll be providing more information on AWS Outposts at Equinix in future blog articles.
Learn more about how the AWS and Equinix collaboration can benefit your IT operations:
- Get the latest thinking about the critical role of local cloud architectures, download “IDC InfoBrief – AWS Outposts & Equinix: Strategic Business Impact of Local Clouds.”
- Learn how to build a truly consistent AWS-adjacent hybrid cloud solution with Equinix that enables you to control applications and data while taking advantage of private, secure, high-performance connections to AWS services.
- Find out about how AWS and Equinix combine to deliver unparalleled secure cloud infrastructure performance at scale.
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