Why Achieving Cloud Interconnectivity is Important
The cloud has become an essential part of business management:
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In 2019, 69% of enterprise organizations were migrating data for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications to the cloud
Many businesses began doing this for three reasons: security and data protection, data modernization, and the cost and performance of cloud operations. Large software companies have shifted from offering one-time purchased software licenses, that can be used to run software locally, to subscription models that are powered by the cloud.
Businesses know the importance of moving their data to the cloud… but what is cloud interconnectivity, and why is that important?
This article has answers to some of the most common questions about cloud interconnectivity and some resources that can help.
What is Cloud Interconnectivity?
Cloud interconnectivity is the ability to connect to several different cloud providers in order to optimize data delivery and management.
Reasons for Multiple Cloud Usage
1. Choose the Best Services from Each Provider
When you use multiple cloud services rather than one, you get to pick and choose the best features from each provider rather than being locked into a one-size-fits-all that may not benefit your business.
For example, one cloud provider may offer a lot of storage, but another one is fantastic for sending emails and keeping inbox uncluttered. If you use multiple clouds, you can enjoy the unique benefits of each. Complete customization and optimization.
2. Redundancy
Multiple cloud services also offer an additional layer of protection for your business. Redundancy is your best friend, as you can opt to store data across multiple cloud providers. This covers your business and minimizes loss, because if something is irretrievably deleted in one cloud system, you can easily access it elsewhere.
This cuts down on accidental deletion issues and keeps your data safe in case one of the cloud service providers goes down or out of business.
3. Decreased Risk of Supplier Lock-In
Vendor lock-in occurs when a person or business is essentially forced to continue using a product or service regardless of its quality, because switching to something else would not be practical.
Moving data (especially in vast amounts) is extremely costly for businesses, not to mention how costly and tedious it would be for a person inexperienced in cloud data, products, services, and the setup.
There’s a great deal of value in outsourcing these needs, so that business can concentrate on business, and not the confusing world of cloud.
What are Cloud Interconnection Services?
Interconnection Services are physical connections between networks, clouds, and enterprises that enable the exchange of data. To put it another way, physical and virtual data connections are housed in a data center and the data center provides a meeting point for clouds and networks, to exchange traffic with one another.
These data centers are also known as collocation facilities. These facilities are beneficial because they allow data to travel at far higher speeds (60% faster) when compared to the public Internet. The exchange of data is best achieved in a vendor-neutral data center that has a large ecosystem of vendors collocated together.
Flexible Scalability
Cloud interconnection services, like the cloud itself, are flexible, scalable, and agile. They are as complex or as simple as your business demands. This means that as your company grows, so can your cloud interconnection capabilities.
If you find that some of the services are no longer required, those features can be removed in a seamless and painless manner. Also, when businesses create connections to one another within the same collocation center, it reduces the distance that the data needs to travel, which means faster speed and reduced latency.
Many-to-Many Connectivity
Interconnection can support one-to-many connectivity (picture wheel spokes, connected by a hub). However, more effective than this one-to-many connection is a many-to-many connection.
Peering and cloud exchanges make it possible for organizations to set up a more efficient architecture, and support multi-cloud connectivity by accessing multiple vendors through a single connection. Rather than a hub and spoke, this functions more like a virtual nervous system, where everything is connected.
Direct Cloud Connectivity
Direct cloud access services (Google Cloud, AWS Direct Connect, Oracle Cloud and Microsoft Azure) allow businesses to bypass the public internet when connecting to major public cloud providers. This reduces costs for the business and increases performance. This ability, like the ones above, is a fantastic perk of cloud interconnectivity… but it’s nearly impossible for a cloud customer to achieve on their own.
Speaking of this, Kurt Marko said:
“Stitching several of these into a single enterprise network fabric presents a technical challenge of monumental proportions and one beyond the capabilities of most enterprise cloud customers. For example, the setup guide for AWS Direct Connect runs to 130 pages of technical language.”
Is BlueBridge Networks right for your business?
Location is important when it comes to choosing a colocation service. We’ve got hybrid data centers in three Ohio cities, including Cleveland, OH and Columbus, OH. We are committed to keeping your data safe and giving you constant access, so we train our staff often in order to stay on top of the latest innovations. If you choose BlueBridge for your cloud interconnectivity needs, we will set you up with an account manager who you will meet personally. Your dedicated account manager will plan everything in advance and our engineers will move your data for you. We offer 24/7 service for routine and emergency support, via email tickets and by telephone.
BlueBridge has access to over 200 telco providers within our facility and we can seamlessly integrate with existing cloud environments with no interruption. We can facilitate connectivity to five major cloud providers: Azure, AWS, Oracle, GCP and IBM. Our trained network engineers are standing by to help resolve any connectivity issues you may encounter.
