Cloud Connect: An evolving path to cloud

Many Cloud Connectivity Providers (CCPs) have a multitude of options available when it comes to cloud connectivity, however, the complete lack of industry standards and often confusing terminology can make things rather difficult to understand. Do you know the difference between cloud connect, IP connect, direct connect, dedicated interconnect, fast connect or direct link? Are there any differences?

Not so very far in the past, the only viable option in order to connect to a Cloud Service Provider (CSP) was over the public Internet. In many cases this is still the primary and yet least effective method for almost 40% of businesses we surveyed. With the rapid shift to cloud computing, many customers are demanding more; increased security, lower latency, greater capacity and vastly improved reliability.

CSPs realised quite some time ago that better end-to-end cloud performance wasn’t going to be an option using the public Internet. It was also a fact that they didn’t have the know how, or the infrastructure, to manage interconnectivity between hundreds of network service providers and customers in their own data centres. The investment and the complexity was a distraction from their core services, even if it was holding back larger customer operations moving to their cloud services!

It didn’t take all that long for CSPs to realise the answer to their problem were the carrier-neutral data centres spread across the globe; the Internet Exchanges (IXs). Network service providers were already present at these locations, all the CSPs had to do to extend their connectivity was to meet them there. Now there were direct physical links between the network service provider network and the cloud service provider; bypassing the less than stable Internet and providing a managed private network. This interconnectivity, called private peering, enabled direct, end-to-end connectivity. An entire suite of security, latency and performance improvements came with it! Not to mention the huge cost savings for customers moving massive volumes of data between their cloud environments and their on-premise infrastructure.

Cloud connectivity today falls into two main areas, one that relies on the public Internet, the other using private, dedicated connectivity. Within these two main areas there are potentially five connectivity options available:

There are many benefits and some pitfalls to the various options. We’ll cover these in more detail in the next post.