Amazon Cloud Connecting to More Data Centers

CoreSite-One-Wilshire

A CoreSite data center at One Wilshire is among the new sites offering AWS Direct Connect service. (Photo: CoreSite Realty)

Amazon Web Services has expanded its AWS Direct Connect service, which allows customers in select data centers around the globe to establish a private network connection to the Amazon cloud that can reduce network costs and increase throughput. The service will make it easier for hundreds of enterprise customers to access Amazon’s cloud services.

Amazon is expanding the service to a CoreSite Realty's One Wilshire facility in Los Angeles, the TelecityGroup's Sovereign House data center in London, and to Equinix facilities in Tokyo and Singapore. Amazon launched Direct Connect in August in a major Equinix connectivity hub in Ashburn, Virginia. Equinix, Telecity and CoreSite are currently the only data center providers offering the Direct Connect service.

Going Global With Cloud Connectivity

The addition of One Wilshire offers major cloud customers in Los Angeles the ability to connect more effectively to Amazon EC2 and other Amazon Web Services offerings.

"CoreSite is pleased to be the first data center provider in Los Angeles to provide direct, on-site access to one
of the world’s largest cloud offerings in Amazon Web Services," said Chris Bair, Senior Vice President
of Sales at CoreSite. "CoreSite’s cloud computing data center ecosystems continue to demonstrate strong
growth and increased value to our customer base, with access to cloud offerings of all sizes a simple crossconnect away."

Sovereign House is the TelecityGroup facility at the Docklands, a section of London that is home to many major data centers. The Equinix sites in Tokyo and Singapore extend the service into the Asia-Pacific market for the first time.

Pass-Through Benefits for Service Providers

Access to AWS Direct Connect offers better connectivity for customers running hybrid cloud infrastructures. It creates opportunities for service providers located in these data centers. An example: One of the tenants in Equinix data centers is Carpathia Hosting. One of Carpathia's customers, mobile app provider Urban Airship, uses a hybrid of Amazon's cloud infrastructure and Carpathia's fully managed hosting solution.

"More and more of our enterprise customers are demanding hybrid hosting solutions that combine the benefits of both dedicated infrastructure and cloud infrastructure," said Jon Greaves, CTO of Carpathia Hosting. "For existing AWS customers, Carpathia Hosting uses AWS Direct Connect to deliver them the benefits of having their dedicated infrastructure and AWS's cloud services managed by a single provider."

"With AWS Direct Connect inside Equinix data centers, customers can directly touch the cloud, said Chris Sharp, general manager, content and digital media for Equinix. "Many customers can now take advantage of the cost savings of cloud computing. With our successful collaboration with Amazon, Equinix is becoming the de facto 'cloud hub,' facilitating direct connections between users and cloud providers."

AWS Direct Connect offers several specific benefits for customers: