Major cloud computing providers have recently launched new managed services that allow businesses to establish secure, private network links between their respective platforms. The two initiatives, now available in public preview, automate the creation of dedicated connections, removing the burden of building and maintaining the underlying physical infrastructure from the customer.
The collaborative offerings, known as AWS Interconnect for multicloud environments and Azure Multicloud Interconnect for AWS, are designed to streamline hybrid infrastructure. Previously, linking workloads across these two platforms required customers to manually coordinate physical connectivity, configure routing, provision capacity, monitor performance, and manage the lifecycle of the connections themselves. Under the new model, the cloud providers take ownership of the physical network hardware, capacity provisioning, virtual network configuration, and ongoing maintenance. Customers simply provision a logical connection through their existing cloud management consoles or command-line interfaces, while the underlying redundant architecture is handled entirely by the providers.
The services are currently accessible in several key global regions, including Northern Virginia, Northern California, Sydney, and Frankfurt. The architecture is built for resilience, utilizing pre-provisioned capacity with four independent logical paths spread across separate networking facilities and routers. This design is intended to maintain connectivity even during hardware maintenance or multiple simultaneous failures, targeting an extremely high standard of uptime. To ensure data security, traffic moving between the platforms is encrypted at the data-link layer, protecting information as it traverses the physical connection between network devices. Additionally, continuous monitoring tools are included at no extra cost, providing administrators with real-time insights into latency and data loss.
The launch is part of a broader industry trend toward multicloud adoption. Recent industry analysis shows that the vast majority of enterprise respondents run workloads across both platforms, often unintentionally, due to mergers and acquisitions or siloed software deployments. Research has consistently highlighted that blending multiple cloud environments introduces technical barriers and consumes significant engineering resources. By offering a unified, managed connectivity solution, the providers aim to reduce the friction associated with operating across competing infrastructures.
While high-speed capabilities are expected in the final version, the current preview phase supports more limited bandwidth configurations. Both companies have also announced plans to expand regional availability and increase bandwidth options in the future. Furthermore, the underlying technical framework is built on an open interoperability specification, designed to be adopted by other cloud providers and networking organizations.
**FAQ**
**Q: What are the two new services called?**
A: The services are referred to as AWS Interconnect for multicloud environments and Azure Multicloud Interconnect for AWS. They work together to provide private cloud-to-cloud connectivity without requiring customers to manage the physical network hardware.
**Q: In which regions is the service available?**
A: The public preview is currently available in the US East (Northern Virginia), US West (Northern California), Asia Pacific (Sydney), and Europe (Frankfurt).
**Q: What does the provider actually manage under this service?**
A: The cloud providers handle the physical network infrastructure, capacity provisioning, virtual LAN configuration, routing protocol sessions, and ongoing maintenance. Customers only manage the logical connection through their respective cloud portals.
**Q: How is data secured during transit?**
A: The connection uses encryption operating at the data-link layer to protect traffic moving between the edge routers of both cloud platforms, ensuring data remains secure across the physical link.
**Q: Is there a guaranteed service level agreement (SLA) yet?**
A: While the architecture is designed to target very high availability, the service is currently in a public preview phase. Formal SLAs typically apply once the service reaches general availability, and preview terms may differ.
**Conclusion**
The introduction of managed private connectivity between these two leading cloud platforms marks a significant step forward for enterprise hybrid infrastructure. By shifting the complexity of physical networking from the customer to the provider, organizations can now seamlessly integrate workloads across multiple environments without the historical friction of manual coordination. As multicloud strategies become the norm rather than the exception, this type of collaborative, managed service sets a crucial precedent for how major providers can work together to simplify modern IT operations.
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