Internap, a global Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) hosting provider, has announced the launch of its CloudOption – a “high-speed” direct connection that lets customers access third-party cloud services, including Amazon Web Services (AWS Cloud) and Microsoft Azure.
Organizations would often encounter performance and cost challenges when attempting to share data between existing IT infrastructure and external cloud services. Relying on the public Internet for this type of transit can be expensive and slow, and present unpredictable spikes in usage costs.
Internap‘s CloudOption service provides customers with a direct, flat-rate, secured connection to select cloud providers. The company states that it avoids public Internet while delivering superior route stability and no risk of packet loss. It would allow for fast sharing of data between external cloud instances and Internap’s colocation environment, enabling organizations to send and receive cloud data “quickly and cost-effectively.” Customers can manage the connection via their AWS and Microsoft Azure portals.
CloudOption is available immediately to customers in Internap’s Dallas, New York Metro, Santa Clara and Seattle data centers. Additional locations, including Atlanta, are expected to be available by Q1 2017. CloudOption will initially deliver connectivity to AWS and Azure, with additional third-party cloud services to be added.
Open-IX
“Many of our hosting and colocation customers have existing cloud environments with non-Internap vendors and need the ability to directly connect to those external clouds in a fast, cost-effective way,” said Steve Orchard, Internap’s senior vice president and general manager of data center and network services. “While Internap has long provided direct connectivity between our own cloud and other infrastructure services, our new CloudOption service allows Internap customers to overcome key connectivity challenges of the multi-vendor cloud landscape. This, paired with Open-IX Data Center Certification, reflects Internap’s commitment to high-performance interconnectivity that expands the networking and infrastructure ecosystem for our customers.”
Additionally, as part of its continued strategy to offer flexible access to Internet infrastructure, Internap has become part of an elite group of data center providers to earn OIX-2 certification from the Open-IX Association. OIX-2 is a best-in-class global certification for data centers looking to serve as carrier-neutral points of network interconnection.
Internap’s OIX-2 certification would validate its ability to provide not only Performance IP, Internap’s flagship route-optimized connectivity service, but also non-discriminatory access to all network providers.
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