Amazon and Google launch multi-cloud service for faster connectivity

SAN FRANCISCO - Amazon and Google introduced a jointly developed multi-cloud networking service on Nov 30 to meet growing demand for reliable connectivity the companies said in a statement, at a time when even brief internet disruptions can cause major outages.

The initiative will enable customers to establish private, high-speed links between the two companies’ computing platforms in minutes instead of weeks.

The new service is being unveiled a little over a month after an Amazon Web Services outage on Oct 20 disrupted thousands of websites worldwide, knocking offline some of the internet’s most popular apps, including Snapchat and Reddit.

That outage will cost US companies between US$500 million (S$648 million) and US$650 million in losses, according to analytics firm Parametrix.

The new offering combines AWS’ Interconnect-multicloud with Google Cloud’s Cross-Cloud Interconnect, to improve network interoperability, according to announcements by the two cloud providers.

“This collaboration between AWS and Google Cloud represents a fundamental shift in multi-cloud connectivity,” said vice president of network services at AWS, Robert Kennedy.

Vice president and general manager of cloud networking at Google Cloud, Rob Enns, said the joint network is intended to make it easier for customers to move data and applications between clouds.

Salesforce is among the early users of the new approach, Google Cloud said in a statement.

AWS provides computing power, data storage and other digital services to companies, governments and individuals and is the world’s largest cloud provider, followed by Microsoft’s Azure and Google Cloud.

Tech companies including Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon are investing billions to build infrastructure that can handle surging internet traffic with the growing demands of artificial intelligence, as the need for computing power to support these services accelerates.

Amazon’s cloud business delivered robust growth in the third quarter, generating US$33 billion in revenue; more than double that of Google’s US$15.16 billion. REUTERS