Amazon Expands Direct Access to its Cloud
Amazon AWS has done wonders for hosted data center applications and it practically defines the notion of a public IaaS cloud. As most UC enterprise voice vendors move toward supporting virtualization, it seemed voice in the public cloud was an obvious next step. The problem is the public Internet. End to end quality of service is not possible with the public Internet in the middle.
But now Amazon expands its Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) to include AWS Direct Connect. This means an enterprise can directly connect a dedicated network to Amazon’s cloud services bypassing the public Internet. Amazon was always willing to do this for the right customer, but now it is a standard offering.
Direct Connect makes Amazon’s AWS a potential fit for real time cloud applications. Real time virtualized applications in a public cloud connected via private dedicated bandwidth. A one Gbps port is charged at 30 cents per hour. There is no charge for inbound transfers, and outbound run 2 cents per GB. Direct Connect supports 802.1q VLANs.
A few years back, Siemens Enterprise demonstrated a proof of concept that combined Amazon’s cloud service and Amazon’s retail capability that could conceivable allow an enterprise customer to source and implement a UC solution including purchasing phones and loading an instance of OpenScape. Effectively a hybrid between colocation and hosted voice. It was a great concept that was never heard from again – but perhaps Direct Connect was the missing piece.
More Information: See Amazon Blog.
