Customers in Amsterdam and Zurich can now access Microsoft’s public cloud environment faster and more securely via new Azure ExpressRoute Metro connections, which are available through Digital Realty’s PlatformDigital platform and data centers.
With Azure ExpressRoute, Microsoft Azure users get direct, high-speed connections to their Azure environments. Network traffic stays within Microsoft’s network and does not go through public Internet connections, ensuring greater security and fewer bottlenecks and delays in traffic to Azure environments.
To set up these private Azure connections to the cloud environment, customers can choose a hosted ExpressRoute connection through an Azure Express partner, such as data center specialist Digital Realty, or a direct connection to Microsoft.
Azure ExpressRoute Metro locations.
In the former case, Digital Realty now offers physical locations in Amsterdam and Zurich for the tech giant’s new Azure ExpressRoute Metro connections. The connections are through Digital Realty’s PlatformDigital platform using its ServiceFabric service for connections to Azure.
ServiceFabric provides scalable, secure, high-performance connectivity for data centers and enables seamless integration between customers and providers. This is done through a flexible high-bandwidth network structure.
The new Azure ExpressRoute Metro connectivity also has the advantage of automatically establishing connections to both ExpressRoute locations in a city, such as Amsterdam. The connections in Amsterdam and Zurich, Switzerland, are among the first connections Microsoft establishes with partners.
More ExpressRoute locations
Digital Realty offers ExpressRoute connections in Amsterdam and Zurich and in locations such as Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dublin, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Madrid, Marseilles, Paris, and São Paulo.
A new Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute peering location recently opened in the U.S. city of Dallas at Digital Realty’s local data center campus. This brings the total number of Azure ExpressRoute connection locations to 12.
Incidentally, the data center specialist also offers connectivity options with other major public cloud providers, such as Google Cloud, AWS, IBM, and Oracle.