Google is making its worldwide network infrastructure available to all organizations via the new Cloud WAN solution. The fully managed enterprise backbone network promises up to 40 percent faster performance than the public internet. Organisations can save up to 40 percent in costs compared to current WAN solutions.
The infrastructure that supports Google’s own services, such as Google Cloud, Gmail, YouTube and Search, is becoming available to organisations. With 202 points of presence (PoPs), more than 3.2 million kilometers of fiber optics, 33 undersea cables and a reliability of 99.99 percent, Google’s network offers a robust platform for business-critical applications. Google claims to be able to replace MPLS solutions with a cheaper and faster alternative. To this end, it collaborates with many SD-WAN partners.
Google Cloud WAN has been specially developed to replace traditional enterprise WAN architectures. Google utilizes its global network to optimize application performance. Google’s network is connected to all the major cloud players in the world and all the well-known major data center providers, enabling it to deliver traffic at lightning speed close to its final destination.
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From MPLS to SD-WAN and now with Google Cloud WAN?
Organizations once started with multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) networks for secure and reliable site-to-site connectivity. The adoption of SaaS and cloud applications then replaced MPLS by SD-WAN. The advantage of SD-WAN is that it uses the internet and is, therefore, a lot cheaper than MPLS. To improve SD-WAN performance, large organizations often also have their own PoPs in colocation data centers. This adds the necessary complexity and maintenance. Google is now making its Premium Tier network available with Cloud WAN. The Premium Tier can make corporate networks better, faster and more reliable, by making customers’ own PoPs redundant.
Google claims that Cloud WAN offers a simple, fast and affordable alternative for connecting data centers and campuses worldwide quickly and reliably. Networks are certainly being put to the test with the advent of many AI applications. AI-based applications often require access to different clouds and on-premises data centers. If these are also spread worldwide, you need a scalable global network.
Google’s Premium Tier network
According to Google, Cloud WAN provides access to the Premium Tier network with up to 40 percent better performance than the regular internet. Organizations can connect to the Premium Tier network service via SD-WAN. This can be done via Google’s geographically closest PoP, after which Google will route the traffic over its premium tier network and back out onto the internet close to the final destination. If Google has a peering agreement with the final destination, the traffic can be delivered almost immediately. This minimizes the number of network hops and ensures low latency and a more consistent user experience.
Google has more than 5,700 direct peering connections and access to more than 60,000 autonomous system numbers (ASNs). Google’s network is ranked first among cloud providers and sixth in global peering. This extensive peering network ensures efficient data traffic exchange with other networks, allowing network traffic to be delivered at lightning speed close to the final destination.
Finally, Google claims that organizations can realize a 40% total cost of ownership (TCO) savings with Cloud WAN compared to customer-managed WAN solutions. This simply removes a huge amount of work from organizations that want to manage a reliable network themselves.