Advantages of a direct connection to the cloud

Since the establishment of hybrid working models, more and more companies are turning to cloud-based IT and communication platforms to support their employees wherever they are – whether in the office, at home or on the move.

Now that the state of emergency is over and the initial enthusiasm has subsided, hybrid working has become the new normal. Many companies are now striving to replicate this for their cloud-connected employees “on a desktop”. This means minimizing latency and maximizing security for cloud-based infrastructures and applications. In other words, an improved connection to the cloud is needed.

Companies usually access the cloud via the public internet, but due to the latent uncertainty and unreliable speed and performance of the internet, many companies are now looking for alternatives.

Direct connections are nothing new.

They were introduced back in the 2010s when companies began to increasingly migrate to the cloud and needed more reliable, secure and faster connectivity than the public internet could offer at the time.

Nowadays, however, they have become an essential part of almost every conversation we have with cloud-dependent companies.

What are direct connections to the cloud?

Cloud direct connections are dedicated private network connections from a corporate data center, office or colocation environment to public cloud providers.

Companies often use direct connections to establish a link to the following:

Hyperscale public cloud service providers, such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, IBM Cloud and others

Application service providers such as Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, Adobe or other software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers.

What are the advantages of direct connections?

Improved security:

Direct connections are private, so data is not transmitted over the public internet, leaving organizations less exposed to potential threats. Improved security can support compliance with industry-specific data security standards.

Improved performance:

Direct connections offer dedicated bandwidth with lower latency, higher throughput and greater reliability. They also enable traffic prioritization to ensure quality of service (QoS) for critical applications.

Simplified networking:

Direct connections can reduce the complexity of routing data to and from the cloud. In addition, many providers manage the physical network connection on behalf of the company.

Reduced costs:

Direct connections replace high IP transit costs with modest port or cross-connect charges. In addition, direct connections reduce or eliminate outbound data charges for transferring data over the Internet from one environment to another, such as a local data center.

Why should companies consider direct connections?

For some companies, direct cloud connections are more advantageous than for others. Companies with little data traffic to CSPs/ASPs or that are located in remote areas may hardly notice any cost benefits.

However, organizations should generally consider direct connections to support certain scenarios:

Hybrid Cloud:

Direct connections ensure fast and secure communication for applications that need to integrate both local and cloud environments, such as a local database and a web server in the cloud.

Multi-cloud:

For organizations using multiple cloud providers, colocation providers can offer direct connections to multiple cloud platforms through a single interface, simplifying network architecture and management.

High data traffic:

Companies with significant data traffic to CSPs can benefit from direct connections for security and cost reduction reasons.

Cloud dependency:

All organizations, regardless of size, that rely on cloud-based applications to drive revenue should consider direct connections to ensure reliability and accessibility.

Business continuity:

For business continuity and disaster recovery, direct connections offer fewer points of failure for greater reliability and fewer interruptions. They can also enable fast data transfer to and from a cloud disaster recovery site. And direct links can be connected to multiple data centers in multiple regions for geo-redundancy.

I look forward to your questions!

Frank Frommknecht

Key Account Consultant