Digital Realty has released its Service Exchange, an interconnection platform that facilitates direct, private and secure connections to multiple cloud service providers – including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure – as well as telecommunications providers and other Digital Realty customers worldwide.
Service Exchange simplifies interconnection and makes access between interconnected services, providers and businesses more flexible, more scalable and easier to use than ever before. Upon its launch later this year, Service Exchange will offer significantly greater performance, reliability and security for cloud services and data center access than the public internet.
“Enterprises undertaking the digital transformation must be able to navigate growing concerns regarding network security issues, changing regulatory requirements, unpredictable performance and escalating operating costs,” said Rick Villars, Vice President for Datacenter and Cloud at International Data Corporation. “Digital Realty’s Service Exchange will enable enterprises to tackle these concerns and efficiently manage high-performance interconnections between internal applications and cloud resources in a secure and cost-effective environment.”
Powered by Megaport
Service Exchange will be made available through a global partnership between Digital Realty and Megaport Limited’s U.S. subsidiary, which provides the elastic, SDN-based Ethernet fabric that enables interconnection between cloud providers and Digital Realty customers.
“The Service Exchange creates a simple, flexible and scalable solution for our customers, including those looking to make, jump-start or accelerate their digital transformations,” said Chris Sharp, Digital Realty’s Chief Technology Officer.
“Service Exchange is fully integrated with Megaport’s ubiquitous elastic fabric, which enables Digital Realty customers around the world to easily access the newest interconnection services and cloud network solutions,” said Denver Maddux, Megaport’s Chief Executive Officer.
Deployment and Use
Service Exchange offers customers access to multiple cloud service providers and other service providers through a single port that supports multiple virtual private connections (“Virtual Cross Connects”) to service providers and data centers. Customers can actively manage their Virtual Cross Connects through MarketplacePORTAL, Digital Realty’s online customer platform, and scale the bandwidth of their connections up or down as needed.
Scalable from a Single Cabinet to Multiple Megawatts
Digital Realty is an established leader in the large-footprint data center market, and the company recently expanded its colocation and interconnection product offerings with the acquisition of Telx in 2015 and a portfolio of eight high-quality, carrier-neutral colocation data centers in Europe earlier this year. Digital Realty owns and operates more than 140 properties encompassing over 26 million square feet across 33 global metropolitan areas. This worldwide presence and unique skillset represents a tremendously scalable offering and a significant market opportunity for Service Exchange, enabling customers to expand from a single cabinet to a multi-megawatt facility quickly and easily as their needs grow, with no change in providers and no interruption in service.
Service Exchange will be available in 24 data centers across 15 markets by mid-year 2017. Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Ashburn, VA will be available during the fourth quarter of 2016.
Service Exchange will be available in London and Phoenix in the first quarter of 2017, and in Amsterdam, Dublin, Miami, Singapore and Portland in the second quarter of 2017.