Amazon Web Services Expands Direct Connect To Europe

Amazon has announced that it is to expand its Direct Connect service for Amazon Web Services, which allows users to bypass the public internet in order to access Amazon’s cloud.

The service, which was first launched in August, has been expanded to hosting provider locations in Ireland, California, Singapore and Tokyo, having only been previously available on the east coast of the US.

Cloud Protection

Amazon said that Direct Connect would reduce latency and the cost of using Amazon Web Services, something which could prove valuable for businesses which use applications that have bulk data requirements.

It also said that offers more “consistent network performance” over internet-based connections that require real-time data feeds and that it provides an alternative method for customers who have security policies which prevent them from connecting to the cloud.

Interested parties must complete an online form indicating their connection requirements and Amazon plans to launch more locations in 2012.

Amazon has already beefed up security on its private cloud service, partnering with CheckPoint software technologies to bring its security appliances to Amazon Web Services, including firewalls, URL filters, data loss prevention and antivirus software.

The company has also recently extended the reach of its Virtual Private Cloud and has offered hourly rentals of the world’s 42^nd fastest supercomputer, based on Amazon Web Service’s elastic cloud. However, its reliability has been brought into question by an outage in April last year, which resulted in thousands of websites to be taken offline leading businesses to rethink their future cloud policies.