SDxCentral
Join Log In
SD-WAN 5G Edge 1 IoT SDN NFV Containers Cloud Security AI Data Center Storage APM/NPM Open Source

Log In to SDxCentral

Log in with your email? Forgot your password?
  • Newsletters
  • eBriefs
  • Podcasts
  • Webinars
  • Videos
  • Directory
  • White Papers
  • Resources
  • Use Cases
  • Support

Join SDxCentral and get information tailored to your particular interests everyday.

Join
Sponsored:
Dell EMC Citrix Riverbed

Megaport, IBM Cloud Reach Direct Connection Deal

Megaport, IBM Cloud Reach Direct Connection Deal
Jessica Lyons Hardcastle
Jessica Lyons HardcastleDecember 12, 2017
11:24 am MT
Email LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Reddit Hacker News

Megaport and IBM partnered to provide enterprises with high-speed, direct connections to IBM Cloud from any of Megaport’s 179 global data centers.

The network-as-a-service provider already had similar deals with all of the other top tier cloud providers — Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Alibaba, Google, and Oracle — that allow companies to bypass the public Internet and establish private connections.

Eric Troyer, chief marketing officer at Megaport, said adding IBM Cloud, which has tailored its infrastructure and services to large enterprises, made sense. IBM Cloud Direct Link gives companies direct, scalable connectivity to IBM Cloud and its cloud-native services including artificial intelligence (AI), analytics, blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), and serverless.

“These next-generation services that utilize AI are going to produce a tremendous amount of data,” he said. “Consistent, scalable connectivity to these data repositories is going to be critical.”

How Megaport Uses SDN

The Brisbane, Australia-based company got its start in 2013 and claims to have the world’s first software-defined networking (SDN)-based elastic interconnection platform. It connects more than 780 customers throughout its data center footprint across the Asia-Pacific region, North America, and Europe.

“What we do is abstract the network so you don’t have to worry about locations,” Troyer said. “All you need to be concerned with is what services do I want to get directly connected to with this network and at what speed?”

Megaport uses SDN to connect enterprises to cloud and other service providers.

“The real value out of this is enterprises getting connected to the services that they want without having to deal with the traditional hassle of telcos,” Troyer said. “That’s where SDN comes into play with the automation we’ve built into our network, the software that lives on top of the network, and the integrations we’ve done with the API [application programming interface] to the various service providers.”

Direct connection to cloud service providers is the platform’s biggest use case, and it continues to grow, Troyer added. “Well over 40 percent of our connections on our network are direct-to-cloud connections.”

Data Center Neutral

While it sounds similar to Equinix’s cloud services, Troyer maintains that Equinix is not a competitor. It’s also not a Megaport data center partner.

“We work with 62 unique data center providers today over that 179-location footprint,” Troyer said. “We’re carrier neutral, data center neutral, and services neutral. That’s pretty unique compared to a data center interconnect offering.”

And while most Equinix data centers are located in major markets like Silicon Valley, Troyer said Megaport’s business is booming in markets that have traditionally been underserved in terms of direct cloud connection capabilities. “We’re able to go into a data center in a tier-two or tier-three market and enable direct connection very quickly and easily,” he said.

Troyer said PacketFabric and its SDN also comes up in conversations about competitors. “But they [PacketFabric] don’t have that broad [an] ecosystem of cloud providers, and they seem much more focused on selling to telcos,” he said.

Related Articles

IBM and Google Create New Certifications for Data Scientist and Cloud Skills
IBM and Google Create New Certifications for Data Scientist and Cloud Skills
Blockchain for Multi-Cloud Management? WANdisco’s Down to Boogie
Blockchain for Multi-Cloud Management? WANdisco’s Down to Boogie
The-Top-Acquisitions-of-2018
The Top Acquisitions of 2018 in SDxCentral's World
Kubernetes Security Flaw Expected Won’t Be the Last
Kubernetes Security Flaw Expected, Won’t Be the Last
Masergy’s New CEO Is Tasked to Grow Its SDN-Based Offerings
Masergy’s New CEO Is Tasked to Grow Its SDN-Based Offerings
VMware Rolls Out NSX Service Mesh, Based on Istio
VMware Rolls Out NSX Service Mesh Based on Istio
SDxCentral Daily News

Join your Peers! Subscribe to SDxCentral's Newsletter

Article Tags:

Breaking News Cloud IBM SDN

Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

About Jessica Lyons Hardcastle

Jessica is a Senior Editor, covering next-generation data centers, security, and software-defined storage at SDxCentral. She has worked as an editor and reporter for more than 15 years at a number of B2B publications including Environmental Leader, Energy Manager Today, Solar Novus Today and Silicon Valley Business Journal. Jessica is based in the Silicon Valley.

Have a story? Have a News Tip?

Send it to SDxCentral editors as editors@sdxcentral.com.

Subscribe to Get the Daily News!

About SDxCentral

  • Newsletters
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Work With Us
  • Editorial Team
  • Careers
  • Legal
  • Support

Engage With us

This material may not be copied, reproduced, or modified in whole or in part for any purpose except with express written permission from an authorized representative of SDxCentral, LLC. In addition to such written permission to copy, reproduce, or modify this document in whole or part, an acknowledgement of the authors of the document and all applicable portions of the copyright notice must be clearly referenced. All Rights Reserved.

© 2012-2019 SDxCentral, LLC, All Rights Reserved. SDNCentral™, the SDNCentral logo, SDxCentral™, SDxCentral logo, SDxNews™, SDxTech™, SDx™, the SDx logo, and DemoFriday™ are trademarks of SDxCentral, LLC in the U.S. and other countries.

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy