NetFoundry, a company that uses software-defined networking (SDN) to create overlay networks, is partnering with EdgeConnex to help customers easily extend their networks to public clouds.

EdgeConnex has built more than 25 smaller-sized data centers in North America and Europe to deliver content closer to customers. Earlier this year, the company announced a seven-fold expansion of capacity at its Edge Data Center campus in Denver.

With NetFoundry, EdgeConnex will provide enterprise customers with private and direct connections to public cloud providers, including Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS).

NetFoundry AppWANs are software-defined, encrypted overlays that are abstracted above network infrastructure, said Rob Anderson, head of strategic marketing at NetFoundry. The overlays are completely service provider agnostic. AppWANs are capable of dynamically adjusting to meet customer performance requirements. And customers can define how endpoints are permitted to access services, such as applications, across the Internet as well as existing private networks, such as MPLS.

“Each AppWAN is managed by a virtual NetFoundry controller, enabling the administrator to benefit from NetFoundry’s overlay fabric without needing to manage the underlying network,” said Anderson.

NetFoundry’s global network fabric and endpoint software enable secure, reliable networking from anywhere to anywhere. The endpoint software connects to the fabric from any Internet connection, extending each AppWAN to the application edge.

“By deploying NetFoundry’s platform throughout EdgeConnex’s global Edge Data Centers, we are helping bring a better cloud locally to enterprises,” said Phillip Marangella, chief marketing officer of EdgeConnex.

The first EdgeConnex market that NetFoundry service will be available is in Portland, Oregon. Further expansion across the EdgeConneX data center network is planned for later in the year and in 2019.