--- title: "Interconnection and cloud on-ramps" description: "Direct connections to AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle, carrier and partner cross connects, interconnection fabrics and hybrid routing." url: https://www.expandware.com/services/networking/interconnection-and-cloud-on-ramps/ section: "Services" topics: ["Networking", "AWS Direct Connect", "Azure ExpressRoute", "Google Cloud Interconnect", "Oracle FastConnect"] publisher: "Expandware Private Limited" --- # Interconnection and cloud on-ramps Direct connections to AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and Oracle, carrier and partner cross connects, interconnection fabrics and hybrid routing. Private, fast paths between your racks, your clouds and your partners. Hybrid estates depend on the connections between their parts. Internet paths are variable and expensive at volume; private interconnection gives predictable latency, lower data transfer costs and links that never touch the public internet. Our engineers have built these connections on colocation floors, from the physical cross connect to the BGP sessions, and we design them with redundancy and monitoring from the start. Where it usually starts: - Data transfer charges between on-premises and cloud keep growing. - Hybrid applications suffer from variable latency over the internet. - A single cloud connection is a single point of failure. - Partners or carriers need private connections into your environment. What is included: - Cloud on-ramps: AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, Google Cloud Interconnect and Oracle FastConnect. - Interconnection fabrics: Software defined interconnection between facilities, clouds and partners. - Cross connects: Physical connections ordered, installed and tested with the operator. - Routing design: BGP, route policy and failover between private and internet paths. - Redundancy: Diverse connections and locations, so one failure does not isolate you. - Monitoring: Latency, utilization and session health tracked continuously. Where it sits: Cloud on-ramps are the private links in the networking architecture between your data center fabric and the cloud and SaaS providers you depend on. Decisions to settle early: - Dedicated or virtual connections. Dedicated connections give the most control and capacity; virtual connections through an interconnection provider are quicker to change. Volume decides. - Which locations. On-ramps are offered in specific facilities. The design picks locations near your workloads with diverse paths. - Encrypt or not. Private connections do not cross the internet, but encryption may still be required. MACsec or IPsec is chosen per link. How the work runs: Map, Traffic between sites and clouds. Design, Connections, routing and redundancy. Provision, Ordering and installation. Validate, Failover and performance tests. How it is bought: - A fixed-fee assessment: We measure data movement between sites and clouds and price private connections against current charges. You receive the findings and a fixed price for design and provisioning. - A fixed-price build: Connectivity and routing design, ordering, installation and failover testing for the connections in scope, at a fixed price. - Running it afterwards: Connections are then monitored and managed monthly by us, or handed over with the circuit register and runbooks. Worked example, transfer charges that kept climbing. Say an analytics company moves large datasets between its colocation racks and two cloud providers over the internet. Transfer charges keep rising, latency varies through the day, and one link carries everything. - Map: We measure how much data moves between each site and cloud, and when, and price private connections against the current charges. - Design: Private connections to both clouds are designed from the colocation facility, with diverse paths and BGP policy that prefers them over the internet. - Provision: Cross connects and cloud connections are ordered, installed and tested with the operator and the cloud providers. - Validate: Each failure is simulated, from a single link to a whole location, and routing is tuned until failover behaves as designed. At the end, data moves over private links with predictable latency, transfer is charged at private connection rates, and no single failure cuts off a cloud. (An illustration, not a client account.) What you have at the end: - Connectivity architecture: How your sites, clouds and partners connect, with the role and capacity of each connection. - Routing and failover design: BGP configuration, route policies, and the order in which paths take over when one fails. - Provisioning records and circuit register: Every circuit and connection with its provider reference, endpoints, capacity and contract. - Failover test results: Each failure scenario tested, with how long traffic took to move and what was affected. - Monitoring dashboards: Latency, utilization and session health for every connection, with alerts on degradation. Standards and platforms worked with: AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, Google Cloud Interconnect, Oracle FastConnect, BGP, MACsec, Software defined interconnection. Where it goes wrong, and what we design out: - One connection to each cloud. A single link is a single point of failure. Connections are diverse in path and location. - Routing left at defaults. Default route policy sends traffic the expensive way. BGP policy decides the preferred path deliberately. - Failover assumed. Redundancy that has never been tested is a guess. Each failure is simulated before handover. What it changes: - Predictable performance. Private paths give hybrid applications consistent latency. - Lower transfer costs. Private connections usually cost less per gigabyte than internet egress at volume. - No single point of failure. Diverse links and tested failover keep you connected. How you will know it is working: - Traffic between sites and clouds has predictable latency. - Transfer between sites and clouds is billed on private link terms. - No single failure cuts off a cloud. - Every circuit is in the register with its contract. Who you work with: - Network architect. Designs connectivity, routing and redundancy. - Network engineer. Configures BGP, provisions connections and runs failover tests. - Provisioning coordinator. Orders circuits and cross connects and keeps the register current. What we need from you: - Traffic volumes between sites and clouds. - Access to your cloud networking accounts. - Facility details and access for cross connects. - Current circuit and connectivity contracts. Common questions: Q: Do we need a private cloud connection? A: When hybrid traffic is high, latency matters or data must not cross the public internet, usually yes. For light, latency-tolerant traffic, an encrypted internet connection may be enough. Q: How many connections should we have? A: At least two, on separate devices and preferably in separate locations, so maintenance or a failure on one does not disconnect you. The cloud providers publish resilience recommendations, and we design to them. Q: Can you work in our colocation facility? A: Yes. We coordinate cross connects with the operator, install and patch on site, and configure the routing end to end. Q: Do private connections need encryption? A: They do not cross the public internet, but many regulated organizations still encrypt them with MACsec or IPsec as defense in depth, and we design for that where it is required. Q: What is software defined interconnection? A: A service from interconnection providers that creates virtual connections to clouds, carriers and partners from a single physical port, without new cabling for each one. It suits estates where connections are added or changed often, and it reaches providers in other locations. Q: How is BGP used in hybrid connectivity? A: BGP exchanges routes between your network and each cloud or carrier, and its policies decide which path traffic prefers and which takes over on failure. Careful route policy is what makes failover predictable and stops traffic taking an unexpected, and expensive, path. Q: What is MACsec? A: Encryption at the link layer, applied on the physical connection between two devices. It protects private connections at line rate and is supported on many dedicated cloud connections at higher speeds, as an alternative or a complement to IPsec. Q: Can private connections reach partners and carriers too? A: Yes. The interconnection facilities that host cloud on-ramps also host carriers, payment networks and many service providers, and cross connects or virtual connections reach them privately, without traffic crossing the public internet. Often paired with: Colocation, remote and smart hands, Hybrid and private cloud, Data center networking. --- Canonical page: https://www.expandware.com/services/networking/interconnection-and-cloud-on-ramps/ Site index for machines: https://www.expandware.com/llms.txt Full site text: https://www.expandware.com/llms-full.txt Expandware Private Limited. Inquiries: solutions@expandware.com, +92 (333) 32 11011.