Digital Realty has announced a new Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute peering location at Digital Realty’s Dallas data center campus, enabling customers to access Azure services via a single cross connect. Digital Realty is also an initial launch partner for Microsoft’s new Azure ExpressRoute Metro service in Amsterdam and Zurich.
Digital Realty customers located at its Dallas data center campus will be able to colocate their private IT infrastructure adjacent to the South Central U.S. Azure region, enabling the optimization of hybrid IT architectures. Enterprise customers with a cloud-adjacent hybrid cloud architecture benefit from low-latency and highly performant, secure, and cost-efficient connectivity to Azure.
With the addition of its Dallas data center campus, PlatformDIGITAL®, Digital Realty’s global data center platform, now hosts 12 Azure ExpressRoute cloud on-ramps globally in Amsterdam, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dallas, Dublin, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Madrid, Marseille, Paris, Sao Paulo and Zurich. Customers can interconnect directly in these locations, as well as use virtual access to any Azure region globally via Digital Realty’s service orchestration platform, ServiceFabric™.
Azure ExpressRoute is the shortest path to customers’ Azure resources, offering a private connection. While in transit, customers’ network traffic remains on Microsoft’s global network and does not interface with the public internet, reducing bottlenecks and unexpected increases in latency. When creating a new connection, customers can choose a hosted connection provided by an Azure ExpressRoute partner, such as Digital Realty, or an Azure ExpressRoute Direct service from Microsoft. Digital Realty acts as the physical meeting place where customers and partners can establish direct connections to Azure and build cloud-adjacent architectures to optimize hybrid IT solutions.
The launch of Azure ExpressRoute Metro service provides customers with greater resilience by offering redundant connectivity to both ExpressRoute points of presence (PoPs) in a particular metropolitan area via a fully automated process. Digital Realty is currently supporting the Azure ExpressRoute Metro service in Amsterdam and Zurich.
“We are thrilled to extend our collaboration with Microsoft by bringing Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute to Dallas, as well as being a launch partner for the new Azure ExpressRoute Metro service. We look forward to offering our 5,000+ customers a direct and optimized path to the cloud that will help them unlock a new era of agility and innovation,” said Chris Sharp, Chief Technology Officer at Digital Realty. “This deployment is a testament to the growing recognition of PlatformDIGITAL® as a premier connected data community for leading cloud platforms, content providers, and network operators, further solidifying our position as the meeting place for the digital ecosystem.”
“Our collaboration with Digital Realty allows us to provide our customers with the enterprise-grade, predictable global connectivity they need to architect and deploy their hybrid solutions with a globally consistent experience,” said Jon Ormond, Principal PDM Manager at Microsoft Azure. “We are pleased to expand our Digital Realty relationship with Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute availability in Dallas, and Azure ExpressRoute Metro availability in Amsterdam and Zurich. This means that customers in these locations have access to Azure services through PlatformDIGITAL®, Digital Realty’s global interconnection and data center platform.”
