AWS brings Global Rollout of Amazon VPC and launches New Enterprise Capabilities

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced new capabilities for customers designed to support the security, network management, dedicated connectivity, and identity management requirements of enterprises when deploying mission-critical applications in the cloud. AWS has extended Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) to all AWS Regions, allowing enterprises to launch their Amazon VPC environments in the US East and West Coasts, Europe, Singapore and Tokyo, and in multiple AWS Availability Zones within each Region. 

AWS also announced AWS Direct Connect, a new service that enables enterprises to bypass the Internet and deliver data to and from AWS via a private network connection.  With a private connection, enterprises can increase bandwidth throughput, reduce networking latency and costs, and provide a more consistent network experience when moving data between AWS and their datacenters. AWS's pay-as-you-go pricing with no minimum commitment means enterprises pay only for the network ports used and the data transferred out from AWS over the connection; data transfer into AWS is free of charge. AWS Direct Connect is available in Virginia, and from this location customers can connect to services in the AWS US-East (Virginia) Region. Additional AWS Direct Connect locations are planned for San Francisco Bay Area (San Jose), Los Angeles, London, Tokyo and Singapore in the next several months. 

Amazon VPC and AWS Identity and Access Management can be accessed via the AWS Management Console with console support for AWS Direct Connect coming later this year.

"As the largest hotel company in the world with hotels in over 100 countries, our business requires us to operate with a global mindset. By making Amazon VPC available in all AWS Regions and in multiple Availability Zones, we gain even more flexibility to deploy our applications in the cloud as we target markets around the world. With AWS Direct Connect, we can quickly migrate data to and from AWS with predictable low latency and high throughput, while avoiding expensive Internet bandwidth charges," said Scott Johnson, Vice-President, Enterprise Engineering, InterContinental Hotel Group. 

"As enterprises make the move to the cloud, many have leveraged Amazon VPC for workloads that they have wanted to manage using their existing management and security policies. With the launch of Amazon VPC worldwide, AWS Direct Connect and the new IAM federated identity capabilities, enterprises have even more flexibility and control over deploying their workloads to the cloud. "These capabilities provide even more privacy, and along with AWS's existing cloud services allow enterprises to choose the environment that is best suited to each of their workloads," said Adam Selipsky, Vice-President, Amazon Web Services.