New Service Alert: Windows Azure ExpressRoute

Currently in public preview & available only in the US, Windows Azure ExpressRoute is a service that provides a dedicated fast private connection between your on-premise datacenter and Azure datacenter.

Benefits:

Since connections do not go over public internet, you get a connection that is

• Secure
• Reliable
• Fast
• Lower Latency

Source: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/expressroute/

How To:

There are two ways one can establish an ExpressRoute connection with Azure.

• Directly using WAN – where your on-premise or co-located infrastructure directly connects to Azure datacenters through a WAN network.
• Through an ExpressRoute Location – here an exchange provider facilitates the connection between your datacenter to Azure. Suited in scenarios where a direct WAN connection to Azure is not possible.

AT&T and Equinix are the two partners providing ExpressRoute service.

Use Cases:

1. Achieve a natural extension feel to your datacenter due to low latencies and better throughputs
2. Move large volumes of data like VMs, datasets & old data to Azure quickly
3. Greater high availability & disaster recovery times
4. Applications spread across on-premise & cloud that require secure connections & high performance

Read more FAQs about the service @ https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/azure/dn606292.aspx

If you are interested in learning more about Windows Azure & its services, CloudThat offers a 2 day hands-on course on Windows Azure delivered by me. Send me an enquiry if you are interested and I will get back to you.

Stay tuned to the blog for more !!