Over the past decade, enterprises have pushed for the fastest possible connections between their IT stacks and the immense computing power offered by the major public cloud computing providers. Ultra-fast direct cloud connectivity is more important as businesses and governments adopt artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and high-performance computing (HPC) – all of which generate huge volumes of data.

The preferred choice for connecting directly to major cloud providers like Azure, Oracle, AWS, IBM and Google comes via ‘on-ramps’. These link enterprises’ systems to the cloud providers, and are typically available at colocation providers, such as Digital Realty.

What is a cloud on-ramp? How do they work?

A cloud on-ramp is a direct, secure connection to a public cloud offered in a colocation (please add the link) data center. When the connections are established, customers are able to route their traffic through a dedicated and private, high-bandwidth pathway. By offering the customers the option to connect directly, it removes the need to share data between the public cloud and the customer over the public internet, making on-ramps inherently faster and more secure. All Digital Realty’s on-ramps are accessible through both a physical and a virtual connection.

Cloud on-ramps facilitate connectivity to major cloud service providers, including access to their compute, networking, and storage offerings. The locations of the on ramps are concentrated in major metropolitan areas as these regions often serve as critical network exchange points.

Benefits of a cloud on-ramp

Cloud on-ramps deliver significant value across various use cases, providing enterprises with numerous benefits. Key advantages include:

Enhanced performance and lower latency

By establishing a direct, private connection, organizations circumvent the congestion of the public internet. This translates to reduced latency, a critical factor for applications demanding real-time responsiveness.

Strengthened security and reliability

Cloud on-ramps minimize exposure to external threats as they bypass the public internet. This private connection enhances data security, offering a layer of protection against potential vulnerabilities. The level of reliability enabled by reduced downtime is unmatched by public internet connections.

Optimized costs and flexibility

Cloud on-ramps offer cost benefits, allowing organizations to better predict data transfer costs. Supporting hybrid and multi-cloud architecture, cloud on-ramps also play a crucial role in enabling strategic flexibility. Businesses can choose the optimal platform for each workload.

Cloud on-ramp considerations and challenges

For starters, enterprises increasingly want to connect to more than one public cloud provider to access a wider range of services and increase resiliency. Analyst group 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, has found that 79%of enterprises believe that having access to multiple cloud providers is an important factor for deploying new data platforms, and that adopting a hybrid cloud strategy is essential for their business to be successful.

However, while cloud on-ramps are a vital component of the hybrid multi cloud connectivity puzzle, enterprises may also require other solutions with more flexibility and a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) to enhance their hybrid multi cloud strategy.

Another consideration is Data Gravity, which lies at the intersection of IT and the laws of physics. In earlier eras of computing, data tended to be created in various locations and hauled back to centralized data centers for processing. Cloud on-ramps support this process, providing dedicated, low latency connections to the clouds.

Today, more data is being created in more locations, driven by inputs, from consumers’ mobile phone apps to Internet of Things (IoT) sensors in the field. Our research suggests that by 2024, the world’s top 2,000 enterprises (as defined by Forbes) will be storing an extra 622 terabytes of data every second across just 53 metropolitan locations.

This data is also being held and processed locally in a wider range of applications to enable enterprises to be more responsive to customers and better meet compliance obligations. For instance, Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the United States’ Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act are making it harder for enterprises to ship data across national borders.

But all this data has a ‘gravity’ to it that slows enterprises down, raises security concerns, and restricts the competitive advantages that can be gained from data analysis. Data is also becoming trapped in silos across enterprises with international reach.

To overcome this problem, these large businesses and governments need to redesign their technology infrastructures with a greater focus on how data is generated, stored, and processed. They need infrastructure that enables them to connect to a wide range of business locations and partners – including major cloud providers – while keeping data close to where it was generated and within mandated geographic boundaries.

Enhancing cloud connectivity with Digital Realty’s on-demand ServiceFabric®

At Digital Realty, we’ve been working hard to address these challenges for the global 2,000 companies and other customers. To support multi-location and multi-platform global connectivity, we launched ServiceFabric®.

Combined with PlatformDIGITAL®, our global data center platform, ServiceFabric®enables companies, technologies and data to come together, on demand. It achieves this by combining software defined networking and a new, purpose-built physical backbone network to give customers fast, secure, and flexible connectivity.

This new solution enhances the options available to enterprises, enabling them to build on other key parts of the modern connectivity puzzle, including access points to cloud on-ramps and a robust ecosystem of technology and solution providers that, when combined, build out their data-centric architecture, bringing flexibility and enabling a competitive advantage for the enterprise.

Learn more about ServiceFabric® Connect here.

Benefit from private AWS Direct Connect access in Digital Realty 15+ locations across four continents, linking your data to hybrid AWS solutions through a secure, private network.
Access Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute in 15 Digital Realty locations, enabling direct connectivity through private connections from your network to Microsoft's global network.
Enhance data center redundancy with Oracle FastConnect available in 9 Digital Realty locations across four continents, offering a dedicated high-speed, low-latency connectivity.
Access Google Cloud Interconnect and an array of cloud computing services directly from our Digital Realty data centers through on-ramps available in 15+ locations.
Digital Realty provides on-ramps to IBM Cloud® Direct Link in 5 Digital Realty locations, offering secure, AI-ready enterprise cloud designed for even the most regulated industries.

Tech Talk: Inside the Dallas Data Center Market