By James Moore
It’s not exactly as if the Cloud has floated onto the clear blue skies of IT from nowhere. The concept of IT services delivered from a centralised platform over the network is almost as old as the computing industry itself. What’s new is the applications and the fact the platform is distributed and can be literally anywhere – in your datacenter, a third party datacenter or in an application provider’s datacenter. Accessible over different networks, this is the future of multiple Cloud and the intelligent hybrid network.
As everything new, the Cloud brings advantages as well as challenges – a few of which have just been simplified through our new, more secure and high performance connectivity to Microsoft Azure using ExpressRoute.
The service has now gone live in Europe, giving our customers the ability to seamlessly integrate Microsoft Azure’s European regions with their existing IT infrastructure. And our commitment to improving the art of connectivity won’t stop here – we’re following up with connections to locations in Asia, the US and further around the world.
“Connectivity through Microsoft ExpressRoute will combine BT’s vast global reach and expertise with Microsoft’s leading cloud platform. Customers will benefit from a faster, safer and more resilient solution, allowing them to focus on their core operations with peace of mind.” – Luis Alvarez, BT Global Chief Executive
Whether an organisation is in a hybrid cloud environment, or is thinking about taking the first steps into cloud technology, the nature of this partnership is the perfect way to nurture security, reliability and faster connectivity to the Cloud and open up new opportunities for business.
Our chief executive, Luis Alvarez, neatly summarised the advantages of the partnership between BT and Microsoft: “Connectivity through Microsoft ExpressRoute will combine BT’s vast global reach and expertise with Microsoft’s leading cloud platform. Customers will benefit from a faster, safer and more resilient solution, allowing them to focus on their core operations with peace of mind.”
Our European launches are just the beginning. We’re bringing businesses connectivity to customers like never before, thus helping them realize the potential the Cloud offers.