With Internet security on everyone’s mind and secure cloud on everyone’s bucket list throughout the Federal government, Verizon is expanding secure access to cloud services for Federal customers on its private IP network.
Federal agencies now can securely connect to a growing roster of FedRAMP-certified cloud providers via Verizon’s Secure Cloud Interconnect (SCI) service. Featuring a secure, private network connection that provides low latency and high availability connectivity while supporting the ability to prioritize traffic, SCI helps Federal IT administrators improve application performance and user satisfaction. In addition to Verizon’s public sector cloud offering, the service is currently available with Microsoft ExpressRoute for Office 365 and Microsoft Azure Government Cloud, with additional providers to be added.
“By expanding our SCI architecture to support the compliance requirements for some Federal customers, we are providing federal agencies cloud access alternatives to the current public Internet or point-to-point connection options of the past,” said Victoria Lonker, director of enterprise networking products for Verizon.
Featuring a flexible pricing model, customers pay for cloud consumption per gigabyte. “If they chose a usage only model and don’t use anything, they won’t pay,” she said. Customers can also opt to pay for a specific committed number of gigabytes per month.
“Secure Cloud Interconnect connects mobile and private IP users to a global ecosystem of cloud service and data center providers in a simple, secure and reliable manner,” Lonker said.
SCI reduces security risks and the costs of connecting to cloud services haphazardly, according to Nav Chander, an IDC analyst for enterprise telecom and networks services. “Verizon is one of the first communication service providers to develop these secure private gateways to leading cloud services,” Chander says. “It’s a very pragmatic way for enterprises, including government, to connect securely to any cloud providers without the complexity of doing it yourself.”
Many enterprises are using more cloud services – the big four – Google Cloud Connect, Amazon, Microsoft Azure and IBM Softlayer – dominate the market.
“Verizon will take care of connecting you to the IBM cloud and other cloud providers so you are not using a public network,” Chander said.
Verizon SCI’s ecosystem of cloud providers includes the following locations:
- Amazon Web Services: Sao Paulo; Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and New York; Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo; London and Frankfurt, Germany
- Google: Chicago and Denver; and Hong Kong and Singapore
- HP: Atlanta (2); and Frankfurt and Russelsheim, Germany
- Microsoft® Azure™ ExpressRoute® and Microsoft ExpressRoute® for Office 365™: Silicon Valley, Washington, D.C.; London; Hong Kong and Sydney
- Salesforce.com: Chicago and San Jose, Calif.
- Verizon Cloud: Sao Paulo; Culpeper, Va., Denver, Miami; and Santa Clara, Calif.; and London and Amsterdam.