Megaport and NextDC are making competing forays into the Western Australian market with on-ramp services for Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.
The timing of the launches comes within a day of one another, with Megaport hosting a launch event at the Microsoft HQ in Perth on Wednesday and NextDC also announcing its push this week.
NextDC has partnered with Nextgen Networks to bring its AXONVX product to 13 data centres in the state capital.
AXONVX is a virtual exchange that allows users "on-demand private connectivity to public clouds", such as Microsoft ExpressRoute, AWS DirectConnect and Direct Link for IBM Softlayer. AXONVX was already available from NextDC's P1 data centre – the deal with Nextgen takes the services to co-locations facilities such as Fujitsu, Metronode, Vocus and ASG.
Nextgen Networks has offered east-west 100Gbps wavelength capacity for the past year, offering support for sub-rated 10Gbps and 100Gbps Ethernet services with a full suite of connectivity options.
Megaport's "maturity"
AXONVX competes with the "elastic interconnection" offering from Megaport, the company established by NextDC founder Bevan Slattery in 2013 after he led the public float of the data centre business. Megaport doesn't own networks, but rather leases Ethernet capacity from other providers, such as the carriers, to provide its customers with contract-free access to high-speed network connectivity.
Megaport chief executive Denver Maddux told CRN: "We are finally bring our service to WA, which is kind of a big deal. No one in market today is delivering ExpressRoute from Perth to Azure in Sydney and Melbourne. We will be the first ExpressRoute partner to do that."
He outlined Megaport's flexibility. "We offer 100 percent uptime. It is up to [the customer] what they want to provision. A customer buys from us a port, whether 1 Gbps or 10 Gbps, it has only the limitation of the physical capabilities of that port.
"If someone wants 500 Mbps in Azure and 500 Mbps in AWS on a 10-gig port, they have used 10 percent of their port capability, then they are priced accordingly," said Maddux.
He was thrilled that Microsoft had opened its doors for Megaport's launch. "The Microsoft Azure team has been great to work with. Everyone uses a little bit or all of them. The Azure ExpressRoute team, especially the Azure field team, are very engaged with their communities. For us, it is great. Megaport is very focused on how we support local communities."
Megaport provides ExpressRoute access to both the Azure infrastructure-as-a-service platform as well as Office 365 – essential in a state where Microsoft is the dominant cloud player.
"Microsoft has invested heavily into academic platforms" for Western Australian schools and universities, said Maddux – "a lot of time and effort in manpower and pure dollars so that universities are using Office 365 and Microsoft products. Kids at school have access to all the tools.
"A lot of people are using Google Apps, but the majority of big corporations and mining are Microsoft shops. That is what they use, what they trust."
While AWS has strong traction on the east coast thanks to its first mover advantage, Ignia's Joshua Boys agreed that Perth is very Microsoft-centric.
The director of the award-winning Microsoft partner said: "We don't see a lot of people using [AWS] Direct Connect. A couple of customers use that, but we are definitely an Azure town, especially in government."
Boys pointed to the whole-of-government Common Use Arrangement with the vendor, which gives state agencies access to Microsoft's cloud tools. "Eighty percent of the staff members have access to Office 365 – part of the plans for all of them will involve ExpressRoute."
He added: "ExpressRoute is critical for performance workloads. It used to be the security discussion – we don't need that, our customers are savvy to that and not scared. What they need is performance."
For Ignia, the arrival of Megaport and AXONVX means one thing – choice. Until now, Telstra had been the only option in town.
"It take another thing off the table. Regardless of what data centre [the customers] are in, if they can connect via ExpressRoute, it takes the latency off the table. We like to choose Telstra because it is the best option, not because you have to. Telstra is well liked here [in Perth], and they have most of the government work, but options are key," said Boys.
AXONVX vs Megaport
Like Megaport, NextDC claimed to have reached Perth first, successfully delivering "Western Australia’s first direct connection to Microsoft ExpressRoute for Office 365" on 26 February with a partnership between the Internet Association of Australia (IAA) and not-for-profit peering exchange IX Australia, according to NextDC chief executive Craig Scroggie.
“Microsoft ExpressRoute services are available to all NextDC customers and to IAA members with paid peering services on IX Australia exchanges,” said IX Australia Technical manager Joe Wooller. “AXONVX and IX Australia are offering a period of free, reciprocal access to each other’s networks.”
According to NextDC, its key differentiators from Megaport in Perth are the 13 WA data centres served by Nextgen, as well as AXONVX's "dedicated carrier-delivered circuit per customer, not shared intercap, which has benefits in security, performance, and 100 percent guarantee that the customer receives the connectivity they ordered".
Megaport's Maddux was unfazed by the competition. "NextDC will manage their own business – as they are supposed to be a neutral data centre provider and they will compete with their customer, that's fine. We are generally not too fussed with AXON; we don't hear too much about it. I am sure they have a fine product but I am focused on how Megaport works."
He agreed it was "more than coincidence" that NextDC had launched at the same time as Megaport.
"We have two-year mature product, they have something they launched a few months ago. Our launch party is happening with Microsoft – not say there is favouritism but we have put in the hard yards. We have done a very grassroots campaign," said Maddux.
Maddux said Megaport would go live in Perth within the next two weeks.
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