A bevy of network providers and carriers are establishing cloud exchanges to connect to public cloud services such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Office 365 – with Perth a major battleground.
CRN last week reported that Megaport and NextDC – which compete head-to-head with on-demand elastic cloud exchanges – were both pushing into the Perth market with on-ramps to hyper-scale cloud providers.
While the two companies are both keen to spruik their first-mover advantage, multiple providers, including Vocus, Zettagrid and Intellipath, are actively courting users in Western Australia and across the country with connections to Microsoft ExpressRoute and AWS DirectConnect.
Intellipath is the newest entrant to the Australian market, this week introducing its bandwidth-on-demand service to Australia, in partnership with Nextgen Group.
Intellipath, which is directly integrated into Nextgen’s new Fusion API, offers rapid provisioning of connections to the cloud "in under 90 seconds", virtual cross connections in 20 seconds with no contracts and greater coverage than traditional bandwidth-on-demand companies.
James Veness, Nextgen general manager for wholesale and channel, said Intellipath’s service was available now in 45 data centres with many more coming online in the next month. “It is also available in Metronode’s 10 data centres as well as all other major data centres in the Nextgen network, providing easy access to Equinix Cloud Exchange and other cloud platforms for customers in Perth and on the East Coast."
The battle for first place
So which outfit was first to offer Western Australians a cloud exchange into Azure and AWS? It depends who you ask.
Megaport chief executive Denver Maddux previously told CRN he thought Megaport was first to market in Perth. Asked to clarify his position in light of competing services from NextDC, Vocus and others, Maddux stressed that Megaport could still claim the title as "first in the market, first in the world" with its model for an on-demand public cloud exchange.
"Just over two years ago, nobody really knew what Megaport was, and we were already doing these things. Now the market is paying attention to what we are doing and how we are doing it, and in some cases trying to copy it," said Maddux.
Megaport connects to Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute, Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute for Office 365, Google GCI, AWS DirectConnect and Rackspace Hosting, as well as local players such as Zettagrid, OrionVM and Servers Australia.
"We also have several global cloud partnerships that are about to drop onto the Megaport Fabric," Maddux hinted.
NextDC – which was also founded by Bevan Slattery before he went on to establish Megaport in 2013 – brought out a competing product in July 2015, dubbed AXONVX. The company has taken its services to Western Australia via a partnership with Nextgen Group, pipping Megaport by launching its first live Office 365 service in January this year.
Megaport's Maddux said: "We have changed the model and we did it over two years ago. We also deliver all of these services natively through Megaport and our software-defined platform, rather than being integrated into a third-party network and passing services along to them through an outdated service delivery model.
"Lastly, we are offering a full suite of cloud networking services, not just part of them. You can get them all on one Megaport, rather than getting some here with those guys, and some there with others," added Maddux.
Megaport charges users $500 per month for a 10GbE port, and Maddux pointed to some "six-month promos happening in several markets".
"Our virtual connections are currently at $200 in the metro for any speed to any destination, and priced at a per megabit rate on intercap and international. You can use 1 megabit per second, or your whole 10Gbps on your port if you want to. The choice is the user's based on the economics and needs of their own business.
"We also offer 1GbE ports for $350 per month and offer the very same features. Prices for intercap and international are varied, but users can see them in real time in our portal when they are building up the connections they want," he added.
A NextDC spokesperson told CRN that its AXONVX network was activated in Perth on 30 October 2015, with Nextgen Networks installed in Perth on 3 December. "The first ExpressRoute and Office 365 order was placed on 19 January 2016 on behalf of WA client via IX Australia and IAA."
AXONVX connects to Microsoft Office 365, Azure, AWS and IBM SoftLayer, and is "a 100 percent carrier-neutral platform," said the NextDC spokesperson.
"Network providers Nextgen Networks and TransGrid were the first to publicly announce that they are providing intercapital connectivity products over our fabric. Nextgen Networks interconnects over 75 data centres across Australia. We will continue to work closely with them to deliver AXONVX to as many of them as possible. Our peering partner IX Australia has a presence in 27 data centres in six states to which they are delivering AXONVX services."
AXON ports are available in 10Gbit and 40Gbit options. Elastic cross connects are billed by the hour with costs varying based on where the A and B ends are located.
"NextDC is currently offering AXONVX partners six-months free AXON port rental for a limited time."
Vocus told CRN that its Cloud Connect private, high-speed connection went live in October 2015, providing an on-ramp to Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute, IBM Softlayer and Amazon Web Services.
Vocus Cloud Connect is available in Layer 2 and Layer 3 connections with speeds from 50Mbps up to 1Gbps and 10G in pre-determined increments.
Perth-headquartered Zetta launched Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute connectivity into Perth back in March 2015.
Zetta, which recently beat AWS, Azure and Telstra to win Mitsubishi's infrastructure-as-a-service contract, offers speeds from 200Mbps to 10Gbps, with multiple Perth data centre interconnects, last mile integration for on-premise connectivity, unlimited network traffic and direct connection to all Azure IaaS and PaaS products.
Microsoft connectivity is essential in Perth, where the vendor's public cloud has a strong market position against global leader AWS.
Speaking to CRN last week, Joshua Boys, director of Microsoft partner Ignia, 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."
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