Azure and AWS launch Multicloud Interconnect: direct private connectivity between both clouds

Microsoft has announced Azure Multicloud Interconnect, a networking solution developed in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to simplify private connectivity between the two clouds. The initiative combines Azure Multicloud Interconnect with AWS Interconnect – multicloud, and relies on open API specifications (Open API) to achieve network interoperability between providers.

The problem it aims to solve is a concrete one: as organizations adopt AI and modernize their infrastructures, it is increasingly common for applications, data and workloads to be spread across several cloud providers, choosing in each case the platform that best fits a specific need. However, establishing private connectivity between those environments has traditionally been a complex process: it requires manually coordinating different services, managing provisioning across separate providers and dealing with fragmented support processes. According to Microsoft, something that should be a simple connectivity decision could take weeks or months to implement.

Azure Multicloud Interconnect seeks to remove that friction by offering an integrated, cloud-native provisioning experience with which customers can establish dedicated private connectivity between Azure and AWS without having to manually assemble multiple networking, routing and monitoring components. Connectivity also extends to Azure Private Link, making it possible to build an end-to-end private path between the two clouds.

The approach is explicitly designed for the AI era: training and inference workloads frequently need to access data distributed across different environments, and more and more companies are designing applications that cross the boundaries of a single cloud while maintaining performance, security and regulatory compliance requirements. By reducing the operational complexity of connecting Azure and AWS, the proposal aims to give companies more freedom to decide where to place data, applications and infrastructure based on the value each option provides.

In technical terms, the service will support deploying connectivity at speeds of up to 100 Gbps from the day of general availability, with the ability to scale dynamically as demand grows, without needing to redesign the network architecture. Robert Kennedy, Vice President of Network Services at AWS, quoted in the article, notes that the collaboration includes MACsec security by default, "four nines" availability (99.99%) and one-click scalability, in response to customers' request for a less "clunky" way to connect workloads spread across AWS and Azure.

Beyond this specific announcement, Microsoft frames the collaboration as a step toward a more open and interconnected cloud ecosystem. The company suggests that the same open API specification used in this agreement with AWS could, in the future, be extended to interoperability with other large cloud providers (hyperscalers), as well as with network service providers and telecommunications carriers, with the goal of simplifying "last mile" connectivity and reducing operational complexity across the entire customer journey. The long-term vision the company describes is a common interoperability framework through which hyperscalers, network providers and carriers can establish and operate connectivity via standardized APIs, with the same simplicity and automation expected of modern cloud services today.

The announcement, signed by Narayan Annamalai, Vice President and head of products for Azure Networking Services, points to additional content (a more detailed technical blog and a Microsoft Learn page) for those who want to dig deeper into practical implementation, as well as to the equivalent announcement published by AWS.