AWS has announced the general availability of AWS Interconnect, a managed private connectivity service that simplifies multicloud connectivity and on-premises connections through two key capabilities: Interconnect multicloud and Interconnect last mile.
AWS has announced the general availability of AWS Interconnect, a significant advancement in managed private connectivity services that addresses the complex challenges of multicloud networking and hybrid cloud connectivity. The service introduces two key capabilities: Interconnect multicloud for Layer 3 private connections between AWS VPCs and other cloud providers, and Interconnect last mile for high-speed private connections from branch offices, data centers, and remote locations to AWS.
Interconnect Multicloud: Simplifying Cross-Cloud Connectivity
Interconnect multicloud provides a standardized approach to private connectivity between AWS and other cloud providers, starting with Google Cloud at general availability. Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure support is planned for later in 2026. This service represents a significant departure from previous approaches that required managing VPN tunnels, working with colocation facilities, and configuring third-party network fabrics—a process that could take weeks or months.
The provisioning process is remarkably streamlined through the AWS Direct Connect console. Users can select the cloud provider, choose source and destination regions, specify bandwidth, and provide a Google Cloud project ID. AWS then generates an activation key that completes the connection on the Google Cloud side, with routes propagating automatically in both directions. This automation reduces operational overhead and accelerates deployment timelines significantly.
The AWS-Google Cloud launch represents a jointly engineered solution. On the Google Cloud side, the same capability is available through Cross-Cloud Interconnect, which Google originally launched in 2023 with support for multiple cloud providers. The earlier version required customers to manage physical cross-connects through colocation facilities, while the new approach abstracts the physical layer entirely, allowing on-demand provisioning from either cloud's console.
Technical Architecture and Security Considerations
The architecture ensures that traffic flows entirely over the AWS global backbone and Google Cloud's private network, never traversing the public internet. This private path provides several advantages, including reduced latency, improved reliability, and enhanced security.
Every connection uses IEEE 802.1AE MACsec encryption on the physical links between the two providers' edge routers, ensuring data confidentiality and integrity across the connection. Resiliency is built into the service, with each connection spanning multiple logical links distributed across at least two physical facilities. This redundancy minimizes the risk of single points of failure and maintains connectivity even during infrastructure maintenance or unexpected disruptions.
CloudWatch integration provides a Network Synthetic Monitor for tracking round-trip latency, packet loss, and bandwidth utilization, giving organizations comprehensive visibility into their cross-cloud connectivity performance.
Strategic Significance and Open Standards
The open specification angle is architecturally significant. AWS has published the underlying specification on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license, allowing any cloud provider to become an Interconnect partner by implementing the technical specification and meeting AWS operational requirements. This approach promotes industry standardization and reduces vendor lock-in.
Forrester Principal Analyst Lee Sustar offered a strategic perspective, noting that AWS is "leveraging its market share to muscle the industry into making its approach a de facto standard." The partnership puts pressure on Oracle and other cloud providers to adopt the open API, potentially establishing AWS Interconnect as a preferred method for multicloud connectivity.
Salesforce is among the early adopters of this technology. Jim Ostrognai, SVP of Software Engineering at Salesforce, noted that "AWS Interconnect - multicloud allows us to establish these critical bridges to Google Cloud with the same ease as deploying internal AWS resources." This endorsement highlights the practical benefits of the service for enterprise organizations with complex multicloud strategies.
Implementation Considerations
Practitioners should be aware of several technical considerations when implementing AWS Interconnect:
IP Address Range Conflicts: IP address ranges on both sides cannot overlap, requiring careful planning of address spaces across cloud environments.
MTU Configuration: The Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) must match across peered VPCs. The default values for AWS and Google Cloud differ, which can cause silent data loss, degraded throughput, and broken connections if not addressed.
Provisioning Limitations: At the time of general availability, Google Cloud does not yet offer a web console for provisioning, requiring CLI commands on the Google Cloud side.
For organizations scaling beyond a single VPC, AWS Transit Gateway provides regional aggregation through a centralized routing hub with a single Interconnect attachment. At a global scale, AWS Cloud WAN extends the model across regions with centralized policy management and segment-based routing. These reference architectures are documented in a separate blog post by the AWS networking team.
Interconnect Last Mile: Bridging On-Premises Environments
The second capability launching with general availability, Interconnect last mile, connects on-premises locations to AWS via participating network providers. This service automatically provisions four redundant connections across two physical locations, configures BGP routing, and activates MACsec encryption and Jumbo Frames by default.
Bandwidth ranges from 1 Gbps to 100 Gbps and can be adjusted from the console without reprovisioning, providing flexibility to adapt to changing bandwidth requirements. The service includes a 99.99% availability SLA, ensuring high reliability for mission-critical applications.
At launch, Interconnect last mile is available in US East (N. Virginia) with Lumen, with AT&T and Megaport support in progress, and additional regions planned. This expanding network provider ecosystem will give organizations more choice in selecting connectivity partners based on their specific requirements and existing relationships.
Pricing and Availability
Pricing for both capabilities is based on a flat hourly rate for the selected bandwidth, varying by region pair for multicloud connections. According to Tobias Schmidt's LinkedIn post, starting May 2026, each account receives one free 500 Mbps local interconnect per region.
Interconnect multicloud is available in five region pairs between AWS and Google Cloud: US East (N. Virginia), US West (N. California), US West (Oregon), Europe (London), and Europe (Frankfurt). This initial coverage focuses on major regions with high demand for multicloud connectivity.
Industry Context and Competitive Landscape
The AWS-Google collaboration represents the first jointly engineered, fully managed multicloud interconnect between two of the three major hyperscalers. Microsoft Azure takes a different approach with ExpressRoute, which provides private connectivity to the Microsoft cloud but requires customer-managed routing for cross-cloud connections to AWS or Google Cloud through colocation facilities or third-party multicloud connectivity providers.
Azure does offer a native managed interconnect with Oracle Cloud, but an equivalent managed service for AWS or Google Cloud does not yet exist. This gap in Azure's multicloud offering makes the AWS-Google collaboration particularly notable and potentially disruptive to the existing multicloud connectivity market.
The emergence of AWS Interconnect reflects broader industry trends toward simplified, standardized connectivity solutions that reduce operational complexity while improving security and performance. As organizations increasingly adopt multicloud strategies, services like AWS Interconnect will play a critical role in enabling seamless, secure connectivity across diverse cloud environments.
Conclusion
AWS Interconnect represents a significant advancement in cloud connectivity services, addressing the complex challenges of multicloud and hybrid cloud networking through automation, standardization, and enhanced security. By abstracting the physical layer and providing a managed service experience, AWS and Google Cloud have reduced the operational overhead traditionally associated with cross-cloud connectivity.
The open specification approach and industry-standard encryption demonstrate a commitment to interoperability and security, while the comprehensive monitoring and redundancy features ensure high reliability for mission-critical applications. As more cloud providers adopt the open specification and additional regions become available, AWS Interconnect is positioned to become a foundational component of multicloud architectures.
For organizations evaluating multicloud strategies, AWS Interconnect offers a compelling alternative to traditional approaches that require significant operational investment and expertise. The service simplifies connectivity while maintaining the security and performance characteristics demanded by enterprise applications, potentially accelerating multicloud adoption across various industries.
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