Launches expand Australia's access to hybrid cloud

Three cloud providers have just made it easier for Australian businesses to take advantage of interconnected hybrid clouds.

New Australian start-up Buttonwood has released its new Buttonwood Cloud Exchange for public availability.

The new exchange aims to revolutionise the way enterprises approach the provision of cloud services, by offering a simplified way to procure cloud services without vendor lock-in. It is designed to help enterprises more easily manage a multiprovider, hybrid-cloud strategy.

The vendor-agnostic platform allows the buying and selling of infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud services and software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications. It includes a decision engine designed to broker workloads based on required service levels and desired costs.

“The Buttonwood Cloud Exchange is a true management broker," Buttonwood Managing Director Allan King commented.

“It integrates seamlessly with an organisation's existing technology investments to help secure consumption and simplify management of public and private cloud services."

Verizon Enterprise Solutions has meanwhile doubled the size of its Secure Cloud Interconnect (SCI) footprint in Asia–Pacific, adding new connections to HP and Verizon Cloud environments.

The company now offers connections at 12 locations from six cloud providers at around 30 locations worldwide.

In Australia, this includes links to Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute in Sydney, HP's Sydney operations and Verizon Cloud's Melbourne arm.

“Verizon's Secure Cloud Interconnect allows users to connect to applications simply, securely and reliably," said Shawn Hakl, vice president of enterprise networking and innovation for Verizon.

“SCI customers will find our solution delivers an unbeatable combination of performance, security and efficiency to help enable their digital transformation while reducing the complexity often associated with cloud computing."

Finally, interconnection and data centre company Equinix has arranged to provide direct access to Oracle's Public Platform and Infrastructure Services in six markets including Sydney.

The arrangement will allow enterprises to connect their existing Oracle applications and systems to the company's new IaaS and platform-as-a-service public clouds via the Equinix Cloud Exchange.

The Equinix Cloud Exchange is designed to provide enterprise customers with direct connections to multiple clouds and cloud services to address the security and performance challenges associated with a migration to the cloud.

It is available in 21 markets worldwide — Sydney, Amsterdam, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, Osaka, Paris, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Tokyo, Toronto, Washington DC and Zurich.

Pictured: Buttonwood Managing Director Allan King.