Google's Partner Interconnect connects your data center to the cloud with provider link

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Google has announced Google Cloud Partner Interconnect, a flexible means of establishing a direct connection between an on-premises data center and Google's platform for hybrid cloud deployments. Partner Interconnect allows organizations to connect to Google Cloud through 23 partners around the globe, according to a Google press release.

While Google's Dedicated Interconnect offering--which reached general availability last October--is only available in 10Gbps full circuits, Partner Interconnect allows users to select partial circuits from 50Mbps to 10Gbps to meet the requirements of SMBs, the release said.

Participating partners include AT&T, Cologix, Internet2, and Verizon in North America; AT TOKYO, KDDI, NRI, NTT, and Softbank in Japan; BT, Orange, Telemares, and Telia Carrier in EMEA; and Macquarie and Megaport in Australia, as well as Colt, DE-CIX, Digital Realty, Equinix, IXReach, Level3, Tata Communications, and Zayo globally.

Google Cloud product manager John Veizades noted in the release that establishing a Partner Interconnect connection is easy, as "our partners have already set up and certified the infrastructure with Google Cloud. This provides a turnkey solution that minimizes the effort needed to bring up network connectivity from your data center to GCP."

SEE: Quick glossary: Hybrid cloud (Tech Pro Research)

This announcement is part of Google's renewed interest in catering to businesses relying on hybrid cloud installations. With these new connection solutions, businesses deploying hybrid cloud can use Google Cloud services without having their data pushed through the public internet, while also providing greater control over how data is routed across the network, the release noted. This greatly reduces access time and latency in comparison to pure public cloud deployments.

However, data transmitted over these connections is not encrypted by default, requiring users to use application-level encryption. For organizations hesitant to commence hybrid cloud deployments due to data security concerns stemming from allowing any outside traffic, the added control over the flow of data across a Partner Interconnect connection may be adequate to ease concerns.

In addition to Partner and Dedicated Interconnect options, Google has announced a number of collaborations over the last year in an attempt to entice organizations looking to deploy hybrid cloud. In October, Google and Cisco announced a new integration allowing applications to be deployed across on-premises and Google Cloud, as a counter to the similar partnership between AWS and VMWare. Similarly, Google and Nutanix announced a deal last June to allow on-premises and cloud deployments to be managed as a unified service.

General availability for Partner Interconnect is expected in the coming weeks, according to the release. For disambiguation, the Google Cloud product originally called Interconnect was renamed to "Carrier Peering" last year, following the release of Direct Interconnect.

Also see

• Special report: The art of the hybrid cloud (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
• Enterprise cloud adoption outstrips cybersecurity capabilities (ZDNet)
• Hybrid cloud: A cheat sheet (TechRepublic)
• Cloud computing: As the big vendors get bigger is it time to worry about lock-in? (ZDNet)
• How to secure hybrid clouds: What IT pros need to know (TechRepublic)

This article was originally published on TechRepublic.