As more and more of the world starts coming online, the reliance on the cloud is only going to increase. You get access to a reliable online storage space where you can save and access important files and documents instantly.
But if you don’t have strong network support, you might face many issues. So, if you are someone who is looking for a cloud connection with superior data capacity and connectivity to help boost your business growth, direct cloud connectivity is the way to go.
What Is Direct Cloud Connectivity?
When your organization’s network is directly connected to the cloud service provider’s data centers and that connection is highly secure, dedicated, and private then it is said to be direct cloud connectivity. You can connect with a cloud services provider of your choice and that too on a point-to-point basis. Moreover, you won’t be using the public internet for it.
How Does Direct Cloud Connectivity Work?
Direct cloud connectivity works by establishing dedicated, private network connections between an organization’s on-premises data center or network and the data centers of cloud service providers (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle). When utilizing direct cloud connectivity, organizations can bypass the public internet and establish a private connection directly to the cloud provider’s network.
The direct connection is typically established through dedicated fiber optic cables or other high-speed networking technologies. This ensures sufficient bandwidth for large-scale data transfers and reduces the risk of network congestion.
Here’s a step-by-step explanation of how direct cloud connectivity works:
- Select a Cloud Provider: Choose the right cloud service provider offering direct cloud connectivity options.
- Set Up Dedicated Connections: Provision dedicated network links (physical or virtual) tailored to your needs to connect your organization’s network to the cloud data centers.
- Configure Network Equipment: Adjust your on-premises network equipment for the new connections, including BGP setup and security measures.
- Data Transfer and Performance: Start using the connections for data transfer and cloud resource access.
- Enhance Security and Monitoring: Implement security measures like encryption, access controls, and continuous monitoring for optimal performance and security.
- Ensure Scalability: Design the solution for scalability to adjust bandwidth and capacity as your organization’s needs evolve.
- Build Redundancy: Incorporate redundancy and failover mechanisms for high availability and network resilience.
Top 6 Benefits of Direct Cloud Connectivity
As 94% of businesses are adopting cloud services, direct cloud connectivity is slowly becoming an integral aspect of business infrastructure automation. And the recent pandemic has boosted the remote work approach, making these services more critical to the organizations. Using direct cloud connectivity offers tons of benefits. Here are a few of them:
1. Increased Security
The major concern people hold about the cloud is its security. And in recent times breaches have become common news. But you can avoid having a cyber breach at your company by setting up direct cloud connections.
In comparison to Public Internet Access (PIA), direct cloud connections are more secure. Because the latter are dedicated to the business and therefore have a closed system in contrast to the PIA which is open. This simple difference solves multiple security risks and vulnerabilities that you might see in other types of cloud connections. You can also use guaranteed Service-Level Agreements or SLAs that offer end-to-end protection and eliminate all third-party connections.
In a direct cloud connection, the data traffic does not flow between your office or center and the service provider through a public internet. A special connection is provided to you under a direct cloud connection which only you and your authorized personnel can have access to. So, there aren’t any threats of an eavesdropper or middleman here.
2. More Reliability
If you are going to let someone or something handle your information then they better be reliable right? If the system handling your company’s information is not reliable then it affects the quality of your work and then there is always a risk of losing all your data if something goes wrong.
Moreover, your connection needs to be reliable if you or your employees are handling important files and data to do their job. They will need a secure connection that is easy to access whenever they want. Because any kind of delay in accessing necessary information might lead to huge losses. Easy access also helps them get things done quickly. This helps enhance the productivity of everyone in your company.
In the previous section, we talked about the data flow between your service provider and your business. One of the advantages of this setup is that it eliminates the need for involvement from third parties. This not only strengthens the security of the connection but also increases its reliability.
When your connection is not shared with other users, you are unlikely to experience any downtime. And it is highly unlikely that your network will experience congestion and other issues. That ought to improve the overall performance of the cloud and reduce latency. In addition to that, even during peak periods, you can always rely on the connection’s consistent uptime.
3. Impressive Speeds
Your network is reliable if you access it whenever you want even in peak periods as well as you can access your information fast. Studies have proven that in the digital age, people have short attention spans online, and in the case of an emergency every second counts.
A PIA would be slow as it traverses through a broader user base but a direct cloud connection is faster. You can rely on it to quickly move your data from your device to the cloud, and vice versa. You should be able to access your data, no matter what its size.
With no middleman or third parties to interrupt your data flow, the connection speed is higher and the latency is reduced. So if you are someone who has to work with large files or use videos frequently in a remote location then such a high-speed connection is more beneficial to your work.
For instance when a user uploads a file from a device to their cloud storage that file is directly sent to the server that manages the user’s storage service. When access to the same file is requested, the server sends the requested file directly to the device that requested the data. In this way, everything works very fast when you have a direct cloud connection.
4. Supports Working On-the-Go
The pandemic has changed many companies’ approach to work. Businesses are being flexible and considering hiring remote workers for the job. After all, the GenZ largely prefers to work remotely.
Direct cloud connectivity allows remote workers to securely connect to the cloud and easily access files or whatever data they want from anywhere in the world. A connection to the public internet would also come with latency and lag time issues which remote workers don’t have to face if they are working with direct cloud connection.
5. Improves Collaboration
Remote working comes with many benefits. However, the biggest challenge remote work poses is collaboration. It’s hard to collaborate with colleagues on work, and share or access large files across the cloud, especially when it’s done from a very remote location.
What if during an important meeting, your cloud experiences a performance issue? This could harm your company’s reputation and affect the overall productivity as well. That’s why you need a direct cloud connection.
A direct cloud connection with your app and other cloud services will ensure that you quickly collaborate with your team and clients on the projects securely and efficiently. With an uninterrupted flow of files and communication, not only does your remote work become seamless but also improves overall productivity.
6. Better Scalability
Scalability is critical for businesses, maybe startups or enterprises. Because the market is continuously changing it keeps altering the requirements of a business. Now, depending on these requirements, a business may have to scale up or scale down at any given moment.
Using a dedicated cloud service won’t require you to invest in any hardware or infrastructure. Moreover, it allows you to quickly add new circuits to add new locations. Everything you need is offered on this single network and traffic management is pretty simple.
Final Thoughts
Direct cloud connection offers some attractive benefits. From faster downloads/uploads to large storage spaces and many more cloud technologies can help you secure sensitive business information as well as improve productivity. So if your company is considering adapting cloud computing then direct cloud connection can prove to be a game changer for your company.
