Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Level 3's Cloud Connect Adds HP Helion

Level 3 Communications has added HP Helion Managed Cloud Service to its Cloud Connect Solutions ecosystem, which provides enterprises and government agencies with an MPLS VPN connection over the global Layer 3 network to third party cloud services.

In addition to the security of a private VPN connection, Level 3 said its Cloud Connect offers rapid service provisioning, dynamic bandwidth, and usage-based billing. Level 3 Cloud Connect via the global Level 3 network to HP dual-active cloud sites establishes load balancing and redundant failover.  The companies cited 99.999 percent uptime.

Level 3 Cloud Connect Solutions also delivers direct connections to HP Helion Managed Virtual Private Cloud for Public Sector. HP Helion Managed Virtual Private Cloud for Public Sector follows applicable regulatory standards such as FedRAMP and FISMA, which provide customers with reassurances about the security and compliance of their overall cloud strategy.

Level 3 and HP expect these services to be available in North America during the fourth quarter of 2014 with global availability in the first half of 2015.

"The combination of HP and Level 3 delivers the tools for customers to transform their IT and network architecture in the cloud," said Anthony Christie, chief marketing officer of Level 3. "By forging relationships with the most respected brands in the cloud services industry, like HP, enterprises can execute their cloud strategies with confidence in the performance of their cloud environments, allowing customers to focus on the growth of their business."

http://www.level3.com/cloudconnectsolutions

In April 2014, Level 3 and Digital Realty, which owns 131 data centers in major cities worldwide, announced a partnership to deliver direct cloud services to co-location customers.  The initial rollout targets 14 markets in the U.S. and Europe and will include Amazon Web Services (AWS Direct Connect) and Microsoft Azure (ExpressRoute).
Digital Realty said a hybrid cloud environment offers its customers the ability to centralize IT management and also gain the flexibility to respond to changing business needs as a result of data and storage growth. For example, leveraging Level 3's virtual private network services, Digital Realty customers can dynamically scale their bandwidth and only pay for what they consume as demand for computing capacity spikes, say during the holiday shopping season. In a hybrid environment, transferring large data sets is expedited with greater bandwidth capacity, which also improves the performance of real-time voice and data feeds.