Google has opened up its extensive global private network to enterprise customers as a “Cloud WAN” in a move revealed at its NEXT conference. 

The company has a huge network that supports billions of users across the likes of G-Suite and of course Search; a network spanning what it says is two million miles of fibre, generally used just by Google itself.

It’s now selling access to that networks as part of what it’s calling Cloud WAN – and touting  “40% faster performance, while reducing total cost of ownership by up to 40%” versus your standard WAN + public internet. 

BT, Citadel Securities, and Nestle are among those that have signed up as customers, executives said at Google Cloud NEXT today. Accenture, HCLTech, and Wipro are the approved systems integrators offering support to those wanting to go all-in on Google’s big ol’ network. 

Google’s Premium Tier network serves as a powerful cloud on-ramp, helping to securely connect branch offices and campuses to public cloud resources, SaaS applications, and the internet. Cloud WAN is a unified, fully managed solution that extends the performance and reliability of Google's trusted network directly to enterprises, enabling on-demand, any-to-any connectivity with inherent security and a lower TCO – Google. 

Google Cloud WAN

Muninder Sambi, Google’s VP of Networking, said in a blog: “Cloud WAN enables two key use cases: providing high-performance connectivity between geographically dispersed data centers, and connecting branch and campus environments over our Premium Tier network.

“Use case 1: High performance, cross-region connectivity 

“Cloud WAN offers flexible connectivity options for linking geographically dispersed data centers, providing a modern alternative to traditional solutions that have limited capacity, high cost of operations, and lower reliability. This use case is enabled by these core capabilities:
Cloud Interconnect provides private and dedicated low-latency connections between Google Cloud regions and on-prem data centers, allowing you to connect your data center to Google Cloud from over 159 locations around the globe.
Cross-Cloud Interconnect enables multi-cloud connectivity between Google Cloud and other public cloud environments, including AWS, Azure and OCI, and is available in 21 locations.”

He added: “With Cross-Site Interconnect, we’re enabling dedicated point-to-point layer 2 private 10/100G connectivity optimized to connect applications between data centers, and that is designed for enterprises, government agencies, and telecom operators [making Google the] first major cloud provider to offer transparent layer 2 connectivity over its network. Currently in preview in select countries, we’ll expand it to additional edge locations in the coming year.” 

We’re going to follow up on this and get more details soon. Have questions? We’re happy to add them to the list. Get in touch.

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