EdgeConneX ramps up cloud access in Memphis

Working with Comcast Business and Megaport, EdgeConneX has launched local cloud on-ramp services for enterprises in the Memphis area.

By partnering with Comcast Business and Megaport, Memphis businesses now have local access to the major cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Alibaba Cloud.

Dedicated cloud on-ramp services give organizations the ability to bypass the public cloud while also offering improved latency, guaranteed performance levels and a higher level of security.

By working with companies such as EdgeConneX, which is an early pioneer in the use of edge data centers, users can also reduce the overall cost of accessing the cloud.

RELATED: EdgeConneX fuels service providers of all stripes with data centers at the edge

In a previous interview with FierceTelecom, EdgeConneX CEO Randy Brouckman said the industry was in the midst of the third wave for the edge and data centers. The first wave, which started around 2013, helped decrease buffering by more than 25% while also decreasing abandonment of video viewing by almost 86%, according to Brouckman.

The second wave started to ramp up in 2015 when the cloud providers started making moves to get closer to enterprises at the edge. Moving the cloud closer edge via the cloud providers' on ramps can reduce latency by 50% to 85% versus using the internet to access the cloud. Brouckman said there's also a reduction in cost because enterprises no longer need to buy private line circuits to big cloud instances.

The third edge wave, which is exemplified by the Memphis partnership, is localized cloud deployments. The third wave is comprised of cloud enabled services where bigger instances of the cloud and special purpose clouds—gaming clouds, AR/VR type clouds and AI type clouds—need to be more local or approximate to where the services are being created or consumed, Brouckman said.

The third wave, which was well underway by the middle of last year, also provides the fuel behind internet of things services, connected vehicles and autonomous vehicles.

The cable industry in particular has been a valuable partner for EdgeConneX due to the number of fiber lit buildings it has. EdgeConneX has Comcast Business anchored in 17 of its data center facilities.

Amazon Web Services and Microsoft have both put on ramps into EdgeConneX's facilities while Google has peered with it. EdgeConneX announced a partnership with Colt Technology Services last year.

Megaport, which uses software-defined networking (SDN) to enable customers to connect to the cloud service providers, is making its multi-cloud access solution available to customers from within the EdgeConneX Memphis data center. Working through Megaport, local Memphis enterprises can connect to the cloud providers from one location with support for multiple workloads across the various cloud environments.

With Megaport Cloud Router, which is Megaport's virtual router service, customers can create on-demand cloud-to-cloud connections that support multi-cloud interoperation.

"EdgeConneX has provided a boost to the growing Memphis business climate with this cutting-edge technology investment," said Regina Whitley, from the Greater Memphis IT council, in a statement. "This is a big breakthrough for Memphis, as our businesses no longer have to look to major tech-towns for cloud connectivity."

EdgeConneX was founded in 2010, and then it proceeded to build its first 23 data centers in 24 months, which were mainly 1 or 2 megawatts each. Herndon, Virginia-based EdgeConneX now has 40 data centers that are operating in 31 markets across North America, South America and Europe. It also owns 222 small points-of-presence inside of office buildings and at the same time has provided hyperscale providers with more than 100 megawatts of space.