Digital Realty launched Data Hub featuring AWS Outposts to remove data gravity barriers for enterprises by enabling them to rapidly deploy AWS infrastructure at centers of data exchange globally on PlatformDIGITAL®. AWS Outposts is a fully managed service that offers the same AWS infrastructure, AWS services, APIs and tools to the data center, colocation space, or on-premise facility for a consistent hybrid experience. The Data Hub for AWS Outposts solution provides critical infrastructure that enables enterprises to integrate public and private data sources and achieve data compliance and control.
How does data gravity improve the deployment of AWS workloads?
Data gravity was not previously seen as a challenge. It just was a reality. With the proliferation of the Internet of Things, machine learning, AI and decentralized companies, data still has gravity, but now you have a challenge, since you have to operate in a global sense. As businesses are trying to scale themselves, they need to consider data gravity. Our AWS Outposts, as part of the PlatformDIGITAL® Data Hub, provide a unified solution as the best-in-class hybrid IT infrastructure paired with a seamless global ecosystem with consistent experience, security and resiliency. We allow customers to operate and get their data where they need and to do it in an effortless way.
What role does Data Gravity play in Multi-Cloud / Hybrid-Cloud environments?
Although companies do use multiple cloud providers, we have seen many lean heavily toward one over the other. Enterprises have a lot of workloads, and they are not always easy to move. There are increasingly regulatory regimes around the world that are causing people to have to keep their data in specific locations. AWS provides a way for enterprises to localize their data in a particular jurisdiction, while maintaining the same familiar cloud interface that their IT teams operate within the public cloud environment. A global partner like Digital Realty offers you a platform that gives customers the same experience everywhere in the world. Underneath that, for your workloads, you can have AWS Outposts. Further, you can have other workloads running in AWS regions. So the powerful partnership of Digital Realty with AWS enables enterprises to establish a presence in various data centers around the world and distribute their workloads across our platform.
Amazon is investing $2.8 billion in India. Digital Realty also announced an intent to partner with the Adani Group. What is your perspective on the Indian market?
India has great potential when it comes to digital infrastructure. There is a Personal Data Protection Bill that was introduced in the Indian parliament last year. The bill seeks to establish a Data Protection Authority for the purpose of providing protection for an individual’s personal data and create a framework for processing that data. We are seeing that trend around the world. This is driving more of the in-country data to be hosted and stored locally. If you look at Europe, they are very strict on their GDPR guidelines. The alliances are changing at the geo-political level. The second region that we are deploying in India (Hyderabad in Telangana) will address the increased regulations for critical infrastructure workloads as they move to the cloud. There is now recognition that it is going to move. The move is out of people’s on-prem enterprises as they require rapid deployment of their workloads with SLAs, and that is where we (AWS + Digital Realty) come in. Using technologies and platforms, like Data Hub on AWS, we offer set it and forget it solutions meeting compliance standards around the world.
How can customers take advantage of AWS Outposts and PlatformDIGITAL® combined, and in how many markets around the world is this solution available?
AWS Outposts are available in 51 countries and can be connected to any of our regions except China. That is 22 public regions. Six additional AWS availability regions have been announced, and they should come online in 2022-23 time frame. Outposts will be supported there as well. Customers can securely connect to their desired AWS region using services like Direct Connect and Amazon’s Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). VPC lets customers launch AWS resources in a logically isolated virtual network defined by the customer. In EMEA, Interxion, a Digital Realty company, provides customers with physical access to 11 AWS Direct Connect locations, and globally, Digital Realty offers more than 40 AWS Direct Connect locations.
This story is part of a paid subscription. Please subscribe for immediate access.
Subscribe Now Already have Subscription? LoginABOUT JOSHUA BURGIN
As General Manager of AWS Outposts, Joshua Burgin is responsible for engineering, product management, design, marketing and business development. Burgin previously worked as technical advisor to senior execs at AWS and as General Manager in Computer Services. He began his career in 1997 as one of Amazon’s first 100 employees and built software to power Amazon’s hyper-growth in e-commerce. He has also held product and technology executive roles at several early-stage startups, including Zynga.