How Azure ExpressRoute will impact Kiwi businesses
Microsoft announced that the anticipated Azure ExpressRoute site in Auckland will be launching in May 2019. Signalled at Microsoft's Ignite conference in November 2018, the Azure cloud service allows customers to benefit from a dedicated private connection that bypasses the public internet delivering, predictable performance, lower latency and SLA based connectivity to Azure.
New Zealanders will no longer have to connect to the ExpressRoute site in Australia but will have their own dedicated New Zealand site that enables them to leverage Microsoft's vast global network locally from Auckland.
Customers will supposedly be able to choose from a large ecosystem of local carrier partners, benefit from more deployment options and lower connectivity costs.
With its uptime SLA, predictable performance and lower latency, ExpressRoute provides the ideal solution for organisations wanting to deploy business-critical workloads in the cloud.
Local ExpressRoute services will initially be provided by Megaport, Vocus, Spark, Kordia and Devoli.
Microsoft NZ enterprise business group lead Patrick Quesnel said New Zealand is one of the fastest evolving digital nations in the world and that placed it in a unique position when the business case was made.
"Microsoft New Zealand has worked tirelessly to deliver an Azure ExpressRoute site here for our customers. The local team strongly believes in the importance of investing in this country's digital transformation and supporting our Kiwi customers and partners in their transformation journeys.
"New Zealand's outstanding performance so far deserves our support through dedicated services like ExpressRoute.
With the new ExpressRoute site New Zealanders can supposedly benefit from multiple deployment models, including an any-to-any (IP VPN), a point-to-point Ethernet connection or now a virtual cross-connection through a connectivity provider at a local co-location facility.
The service effectively extends customer's on-premise networks into the Microsoft cloud over a private connection.
Microsoft recently invested in a dedicated FastTrack service for its New Zealand customers and partners, announced in 2018. FastTrack for Azure provides direct engineering assistance for customers and partners ready to move to Azure.
The new ExpressRoute marks Microsoft's ongoing investment in New Zealand's digital evolution.
"Our partners and customers are increasingly looking to reach overseas markets, and we wanted to help them leverage Microsoft's international networks and resources more effectively," said Quesnel.
"Now it doesn't matter where the nearest data center is. ExpressRoute brings the data center to us.
