The issue of security is a constant hot topic whenever cloud computing is discussed. As a pioneer in the development of cloud computing, one of Microsoft’s main commitments lies in ensuring the highest levels of security when this technology is involved. The latest development that contributes to this commitment is the introduction of Microsoft’s new Azure ExpressRoute platform which is now available in Malta.
Companies who are seeking a platform with which to provide their customers with high performance and more secure connectivity can now do so with Azure ExpressRoute. The system, allows customers to establish connections to Azure at an ExpressRoute location (Exchange Provider facility) or directly connect to Azure from an existing WAN network (such as a MPLS VPN) provided by a network service provider.
“Azure ExpressRoute enables you to create private connections between Azure data centres and infrastructure that is on your premises or in a colocation environment. These ExpressRoute connections do not go over the public Internet and therefore, besides offering more reliability, faster speeds and lower latencies, users benefit from higher security than typical connections over the Internet,” explains Jonathan Vella from Microsoft Malta.
“Using ExpressRoute connections to transfer data between on-premises and Azure can also yield significant cost benefits,” added Jonathan Vella.
Ideal especially when it comes to storage, backup and recovery procedures, ExpressRoute seeks to deliver a fast and reliable connection to Azure making it suitable for scenarios like periodic data migration, replication for business continuity, disaster recovery and other high availability strategies.
“Azure ExpressRoute has the potential to become the data center extension. With high throughput and fast latencies, Azure will feel like a natural extension of your data center so companies can enjoy the scale and economics of the public cloud without having to compromise on network performance,” added Jonathan Vella
Meanwhile, Space Hellas, one of the leading System Integrators and Value-Added Solutions Providers in telecommunications, information technology and security has just announced its cooperation with Microsoft by signing an enterprise agreement for the resale of Microsoft Azure services.
The company, which is already a certified Microsoft partner at the highest level for Datacenter Solutions, Management and Virtualization (Microsoft Gold Partner), is leveraging BT’s global IP-based network to provide more secure and high performance connectivity to Microsoft Azure Cloud. Space Hellas is BT’s network partner in Greece, Cyprus, Malta and Serbia. Through the modern customer management center (Advanced Service Operation Center – Service Desk) of Space Hellas, which operates in accordance with best practices of ITILv3, the ability to monitor and manage Microsoft Azure services on a 24x7x365 basis is given and a wide range of specialized services (Managed Services) is provided.
The selection of Space Hellas for placing upgraded services in the Cloud and hybrid environments through Microsoft Azure covers a wide range of needs in the areas of Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Some of the offered services are: hosting virtual machines on Microsoft Azure, user and group management in Microsoft Azure and hybrid environments, copying (backup) and creating Disaster Recovery sites. The connection to the Microsoft Azure is also offered with the very strict Service Level Agreement capability based on BT’s global IP Connect Virtual Private Network (VPN) service, available in 198 countries and territories around the world.
Space Hellas’s and Microsoft’s common objective is the development and promotion of innovative services, which contribute to increased business productivity, while maintaining low operating costs.
Space Hellas, with 30 years of success, has a large portfolio of offered solutions and ICT services, which include services of national and global interconnectivity.