Data center operator Equinix Inc. is teaming up with VMware Inc. to offer private connectivity through its global infrastructure to VMware Cloud on Amazon Web Services via AWS Direct Connect.

With the offering, enterprises will be able to access VMware Cloud on AWS through a private connection that bypasses the public internet. The benefits of doing so include faster connectivity and greater security, Exquinix said.

VMware Cloud on AWS is a relatively new service that allows customers to run applications built atop of its VMware’s vSphere virtualization platform on Amazon’s public cloud infrastructure. It also enables access to the full gamut of AWS services, giving developers much more freedom and flexibility when it comes to building their apps.

The service integrates vSphere with other services including VMware’s vSAN and NSX products that provide storage and networking. Together, these products make up a new “digital foundation” for applications spanning multiple clouds, which was the company’s main pitch during Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger’s keynote this week at the VMworld 2018 conference in Las Vegas.

AWS Direct Connect is a service from AWS that allows companies to establish a direct connection to its data centers around the world. Equinix has established Direct Connect nodes in its data centers in order to provide these connections to its own customers, delivered via its Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric software-defined interconnections.

With the partnership, Equinix is offering private connectivity to VMware Cloud on AWS in 24 locations across the world. Kaushik Joshi, global managing director at Equinix, said in a blog post the private connectivity offering gives enterprises an easy way to build scalable and global hybrid cloud computing environments.

“Many businesses do not have the ability to access or integrate both VMware and AWS infrastructures all in one place,” Joshi said. “VMware Cloud on AWS via Platform Equinix provides an ‘easy button’ to enable access to all of these environments through a single interconnection and colocation platform. This means businesses can create a hybrid cloud infrastructure to seamlessly migrate and extend VMware applications/workloads from on-premises vSphere-based environments to VMware Cloud on AWS for less cost.”

Joshi cited some other advantages of the private connectivity Equinix is offering, including better disaster recovery capabilities, better mobility and easier migration of workloads, and the ability to move application components across on-premises and multicloud environments at the flick of a switch.

Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president at Constellation Research Inc., said the new offering should be attractive to enterprises given the popularity of VMware with on-premises workloads, a substantial percentage of which are hosted in Equinix data centers.

“Network speeds and connection privacy remain a top concern for CIOs, so it is good to see Equinix partnering with AWS and VMware to provide a better connection to AWS with AWS Direct Connect,” Mueller said.

VMware’s Gelsinger appeared this week on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE’s mobile livestreaming studio, during VMworld, where he talked about how the company’s collaboration with AWS was helping facilitate more seamless migrations between private data centers and public clouds around the world:

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