AWS Interconnect Adds Azure: The End of DIY Multi-Cloud Transport

Amazon Web Services expanded its managed private connectivity service, AWS Interconnect – multicloud, introducing public preview support for Microsoft Azure. Following earlier rollouts for Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), the addition of Azure means AWS now provides native, on-demand inter-cloud transport across the top three non-AWS public cloud providers. The capability enables engineers to establish dedicated, MACsec-encrypted Layer 3 connections between Amazon VPCs, AWS Transit Gateways, and Microsoft Azure VNets in minutes directly through cloud consoles or APIs without procuring physical cross-connects or managing custom router appliances. For DevOps, platform, and network engineers, cross-cloud networking has traditionally been one of the highest-friction areas in enterprise architecture. Connecting workloads spanning AWS and Azure previously required negotiating private circuits through colocation exchange providers, standing up complex IPsec VPN tunnels with variable throughput, or deploying third-party virtual routers with bespoke routing protocols. AWS Interconnect – multicloud abstracts physical infrastructure management into a single logical interconnect object backed by quad-redundant physical facilities and edge routers, delivering SLA-backed high availability and lower deterministic latency. This release reflects a pivotal industry transition toward standardized, hyperscaler-native cross-cloud backbones. As distributed AI pipelines and real-time analytical workloads increasingly split data ingestion, model serving, and transactional storage across different clouds, network transport must operate with cloud-native agility rather than traditional telecom lead times. The collaboration between AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud around open network interoperability specifications signals that public cloud providers are treating cross-cloud connectivity as essential infrastructure rather than an adversarial boundary. In practice, engineering teams should evaluate their existing multi-cloud topologies to identify high-cost or fragile transit links suitable for consolidation. The service includes integrated Network Synthetic Monitoring at no extra charge, actively pinpointing whether packet drops or latency spikes originate on the AWS or remote cloud boundary—resolving a long-standing cross-cloud troubleshooting headache. Teams must still account for cloud provider egress bandwidth charges, but operational overhead, routing misconfigurations, and provisioning delays can be dramatically curtailed.