BT And Microsoft Buddy Up In "Seamless" Azure Connections Deal

BT has joined up with Microsoft in a deal that will see the comms company's customers gain secure access to Redmond's Azure cloud services.

To achieve this, customers will be able to use Azure ExpressRoute, which will give them a sidestep through the public Internet when connecting to Azure.

To ensure secure connection, a private channel has been configured based on BT's IP Connect VPN service. IP Connect will be directly integrated with Azure infrastructure, say the two, with the aim of giving consumers lower latency and increased performance.

"It'll give you quicker, more predictable performance and enhanced security — by avoiding the public internet, risk is reduced and performance enhanced," said Neil Sutton, VP of portfolios at BT Global Services, according to Cloud Pro.

The service is set to start in summer 2014 in Europe via data centres located in Dublin and Amsterdam, followed by connections in Asia and then all over the globe.

Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, writ large about the links provided to enterprises by the deal, as well as how VPN flexibility can help scale out transfers to the cloud quickly and effectively.

"IT departments everywhere face the same challenge; Cloud offers them the benefits of flexibility and lower costs, but security and reliability of access to data and applications remain main barriers to adoption," added Luis Alvarez, chief executive of BT Global Services.

"[BT customers] will benefit from a globally consistent, more secure and reliable solution, helping them innovate and compete in the global market."