Datacentres get a bridge to the Amazon Web Services cloud

Amazon Web Services has launched a secure bridging service designed to connect enterprise datacentres with its cloud, filling in a missing part of its cloud lineup for enterprises.

With Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), announced in a blog post on Wednesday, Amazon Web Services (AWS) said that businesses can extend their security services, firewalls and intrusion-detection systems to its cloud.

The launch builds on AWS's enterprise-friendly cloud efforts over the past two years, which have seen it introduce reserved EC2 instances, longer-term deals and volume pricing, service-level agreements and partnerships with big enterprise software vendors such as IBM, Oracle, BMC and Red Hat.

To date, Amazon's enterprise cloud services have been missing a key element: the recognition that for enterprises, cloud computing will be a hybrid between private clouds and public clouds.

Adam Selipsky, vice president for product management and developer relations at AWS, said 'virtual private clouds' were the most popular feature request from enterprise customers.

Private clouds roughly equate to a normal on-premise datacentre. The new VPC is a virtual private network tunnel that corporations can use to tie their datacentres with Amazon's cloud services.

Amazon said its VPC has been in a private beta with companies such as Intuit and Eli Lilly, and is now entering a limited beta. According to Selipsky, VPC offers a secure VPN bridge between an enterprise's existing infrastructure and AWS.

It also allows IT departments to treat EC2 as just another resource; to specify an IP address range of their choosing; to examine cloud traffic with existing security and network technology; and to manage EC2 with their own management software from CA, Citrix and others.

Selipsky said the VPC approach will be added to all Amazon Web Services over time.

The original story is posted on ZDNet.com

Original article: Amazon Web Services rolls out Virtual Private Cloud: Enterprise customer tipping point on deck? from ZDNet.com