Cloud WAN: Google Cloud opens its own network for customers

Google Cloud, the cloud subsidiary of Alphabet, opened up a new option for enterprise customers to use Google's own infrastructure at the Google Cloud Next in-house exhibition in Las Vegas this month. In addition to the servers of the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), which has recently seen strong growth in AI applications via the in-house Vertex AI interface, it is now possible to access the internet giant's backbone network directly. The technology is called Cloud Wide Area Network, or Cloud WAN for short. It is already being tested with the first major customers. "With the Cloud Wide Area Network, we're making our high-speed, low-latency network – the same network that connects billions of users to services like Gmail, Google Photos and Google Search – available to businesses around the world," the company said in its announcement.

First Google, then corporate customers

The cloud WAN is used to network locations (site-to-site traffic) and to access the cloud infrastructure hosted on the GCP. The central element is the so-called cross-site interconnect, which is currently in a "preview" phase – with selected customers. It offers layer 2 connectivity – as required by governments and telecommunications companies, for example – with dedicated 10G and 100G connections. It uses Google's premium tier network, which has points of presence (PoPs) in many major cities. Security solutions from Menlo Security and Palo Alto Networks can also be booked. Google Cloud works with connectivity providers such as Fortinet, BT and Cisco. The company promises – a TCO reduction of up to 40 percent compared to a self-managed corporate WAN, particularly when using additional GCP services –, with 40 percent faster performance than via the public Internet. The service is "fully managed", meaning that companies should have to take care of as little as possible themselves.

The overall network that Google has set up comprises a fiber optic network around 3.2 million kilometers long with a total of 33 undersea connections. There are 202 Google PoPs worldwide, and the SLA speaks of 99.99% availability. Network Connectivity Centers in 20 countries serve as hubs, and Google Cloud distinguishes between 42 regions worldwide. "No other company can offer this," says Google manager Amin Vahdat, who as Vice President is responsible for the Google Compute Engine, among other things. The philosophy behind the Cloud WAN corresponds to what Google Cloud also does in other areas: products that were initially only intended for internal use at Google are gradually being opened up to corporate customers. The internal developers are therefore always thinking about whether something that Google does for its high loads is also suitable for other companies, be it BigQuery or the AI hosting infrastructure on which Gemini also runs. The approach is not new: Google Cloud's major competitor, Amazon Web Services (AWS), also works in this way, just as Microsoft tries to serve internal and external customers with Azure. Cloud WAN also has a cross-cloud interconnect to integrate AWS, Azure and Oracle Cloud.

Google Cloud is international

Google Cloud has not yet announced prices for the use of Cloud WAN. It is already clear that there will be both usage-based and fixed tariffs. The latter should be particularly interesting for Cloud Interconnect if companies use high data volumes. Juniper Networks is one of the first partners in the Cloud WAN initiative. Its offering can be booked via the Google Cloud Marketplace and will include Mist, an AI-native network platform.

Google Cloud emphasizes that data traffic in the cloud WAN is fully secured – and that the company cannot gain any insights. This should reassure many corporate customers outside the USA who are currently trying to leave the major US cloud providers with their SaaS services. At the Google Cloud Next in-house exhibition, Google Cloud also tried to position itself as an international company – which also has locations in numerous European countries where development and research is carried out.

(dmk)