AWS Rolling Out Cloud WAN

LAS VEGAS — AWS is introducing its managed cloud wide-area network (WAN) service for enterprises to build, manage, and monitor a unified global network that connects cloud and on-premises environments. 

AWS Cloud WAN is designed to provide a central dashboard that enterprises can use to connect their on-premises branch offices, data centers, and Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) across the AWS global network, according to AWS last month.

AWS Cloud WAN is intended to improve network health, performance, and security.

Cisco, Deloitte, Swisscom, Verizon, VMware, and Flutter are among the early users and partners of AWS Cloud WAN.

Enterprises can use AWS Cloud WAN to get a view of their global network and use network policies to centrally configure and automate network management and security tasks. 

Users connect their on-premises environments to AWS with the help of a telecommunications service provider, extending their existing WAN network to the cloud. 

Customers can then deploy an available global network by selecting the AWS Regions closest to their on-premises locations and add or remove remote locations, data centers, or Amazon VPCs to and from their global network within the console or using the AWS Cloud WAN API. 

AWS Cloud WAN is available in preview in several AWS Regions: US East (N. Virginia); US West (N. California); Africa (Cape Town); Asia Pacific (Mumbai); Asia Pacific (Singapore); Asia Pacific (Sydney); Asia Pacific (Tokyo); Europe (Ireland); Europe (Frankfurt); and South America (São Paulo). The software is “coming soon” to additional AWS Regions.

“We hear from customers that they are tired of the complexity of managing multiple networks with different connectivity, security, and monitoring requirements using multiple third-party products and services,” said David Brown, VP of Amazon EC2 at AWS. 

Brown said AWS Cloud WAN “removes the difficulty of stitching together and managing multiple third-party tools, so customers can now more easily keep their networks securely connected and high performing.”