Why Telecity added Microsoft Office365 ?

Telecity Group has announced the availability of Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute for Office365 via the Cloud-IX platform. This will allow customers to establish a private network connection between their own networks and Office365 through the Cloud-IX ecosystem that stretches across Europe, Middle East and African countries. We discussed this latest addition to the Cloud-IX portfolio with Adi Ayyagari, Telecity Group’s head of Cloud-IX, looking at the drivers behind it.

Telecity are not the only company due to implement this, others including Equinix, who are in the process of purchasing Telecity have also just announced that they will be rolling out Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute for Office365. There is no coincidence as it is likely that most hosting companies that have Microsoft ExpressRoute will soon be announcing the availability of Office365 as well.

Supply and Demand & Co-Location

In asking why it was important to deliver the Office365 through ExpressRoute Adi explained this was not just about deploying Office365 for its customers but in a wider sense the strategy that support this. Adi perceives two broad trends from the Telecity point of view, one of demand and the other of supply.The trick that Telecity are hoping to deliver is that they sit between the two.

In clarifying the demand side trend Adi said:

“A demand side trend that we are seeing is that a number of our customers are increasingly deploying hybrid architectures to accelerate additional transformations. For example, as our customers embrace digital products, digital customer experiences or digital content, hybrid architectures basically help them accelerate embracing all things digital as they integrate any internal or on-premises infrastructure and applications with public cloud resources.“

This move towards Hybrid cloud has been signposted for some time, but as a co-location provider Telecity group are in the position of observing these trends with a fair degree of neutrality. Hybrid cloud, is something to be taken advantage of but it would be foolish for them to only drive the market in that way. Adi referred to nine use cases they have used to make decisions around their strategic direction on what to offer their customers.

Telecity Group not only play host to end user customers but also service providers, be they MSP’s (Managed Service Providers) , CSP’s (Cloud Service Providers) or even SI’s (System Integrators). Adi continued to elaborate on the second trend Telecity are seeing.

“…There are a number of PCSP’s (Public Cloud Service Providers) [that] are themselves going local with a European footprint with a European datacentre and with a secure and dedicated offering. For example, we are seeing with the likes of Microsoft offering an increasing array of services such as Office365. We find ourselves at the heart of this, colocation. Data centres … are at the heart of interconnectivity that underpin the internet in Europe.”

The problem for Telecity Group is clearly how they can take advantage of these two trends. As business leaders know, the only constant in business nowadays is change. It is not just about seeing these trends but taking advantage of them. Adi explained how they are already doing this or rather what the market is already demanding of them saying:

“On the one hand we are seeing our customers increasingly demanding private, secure and dedicated access to public cloud service providers and that is leading to increased co-location uptake itself. On the other we are seeing a number cloud service and technology service providers who also happen to be our colocation customers using the interconnectivity available within our facilities either to offer their cloud services directly.

“We are seeing, for example, some of the CSP’s run their cloud services from within the walls of our data centres or they are running core or edge network nodes that provide the secure dedicated access into the cloud regions they operate as is the case with the likes of Microsoft, AWS and Google.”

(Next: Telecity Strategy)