Cloud Connect is available to higher education institutions, affiliate members of Internet2, and regional and state networks. The service offering makes it easier for researchers to access and use cloud resources and is part of a larger effort under the Internet2 Next Generation Infrastructure program that aims to deliver a full set of solutions to support science, collaboration, the academic enterprise, and the ever-present migration to the cloud across the research and education community.
The Cloud Connect service provides institutions with a Cloud Connect Portal for researchers and campus IT staff to deploy shared direct connection infrastructure on their own with the ability to support private direct connections to AWS Direct Connect, Google Cloud Partner Interconnect, and Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute.
Through this portal, regional and state networks and campus subscribers can create connections of up to 5Gbps in four cities across the country, including Ashburn, Virginia; Chicago, Illinois; Dallas, Texas; and San Jose, California. In addition to the Cloud Connect service, Internet2 provides more than 800 gigabits per second of public peering capacity through its Internet2 Peer Exchange (I2PX) service for institutions that do not require a private network connection into the cloud.
The service offering makes it easier for researchers to access and use cloud resources and is part of a larger effort under the Internet2 Next Generation Infrastructure program that aims to deliver a full set of solutions to support science, collaboration, the academic enterprise, and the ever-present migration to the cloud across the research and education community.