Exploit the cloud to boost your agility

What is Cloud Connect Direct?

A business-grade private WAN connection to leading cloud service providers.

Every business knows about the benefits of cloud computing but getting set-up can still be a daunting journey with a myriad of providers and services to navigate. Cloud Connect Direct makes it easier and gives a consistent and secure connection to all the benefits the cloud has to offer.

By enabling you to connect directly from our global network using the latest Software Defined Network (SDN) technology, you can be on-net with your preferred providers and Software as a Service (SaaS) in a faster and more reliable way. Direct private WAN connectivity also means your sites appear as on-net sites on your MPLS network, making everything safer and easier to manage.

Cloud Direct Connect was developed to remove the risks associated with cloud-based services, and we’ll ensure your move to the cloud is smooth, cost-efficient, and low-risk. All this without the headache of managing multiple suppliers and physical infrastructure. 

How does Cloud Connect Direct work?

Cloud computing has the potential to transform the way you do business – but not all connections are equal.

Cloud Connect Direct connections can range from 50mb to 2Gb and don’t require any additional access, CPE, or physical connectivity. There are no complicated internet breakouts, routing, DNS changes or firewalls. We manage the service the same way we do our core network, giving you more time to focus on business priorities.

It also lets you build on your network, using our infrastructure to go from testing and development to rolling out cloud-based applications and services faster and with greater security.

And you’ll keep a lid on costs. Cloud Connect Direct is more predictable and cost-effective than buying, configuring, and supporting security for multiple breakouts over the internet. We’ll handle the nitty gritty like managing the connection hour-by-hour. You’ll get performance information at your fingertips. 

Cloud Connect Direct features

We’re committed to delivering the best cloud connectivity solutions* on the market. Cloud Connect Direct lets you:

• Access cloud providers directly from your own private network
• Give people a great experience with a low latency private connection, fully managed by us
• Get up and running quickly when we connect the service to your MPLS IP VPN in days
• Stay flexible and add users and offices when you need them, redesigning your connections quickly
• Go global with our connectivity for different cloud providers worldwide
• Stay secure and control where your data goes on its way from A to B
• Reduce vendor management costs with a single service provider

What is IP Connect Global MPLS?

Intelligent and flexible MPLS IP VPNs designed to boost business performance and security

IP Connect Global is an intelligent MPLS network solution that provides the reach, flexibility, security, and performance you need to successfully run your business. It’s our key building block – and the foundation layer – for Wide Area Network (WAN) solutions at critical or important sites that need predictable performance backed by strong service levels.

It’s based on MPLS network technology over a private and secure VPN. Our MPLS reliability is built on a modern and dynamic network solution that’s tuned for the future - one that thousands of our customers rely on.

Combined with the public internet, IP Connect Global enables a hybrid network solution that gives you the performance, security, and reliability of an MPLS network platform with the agility, flexibility, and reach of the public internet.

Why invest in our MPLS service?

For a network engineered around performance.

We know when it comes to your MPLS solution that you want assured quality. That’s why we’ve engineered our network around performance. When you need guaranteed and prioritised application responses on secure bandwidth, IP Connect Global gives you:

• Low latency – assured performance thanks to optimised network design
• Better resilience – separation of core network traffic and a multiple PoP strategy in cities for end-to-end resiliency
• Strict planning – strict planning rules to ensure link failure won’t affect other traffic
• Avoidance of congestion – consistent performance 24/7/265 thanks to strict planning
• Common routing – BT MPLS optimised and fully-integrated routing not compromised by internal gateways
• Global design, management, and maintenance – 24/7/365 monitoring and a common maintenance contract
• Constant network security – constant monitoring for cyber-attack prevention and systematic security updates

IP Connect Global MPLS features:

We’re committed to delivering the best MPLS solutions on the market. IP Connect Global gives you:

• Direct connectivity with a range 3rd party cloud and data centre providers
• Cloud acceleration and optimisation
• Full integration with cloud security which extends into secure internet gateways
• Burstable and scalable bandwidths up to 10gb capability
• BT MPLS optimised and fully integrated routing, not compromised by internal gateways.

IP Connect Global MPLS benefits:

What benefits will IP Connect Global and MPLS solutions bring to your business?

• Global reach with domestic depth – Services in more than 198 countries and territories worldwide
• Cloud connections – Our MPLS solution delivers the perfect platform to accelerate your cloud strategy, spreading your domain securely and reliably into partners like Google, Microsoft, AWS, and more
• Data centre connections – Agile and secure connections to over 200 data centres worldwide and all the largest 3rd party providers
• Intelligent network services – Embedded into our network to give you better application visibility, acceleration and optimisation
• Hybrid solution – Balance performance, security, reach and cost
• A range of SD–WAN solutions – Fully aligned with BT network services like Agile Connect, Cisco SD–WAN, Meraki, Infovista, and Riverbed for better application visibility and control
• NFV services – Virtualised versions of our acceleration and security services either via the cloud or virtual CPE devices.

Expectations around performance, bandwidth, and security are increasing, and your provider is critical in managing this. Whatever your business needs, we’ll craft a unique MPLS solution that works for you. 

What is Cloud Connect Azure?

Intelligent cloud adoption at scale

Nearly 60% of businesses today are enjoying the benefits of hosting content and applications in the cloud. And many more are likely to join them, sooner rather than later. One big challenge of that journey is how to manage the complexity of a multiple or hybrid cloud approach.

So how about we take the pressure off your overstretched in-house teams? Our experts will minimise the risk of migration, simplify your Azure cloud experience, and create a network that drives your business aims.

We’ll build for you an application-led transformation and configure your network into and across Azure. We’ll define the whole end-to-end networking environment and give you dedicated 24/7 service cover to remedy problems or issues quickly.

How does Cloud Connect Azure work?  

If you already host in Azure we can manage this for you too, using Azure-friendly things like Azure Lighthouse to administer rights. This provides a simple digital rights platform to give you and us the necessary control, governance, and compliance.

All of this means we can help lighten your in-house load by:

• Consulting with you on connectivity choices so you can use your favourite technology suppliers
• Bringing our design skills and experience of Microsoft Azure networks and workloads
• Advising on the optimisation of your Azure performance
• Provisioning network services in the Azure cloud seamlessly
• Supporting you with a single service team available 24/7
• Using our partner status to get things done quickly

So, if you’re looking for great performance into and through the Azure cloud and you need somebody to manage the complex infrastructure, onward connections, and navigation of network corridors, we’re here to help.

Cloud Connect Azure features:

We’re committed to delivering the best hybrid cloud solutions* on the market. Managed Azure services gives you:

• Choice - Cloud Connect Azure addresses enterprise cloud networking needs and challenges across all aspects of cloud and hybrid networking, including network architecture, planning and design, deployment, operations, maintenance, and optimisation
• Connectivity - You can choose the type of connectivity you want, from direct connections like MPLS or internet to things like 4G/LTE services
• Public or private - Our private MPLS core connects across the globe to Microsoft Enterprise edge (MSEE) devices and provides private, dedicated performance-oriented connectivity
• Component design - We offer a complete end-to-end managed service which can benefit from our global footprint. Our solutions can include multiple components such as SD-WAN, optimization, load balancing and multiple cloud connectivity for SaaS/PaaS/IaaS – all with inherent security

Personalised Compute Managed System (PCMS) provides you with:

• A business tenancy for you to deliver your products and services
• End-to-end automation and digitalised processes for sales, fulfilment and monetisation
• The capability to extend digitalisation of your processes and virtualisation to partners
• The power to curate and bundle your own products and services with those partners and to allocate revenue on a pay-per-use basis
• Ability to easily reconcile cost versus revenue through an integrated reporting, settlement and billing management system
• An opportunity to participate with our digital marketplace bringing together other digital business partners.

Through a self-service portal, you get the tools, resources and flexibility – to put in place perfectly tailored cloud solutions to meet the practical challenges of your business.

Cloud Compute gives you:

• flexible commercials - you only pay for what you use
• more speed and agility - create or change your service in response to new demands in seconds
• flexibility and scalability - scale your public and private clouds to match your changing needs, and bring in new applications as you need them
• enterprise class security and less risk
• data sovereignty – you know where you data is hosted at all times, in a location your choice.

What is SD Fabric?

The freedom of the cloud, in your own private data centre.

Many organisations want to move their applications to the public cloud, but security and regulatory concerns can make that difficult. They require a bespoke approach that only works in a private data centre. SD Fabric (Cisco ACI) gives you the best of both worlds.

Building on Cisco’s ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure) technology, our fully-managed software defined data centre solution brings cloud-like flexibility to your existing data centres for increased automation, agility, and productivity.

You’ll get a new DC-LAN solution that meets the ever-increasing demands that on-premises infrastructure faces, and it can easily extend into the public cloud in the future.

Why invest in our Cisco ACI-based service?

Visibility, control, and increased automation

SD Fabric is the solution your business needs if:

• You want to reduce your networking costs
• You want to modernise your data centre
• If your data centre is coming to end-of-life
• If you have an application that needs a standard, scalable, repeatable infrastructure platform
• If you want to reduce your data centre footprint
• If you want to move your existing Cisco ACI environment so you can manage and maintain it under a single contract

We’ll deliver, install, configure, and manage your new private cloud DC-LAN infrastructure, including Cisco Nexus 9000hardware and Cisco ACI (Application Centric Infrastructure) software.

 We can provide a fully managed service including change management, proactive alerting, and incident management. And we’ll work closely with your IT team and the partners managing or migrating your applications.

SD Fabric features

We’re committed to delivering the best hybrid cloud solutions on the market. SD Fabric gives you:

• Increased visibility, analytics and control across your own data centre environment (API)
• A specialised team to own and manage delivery, and your ongoing service
• Optimised networking (100Gb/s) to reduce complexity
• A scalable and easy to grow solution without change of design
• Cloud-like agility, with increased automation for speed of configuration and deployment of changes
• Reduced data centre network provisioning times – cutting cost and simplifying troubleshooting and compliance
• A common platform for physical and virtual environments
• Agile hardware deployment as you don’t have to change the network design
• Easy rollout that improves productivity quickly

SD Fabric benefits

What are the benefits of SD Fabric and Cisco ACI? It’s…

• Simple - Improve productivity with greater visibility and faster, more consistent change implementation across your network – for example, a new multi-tier network or a change to a security policy
• Agile - Make your business units’ lives easier with faster application deployment using infrastructure as code
• Compliant - Make auditing your network simpler with access to your data via the API
• Cost-effective - Less implementation and change costs, while a single point of management gives consistency and greater visibility to audit and verify change