Amazon Web Services Announces Global Rollout of Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC)

Amazon VPC now available in multiple Availability Zones in all AWS regions worldwide, and AWS Direct Connect launched to enable private network connections between enterprises and the AWS cloud

SEATTLE, Aug 04, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE)

Amazon Web Services LLC (AWS), an Amazon.com company, (NASDAQ:AMZN), today announced new capabilities for customers designed to support the security, network management, dedicated connectivity, and identity management requirements of enterprises when deploying mission-critical applications in the cloud.

AWS has extended Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) to all AWS Regions, allowing enterprises to launch their Amazon VPC environments in the US East and West Coasts, Europe, Singapore, and Tokyo, and in multiple AWS Availability Zones within each Region. Amazon VPC enables businesses to provision a private section of AWS, where they can then launch AWS resources in a virtual network that they define and control, including selection of IP address range, creation of subnets, and configuration of route tables and network gateways. This gives enterprises a simple and seamless way to leverage AWS while using the same security and management controls already familiar to their business. Enterprises can connect to their Amazon VPC via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) or through an Internet connection. Starting today, enterprises can now also connect multiple networks, such as branch offices, to each other as well as to their central corporate Amazon VPC environment. To get started using Amazon VPC, visit http://aws.amazon.com/vpc/.

AWS today also announced AWS Direct Connect, a new service that enables enterprises to bypass the Internet and deliver data to and from AWS via a private network connection. With a private connection, enterprises can increase bandwidth throughput, reduce networking latency and costs, and provide a more consistent network experience when moving data between AWS and their datacenters. AWS's pay-as-you-go pricing with no minimum commitment means enterprises pay only for the network ports used and the data transferred out from AWS over the connection; data transfer into AWS is free of charge. AWS Direct Connect is available today in Virginia, and from this location customers can connect to services in the AWS US-East (Virginia) Region. Additional AWS Direct Connect locations are planned for San Francisco Bay Area (San Jose), Los Angeles, London, Tokyo and Singapore in the next several months. To get started using AWS Direct Connect, visit http://aws.amazon.com/directconnect.

AWS has also added new functionality for AWS Identity and Access Management (AWS IAM) that enables "identity federation," or the ability for enterprises to use their existing corporate identities to grant secure and direct access to AWS resources without creating a new AWS identity for those users. This capability enables enterprises to programmatically request security credentials, with configurable expiration and permissions, that grant their corporate identities access to AWS resources controlled by that enterprise. To get started using identity federation in AWS IAM, visit http://aws.amazon.com/iam/.

Amazon VPC and AWS Identity and Access Management can be accessed via the AWS Management Console with console support for AWS Direct Connect coming later this year. To learn more about AWS resources for the enterprise, visit: http://aws.amazon.com/enterprise/.

"As the largest hotel company in the world with hotels in over 100 countries, our business requires us to operate with a global mindset," said Scott Johnson, Vice President of Enterprise Engineering, InterContinental Hotel Group. "By making Amazon VPC available in all AWS Regions and in multiple Availability Zones, we gain even more flexibility to deploy our applications in the cloud as we target markets around the world. With AWS Direct Connect, we can quickly migrate data to and from AWS with predictable low latency and high throughput, while avoiding expensive Internet bandwidth charges."

"By constantly releasing new services tailored for the global enterprise, AWS enables us to move more of our business into the cloud," said John Herbert, Executive Vice President and CIO, Twentieth Century Fox. "For example, we currently use Amazon VPC for Intellectual Property and data, and the ability to put our Amazon VPC environments closer to both end-point and origin will give us enormous advantages in how we distribute data and assets worldwide, supporting our global footprint. AWS IAM has given us the confidence to better manage our risk in these environments with greater granularity. Additionally, we look forward to extending our enterprise capabilities with AWS Direct Connect, so that AWS can really be the 'cost-avoidance, virtual data center' in our future."

"As part of our business continuity planning, Haven Power wanted to consider innovative cloud-based solutions. We engaged Smart421, an AWS solution provider, to propose a cloud architecture that would meet our disaster recovery and back-up requirements, and we adopted their recommendation to use Amazon VPC as part of our overall solution," said Paul Armstrong, Business Systems Manager, Haven Power Ltd (part of the Drax Group), a UK-based electricity retailer. "This allows us to mirror and extend our existing internal datacenter into the AWS cloud while retaining control of subnets, IP ranges and network security, and at the same time benefit from the inherent scalability, flexibility and consumption-based charging model that AWS provides."

"As enterprises make the move to the cloud, many have leveraged Amazon VPC for workloads that they've wanted to manage using their existing management and security policies. With today's launch of Amazon VPC worldwide, AWS Direct Connect and the new IAM federated identity capabilities, enterprises have even more flexibility and control over deploying their workloads to the cloud," said Adam Selipsky, Vice President, Amazon Web Services. "These capabilities provide even more privacy, and along with AWS's existing cloud services allow enterprises to choose the environment that is best suited to each of their workloads."

About Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle with Special Offers, Kindle 3G with Special Offers and Kindle DX are the revolutionary portable readers that wirelessly download books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and personal documents to a crisp, high-resolution electronic ink display that looks and reads like real paper. Kindle 3G, Kindle 3G with Special Offers and Kindle DX utilize the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones, so users never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Kindle is the #1 bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon.

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