Digital Realty has announced the availability of AWS Direct Connect at its ATL1 and ATL2 data center facilities in downtown Atlanta. The on-ramp bolsters Digital Realty's overall cloud connectivity solution set, complementing the recently expanded AWS Direct Connect capabilities at Sovereign House in London along with the company's Service Exchange for on-demand cloud connectivity. The on-ramp will enable enterprise customers of Digital Realty's colocation offerings in Atlanta to reap the performance, stability and security-related benefits of having a private, direct connection to AWS. 

A recent report from commercial real estate leader and Digital Realty partner CBRE noted that tech jobs in Atlanta grew 46.7% from 2010 to 2016, making it the nation's ninth largest technology talent pool, and placing it ahead of other U.S. tech leaders, including Austin, Boston, Denver, Phoenix and Raleigh-Durham. With more than 13,000 technology companies, the city is an extremely appealing interconnection location for enterprises, telecommunications providers and cloud providers seeking its low risk of natural disasters, low costs, reliable power, strong fiber infrastructure and peering capabilities. In March 2017, Digital Realty announced an expansion of its Atlanta connected campus footprint with the opening of a new facility comprising approximately 18,000 square feet of incremental capacity.

"The availability of AWS Direct Connect in Digital Realty's Atlanta data centers further strengthens the region's technical infrastructure, which has grown in importance as the number and types of technology leaders there have continued to rise over the past decade," said Dan Thompson, senior analyst at 451 Research. "Digital Realty continues to deliver on the cloud-enabled interconnection strategy it initiated with the Service Exchange launch last year, delivering value to global enterprises seeking to further their own cloud initiatives."