Digital Realty has announced it will expand dedicated, private access to the IBM Cloud in 15 major metropolitan areas around the world. These on-ramps help ensure efficient and secure access to vital enterprise applications in the IBM Cloud through Digital Realty's Service Exchange platform and augment the numerous existing IBM Cloud Direct Link Dedicated Hosting deployments across multiple continents within Digital Realty's global portfolio.  

"Businesses are turning to the cloud to extract new value from their data and deliver better customer experiences faster than ever before," said Kit Linton, vice president of network, IBM Cloud. "The combination of Digital Realty's extensive global reach and highly resilient connectivity from IBM Cloud Direct Link can help businesses build the protected, hybrid cloud environment they need to innovate at scale." 

Direct access to IBM Cloud is now available through the Digital Realty Service Exchange and IBM Cloud Direct Link via more than 70 Digital Realty data centers in Amsterdam, Ashburn, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Miami, Phoenix, Portland, New York, Santa Clara, Seattle, Singapore, Sydney and Toronto.  

The Digital Realty Service Exchange provides private, secure, high-throughput and low-latency access over a single interface to IBM Cloud as well as other service providers, overcoming some of the limitations of the public Internet and helping to eliminate network congestion and enable critical workloads that may not have been previously feasible such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain technology. Service Exchange enables users to manage physical and virtual connections through a single port and gives them the visibility and reporting capabilities they need to address their connectivity requirements more quickly and efficiently. 

With the addition of Service Exchange, Digital Realty now offers three options for connecting to IBM Cloud, including Direct Link Dedicated Hosting, Direct Link Connect and Direct Link Dedicated. This flexibility enables customers to choose the level of service they need to help meet their unique speed, deployment and location requirements.  

"Providing enterprise connectivity to the extensive range of services available through IBM Cloud via Direct Link ensures customers not only have access to the compute and storage resources they need, but they are also able to leverage more advanced cloud applications like analytics, blockchain technology, and the Internet of Things," said Chris Sharp, chief technology officer, Digital Realty. "We look forward to continuing to work closely with IBM to enable our mutual customers to access the cloud services they need to accelerate their own business growth, no matter where they may be located."