As we talk with customers and partners around the world, we consistently hear that they are looking for a provider that can help maximize benefits of their on-premises investments and leverage the flexibility of the cloud. This has been the fundamental principle on which we have built our hybrid cloud strategy and our Cloud OS vision. In line with our commitment above, we are delighted to make announcements today that demonstrate our investments in networking in addition to infrastructure and application services.
We are excited to announce a new Azure service called ExpressRoute. ExpressRoute offers private, reliable and low latency connections between customers’ datacenters and Azure. ExpressRoute is an important step in our journey to help customers maximize their existing on-premises investments and take advantage of cloud computing.
We aren’t doing this alone; we are working with partners like AT&T and Equinix empowering customers to use the Azure cloud as a simple extension of their existing datacenters. This means customers can enjoy the benefits of higher security and improved economics as they extend their private networks to Azure.
As another step in our deep commitment to providing a private, high-performance path to cloud services, we’re announcing a strategic partnership with Level 3. This partnership will provide private connections to Azure via Level 3 Cloud Connect Solutions. We’re excited to offer ExpressRoute with Level 3 which offers enterprises our combined scale, global reach and ultimately greater efficiencies so they can focus on their core businesses. Please read Level 3’s press release on our partnership.
With ExpressRoute today, you have multiple ways of connecting to Azure. You can aggregate your traffic over private connections at Equinix datacenters, or add Azure services to your MPLS VPN provided by AT&T. With Level 3, you can do both, aggregate your traffic over a single hand-off or enable multiple locations to connect to Azure services as an extension of your MPLS VPN.
If you want to learn more, or want to sign up to be a preview customer, please see our website.
Multi-Factor Authentication for Office 365 and Windows Azure Administrators
On February 10th, we announced the general availability of Multi-Factor Authentication for Office 365 enabling IT administrators to provide secure access with an extra layer of authentication.
Multi-Factor Authentication for Office 365, powered by Windows Azure Multi-Factor Authentication, works exclusively with Office 365 applications at no additional cost. To enable Multi-Factor Authentication for other applications and a richer set of capabilities, you can purchase the Windows Azure Multi-Factor Authentication.
The same set of Multi-Factor Authentication capabilities for Office 365 will be available at no cost to all Windows Azure administrators. An administrator that wants to access the Windows Azure portal to create a VM, a web site, manage storage, mobile services or any other Windows Azure Service, can add multi-factor authentication to get additional protection for their account.
For an overview of Windows Azure Multi-Factor Authentication check out this Video
More features added to Windows Azure Active Directory Premium public preview
Last November, we announced the public preview of Windows Azure Active Directory premium, Microsoft’s enterprise cloud identity and access management solution. In line with our commitment to provide new features in preview, we are announcing the addition of self-service group management. This feature simplifies day-to-day administration of groups, enabling group owners to approve requests and maintain their group’s memberships.
In addition to that, new reports are available and many new SaaS applications, ready for SSO, have been added in the application gallery.
Sign up for the Windows Azure AD Premium preview today.