AWS and Microsoft Azure launch joint multicloud networking service

Amazon Web Services Amazon.com, Inc. ↘ 0.29% and Microsoft ↘ 0.82% Azure on Monday announced a joint multicloud networking solution that allows customers to provision private, high-performance connectivity between the two cloud platforms on demand — an unusual collaboration between the world's two largest cloud providers that reflects mounting enterprise pressure for cross-cloud interoperability.

What the Offering Includes

The service, available in Public Preview starting August 31, pairs AWS Interconnect – multicloud with Azure Multicloud Interconnect to let customers establish dedicated private bandwidth between the two clouds in a few clicks, replacing a process that previously took weeks or months of manual provisioning. The connectivity launches in US East (N. Virginia), US West (N. California), Asia Pacific (Sydney), and Europe (Frankfurt).microsoft+1

Azure becomes the third major cloud provider connected through AWS Interconnect – multicloud, joining Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. The architecture uses a quad-redundant design across physically diverse facilities, with MACsec encryption protecting data in transit between edge routers. Customers can deploy connectivity at speeds up to 100 Gbps from day one.aws.amazon+1

"Customers told us they wanted a better way to connect workloads spanning AWS and Azure, and the old ways of doing it were clunky," said Robert Kennedy, VP of Network Services at AWS. "We're proving what's possible when both sides commit to a high bar: MACsec security out of the box, four-nines availability, and scalability at the click of a button."aws.amazon

Why Rivals Are Cooperating

The collaboration is built on an open API specification for network interoperability that AWS first published at re:Invent 2025. Both companies framed the effort as driven by customer demand rather than strategic convergence. Narayan Annamalai, Vice President of Product Management for Azure Networking at Microsoft, said the partnership "helps simplify how customers connect those environments" and gives them "greater flexibility to innovate on their own terms."aws.amazon

Newsquawk noted that commercial tie-ups between the two largest hyperscalers "are unusual enough to carry signal," adding that such collaboration has historically reflected "customer pull rather than strategic convergence, with large enterprises demanding interoperability across clouds as a condition of spend."newsquawk

Looking Ahead

Both companies said they plan to expand regional availability and increase bandwidth options. The longer-term vision extends beyond cloud-to-cloud links to include network service providers and telecommunications carriers using the same open interoperability framework. The open specification remains available for additional providers to join, positioning the effort as a potential industry-wide standard for multicloud connectivity in an era when AI workloads increasingly span multiple environments.microsoft+1