Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is one of the most popular enterprise applications used by companies across the world and industries. It is important to make sure your systems run smoothly and to provide your end users with good performance of Microsoft 365 regardless from where they work. What if you could reduce latency to the Microsoft cloud, minimise performance issues, and improve end user experience? Now there is a way – Microsoft Azure Peering Service via DE-CIX – a carrier-grade DDoS-safe interconnection service that has been specifically designed for enterprises.
Microsoft Azure Peering Service in 90 seconds
Watch this 90-second video in which Harald Kriener, Director Business Development Cloud Services at DE-CIX, explains what Microsoft Azure Peering Service is and how your business can benefit from it.
Decrease in latency, increase performance
Developed by Microsoft together with DE-CIX, the Microsoft Azure Peering Service can significantly increase the performance for end user. For example, HOCHTIEF, one of our customers, replaced their complex network architecture with a simple direct connection, reducing the susceptibility to errors and leading to massively increased performance for users. There was a reduction in latency from HOCHTIEF headquarters in Essen to Microsoft Teams within the 365 cloud from 53 to 5 milliseconds – a decrease of 90 percent.
How to connect to Microsoft 365
There are two options for enterprises to connect to Microsoft 365:
- Via Internet access which is what many enterprises rely on. This makes you totally dependent on the quality that your Internet Service Provider (ISP) provides – sometimes great, sometimes not so great, depending on whether the ISP has a direct peering session with Microsoft or not.
- Via Microsoft Azure Peering Services: Enterprises with their own ASN and public IP space (own IP space or from their ISP) are able to initiate a direct peering session with Microsoft. This is a direct, exclusive, separated and DDoS-safe link to the Microsoft infrastructure, with an increased level of security, backed by SLAs, and supported by Microsoft.
Enterprises can take advantage of Microsoft Azure Peering Service via DE-CIX without fulfilling Microsoft’s peering requirements, you just need a public Autonomous System Number (ASN).
Difference between ExpressRoute and Microsoft Azure Peering Service
Microsoft also has a second connectivity service, called ExpressRoute. This is a dedicated private connection between your on-premise infrastructure and the Azure infrastructure (IaaS). More about this in another 90 second DirectCLOUD video, Microsoft Azure Peering Service vs DirectCLOUD.
