Why a cloud routing service is essential to AI innovation
Businesses largely understand that they need the speed, scalability, and flexibility of the cloud to fully leverage the constantly proliferating applications of artificial intelligence (AI). But using a single cloud-service provider just won’t cut it. Relying on one cloud provider not only leaves the business vulnerable to outages, it also hinders the ability to use a variety of AI applications hosted in different clouds.
A multi-cloud approach is the way to go, and the latest Flexera State of the Cloud Report reveals almost 90% of organizations already deploy multi-cloud architectures. These businesses have the flexibility to choose the best AI application to achieve their goal or solve their problem, regardless of which cloud environment it’s hosted in.
But to innovate with AI across these multiple clouds, there’s one last component businesses need to consider. And that’s inter-cloud communication. Applications in different clouds may need to talk to one another, and even if all the processing for an AI application occurs in one cloud, the data that feeds or flows from that application might be coming from, or going to, another cloud environment.
A cloud routing service provides the robust, high-performance cloud-to-cloud connectivity that supports this AI data exchange. Here’s how it works, and why AI innovation isn’t possible without it.
What is a cloud-routing service and how does it work?
A cloud routing service provides a direct and private high-performance data exchange between cloud environments. It enables cloud-to-cloud communication without having to backhaul data to the enterprise IT infrastructure, and ensures interoperability between clouds. To translate that into an AI context, a cloud routing service allows AI applications housed in different cloud environments to communicate and work together smoothly and securely.
A cloud routing service implemented directly on an interconnection platform minimizes the data pathways between environments, making the transfer of data fast and resilient. Its efficient routing can be used to manage private or public cloud connections, and works in multi-cloud or hybrid cloud setups.
What are the benefits of a cloud-routing service?
The first benefit of cloud-routing services is that it makes multi-cloud networking seamless, even without physical on-prem infrastructure. The data used to power AI can be exchanged directly between clouds without a detour through a data center, negating any hardware presence. Cloud-routing services should offer APIs or self-service portals that allow businesses to instantly deploy and manage these cloud-to-cloud connections.
Speed is another benefit of cloud-routing services. With short, direct pathways, and no backhauling data or unreliable tunnel-based solutions over the “public” Internet, a cloud-routing service minimizes latency to improve the performance of AI applications and workloads. AI applications need this level of lightning-fast connectivity for vast data processing and to enable real-time reactivity.
A cloud-routing service also brings a greater level of security and service reliability. Direct routing offers improved protection against cyber attacks, and cloud-routing services can also facilitate disaster recovery when used to move and backup data between different cloud environments.
Finally, there are cost benefits. A cloud-routing service lowers egress charges from transferring data from one cloud environment or AI application to another. These unfixed fees spiral the more AI applications a business uses. A cloud-routing service is therefore vital so businesses can transfer as much data as they need to make the most of AI applications.
What else makes the difference for successful cloud-based AI?
There’s more to know if your business is setting itself up to take advantage of AI innovation. Our guide, The secret to AI success, shares another four must-have cloud connectivity components for an AI-ready enterprise. Find out what they are.