Amazon Web Services has rolled out a new, more native way to connect SD-WAN infrastructures with AWS resources.

Introduced at its re:Invent virtual event, AWS Transit Gateway Connect promises a simpler, faster, and more secure way for customers to tie cloud-based resources back to data centers, remote office workers or other distributed access points as needed.

Thirteen networking vendors including Cisco, Aruba, Arista, Alkira, Fortinet, Palo Alto, and Versa announced support for the technology, which offers higher throughput and increased security for distributed cloud workloads.

Transit Gateway Connect builds on AWS’s Transit Gateway (TGW) software announced at re:Invent last year, which lets customers connect Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs) and their on-premises networks to a single gateway. With Transit Gateway integration, customers can apply network access and segmentation as well as security policies to cloud traffic flows.

Transit Gateway Connect is a new connection type that supports Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) for higher bandwidth compared to a VPN connection, according to an AWS blog about the option. In addition, it supports Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) for dynamic routing and removes the need to configure static routes. This simplifies network design and reduces associated operational costs. Integration with Transit Gateway Network Manager provides advanced visibility through global network topology, attachment-level performance metrics, and telemetry data, AWS stated.

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The edge is being sold to enterprise customers from just about every part of the technology industry, and there’s not always a bright dividing line between “public” options – edge computing sold as a service, with a vendor handling operational data directly – and “private” ones, where a company implements an edge architecture by itself.

There are advantages and challenges to either option, and which is the right edge-computing choice for any particular organization depends on their individual needs, budgets and staffing, among other factors. Here are some considerations.

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If you follow enterprise computing, you know that hybrid multi-cloud technologies and solutions are driving many companies’ IT discussions, strategies, plans and implementations. The reasons for that are pretty straightforward; though organizations continue to enjoy the easy access of public cloud, few are embracing those platforms for most or all their IT needs.

In fact, a recent Forrester study found that 85% of respondents are increasing funding for IT infrastructure outside of public cloud. But how and how effectively businesses achieve their hybrid multi-cloud goals is another thing entirely. The vast majority enlist trusted vendors to help them on that journey, but the results of those engagements can vary significantly. That’s why IBM’s recent announcement of new hybrid cloud capabilities spanning its IT infrastructure portfolio is worth investigation.

Let’s consider what the company is doing and how it will impact IBM customers.

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