AWS and Microsoft Azure collaborate to expand multicloud networking

As organizations embrace multicloud strategies at an accelerating pace, the ability to move workloads seamlessly between cloud providers has become essential. Yet establishing resilient, high-performance private connectivity between clouds has historically required customers to navigate complex and diverse physical infrastructure, multiple connectivity providers, and invest weeks or months of manual provisioning.

Starting today, customers can provision private, high-speed connectivity between Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure on demand through AWS Interconnect – multicloud. With Azure connectivity now in Public Preview, AWS Interconnect – multicloud spans all three non-AWS major cloud service providers (CSPs) – Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure – giving customers the same simplified, on-demand networking experience between AWS and other CSPs.

Continuing the multicloud journey

AWS introduced AWS Interconnect – multicloud in preview at re:Invent 2025, publishing an open API specification for network interoperability that raised the bar for the industry and established a framework any provider can adopt, inviting the broader industry to participate. Any cloud provider willing to meet the requirements can join. Since then, AWS has collaborated with other major CSPs to bring this vision to life. Throughout that journey, customers consistently asked us: “When can we connect to Microsoft Azure?”

Today’s announcement answers that call and brings the AWS Interconnect – multicloud story full circle. Customers who operate between AWS and Azure can now manage their connectivity through a single, managed experience, without compromise.

“Customers told us they wanted a better way to connect workloads spanning AWS and Azure, and the old ways of doing it were clunky. With AWS Interconnect-multicloud and Azure Multicloud Interconnect, 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.”
– Robert Kennedy, VP of Network Services at AWS

A consistent experience across every cloud

The AWS-Azure connectivity experience is built on the same principles that have guided every collaboration under AWS Interconnect – multicloud.

Provisioning happens in a few clicks, versus taking weeks or months. Customers get dedicated, private bandwidth between AWS and Azure on demand—no physical infrastructure to manage and no circuit cabling to wait for. The experience is cloud-native simple: establish managed connectivity directly from the AWS Management Console or CLI and the Azure portal.

High resiliency is built in by design. A quad-redundant architecture across physically diverse interconnect facilities and routers ensures enterprise-grade availability. When a customer creates a new Interconnect, AWS and the other CSP provision four independent logical paths. A router can go down for maintenance, two additional independent disruptions can occur simultaneously, and the customer’s traffic continues uninterrupted. Even a full site loss doesn’t impact service because the remaining site carries the traffic.

Security is always priority 0 at AWS. MACsec encryption between edge routers protects data in transit from the moment it leaves one CSP’s network and arrives at the other. This is non-negotiable. Any CSP that cannot meet the security and availability bar does not get connected.

“Organizations are increasingly building applications, data platforms, and AI solutions that span multiple cloud environments. This collaboration between Microsoft and AWS helps simplify how customers connect those environments, helping to provide secure, high-performance networking with less operational complexity. By making multicloud connectivity easier and more accessible, we are giving customers greater flexibility to innovate on their own terms while accelerating their digital and AI transformation journeys.”
– Narayan Annamalai, Vice President, Product Management, Azure Networking, Microsoft

Why it matters for customers

Enterprises increasingly deploy workloads where they run best and at AWS, we design our services to give customers the freedom to choose technology that best suits their needs. However, multicloud is often less about choosing the ideal tool for each job and more about how businesses actually evolve. Companies acquire other companies and end up with applications spanning different cloud providers. Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) need to deploy solutions across whichever environment their customers use. Regulatory requirements dictate the need to deploy applications to more than one cloud. Until the launch of AWS Interconnect-multicloud, organizations relied on complex interconnections, multiple third-party networking arrangements, or the public internet to stitch things together. With AWS and Azure now connected through AWS Interconnect – multicloud, customers get unified management, accelerated innovation, reduced risk, and future-proof architecture.

A single connectivity model reduces operational overhead and training costs, giving teams unified management without juggling disparate tooling. That operational simplicity translates directly into accelerated innovation, with engineers spending less time wiring networks and more time building products.

Risk also drops. Consistent security posture, monitoring, and SLAs across every cloud-to-cloud link mean fewer blind spots. AWS Interconnect includes Network Synthetic Monitor at no additional cost. When it detects packet loss, it triangulates whether the issue originates on the AWS side and tells the customer where the problem lives, eliminating the ambiguity of troubleshooting across cloud environments.

Finally, the architecture is future-proof. The open specification means new providers can join without requiring customers to re-architect.

What’s next

Together, AWS and Microsoft will continue to expand regional availability, increase bandwidth options, and deepen the experience based on customer feedback. The ambition extends beyond cloud-to-cloud. AWS aims to shift the paradigm on all connectivity. The goal is a world where customers can turn up a global network and connect to anything they want with a few simple clicks. The open specification remains available for additional providers who share our vision of simplified, interoperable cloud connectivity.

Get started

AWS Interconnect – multicloud Preview with Azure is available today in US East (N. Virginia), US West (N. California), Asia Pacific (Sydney), and Europe (Frankfurt). Check out Azure’s blog for more information, and to get started, visit our documentation page or the AWS Interconnect – multicloud product page.