Kao Data ramps hyperscale cloud connectivity for Cambridge with Megaport alliance

Kao Data has signed a partner agreement with Megaport, a leading Network as a Service (NaaS) provider, expanding hyperscale cloud capabilities at the data centre in Harlow.

Megaport will be Kao Data’s primary software-defined networking (SDN) provider and, when the services go live at the data centre campus in Q1 2021, it will be the closest Megaport presence to Cambridge’s academic, hi-tech and scientific communities. 

The service will provide direct, secure and private SDN access to a global cloud and connectivity ecosystem including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud. 

Megaport connects more than 2,000 customers in over 700 enabled data centres globally. Its head office is in Australia but it has massive coast2coast presence in the US and extensive operations in the UK and Europe.

Through the new collaboration, businesses and institutions will be able to connect to leading public clouds, software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers and benefit from direct data centre to data centre interconnections, Multi Cloud and Cloud-to-Cloud connectivity.

In bypassing the public Internet, customers are guaranteed improved security, higher availability and ultra-fast connectivity speeds, predictability, and resiliency.

Alongside Kao Data’s capability to house high density, industrial-scale, high performance computing environments, this seamless accessibility and flexibility into cloud providers reinforces the award-winning data centre campus as the home for HPC and intensive compute within easy reach of Cambridge.

Kao Data’s CEO, Lee Myall said: “Enterprise, HPC and AI organisations depend on high-performance, low-latency connectivity with varying peering and interconnection demands – many requiring local data centre capacity that links directly to their chosen cloud provider.

“We’re proud to offer our clients in Cambridge and beyond, a world-class home for their compute. Our partnership with Megaport further strengthens this, offering them unrivalled cloud accessibility through agile networks complementing the already strong foundational carrier attributes present across our campus.”

Eric Troyer, chief marketing officer, Megaport added: “We’re excited to partner with Kao Data to provide its customers with on-demand cloud connections. 

“Megaport’s industry-leading SDN platform removes traditional cloud access complexities and costly overheads. Through our global ecosystem of service providers Kao Data’s customers will be able to choose and rapidly connect to the services that are right for their needs in a matter of minutes, not months.”