Two longtime rivals in the tech industry have just struck a deal that significantly streamlines work for IT teams.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud have launched a new multi-cloud networking service designed to make it easier and faster for businesses to move data between their platforms. The two competing giants announced the jointly developed system on Sunday, promising private, high-speed connections that can be activated in minutes—not weeks.
The move comes amid rising demand for reliable connectivity. Even brief outages can cause major disruptions, as demonstrated by the October AWS outage that took down major platforms and potentially cost U.S. companies up to $650 million, according to Parametrix.
Rob Enns of Google Cloud summed up the collaboration’s goal, stating the service is intended to help customers migrate data and applications through “simplified global connectivity and enhanced operational efficiency.”
What This Partnership Actually Delivers
For years, enterprises using multiple cloud providers had to manually coordinate physical hardware, routing policies, and lengthy configuration processes. Now, both companies say they’re replacing all that complexity with a managed, cloud-native experience.
Google Cloud explained in its announcement that the new approach reduces the intricacies of “physical connectivity, IP addressing, and routing policies,” enabling customers to provision bandwidth on demand via existing cloud consoles or APIs.
AWS, in its re:Invent 2025 update, noted that the service offers dedicated bandwidth through pre-built capacity pools, backed by “infrastructure fully managed by service providers,” allowing “customers to eliminate the burden of managing physical devices or virtual routing constructs in their multi-cloud networks.”
The new service features quadruple redundancy across multiple interconnection facilities and standardizes MACsec encryption between AWS and Google Cloud edge routers.
Both companies also implement continuous monitoring to help minimize downtime and prevent prolonged outages like those that disrupted major online platforms earlier this year.
Salesforce is among the early adopters testing the cross-cloud link. Jim Ostrognai, Senior Vice President of Software Engineering at Salesforce, said the system helps unify data for AI and analytics.
“Integrating Salesforce Data 360 with a broader IT environment requires robust private connectivity,” he said, adding that the new setup “accelerates our customers’ ability to build AI and analytics on trusted data, regardless of where that data resides.”
Why This Collaboration Matters
The two companies have long competed fiercely for market share. AWS remains the world’s largest cloud provider, while Google Cloud ranks third behind Microsoft Azure. However, as AI drives surging demands for compute power and bandwidth, more cloud customers are adopting hybrid strategies—making interoperability a top priority.
In tandem with the launch, both companies published an open API specification on GitHub, inviting other cloud and network providers to adopt the same architecture. Google Cloud stated this initiative supports its vision of building an “open and unified multi-cloud experience.”
