AWS Interconnect: Simplify Multicloud and Last Mile Connectivity
- Amazon Web Services announced the general availability of AWS Interconnect on April 15, 2026.
- The service addresses common networking challenges such as managing VPN tunnels, coordinating with colocation facilities, and configuring third-party network fabrics.
- AWS Interconnect – multicloud establishes private, managed Layer 3 connections between an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) and other cloud service providers.
Amazon Web Services announced the general availability of AWS Interconnect on April 15, 2026. The managed private connectivity service is designed to reduce the operational complexity for large enterprises that run workloads across multiple cloud providers or maintain hybrid environments.
The service addresses common networking challenges such as managing VPN tunnels, coordinating with colocation facilities, and configuring third-party network fabrics. By providing a managed experience, AWS aims to move networking teams away from manual infrastructure configuration and toward application-focused tasks.
AWS Interconnect – Multicloud
AWS Interconnect – multicloud establishes private, managed Layer 3 connections between an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) and other cloud service providers. This ensures that traffic flows over the AWS global backbone and the partner cloud’s private network, avoiding the public internet to provide predictable latency and consistent throughput.
The service is currently available in five region pairs connecting AWS to Google Cloud: US East (N. Virginia), US West (N. California) to Los Angeles, US West (Oregon), Europe (London), and Europe (Frankfurt). Support for Microsoft Azure is expected later in 2026.
Security is integrated via IEEE 802.1AE MACsec encryption on the physical links between AWS routers and partner cloud routers. Resiliency is managed by distributing each connection across at least two physical facilities using multiple logical links to prevent service interruptions from single-device or building failures.
For monitoring and capacity planning, the service integrates with Amazon CloudWatch. This includes a Network Synthetic Monitor to track packet loss, round-trip latency, and bandwidth utilization.
AWS has released the underlying technical specification for the service on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 license. This allows other cloud service providers to collaborate and become partners by meeting AWS operational requirements, including service level agreements and resiliency standards.
AWS Interconnect – Last Mile
The second capability, AWS Interconnect – last mile, allows organizations to connect branch offices, data centers, and remote locations to AWS using the infrastructure of participating network providers. This process is managed directly through the AWS Management Console.
The service automatically provisions four redundant connections across two physical locations and configures BGP routing, MACsec encryption, and Jumbo Frames by default. It supports bandwidth options ranging from 1 Gbps to 100 Gbps, which can be adjusted via the console without needing to reprovision the connection.
AWS Interconnect – last mile is launching in US East (N. Virginia) with Lumen as the initial partner. AWS has stated that additional regions and partners, including Megaport and AT&T, are in progress.
By combining AWS Interconnect – last mile with Lumen fiber network and Cloud Interconnect, we simplify the last-mile complexity that often slows cloud adoption and enable a faster, and more resilient path to AWS for customers.
Scott Yow, SVP Product at Lumen Technologies
Technical Implementation and Architecture
Provisioning a multicloud connection involves selecting the provider, regions, and bandwidth in the AWS Direct Connect console. AWS generates an activation key that is then used on the partner cloud side to complete the connection. For those operating at scale, the service integrates with AWS Transit Gateway for centralized routing of multiple VPCs in a single region, or AWS Cloud WAN for global any-to-any routing across multiple AWS regions.
Users must ensure that VPC IP address ranges do not overlap between providers and that the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) is identical on both sides to avoid packet drops or fragmentation.
Pricing and Availability
Pricing for both multicloud and last-mile capabilities is based on a flat hourly rate for requested capacity, billed pro rata. For multicloud connections, rates vary based on the specific region pair involved.
AWS Interconnect – last mile includes a 99.99% availability SLA up to the Direct Connect port.