Most shops I talk to already run Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure in the same company. An acquisition left an app on the other cloud. A software vendor only certified one side. A regulator asked for a second home. The preference is multiple vendors. The pain has been the wire between them.

On August 31 both companies published matching posts. AWS opened public preview of Azure on AWS Interconnect – multicloud. Microsoft opened Azure Multicloud Interconnect for AWS. You order the path from the AWS console or command line, or from the Azure portal. The traffic stays off the public internet.

That is a product. For years the same job was a project.

The Old Job Was a Circuit, a Partner, and a Calendar

The prior private options were well known. You ran a site-to-site virtual private network over the public internet. You hauled both AWS Direct Connect and Azure ExpressRoute into your own building and routed between them. Or you paid a colocation and connectivity partner to sit in the middle.

Those designs still work. They also take weeks. Someone orders ports. Someone patches fiber. Someone agrees on Border Gateway Protocol. Bandwidth changes go back through the same queue.

AWS Started This With Google, Then Oracle, Then Azure

I wrote the Google half on December 2, 2025, when AWS and Google Cloud first turned on Interconnect – multicloud. That post already said Azure was expected later in 2026. Google reached general availability in April 2026. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure reached general availability in July 2026. August 31 is the Azure date that post was waiting on.

The click path AWS describes is short. Pick the other cloud. Pick the region on that side. Pick a bandwidth. On AWS the attach point is a Direct Connect gateway, which can then hang virtual private clouds, Transit Gateway, or Cloud WAN.

Microsoft builds the same idea on ExpressRoute. You create an ExpressRoute circuit with a Multicloud Interconnect port type, then an Interconnect resource, then swap an activation key with AWS. Azure can extend the path to Private Link so the last hop to a PaaS endpoint stays private as well.

Both sides encrypt the hop between their edge routers with MACsec. AWS says each Interconnect is built as four independent logical paths across diverse sites.

The customer keeps two clouds. The vendors now sell the wire between them.

Preview Is Four Metros and One Gigabit

Treat the August 31 launch as a design you can test, not a blanket replacement for every ExpressRoute plus Direct Connect pair you already run.

AWS lists four preview regions: US East in Northern Virginia, US West in Northern California, Asia Pacific in Sydney, and Europe in Frankfurt. Microsoft’s preview notes cap bandwidth at 1 gigabit per second (Microsoft, 2026). Microsoft also says it will waive the Azure interconnect fee and Azure egress on this path during preview. At general availability Microsoft says customers will be able to order up to 100 gigabits per second (Microsoft, 2026).

AWS documentation already limits preview partners to 1 gigabit. The free 500 megabit local interconnect AWS offers applies to partners that are generally available, which Azure is not yet (AWS, 2026).

Both Sides Benefit When Leaving Gets Easier

I am glad they did this. Enterprises prefer multiple vendors. Forcing the customer to haul traffic home, or through a third network, made that preference expensive. A managed private path makes dual-cloud cheaper to operate.

It also helps the providers. If the expensive part of using both clouds was the interconnect project, some teams stayed on one side longer than the workload deserved. A console product removes that excuse. AWS keeps the virtual private clouds that talk to Azure. Microsoft keeps the virtual networks that talk to AWS. Neither has to win the entire estate to keep the traffic.

Narayan Annamalai, who runs Azure networking product, framed the same point around applications, data platforms, and AI work that already span two clouds.

What I Would Watch

Does general availability land with the 100 gigabit option Microsoft described, and in enough regions that a global network team can use it as a default?

Do the two bills stay readable when one side meters the interconnect and the other meters the attach point and the data out?

Does a support ticket still bounce between AWS and Microsoft when a path drops, or does the shared monitor AWS mentions name the side that failed?

About Shashi Bellamkonda

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