On 21 November 2017 at 13:37, Robert Williams <rob...@custodiandc.com> wrote:
> Hi Steve, > > > > Thanks for this – it sounds like you have a perfectly workable solution > for this, and indeed for all the vendors. In fact, aside from the ‘reseller > of a reseller’ element, it’s certainly going to be more cost-effective than > going direct to all the locations. > > > I guess for us it is just a question of whether or not we wish to do this > ‘in partnership with’ or ‘direct’ with each vendor. > Its not quite as simple as that.. the cloud providers are not selling ports in the same was as an IXP, you can't order partner ports..... What you're doing now is seeing your customers buying AWS and ordering their own dedicated ports, AWS gives them an LOA and you run a XC to their supplied demarc - its the customer with the relationship and the network provider is an unrelated party. The port can't be used for anything else and it is not associated with you as a reseller, doesn't appear on your AWS account etc Azure and Google are even more restricted, they only provide connectivity through partners, and they don't have very many and are not accepting new ones too easily. In fact even as an Azure C3 partner we and the ExpressRoute team at Microsoft have to jump through hoops when we want to onboard a new region as they consider their ports to be a valuable commodity. They also handoff using some fairly complicated MPLS S-tag, C-tag combinations and there's a qualification process that also feels like you're taking a CCIE/JCIE :) Essentially, to access all major clouds (and the popular regions) you pretty much have to work via a partner. To become a partner they are going to expect you to have wide reach and a substantial pipeline. Though I wouldn't think of it as "reseller of a reseller", this isn't how its positioned and they seem to be reworking this to show more support for operators and giving them increased visibility without the need for the ports themselves. Cheers Steve > > > I appreciate all the feedback, I’m going to put this back to my people who > were looking into this internally here and let them pick it up as they see > fit. > > > > So thanks again! > > > [image: Custodian Data Centres] <https://www.custodiandc.com> > Robert Williams > Technical Director > Custodian Data Centres > T: +44 (0) 1622 230382 <+44%201622%20230382> > E: rob...@custodiandc.com W: www.CustodianDC.com > <https://www.custodiandc.com> > *ISO 27001 Certified - 100% Uptime* > *Industry Leading Insight at our Tech Event - More Info! > <https://www.custodiandc.com/events>* > Please note Custodian no longer accepts attachments without prior > authorisation. > > Registered Office: Vinters Business Park, New Cut Rd, Maidstone, Kent ME14 > 5NZ Company Number 07878023 > Click here to view our email disclaimer > <https://www.custodiandc.com/email-disclaimer> > > *From:* Stephen Wilcox [mailto:steve.wil...@ixreach.com] > *Sent:* 21 November 2017 13:24 > *To:* Clive Stone <clive.ston...@gmail.com> > *Cc:* Robert Williams <rob...@custodiandc.com>; uknof@lists.uknof.org.uk > *Subject:* Re: [uknof] AWS/GCP/Azure > > > > > > > > On 21 November 2017 at 11:36, Clive Stone <clive.ston...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > On 21 Nov 2017, at 10:09, Robert Williams <rob...@custodiandc.com> wrote: > > > > Hi All, > > > > I’m uncertain if this is an appropriate place to ask, but here goes. > First, some necessary context: > > > > We are a rackspace/colocation, IP Transit and Ethernet services provider; > and due to the location of our primary site (in Maidstone, outside of > London) we find ourselves providing a lot of reasonable-capacity circuits > (1G/10G) for customers between Maidstone and <random location or DC in > London> on a regular basis. This is achieved using our own DWDM ring into > London and back, and enables us to remain competitively priced for comms > solutions where customers are looking to relocate outside of London. > > > > Now, we have an increasing number of customers requesting interconnection > services into AWS, GCP and Azure. Each of which has various ‘zones’ or > ‘regions’ or whatever flavour they label it. But they are all in specific > facilities and have specific interconnect points. As a result of this, we > are running lots of small links/tails into individual locations for > individual customers ‘cloud’ interconnects. This is very inefficient (and > unnecessarily costly) for everyone involved; it would be much easier if we > just had a few 10G ports into the 3 different providers and broke off vlans > per-customer. > > > > As an existing LINX reseller partner, we already do exactly this and it > works really well. Delivery is (almost) immediate, 3rd party circuit > costs are reduced/eliminated and bandwidth can be adjusted on demand. > > > > We have no intention (or desire) to actually provide or manage any of the > services within these various clouds ourselves – nor do we wish to offer > any cloud-based solutions ourselves. This is (typically) what our direct > customers are doing; and they are the ones providing the end-users with the > complete solutions and we have no interest in competing with our own > customers of course. All we wish to do is to get the physical > interconnections pre-provisioned with all of the relevant providers and > then be able to (reasonably quickly) breakout vlans, per-customer, as a new > order comes in. > > > > Someone on my team has been looking into this and, thus far, has been > unable to find how this is actually achieved. However, they have found > plenty of information on how to become a solutions partner or a > reseller-integrator (i.e. buying cloud resources, adding your > software/product or management solution and then re-selling to the client) > – but nothing about just “getting a port” so you can enable the customer to > pick up their existing services and backhaul them to their racks. > > > > I am not saying we have done an exhaustive search by any means, but since > we have a need to move forwards with this quite quickly, I thought I’d take > a leap and ask on here as I imagine many of you have already been through > this and may know the quickest route. > > > > Happy for either direct responses or on-list, whatever you feel is > appropriate. Thanks for reading! > > > > Rob > > Robert Williams > Custodian Data Centres > https://www.CustodianDC.com <https://www.custodiandc.com/> > > Apart from the overly “sales pitch like” email (which I will be honest, > almost got lost as spam) - this is what IX Reach can do easily. Tried > speaking to them? They interconnect with the Cloud providers, and you can > buy the port from them and split it off how you like. Steve is on this > list, too. > > > > Maybe ask hem… > > > > I’m sure other providers can do it, but that’s the one I’d go to first. > > > > Thanks Clive.. > > > > Rob, basically you XC to us and then order the direct connects to > AWS/Google/Azure to any geographical region (we have Europe, North America, > Asia) .. and we hand them off as VLANs. > > > > The customer uses their existing account with the cloud provider for the > services and to request the Direct Connect and then they select us as their > provider at the chosen location.. > > > > Cheers > Steve > > > > >
