Big tech rivals open a private bridge between AWS and Google Cloud

Google and Amazon Web Services, long-time cloud computing rivals, are taking an unusual step together: building an official private link between their platforms. The new connection will allow companies to create a secure, direct pathway between workloads running on AWS and on Google Cloud, instead of routing traffic across the public internet. For large organisations that already rely on more than one cloud provider, this means faster failover options and simpler disaster-recovery plans. It also signals how central reliability has become as businesses pour more critical systems into the cloud.

Under the new setup, customers will be able to order and configure a dedicated connection that sits inside telecom operators’ networks or specialised data centres. Once the link is live, traffic can flow between the two clouds with lower latency and more predictable performance, which matters for applications such as real-time analytics, financial trading or gaming backends. The companies say the process of turning on this bridge should take minutes rather than weeks, removing the need for custom network engineering projects that have traditionally slowed hybrid setups. While pricing details vary by region and capacity, the pitch is that enterprises can treat two separate clouds as if they were different zones of the same infrastructure.

The partnership also reflects a broader shift toward “multi-cloud” strategies. Many organisations have discovered that relying on a single provider leaves them exposed to outages, sudden pricing changes or policy disputes. At the same time, different vendors have different strengths: one may excel at data analytics, another at machine learning tools or content delivery. By directly wiring Google Cloud and AWS together, the companies are acknowledging that big customers want flexibility more than exclusivity. Analysts say the move could, over time, weaken the lock-in power any one platform has over its clients.

Outages over the past few years have highlighted the risk of putting too many eggs in one basket. When a major cloud region goes down, streaming platforms, e-commerce sites and even government services can simultaneously blink offline. A direct path between two hyperscale providers will not eliminate those disruptions, but it gives system architects more options. For example, a financial firm might keep its core data warehouse on one cloud while maintaining hot backups and read replicas on the other, synchronising them continuously through the new link. In an emergency, traffic could be rerouted in seconds without exposing sensitive data to the public internet.

Data sovereignty remains a key concern

For governments and regulators, the alliance raises fresh questions about where data lives and who controls it. Many countries now restrict how sensitive information—such as health records or financial data—can move across borders. Multi-cloud links risk creating invisible pathways that circumvent national rules if they are not carefully governed. Google and Amazon say customers will still decide which regions to use and how to configure routing, but compliance officers will want clear documentation and auditing tools. Legal experts expect data-protection authorities, especially in Europe, to look closely at how the service is marketed and monitored.

Security professionals also point out that combining two complex systems can create new weaknesses. A misconfigured virtual network, overly broad permissions or a neglected test environment could turn the bridge into a backdoor if attackers find it first. Both companies emphasise that encryption, identity management and logging will follow best practices on each side of the connection. Still, many chief information security officers are likely to roll out the feature gradually, starting with non-critical workloads while they refine their policies.

For smaller businesses, the announcement is a reminder that cloud strategy is increasingly shaped by the needs of the largest customers. A startup running its entire stack on one provider may not immediately need a cross-cloud link. Yet tools built for big enterprises often trickle down, and managed service providers may eventually package this connectivity into simplified offerings. Over time, the ability to shift parts of an application between providers could influence everything from pricing negotiations to how developers choose databases and AI services.

Investors and industry watchers see the partnership as another sign that competition in cloud computing is no longer just about who has the biggest data centres. It is also about who can make their platforms play well with others, while still keeping customers inside their ecosystems. If the experiment between Google and Amazon succeeds, pressure will mount on other major providers to offer similarly seamless connections. For companies that worry about both outages and vendor lock-in, that could be the most meaningful change of all.