Cloud connectivity covers the network infrastructure and services that establish secure, reliable connections between on-premises environments and cloud providers. This guide explains the main types, how to choose between them, and what regulated organisations need to consider.
Cloud connectivity refers to the network infrastructure and services that establish secure, reliable connections between an organisation’s on-premises systems, remote users, and cloud service providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
The term covers a spectrum of approaches, from standard internet access to dedicated private circuits. The right choice depends on what workloads are being connected, what performance and compliance requirements apply, and what the total cost of ownership looks like across the life of the connection.
Cloud connectivity relies on a global network of data centres, fibre optic cables, and network points of presence that form the physical foundation for data transmission. Major cloud providers establish presence at carrier-neutral data centres, creating interconnection points where network service providers can connect directly to cloud infrastructure.
When an organisation uses a dedicated private connection, traffic travels through managed, private pathways rather than the public internet. Routing protocols determine the most efficient path between the organisation’s systems and cloud services, with encryption, access controls, and traffic inspection applied at the connection boundary.
The practical result is a connection that is faster, more predictable, and more governable than internet-based access – and considerably easier to evidence at compliance assessment time.
The simplest and most common starting point. Standard broadband or leased line connections reach cloud services over the public internet. There is no additional infrastructure, deployment is quick, and cost is low.
The trade-offs are real. Internet connectivity offers no service level agreement on performance for cloud traffic. Latency varies with congestion. For non-critical applications and organisations with light cloud usage, this is often entirely sufficient. For business-critical workloads, compliance-sensitive data, or high-volume data transfer, the limitations become material.
An enhancement on standard internet access where the network provider uses direct peering agreements with specific cloud providers to create optimised pathways that bypass general internet congestion. Microsoft’s Azure Peering Service is the most widely deployed example.
This approach works well for organisations with heavy Microsoft 365 or Teams usage, where improving performance to a specific SaaS platform is the objective. It does not provide the same performance guarantees as a dedicated private circuit, and it is limited to the specific cloud providers with whom the network provider has peering arrangements.
Dedicated, private connections between an organisation’s estate and cloud providers, established through carrier-neutral data centres. The major cloud providers each offer a named service: AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, and Google Cloud Interconnect.
A direct private connection provides guaranteed bandwidth, predictable latency, and a governed path whose performance can be measured and evidenced. Egress charges from cloud providers are typically lower on direct connections than on internet-based access, which can affect the total cost calculation significantly for high-volume workloads.
The constraints are lead time and cost. Physical circuits take 30 to 90 days to provision depending on location and infrastructure availability. The per-circuit cost is higher than internet access. For organisations with high bandwidth requirements, latency-sensitive clinical or operational applications, or strict compliance requirements, these trade-offs are usually justified.
SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) adds an intelligent software layer over multiple underlying circuits, routing traffic dynamically based on application requirements and real-time path performance. Our SD-WAN guide covers this in detail.
In a cloud connectivity context, SD-WAN allows organisations to connect to multiple cloud providers from multiple sites under one management layer, with traffic steered intelligently across the available circuits. It supports direct connections, internet paths, and MPLS circuits simultaneously, applying the appropriate path to each traffic type based on policy.
For organisations with complex multi-cloud or multi-site requirements, SD-WAN is often the most practical way to manage cloud connectivity at scale without rebuilding the architecture as requirements change.
For organisations running existing MPLS wide area networks, cloud environments can be added as additional sites on the MPLS fabric. The cloud provider effectively becomes another node on the private network, with traffic flowing through the existing MPLS infrastructure.
This approach integrates cleanly with existing architecture and avoids the need for a separate cloud connectivity layer. It suits organisations that are adopting cloud gradually and want to extend their current network rather than replace it. The constraints are that it requires existing MPLS infrastructure and that MPLS can introduce latency depending on the design of the wider network.
For very high bandwidth requirements – 10Gbps to 100Gbps and above – dedicated optical wavelengths provide point-to-point connectivity with fixed latency and zero frame loss. This is relevant for large organisations with massive data transfer needs, such as research institutions or media organisations processing significant volumes of data. For most regulated organisations in healthcare, government, and policing, direct private connectivity is the appropriate choice rather than optical wavelength services.
The right cloud connectivity method depends on four things: performance requirements, security and compliance obligations, existing network architecture, and total cost of ownership.
For NHS trusts, government departments, healthtech companies, and policing, cloud connectivity is not just a performance question. It is a compliance and governance question.
HSCN and PSN both carry requirements about how cloud environments connect to the regulated network. A healthtech company hosting a clinical application in AWS and delivering it to NHS customers needs a compliant cloud-to-HSCN path, delivered by an accredited CN-SP. A government department connecting Azure-hosted workloads to PSN needs architecture that meets the Code of Connection requirements and produces the audit evidence assessors expect.
For these organisations, the connectivity decision needs to be made alongside the cloud deployment decision, not after it. An architecture that was appropriate during development may not be appropriate for production delivery to regulated network customers.
The compliance evidence question is equally important. A direct private connection, managed under a service with continuous telemetry and change records, is considerably easier to evidence at DSPT, CAF, or PSN assessment time than an internet-based path where controls have to be demonstrated indirectly.
Cloud Gateway delivers managed private cloud connectivity across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, alongside compliant connectivity to HSCN and PSN, under one operating model. For more on how this works, see our Connect to the cloud page and Business Connect: Cloud.
