For years, connecting AWS to another cloud provider meant VPN tunnels, colocation facilities, or third-party network services. On April 14, 2026, AWS made multicloud networking a first-class product with the general availability of AWS Interconnect — multicloud: managed private Layer 3 connectivity between your AWS VPCs and other cloud providers, starting with Google Cloud.

The pricing model is what makes this interesting: you pay only for bandwidth capacity (time-based), with no per-GB data transfer charges. Plus, every region gets one free 500Mbps interconnect starting May 2026. For teams running workloads across AWS and Google Cloud, this removes the biggest financial barrier to multicloud architecture.

This guide covers the architecture, pricing, setup process, use cases, and how Interconnect compares to Direct Connect, VPN, and third-party solutions.

1What AWS Interconnect Multicloud Is

AWS Interconnect — multicloud is a managed connectivity service that establishes private, high-speed network connections between your Amazon VPC and VPCs on other cloud providers. Key characteristics:

• Managed Layer 3 — AWS handles BGP peering, route propagation, and failover. No manual router configuration.
• Pre-provisioned capacity — Connections run through AWS-managed Points of Presence (PoPs) with dedicated bandwidth.
• No colocation required — Unlike traditional cross-cloud setups, you don't need physical presence in a data center.
• Private traffic — Data never traverses the public internet. Encrypted in transit by default.

2Architecture & How It Works

The service operates through AWS-managed interconnect Points of Presence that sit between cloud providers:

Traffic flows from your AWS VPC through a Direct Connect Gateway to the AWS-managed PoP, then across to the partner cloud's interconnect endpoint. On the Google Cloud side, this maps to Partner Cross-Cloud Interconnect (CCI). The entire path is private and encrypted.

3Pricing: No Data Transfer Charges

This is the headline feature. AWS Interconnect — multicloud charges only for bandwidth capacity on a time basis. There are no per-GB data transfer fees. This is a fundamental shift from standard cross-cloud pricing where egress costs can dominate your bill.

For a team transferring 10TB/month between AWS and Google Cloud, standard egress would cost ~$900/month. With Interconnect, you pay only the bandwidth capacity fee regardless of how much data you move. The more data-intensive your cross-cloud workload, the bigger the savings.

4Free Tier: 500Mbps Per Region

Starting May 2026, every AWS Region gets one free local 500Mbps interconnect. This is enough for:

• Development and staging environments that need cross-cloud access
• Low-traffic production workloads (API calls, metadata sync, auth flows)
• Disaster recovery replication for smaller datasets
• Testing multicloud architectures before committing to higher bandwidth

500Mbps sustained is roughly 162TB/month of theoretical throughput — more than enough for most non-streaming workloads.

5Supported Cloud Providers

The Google Cloud integration uses Google's Partner Cross-Cloud Interconnect for AWS, which means setup is coordinated from both the AWS and Google Cloud consoles. AWS handles the BGP configuration on their side; Google handles theirs.

6Setup & Configuration

Setting up AWS Interconnect — multicloud involves steps on both cloud providers. Here's the high-level flow for AWS-to-Google Cloud:

1. AWS Console — Navigate to Direct Connect → Interconnect. Create a new multicloud interconnect, selecting the target region and bandwidth tier.
2. Google Cloud Console — Create a Partner Cross-Cloud Interconnect for AWS. Select the matching region and bandwidth.
3. Pairing — AWS generates a pairing key. Enter it in the Google Cloud console to establish the connection.
4. BGP Configuration — AWS auto-configures BGP sessions. Verify route propagation in both VPC route tables.
5. Testing — Ping between instances in both VPCs to confirm private connectivity.

The entire process takes 15-30 minutes for a basic setup. No physical hardware, no colocation contracts, no third-party vendors.

7Use Cases & Architecture Patterns

Common patterns we see teams adopting with AWS Interconnect:

Pattern 1: AI/ML Pipeline Split

Train models on Google Cloud TPUs, deploy inference on AWS (SageMaker or Bedrock). Interconnect moves model artifacts and training data between clouds without egress fees. Particularly relevant for teams using Google's Vertex AI for training but AWS for production serving.

Pattern 2: Best-of-Breed Services

Use BigQuery for analytics (Google Cloud) while running your application on AWS (ECS/EKS). Interconnect provides the private, low-latency link between your app servers and your analytics warehouse without routing through the public internet.

Pattern 3: Disaster Recovery

Replicate critical data from AWS to Google Cloud (or vice versa) for true multicloud DR. The zero data transfer cost makes continuous replication financially viable at any scale.

Pattern 4: Regulatory Compliance

Some regulations require data to be accessible from multiple independent infrastructure providers. Interconnect provides the private link without exposing data to the public internet, satisfying both availability and security requirements.

8Interconnect vs Direct Connect vs VPN

The key distinction: Interconnect is for cloud-to-cloud, Direct Connect is for on-prem-to-cloud. If you need both, they work together — your on-prem connects via Direct Connect to AWS, and AWS connects to Google Cloud via Interconnect.

9AWS Interconnect — Last Mile

Alongside the multicloud GA, AWS also launched Interconnect — last mile, a separate capability that simplifies how you establish high-speed private connections to AWS from your own facilities. It's essentially a streamlined onramp to Direct Connect without needing to manage colocation relationships yourself.

Last mile is relevant for hybrid architectures where you need both on-prem connectivity (last mile → Direct Connect) and cross-cloud connectivity (Interconnect multicloud). AWS manages the physical layer for both.

10Security & Compliance

• Private path — Traffic never touches the public internet
• Encryption — Data encrypted in transit between PoPs
• IAM integration — Control who can create and manage interconnects via IAM policies
• VPC isolation — Only specified VPCs can route traffic over the interconnect
• CloudTrail logging — All management actions logged for audit
• Compliance — Inherits AWS compliance certifications (SOC, ISO, HIPAA eligible)

For teams with strict data residency requirements, note that traffic routes through AWS-managed PoPs. Verify the PoP locations align with your compliance requirements before deployment.

11Why Lushbinary for Multicloud Architecture

At Lushbinary, we design and implement cost-optimized cloud architectures for teams that need to operate across multiple providers. We help with:

• Multicloud network design with AWS Interconnect, Direct Connect, and VPN
• Cross-cloud data replication and disaster recovery architecture
• Cost modeling to determine when Interconnect saves money vs alternatives
• Security and compliance review for multicloud data flows
• Migration planning from VPN or third-party solutions to native Interconnect

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

📚 Sources

• AWS Interconnect — Multicloud Product Page
• AWS Interconnect GA Announcement — April 14, 2026
• AWS Interconnect Overview — AWS
• Partner Cross-Cloud Interconnect for AWS — Google Cloud Docs

Content was rephrased for compliance with licensing restrictions. Pricing and availability details sourced from official AWS and Google Cloud documentation as of April 2026. Pricing may change — always verify on the vendor's website.