Digital Realty, a global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions, today announced a new Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute peering location in Brussels, enabling customers to establish a dedicated connection from their private IT infrastructure to the soon to be opened Azure Belgium Central region.
This announcement means that enterprises, public sector organizations, and ICT service providers in Belgium can interconnect to Azure locally, reducing complexity while improving performance and addressing potential data security concerns. For organizations looking to deploy a hybrid cloud architecture, Digital Realty can support private infrastructure in its cloud-adjacent data centers in Brussels. With over 25 years of experience in Belgium, Digital Realty operates three data centers in Brussels, serving approximately 300 customers. The company’ latest BRU4 data center, opened in early 2024, offers more than 3 megawatts (MW) of cutting-edge, high-density capacity for local enterprises.
With the addition of these three locations, Digital Realty now hosts 15 Azure ExpressRoute cloud on-ramps , on its global data center platform, PlatformDIGITAL®. Other locations include: Amsterdam, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Dallas, Dublin, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, Madrid, Marseille, Paris, Sao Paulo, and Zurich. Customers can interconnect directly from any of these locations, or use virtual access to any Azure region globally via Digital Realty’s interconnection and service orchestration platform, ServiceFabric™.
Azure ExpressRoute is the lowest latency and most highly secure path to Microsoft’s Azure resources for customers, through a private connection. While in transit, customers’ traffic remains on Microsoft’s global network and does not interface with the public internet, which reduces the risk of bottlenecks and unexpected increases in latency. When creating a new connection, customers can choose a hosted connection provided by an Azure ExpressRoute partner, such as Digital Realty, or an Azure ExpressRoute Direct service from Microsoft.
This direct, low-latency capability is foundational for the current generation of hybrid IT solutions and prepares enterprises for future advanced private AI capabilities with technology like Microsoft 365 Copilot. Digital Realty acts as the physical meeting place where customers and partners can establish direct connections to Azure and build cloud-adjacent architectures to optimize hybrid IT solutions.”
“We are pleased that Microsoft has selected Digital Realty’s Brussels data center as a physical location for their Azure ExpressRoute cloud on-ramp in Belgium. This showcases the excellent relationship between our two companies, and the value that our locations bring as enterprise AI and cloud connectivity hubs,” said David Louis, Managing Director, Digital Realty in Belgium. “We look forward to our ongoing collaboration with Microsoft to facilitate the seamless interconnection of private and public AI and IT infrastructures for our customers, as well as solve performance and data sovereignty challenges by deploying private infrastructure in close proximity to the soon to be opened Azure Belgium Central region.”
“Our collaboration with Digital Realty allows us to provide our customers with the enterprise-grade, predictable global connectivity they need to architect and deploy their hybrid solutions with a globally consistent experience,” said Tiziano Durante, Microsoft Cloud Region Lead. “We are pleased to expand our global Digital Realty relationship with Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute availability in Brussels, enabling customers in Belgium to access Azure services locally.”
