GCP – Introducing the Verified Peering Provider program, a simple alternative to Direct Peering

In today’s cloud-first world, customers need simple and highly available connectivity solutions. Many customers access Google Workspace, Google Cloud, or Google APIs using Direct Peering — a connectivity solution designed for carrier-level network operators. These operators have the in-house expertise to manage Direct Peering connectivity, which often requires complex routing designs to protect against periods of downtime. However, due to these complex operational requirements, not all customers are interested or prepared to manage Direct Peering connections.

At the same time, many customers also access latency sensitive secure access service edge (SASE) solutions, or are migrating to SD-WAN solutions hosted on Google Cloud using the internet as transport. These customers need to know where internet service providers (ISPs) are connected to Google’s network with sufficient levels of redundancy to achieve low-latency and highly available connectivity. However, obtaining this connectivity information can often require detailed and time consuming technical investigations, resulting in unnecessary distractions from core business operations. 

To help solve these challenges, we’re excited to announce the Verified Peering Provider (VPP) program, a new offering that simplifies connectivity to Google’s network. The Verified Peering Provider program identifies ISPs that offer enterprise-grade internet services and have met multiple technical requirements, including diverse peering connectivity to Google. Information about each Verified Peering Provider, such as their Google network connectivity locations, redundancy information and markets where they offer internet services, are listed on Google’s website. With this list of Verified Peering Providers, you get visibility into where Google is connected to our Verified Peering Providers, so you can select a provider who can handle all the complexities of peering with Google.

Choosing a Verified Peering Provider for your connectivity needs provides a number of advantages:

Simplified connectivity – Using a Verified Peering Provider to connect to Google removes the complexity of managing Direct Peering connectivity. Verified Peering Providers handle all aspects of peering connectivity, including provisioning, network operations, capacity management and troubleshooting, allowing you to focus on your core business. Google customers who choose to use a Verified Peering Provider are not required to meet Google’s technical peering requirements.

Enterprise-grade connectivity – You can work directly with a Verified Peering Provider to acquire internet services. Verified Peering Providers offer a variety of internet services designed for enterprises, ranging from business-class internet access to high-bandwidth IP Transit. Verified Peering Providers can also provide operational support for internet connectivity issues.

Google-verified criteria – Each Verified Peering Provider adheres to requirements such as redundant and physically diverse connectivity to Google’s network, which minimizes latency changes during network outages. The Verified Peering Provider program identifies two tiers of ISPs, gold and silver. Gold Verified Peering Providers have physically diverse connectivity to Google in multiple metropolitan areas; silver Verified Peering Providers have physically diverse connectivity to Google in a single metropolitan area. The requirements to become a Verified Peering Provider go above and beyond our previously announced network redundancy requirements. Providers are also required to have up-to-date operational contacts to ensure quick troubleshooting when network issues arise. Google validates enrolled providers against the program requirements twice per year to help ensure you continue to have a high-quality experience. 

Breadth of providers – We have been working closely with multiple Verified Peering Providers on ways we can enhance our common customers’ network performance and experience. In particular, we’ve worked with a broad range of Verified Peering Providers to establish deep and diverse network connectivity to Google’s global network, and to provide this information to help you choose the most optimal provider for your workloads.

What our Verified Peering Providers are saying

We are excited to highlight some of our key Verified Peering Provider launch partners. 

Lumen
Lumen Technologies operates one of the most deeply peered networks in the world. As a gold Google Verified Peering Provider, Lumen can provide simple connectivity solutions optimized for Google services over the Lumen network. Lumen delivers high-performance connectivity to all publicly available Google services, including Google Workspace, Google APIs, Google Cloud APIs, Google Cloud VPN, and Google Public IPs.

“Being a Google Gold Verified Peering Provider validates our ability to support customers with simple, highly available connectivity solutions to their Google services. Google customers can now quickly turn up and scale connectivity with Lumen, without having to manage the complexities of direct peering.” –  Miriana Martinova, Senior Vice President, Core Network Solutions, Lumen Technologies

AT&T
AT&T offers a variety of internet solutions to help businesses connect to the cloud. With fast, secure, cost-effective fiber and 5G internet access options such as AT&T Dedicated Internet, AT&T Internet Air for Business, and AT&T Business Fiber, businesses have the power to choose a service tailored to the needs of their end users and cloud workloads.

“AT&T is committed to providing our customers with highly performant, reliable, and secure connectivity to the cloud. By engineering AT&T’s high-speed IP network to optimally connect with Google Cloud, we have delivered on that commitment and are excited to be recognized as a Google Gold Level Verified Peering Provider. Customers want to know the best ISP to connect to a particular cloud and this program will help Google Cloud and Workspace customers answer that question.” – Jamison Linton, GM, Go To Market – Hyperscaler & Advisory,  AT&T

Arelion
As the world’s No. 1 ranked Internet backbone, Arelion’s AS1299 ensures a direct route between content and end-users. With Arelion’s IP customer base accounting for 70% of all Internet routes and a highly evolved Tier-1 network connectivity ecosystem, traffic is given a clear path to its destination, Google Cloud included.

“As a leading Tier 1 Internet provider, our mission is to deliver the best possible connectivity experience for our customers. Arelion is therefore delighted to become one of the first Gold-level Google Verified Peering Providers, ensuring business continuity and seamless connectivity to the critical Google Cloud services that Enterprises rely on.” – Johan Ottosson, Vice President, Strategy & Product Management, Arelion

Vodafone
Vodafone is the largest pan-European and African telecoms company. Vodafone provides mobile and fixed services to over 300 million customers in 17 countries, partners with mobile networks in 43 more and has one of the world’s largest IoT platforms. In Africa, Vodafone’s financial technology businesses serve more than 76 million customers across eight countries – managing more transactions than any other provider.

“This is a good example of jointly unlocking value in collaboration between leading telecommunications and cloud infrastructure providers. At Vodafone, we invested heavily in extending the reach and improving the performance of our international network, which has been recognized by the Google Gold Verified Peering Provider program.” – Nadia Benabdallah, Head of Network Strategy and Engineering, Vodafone

Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier is the international wholesale division of Deutsche Telekom, one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies, with over 252 million mobile customers, 25 million fixed-network lines, and 22 million broadband lines. As one of the world’s leading carriers, Deutsche Telekom is able to satisfy the requirements of Deutsche Telekom Group’s international affiliates and more than 900 external customers worldwide. Deutsche Telekom controls one of the world’s largest IP networks (AS3320) with a Tier1 backbone present in over 80+ PoPs in 30+ countries. With more than 25 years of experience in the international wholesale communication market, Deutsche Telekom offers unparalleled business-class IP Transit and Internet Access solutions based on the reliability, availability, and high quality of Deutsche Telekom’s global IP network.

“As a Gold Verified Peering Provider, our customers can count on the Deutsche Telekom global backbone to reliably connect to Google Cloud with complete confidence. Being enrolled as a Google Gold Verified Peering Provider independently validates to our customers that our network meets the highest standards for performance, availability, and security. We are committed to providing our customers with the best possible experience when connecting to Google Cloud.” – Matthias Maurer, Head of PM IP Services, Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier

KDDI

“KDDI has been developing and expanding our Internet network and services since the early days of the Internet. Now, we provide connectivity to homes, offices, and data centers around the globe having high-bandwidth, low-latency, resilient connection with Google Cloud. KDDI is very honored to have been selected as one of the Gold Tier of Google Verified Peering Providers. We continue to provide high quality Internet services.” – Tatsuo Sato, General Manager and Executive Officer, Network and Cloud Platform, KDDI CORPORATION

Getting started

Google customers interested in using a Verified Peering Provider can get started today by viewing the list of Verified Peering Providers here, or look for the Verified Peering Providers badge on participating providers’  websites. Please note that the Verified Peering Provider Program is currently being launched as a limited rollout and is not available to all ISPs at this time.