Data center company Equinix has announced the general availability of Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute via its Equinix Cloud Exchange in its Washington DC market.

Equnix said its Cloud Exchange brings the benefits of popular public cloud services, such as Amazon Web Services, with private connectivity.

ExpressRoute is designed to help customers bridge public cloud and on-premise IT to privately and securely extended enterprise networks while improving performance, reliability and scalability.

Equinix said its Equnix Cloud Exchange enables customers to connect to Microsoft Azure in its International Business Exchange data centers in the Washington DC metro area.

The Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute service is being rolled out in multiple metro areas in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and South America throughout 2014.