SEATTLE/MOUNTAIN VIEW: Amazon and Google have teamed up to launch a new multicloud networking service, aiming to give customers faster and more reliable connections between their cloud systems at a time when even brief internet disruptions can ripple across the global economy.

The companies said that the jointly developed service will allow businesses to set up private, high-speed connections between their computing platforms in minutes, rather than the weeks it typically takes to configure such connections.

The move comes just over a month after a major Amazon Web Services outage on October 20 disrupted thousands of websites worldwide, taking down apps including Snapchat and Reddit. That incident is expected to cost U.S. firms between US$500 million and $650 million, according to analytics firm Parametrix.

The new offering brings together AWS' Interconnect–multicloud and Google Cloud's Cross-Cloud Interconnect to improve network interoperability, the companies said in separate statements.

"This collaboration between AWS and Google Cloud represents a fundamental shift in multicloud connectivity," said Robert Kennedy, vice president of network services at AWS.

Rob Enns, vice president and general manager of cloud networking at Google Cloud, said the combined network aims to make it easier for customers to move data and applications between clouds.

Salesforce is among the early adopters of the new setup, Google Cloud said.

AWS remains the world's largest cloud provider, ahead of Microsoft's Azure and Google Cloud, delivering computing power, data storage, and other digital services to companies, governments, and individuals. Amazon's cloud division generated $33 billion in revenue in the third quarter, more than twice Google Cloud's $15.16 billion.

Alphabet, Microsoft, and Amazon have been increasing investment in infrastructure to handle rising internet traffic and the fast-growing compute demands of artificial intelligence systems.