Because many organizations run distributed infrastructure across clouds, on-prem and colocation to support their applications, moving data between these disparate environments has become very complex. Each application has different networking requirements for performance, privacy and scalability.
I regularly speak with customers across industries who tell me they need more flexible network infrastructure. They may need to move significant volumes of data between clouds or from private infrastructure to a public cloud without using the internet. This is especially true for AI-related workloads that consume massive amounts of data sourced from industry and AI ecosystem partners. Further, some businesses require redundant connectivity between infrastructure deployed in multiple locations.
Early last year, we announced the availability of Equinix Fabric Cloud Router, a virtual routing service that’s a built-in component of Equinix Fabric®. Since that time, customers have discovered that it solves a broad range of multicloud use cases from data migrations to the management of distributed applications and many more, which we’ll discuss in this blog.
How a virtual router simplifies cloud connectivity
While there are other options for connecting applications and data across different clouds, none are as simple to manage or as cost-effective as a virtual cloud router. Physical routers are more costly upfront and start to depreciate immediately. Deploying virtual network devices requires continuous lifecycle management to ensure the most recent versions, install patches as necessary and apply organization-specific configurations.
Equinix Fabric Cloud Router is software-defined and delivered as a service, allowing companies to deploy virtual routing and privately connect to public and private clouds in minutes. Just specify the required bandwidth, what infrastructure you need to connect, and any Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) configurations required to make connections go live. Taking this approach helps companies reduce cloud data egress charges when compared to moving data over the internet, as private data egress is often charged at a much lower rate.
Use cases vary by situation and industry
There are many ways for companies to use Equinix Fabric Cloud Router, whether it’s for direct cloud-to-cloud connectivity or connecting public and private cloud environments in a hybrid cloud model. Fabric Cloud Router simplifies how companies transfer large files, provide simultaneous access to enterprise applications or establish redundancy quickly and cost-effectively. Let’s take a look at a few of the use cases organizations have solved with Equinix Fabric and Fabric Cloud Router.
Large one-time data migration
Uber needed to migrate 6.5 petabytes of data from another cloud provider to Google Cloud quickly to minimize duplicate storage costs during migration. They didn’t have time to order equipment or set up virtual devices such as firewalls or routers—and they didn’t want to get locked into long-term contracts for bandwidth. Uber was able to set up on-demand connectivity on Fabric Cloud Router in less than a day and initiate multiple data migrations. Learn more about Uber’s experience with Equinix Fabric Cloud Router.
Uber Data Migration via Fabric Cloud Router
Aggregate multiple sites to simplify WAN connectivity
A pharmaceutical company had multiple sites in Asia-Pacific using the internet to connect to the cloud. They deployed an IP-WAN full-mesh network that connected all the sites to a single Fabric Cloud Router connection, allowing them to pass traffic between the sites and to the cloud. Doing so simplified the WAN connectivity by removing multiple point-to-point connections.
Expand cloud voice services globally
In addition to its expansion plans, FirstDigital, a US-based telecommunications provider, aimed to become a certified Cisco Cloud Connected PSTN Provider globally. They established a presence at Equinix colocation data centers in each region and used Fabric Cloud Router to enable multicloud routing between their Cisco and AWS services. Read the FirstDigital case study to learn more about how the company achieved their ambitious plans.
FirstDigital Fabric Cloud Router Network for Multicloud with AWS and Cisco Webex PSTN Peering
Continuous transfers of high-bandwidth diagnostic files
A large hospital system had infrastructure deployments in three Equinix metro locations with 10G connections. They needed to increase their bandwidth for transferring large imaging files from their on-premises equipment to a public cloud privately instead of using the internet. Equinix Fabric Cloud Router was the clear choice due to its simplicity of setup and private transfer capability.
Simultaneous access to enterprise-level applications in multiple clouds
A financial services company needed 25G virtual circuits to ensure adequate bandwidth for aggregated traffic. Corporate customers were simultaneously connecting to the company’s network and accessing applications in multiple CSPs.
Further, the company had infrastructure in multiple Equinix colocation data centers and wanted to connect these sites as well. They used multiple instances of Fabric Cloud Router and created an IP-WAN to aggregate locations across various regions for redundancy. If one CSP is down in one region, they can connect to that CSP in another.
Inspect traffic before releasing it to CSP
There may be circumstances when a business wants to pass data through a security device before releasing it to the receiving CSP. Connecting Fabric Cloud Router to equipment in a physical cage enables data inspection while en route from one CSP to another. This approach may also reduce both costs and administrative overhead associated with deploying security stacks across multiple cloud vendors.
Access multicloud connectivity worldwide
Equinix Fabric Cloud Router is available in 60+ metros worldwide with access to all the major cloud providers via our industry-leading portfolio of 220+ cloud on-ramps. Businesses can also access the Equinix ecosystem through our global platform of colocation data centers, which includes 260+ facilities on six continents. There are thousands of cloud, network and SaaS providers and enterprises participating in our ecosystem—all interconnected for seamless integration to optimize costs, enhance performance and expand functionality.
Fabric Cloud Router is available in several service packages, including our free Lab package, which offers up to 10 virtual connections and 50 Mbps of bandwidth per connection. The Lab package allows you to evaluate Fabric Cloud Router and build proofs of concept.
Visit our website today to learn more or get started.
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