FirstDigital drives global expansion with multicloud routing

Scaling cloud voice globally

Using Equinix Fabric® Cloud Router, FirstDigital extended the reach of its cloud voice offerings into Europe, Asia and Australia, reaching a total of more than 65 countries. The move allowed FirstDigital to achieve Cisco Cloud Connected PSTN Provider (CCPP) status, while also significantly reducing its IT infrastructure costs.

Achieving global reach

FirstDigital sought to expand its voice services to meet demand from multinational customers. These customers sought the flexibility to extend voice services into new markets quickly and cost-efficiently.

To support this goal, FirstDigital aimed to become a certified Cisco Cloud Connected PSTN Provider (CCPP) internationally. However, becoming a CCPP required diverse data centers in each region and private connectivity back to Cisco. At the same time, the company needed multicloud routing between its Cisco and AWS services. Using physical infrastructure to meet these requirements would have been difficult and expensive.

Virtual cloud routing for the win

As Equinix prepared to announce the new Equinix Fabric Cloud Router solution, an on-demand virtual cloud routing service, in 2023, perfect timing allowed FirstDigital to participate in beta customer testing. The company learned that it could create Equinix Fabric Cloud Router instances within minutes instead of deploying and licensing physical routers. The solution also proved to be more cost-efficient than setting up third-party cross connects in each region.

The company decided to roll out Equinix Fabric Cloud Router in six global metros, with two metros each in the following regions:

• Europe: Amsterdam and Frankfurt
• Asia: Singapore and Tokyo
• Australia: Sydney and Melbourne

Thanks to Equinix Fabric Cloud Router, FirstDigital met the requirements of the Cisco CCPP program while also ensuring reliable last-mile connectivity with its AWS cloud services.

Doing more for much less

As a result of the transformation, FirstDigital can now offer its customers cost-efficient Cisco voice services in 65+ countries around the world. It also estimates that the new solution costs about 80% less than its previous colocation-based architecture. Using conventional physical infrastructure to achieve the same results worldwide would have been much more expensive.

Dunford explains, “Being able to connect privately with different cloud partners via Fabric Cloud Router was essential to the success of our project.”

There’s more to come. Going forward, the company plans to leverage Equinix infrastructure to help expand its Microsoft voice services internationally as well. This will give customers even greater flexibility in service offerings and deployment locations.

Benefits

Connectivity between cloud and SaaS providers

Equinix Fabric Cloud Router provides a bridge between FirstDigital’s Cisco and AWS deployments. Traffic is now routed quickly and reliably between the two providers.

Lower latency

Keeping voice traffic in each region (instead of routing it through the U.S.) helps maintain low latency. Additionally, private connections provide performance benefits over the internet. Together, these factors give FirstDigital a much wider buffer to avoid service degradation due to latency.

Flexibility and scalability

Since the solution relies on virtual connections instead of physical cross connects, it would be quick and easy to expand if FirstDigital ever decides to do so.