Private, Reliable Connectivity Directly into Microsoft Azure
Azure ExpressRoute establishes a private connection between your infrastructure and Microsoft's global network — bypassing the public internet to deliver consistent performance for Azure workloads, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365 at enterprise scale.
What RLM Delivers on Azure ExpressRoute
RLM advises enterprises on ExpressRoute circuit design, peering configuration, redundancy architecture, and provider selection — ensuring your Azure connectivity is designed to meet the performance and availability requirements of your most demanding workloads.
How We Approach Azure ExpressRoute
Our cloud advisory runs from discovery and market evaluation through vendor selection and post-deployment optimization — scoped to the Azure ExpressRoute decision in front of you.
Azure Workload & Traffic Assessment
We analyze your Azure-bound traffic — virtual machine access, SQL MI/Azure SQL, Azure Storage, Microsoft 365, and Dynamics 365 — to identify connectivity requirements, bandwidth needs, and latency sensitivity by workload category.
ExpressRoute Provider & Circuit Design
We evaluate ExpressRoute connectivity providers — AT&T, Equinix, Megaport, and others — and design the circuit topology: standard vs. premium circuits, circuit size, peering types, and geographic distribution.
Microsoft 365 & Global Reach Design
Microsoft 365 traffic benefits from ExpressRoute routing through Microsoft Peering. We evaluate the Microsoft Peering configuration and Global Reach design for multi-region enterprises that need inter-region connectivity via Microsoft's backbone.
Failover & Redundancy Architecture
We design the redundancy model — dual circuits, active-active BGP, backup VPN via Azure VPN Gateway — and test the failover behavior to ensure connectivity resilience meets your business continuity requirements.
Azure ExpressRoute Evaluation Criteria
The questions below are the ones that decide whether a Azure ExpressRoute investment pays back — and the ones vendors are least eager to answer.
Circuit SKU & Bandwidth
Standard vs. Premium circuits have different geographic peering scope and Microsoft 365 optimization features. Evaluate the right SKU and starting bandwidth against your projected workload growth.
Peering Types
Private Peering connects to Azure VNets; Microsoft Peering connects to Azure public services and M365. Evaluate which peering types your workloads require — most enterprises need both.
ExpressRoute Direct vs. Provider
ExpressRoute Direct provides 10G/100G ports directly at Microsoft edge locations. Evaluate whether your volume justifies Direct over provider-based circuits.
Microsoft 365 Routing
Routing M365 traffic through ExpressRoute requires careful configuration to avoid suboptimal traffic paths. Evaluate the split-tunneling approach and traffic selectors appropriate for your M365 usage.
Co-location & Last-Mile Options
ExpressRoute requires connectivity to a peering location. Evaluate your existing colocation relationships, MPLS provider network reach, and the provisioning lead time for your geographic locations.
Cost vs. Performance Benefit
ExpressRoute has significant MRC. Quantify the performance and reliability benefit against the cost — particularly for Microsoft 365 optimization where the routing benefit may be marginal on modern internet connections.
"RLM helped us rationalize our multi-cloud spend and identify over $1.2M in annual savings. Their approach was methodical and unbiased — exactly what we needed."
The benchmark comes first. Without a baseline, “savings” is just a number a vendor gave you.
Where This Matters Most
Sector-specific considerations we see repeatedly in cloud and managed services engagements.
A Sample of the Cloud & Managed Services Providers We Evaluate
RLM is vendor neutral. These are among 600+ providers in our evaluation set — inclusion here is not an endorsement, and we are paid by the provider you choose, not by any provider in particular. How that works →
Ready to Move on Azure ExpressRoute?
Start with a no-cost conversation with an RLM cloud advisor — vendor neutral, no agenda, just clarity on the right path forward.
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