A private network backbone replaces internet transit for enterprise WAN traffic — delivering consistent latency, predictable throughput, and end-to-end visibility between your locations, cloud environments, and data centers over a carrier-grade private network.
RLM advises enterprises on private backbone architecture, provider selection, peering topology, and the hybrid connectivity design that integrates private backbone with direct cloud connect services for a unified, high-performance network fabric.
A structured advisory process — from discovery and market evaluation to negotiation and post-deployment optimization — tailored to your specific environment and objectives.
We map your enterprise traffic flows — location-to-location, location-to-cloud, and data center interconnect — and identify the latency, bandwidth, and reliability requirements that determine whether private backbone delivers ROI over optimized internet transit.
We evaluate providers — Zayo, Lumen, Windstream, Cogent, and others — based on your geographic footprint, PoP coverage, SLA commitments, pricing model, and the quality of their peering with your cloud providers.
We design the private backbone topology — hub-and-spoke vs. full mesh, cloud on-ramp integration, redundancy paths, and the integration with Direct Connect/ExpressRoute at cloud edges.
Migrating from MPLS or internet transit to private backbone requires careful traffic migration planning. We design the cutover approach that maintains service continuity during transition.
These are the dimensions that consistently separate successful deployments from costly ones — and the questions RLM will help you answer before any commitment.
Private backbone value depends on how many of your locations have access to the provider's network. Evaluate PoP density in your specific geographic footprint — not the provider's global presence.
The best private backbone providers offer integrated cloud on-ramp services — direct handoff to AWS, Azure, and GCP — creating a seamless private path from any enterprise location to any cloud. Evaluate cloud on-ramp partnerships and the pricing for direct cloud handoff over the backbone.
Evaluate latency SLAs (not just availability SLAs) for the specific PoP pairs in your topology. Latency-sensitive applications require guaranteed max latency, not just average latency commitments.
Private backbone pricing varies significantly — per-Mbps committed, burst pricing, port pricing. Evaluate the pricing model against your traffic patterns, particularly if you have highly variable utilization.
Traditional MPLS and modern IP-based private backbone have different QoS capabilities, pricing models, and migration complexity. Evaluate which architecture fits your traffic mix and operations capability.
Single-carrier private backbone creates vendor concentration risk. Evaluate multi-carrier redundancy options and the failover behavior when the primary backbone has a partial outage.
"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."
"Our migration was stalled for months. RLM came in, assessed the gaps, and helped us select a managed services partner that got us across the finish line in 60 days."
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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