Case Study: PCL Construction achieves up to 59% lower latency and faster Azure delivery with Equinix

Global construction contracting company leverages an interconnection-first strategy

PCL Construction, Canada’s largest construction contractor, needed to move from a traditional on‑premises, hardware‑centric IT model to a more agile, cost‑effective cloud environment to support remote offices and job sites. While migrating to Microsoft Azure, the company found its legacy MPLS backbone could not deliver the low‑latency, secure, and reliable connectivity required for consistent cloud performance across distributed locations.

PCL deployed an interconnection‑first architecture using Equinix Fabric and Microsoft Azure ExpressRoute with a dedicated Equinix POP, gaining direct, low‑latency links to Azure. The change cut latency up to 59% (4x improvement from 13 ms to 3 ms), delivered consistent sub‑100 ms performance globally, reduced new service delivery from weeks to under 4 hours, saved about $500K annually, and improved security, user experience and readiness for SD‑WAN.

PCL Construction

Chris Palmer

Senior Manager of Advanced Technology Services