Lumen and Microsoft Azure in mutually beneficial partnership
Lumen Technologies, formerly CenturyLink, has identified Microsoft Azure as its preferred public cloud service provider for enterprise customers’ workloads, and will incorporate additional enterprise application capabilities from Azure to Lumen’s wireline telco platform. Microsoft has in turn named Lumen a preferred partner that will support Azure globally via Lumen’s networking, infrastructure and managed services.
Mutual customers will benefit from being able to run their Microsoft-based solutions closer to where digital interactions are occurring using the global Edge Computing services of Lumen, creating one of the fastest, most secure platforms for applications and data.
“Working with Microsoft, Lumen will offer businesses and developers capabilities at the edge that are unique in the industry,” said Shaun Andrews, executive vice president and chief marketing officer for Lumen. “By deeply integrating more of our platform services with Microsoft Azure, we can help businesses quickly utilize their data for the insights they want and need, with the ability to support unique and customized use cases. We’re excited about the innovations and amazing new digital experiences we can enable for our mutual customers by extending Azure to the edge of our global network.”
Lumen will collaborate with Microsoft on several future go-to-market efforts to support mutual customers worldwide, using the resources of the Lumen Edge Experience Center, including:
- A certified Azure deployment which will be able to run in Lumen Edge Computing nodes worldwide, unlocking more low latency and high bandwidth use cases for customers of Azure service platform.
- Communication sector solutions based around Private 5G networks that would leverage the cloud-native software capabilities of Microsoft and the Lumen fiber network and Edge Computing capabilities. These solutions would allow customers to optimize their wireless networks and push workloads even closer to digital interactions.
- Enterprise sector managed solutions for a wide range of Microsoft software and cloud services to help optimize performance of business workloads and support a customer’s entire workforce, wherever they may reside.
“By making Microsoft Azure technology available on the Lumen platform we are giving enterprises access to an environment where they can get the low-latency performance they need for critical applications, with the familiarity of Microsoft services and tools,” said Yousef Khalidi, corporate vice president, Azure for Operators at Microsoft. “With this collaboration we are expanding the ways in which businesses can connect Azure to their enterprise networks and are excited about having Lumen as a collaboration partner to expand the number of use cases we can achieve at the edge of the network.”
Further solidifying their alliance, Lumen has selected Azure as the preferred public cloud venue for workloads that serve its enterprise customers, helping to improve customer experience for the Lumen platform and transforming the ways in which new service features get added to the platform. Enterprise customers will benefit from having consistent access management experiences across all Lumen digital services. Lumen will also leverage Azure, Microsoft Power Apps and Microsoft 365 E5 Security & Compliance for its internal digital transformation.
Additionally, Microsoft has named Lumen as one of its preferred partners supporting Azure globally with Lumen networking, infrastructure, and managed services. Enterprise customers will benefit from having even more high-performing network connectivity to all their Azure services from the Lumen platform.
Lumen’s network includes nearly 450,000 global route miles of fiber and over 180,000 on-net buildings connected to global edge nodes. In addition, Lumen says it has 350 data centers globally, and 2,200 third-party data centers in North America, Europe & Middle East, Latin America and Asia Pacific.
Key Facts:
- Lumen is a certified Microsoft Managed Services Partner for a wide range of Microsoft software and cloud services and Microsoft Gold Partner.
- Lumen edge nodes are designed to meet 95% of U.S. enterprise demand within 5 milliseconds of latency.
- For a current list of live and planned edge locations, visit: https://www.lumen.com/en-us/solutions/edge-computing.html#edge-computing-map
- The Lumen network is comprised of approximately 450,000 global route miles of fiber and more than 180,000 on-net buildings, seamlessly connected to global edge nodes, 350 Lumen data centers globally, and 2,200 third-party data centers in North America, Europe & Middle East, Latin America, and Asia Pacific.
Additional Resources:
For more information on Lumen Edge computing solutions visit: www.lumen.com/edge\
For more information on Azure Stack visit: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/overview/azure-stack/
Learn more about Lumen Solutions for Microsoft Teams here: https://www.lumen.com/en-us/communications/ucc.html
About Lumen Technologies:
Lumen is guided by our belief that humanity is at its best when technology advances the way we live and work. With approximately 450,000 route fiber miles and serving customers in more than 60 countries, we deliver the fastest, most secure platform for applications and data to help businesses, government and communities deliver amazing experiences. Learn more about the Lumen network, edge cloud, security, communication and collaboration solutions and our purpose to further human progress through technology at news.lumen.com/home
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Lumen and Lumen Technologies are registered trademarks in the United States.
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References:
https://www.lumen.com/en-us/about/4th-industrial-revolution.html