By Laura Hyde |
Microsoft and Lumen Technologies are collaborating to overcome the networking and connectivity challenges facing enterprise customers as they look to adopt AI at scale. The agreement combines Lumen’s networking capabilities with the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, and the two firms will jointly market networking and cloud solutions designed to help organisations connect data, applications and infrastructure across cloud, data centre and hybrid environments.
The expanded co-selling collaboration has been designed to ensure organisations have the connectivity, security and performance required to support AI workloads running on Microsoft Azure. The companies also plan to expand access to Lumen Connect capabilities and cloud-native networking services through Azure and the Microsoft Marketplace.
The two companies acknowledge fragmented network architectures can become a significant barrier to broader AI adoption. The agreement aims to address this challenge by bringing together Lumen’s networking expertise and Microsoft Azure’s cloud and AI capabilities. The collaboration builds on existing integration between Microsoft’s cloud platform and Alkira, a Lumen Connect solution available through the Microsoft Marketplace that helps organisations connect, secure and manage networks across hybrid and multicloud environments.
“Enterprises are moving quickly to adopt AI, but many are still figuring out how to connect the data, applications and infrastructure behind it,” said Ryan Asdourian, chief strategy and marketing officer at Lumen. “Together with Microsoft, we’re bringing cloud, network and AI planning together earlier and putting AI to work more effectively.”
Microsoft and Lumen will also explore how secure, high-performance networks can help organisations roll out AI more confidently across their operations while maintaining control, visibility and compliance.
“AI is reshaping where applications run and how organisations use and move data,” said Katy Brown, corporate vice president of Americas markets and industries at Microsoft. “Microsoft is committed to giving customers choice as they connect existing environments to Azure. Our work with Lumen is focused on helping customers align their broader network transformation with their Azure cloud and AI priorities, while taking advantage of Azure’s native networking, security, scale and innovation.”