Dissolving the boundary between cloud and network

By Scott Yow, Senior Vice President of Product, Lumen Technologies, and co author Rob Kennedy, Vice President of Network Services, Amazon Web Services

This article was originally published on the AWS Networking & Content Delivery blog and has been reposted here with permission. You can read the original post at Dissolving the Boundary Between Cloud and Network | Networking & Content Delivery.

AWS and Lumen simplify enterprise cloud connectivity with AWS Interconnect – last mile and Lumen Cloud Interconnect

For decades, the cloud and the network connecting to it have operated as separate domains managed by different teams, vendors and operational models. Enterprises have long accepted that moving data into the cloud meant navigating a handoff between two systems that weren’t designed to work together smoothly.

That era is ending.

We're excited to announce the general availability of AWS Interconnect - last mile together with Lumen Technologies. This new capability allows enterprises to provision predictable, private, high-speed connectivity from their locations directly to AWS through the AWS Console. Connectivity is delivered using Lumen Cloud Interconnect, with provisioning handled on the backend to extend AWS capabilities to Lumen network connectivity. What once required weeks of coordination between IT and cloud teams can now be initiated with just a few clicks.

AWS built Interconnect – last mile on an open specification to enable any network provider to deliver frictionless, on-demand, private cloud connectivity through the AWS Console and Amazon Command Line Interface (CLI). Lumen is the first partner to deliver this experience to enterprise customers at scale.

Why this moment matters

As traffic demands increase, businesses need connectivity that can scale with them. AWS Interconnect – last mile is designed to support scalable bandwidth needs, giving customers the flexibility to align connectivity with workload requirements of today while planning for future growth.

This scalability is increasingly important for organizations supporting GenAI and machine learning workloads, data-intensive analytics and hybrid application architectures across various performance and latency-sensitive use cases.

Unlike traditional connectivity models where scheduled maintenance can disrupt service, Interconnect – last mile maintains redundant links during maintenance, so traffic fails over automatically—no customer intervention required. For many organizations, extending high-performance connectivity to AWS has involved multiple providers, manual configuration steps and long provisioning cycles. AWS Interconnect – last mile is designed to evolve that experience.

With extensive and flexible network capabilities from Lumen, combined with AWS automation and resilient, high-speed network connections, customers can simplify the deployment process for connections between enterprise locations and AWS. Core networking configuration tasks such as Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) setup are automated, helping customers reduce setup complexity and move from planning to production more quickly. This means IT teams can spend less time coordinating infrastructure details and more time enabling the applications and services that drive business outcomes.

AWS and Lumen set out to simplify that experience.

A collaboration built on complementary strengths

What makes this collaboration effective is that each company focuses on its strengths.

Lumen provides one of the most extensive fiber networks in the United States, with 340,000 global fiber route miles, access to over 2,200 third-party data centers and decades of experience connecting enterprise locations. That physical infrastructure is the foundation that makes last-mile connectivity possible at scale.

AWS provides a highly secure, reliable and extensive cloud platform, including the console, APIs and open specifications, and operational framework enterprises use to manage their infrastructure.

Security is built into the foundation of this collaboration. MACsec encryption is enabled by default on the AWS-to-partner interconnect, protecting data in transit at the AWS network boundary—while the Lumen fiber infrastructure provides the redundancy that enterprises require. Together, this is designed to create end-to-end protection from customer premises through AWS.

This collaboration treats the network as an integral part of the cloud rather than a handoff between two separate systems. Combining AWS cloud integration with Lumen network capabilities provides a unified and smooth path to connecting enterprise sites to AWS infrastructure. This reflects a broader shift across the industry: cloud providers are beginning to treat connectivity like a cloud service, and the Lumen Network helps make that experience possible.

Connectivity as a foundation for GenAI

Modern GenAI systems depend on fast, reliable access to data. Training models, running real-time inference and supporting automated workflows all require consistent, low-latency connections between enterprise systems and cloud environments.

As enterprises accelerate AI adoption, modernize applications and distribute workloads across hybrid environments, network connectivity has become a strategic requirement. AWS Interconnect – last mile helps customers establish private connectivity between on-premises sites and AWS using a streamlined experience while delivering the performance and resiliency desired in enterprise-grade cloud connectivity.

An open ecosystem by design

AWS Interconnect is built on an open specification and API that enables network providers to connect directly with AWS infrastructure. This parent service powers two subservices: AWS Interconnect – last mile and AWS Interconnect – multicloud. Each leverages the same open framework to deliver private cloud connectivity through the AWS Console and Amazon CLI. The specification is publicly available on GitHub, enabling network providers to connect their infrastructure directly into the AWS console experience. Lumen is the first partner to implement this model at scale, and additional providers will participate over time.

What general availability means

With the recent general availability launch, AWS Interconnect – last mile with Lumen is available to enterprise customers in the United States. The interconnection infrastructure is in US-East-1 today, but customers in the continental U.S. can connect over the Lumen backbone, and they can reach AWS Regions globally via AWS Direct Connect Gateway (DXGW). Customers can initiate connections through AWS Console and Lumen Connect, with visibility into availability, latency and performance across their connections.

The boundary has moved

The network and the cloud are no longer separate concerns. Together they form the foundation for modern enterprise computing. AWS Interconnect – last mile represents a new model for how enterprises connect to the cloud: automated, resilient and managed end-to-end. Organizations that treat connectivity as an integral part of their cloud architecture will be better positioned as AI workloads become more distributed and more demanding.

The handoff between cloud and network infrastructure has evolved from a multistep process to an integrated workflow, marking the next chapter in enterprise connectivity.

Getting started takes just a few clicks. In the AWS Console, customers select location, partner, preferred Region and bandwidth requirements—and the service generates an activation key. From there, customers authenticate with Lumen, apply the key and the connection is provisioned end-to-end: four redundant links, BGP peering, VLAN configuration and MACsec encryption are all handled automatically.

Explore AWS Interconnect – last mile with Lumen and see how you can provision private, resilient connectivity to AWS quickly and easily.

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