A lot of what we are working on at Lumen is complicated: cloud connectivity, AI, on-ramps, north-south and east-west traffic, Lumen® Multi-Cloud Gateway, and our recent acquisition of cloud networking provider Alkira. Each piece makes sense on its own, but it can be harder to see how everything fits together.

I found myself having many of the same conversations with customers, employees and teams across Lumen. People wanted to understand where the industry is going, what we are building and how the different parts of our strategy are connected.

At some point, I realized the answer probably was not another PowerPoint slide.

So, one evening, armed with my tablet and a glass of wine, I started drawing.

The first sketches were simply a way to organize my own thinking and make these ideas easier to explain. But as I started sharing them, they helped create a common language. They made it easier to talk about how data moves, how cloud environments connect, and how orchestration and control are changing the way networks are built and consumed.

That is how Doodles with Scott came to life.

In these short videos, I use the doodles to break down complicated ideas and show how the pieces of the strategy connect: cloud on-ramps, north-south and east-west traffic, multicloud networking and Alkira-enabled orchestration. I also share where the industry is heading, what Lumen is building and how we are turning that vision into a programmable network designed for the AI era. Hopefully, they make the strategy feel a little less abstract, a lot easier to understand and more real.

Cloud connectivity has evolved

For years, many networks were built around predictable patterns. Users connected to applications. Data moved in and out of centralized environments. Cloud adoption changed that model, and now AI is changing it again by increasing demand for faster, more flexible and more distributed data movement.

Today, enterprises need cloud connectivity that can support a more distributed mix of clouds, data centers, edge locations, applications, partners and AI environments. More of that traffic is moving between environments, not just into and out of them. Now there are new demands for performance, security, visibility and control. Businesses need networks that can be consumed and managed more like software.

At Lumen, we are building toward that future with a programmable network designed to help customers move data securely, intelligently and at scale.

There's a common thread that connects all the videos: AI is changing where data lives, how it moves and how networks need to respond. The series starts with the basics of cloud access, then moves into data movement, multicloud routing and orchestration. Each video builds on the last to show how Lumen is thinking about the trusted network for AI.

Cloud on-ramps create a fast path to cloud environments

The journey starts with access. Cloud on-ramps provide private, scalable connectivity to cloud providers and digital ecosystems, helping organizations establish reliable paths into cloud environments.

Cloud networking depends on movement in every direction

Once organizations are connected, the next challenge is moving data. This video shows why north-south and east-west traffic have become critical to AI workloads and multicloud environments.

Multicloud networking needs a simpler path

As environments become more distributed, organizations need a simpler way to manage connectivity. This video explores how Multi-Cloud Gateway helps streamline multicloud networking through a programmable routing layer.

Alkira brings orchestration to cloud networking

The final video brings the story together through Alkira. See how a cloud-native control plane, combined with the Lumen Network, helps organizations unify connectivity, orchestration and control across multicloud environments.

Building the trusted network for AI

Taken together, these doodles show the path Lumen is taking to help enterprises modernize the way they connect, move, manage and control data in the AI era. Accessibility gets customers to the cloud. Movement helps data reach the places it needs to go. Orchestration simplifies how environments work together. Control gives teams a more consistent way to manage complexity.

That is the trusted network for AI in action: a network strategy built to help customers move faster, simplify operations and prepare for whatever comes next.

Learn how Lumen helps organizations connect clouds, move data and support AI-ready networking.

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