Control online operations

It means moving the networking that typically lives inside a colocation facility, including routing, segmentation, security inspection and cloud on-ramp aggregation, out of physical hardware and into a cloud-native control plane delivered as a service. Lumen delivers it with Alkira, a Lumen Connect solution, over Lumen connectivity. The facility can stay; the racks of routers, firewalls and cross-connects that make it a connectivity hub don't have to. Customers adopt this approach to reduce hardware, backhaul and operational costs.

It is a strong fit for enterprises that use one or more colocation or data center facilities to aggregate branch, cloud and partner traffic. Common indicators that this solution is a good fit include an upcoming colocation renewal, a data center refresh, routers or firewalls approaching end-of-life, traffic backhauling through a central hub, expansion into a new metro, or pressure to consolidate the colocation footprint.

Sites, data centers, clouds and partners connect to Alkira Cloud Exchange Points, which are virtual points of presence hosted in AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud regions, using connectors instead of physical devices. Branches connect over IPsec using Lumen® Intelligent Internet or Lumen® IP VPN On-Demand, data centers connect privately through Lumen® Ethernet Fabric Connect and Multi-Cloud Gateway, and cloud environments attach through automated on-ramps. Routing and policy are defined once in the Alkira Portal or through APIs and Terraform, then applied consistently across the environment.

A cross-connect links two endpoints within a single facility, and SD-WAN connects sites, but neither eliminates the need for a central networking hub. Interconnect exchanges can simplify connectivity between locations, yet you still manage the underlying hardware and an expanding web of connections. Software-only providers offer a control plane with no underlay beneath it. Cloud-provider WAN services work well within a single cloud ecosystem but require additional integration across external environments. Lumen combines a cloud-native control plane with its own fiber, waves and route diversity, delivering a solution that remains cloud- and carrier-agnostic.

The control plane is Alkira, a Lumen Connect solution. Beneath it, Lumen can provide Multi-Cloud Gateway for private routing and cloud on-ramp aggregation, Ethernet Fabric Connect for private Layer 2 transport, Lumen® Intelligent Internet for programmable dedicated internet access, IP VPN On-Demand for private Layer 3 connectivity, Lumen® Cloud Interconnect for private cloud circuits, and Lumen® Wavelength Solutions for high-capacity optical transport. You do not need all of them. Alkira can also operate over connectivity already in place.

You are consolidating security, not removing it. Security inspection moves into the fabric, where policy converges and segments are isolated by default, with traffic allowed between them only through explicit policy. You can integrate the next-generation firewalls you already use, including Palo Alto, Fortinet, Check Point and Cisco, and steer only the traffic that requires inspection through them. Policy is defined once and applied consistently across the environment instead of being managed appliance by appliance in every hub.