CenturyLink on Enterprise: “Let There Be Lumen!” The short headline is that CenturyLink is splitting into two independently branded and operated entities, the continuing CenturyLink concentrating on the consumer business and the new Lumen representing both the enterprise market and the company as a whole. But that belies more fundamental changes, with implications for telecom suppliers and CenturyLink customers alike. The opportunity Looking behind this move is future opportunity and emerging technology that mesh beautifully – assuming all goes according to plan. SDN, SD-WAN, cloud, network virtualization, configurable optics – all the “gee-whiz” technologies (with 5G notably absent) – unlock the majority of their value when delivering enterprise, not purely consumer, services. CenturyLink recognizes this, and in fact began their presentation with the much talked-about “4th industrial revolution” and how they intend to play an infrastructure and platform role in making that dream real. When we say “Infrastructure” we mean the facilities and capabilities that Lumen can bring to the table. When we say “platform” we refer to systems they are providing to orchestrate and chain infrastructure – including 3rd party – into services. Or that’s the concept – stay tuned for more. They are fundamentally right. Most of the […]