IDC Weighs In On Lumen Network‑as‑a‑Service

In today’s fast-moving technology environment, every part of your enterprise network must be able to quickly scale up or down to deliver what you need, when you need it. To meet this need for our customers, we recently launched our Network-as-a-Service platform—a disruptive new approach that revolutionizes how businesses deliver and consume network services. 

See why IDC called Lumen^® Internet On-Demand, our first NaaS service, “a clear and concise offering … [that] can bring immediate value to customers.” 

The problem with legacy networks

Too often, businesses rely on decades-old legacy network technology that wasn’t built for our digital, cloud-centric world. These systems, typically offered by traditional telecom providers, create challenges because they are:

• Hard to buy. Businesses need fast provisioning of data center connections, but the buying experience for new connections and ports is non-digital—and it can take up to 90 days to complete.
• Hard to manage. Customers have limited flexibility and control and are forced to pay standard monthly rates regardless of how they use the service.
• Hard to use. Connectivity isn’t always reliable, and interfaces often don’t integrate well with other apps and solutions.

The Lumen NaaS platform helps solve these challenges by making networking as agile as the on-demand, cloud-centric app environments we’re already used to. This enables businesses to keep pace with innovation, quickly adapt to changing needs, and optimize network performance and user experiences. 

Why on-demand is good for business

Our initial NaaS offering, Lumen^® Internet On-Demand, simplifies the way customers purchase, deploy and manage our popular dedicated internet service. Key capabilities include: 

• Ability to scale capacity in minutes
• Bandwidth from 100 Mbps to 10 Gbps
• A consumption-based billing model
• Real-time visibility into service performance and network usage
• Rapid enablement of new capabilities

Lumen^® Internet On-Demand offers radical flexibility—fire up any port, with any service, at any time, in minutes not months—so you can do everything digitally in just a few clicks. Turn up new services for as long as you want and deprovision them instantly when you no longer need them.  

Going forward, Lumen NaaS will leverage a broad set of partners to expand these capabilities—including data centers such as Equinix and Digital Realty—along with cloud, technology and managed service providers. Over time, offerings will expand to additional security and network services that customers will be able to purchase and activate in minutes via our digital portal or APIs.

IDC’s quick take

But don’t take our word for it. According to a recent IDC commentary, “Lumen^® Internet On‑Demand is well articulated and can bring immediate value to customers.”¹ IDC also notes, “This is a positive step that will help establish Lumen as an important provider of NaaS. Its road map will expand NaaS into networking services such as SD-WAN, security/SASE, and other Edge services that witness a strong uptake in the future.”¹

Looking ahead, IDC expects Internet On‑Demand, “will help establish Lumen as an important provider of NaaS services.”¹ 

Experience Lumen NaaS for yourself. Quickly connect to on-demand internet services with no long-term contracts, no credit card requirements and no termination fees on a simple, pay-as-you-go model.* 

¹IDC Link, Lumen launches NaaS Platform with Internet On‑Demand offering, August 01, 2023.

*Lumen Internet On-Demand requires a Lumen Internet port under a minimum term agreement with early termination fees. 

This content is provided for informational purposes only and may require additional research and substantiation by the end user. In addition, the information is provided “as is” without any warranty or condition of any kind, either express or implied. Use of this information is at the end user’s own risk. Lumen does not warrant that the information will meet the end user’s requirements or that the implementation or usage of this information will result in the desired outcome of the end user. All third-party company and product or service names referenced in this article are for identification purposes only and do not imply endorsement or affiliation with Lumen. This document represents Lumen products and offerings as of the date of issue.