Lumen Technologies (NYSE:LUMN) saw its shares climb 4% on Wednesday following the company's announcement that it has become the first network provider to offer last-mile connectivity for AWS Interconnect.
The tie-up allows enterprises to create private, high-speed links from their offices, data centers or remote sites directly to Amazon Web Services. Connections can be initiated and managed through the AWS Console as well as Lumen's Connect portal, enabling customers to establish links without coordinating across multiple providers or performing manual configuration.
Lumen said the service is intended to compress deployment schedules - targeting a reduction from weeks to minutes - by streamlining the connectivity setup and removing the need for separate vendor arrangements and manual processes.
Lumen Cloud Interconnect relies on the company's last-mile and metro network footprint, which spans more than 340,000 route miles and connects thousands of enterprise locations and data centers across the United States.
"Cloud and network infrastructure can no longer operate separately; modern applications demand they work as one," said Jim Fowler, Chief Technology and Product Officer at Lumen Technologies. "Cloud providers are increasingly integrating connectivity as a cloud service, and Lumen's network enables that seamless experience."
The service is positioned to support organizations that move large volumes of data, including use cases tied to generative AI, machine learning, data-intensive analytics and real-time applications. Lumen highlighted that sectors such as healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and media are expected to see benefits from the enhanced connectivity.
AWS Interconnect - last mile with Lumen Cloud Interconnect is now generally available to enterprise customers in the United States. Customers can both initiate connections and monitor availability, latency and performance through the AWS Console and Lumen's digital platform.
While the announcement focused on streamlined provisioning and enterprise-grade throughput, the availability is presently stated as limited to U.S. enterprise customers and the stated deployment speed improvements are framed as the service's objective.