Applications Take Center Stage, As Networking at the Edge Evolves

IT leaders have no shortage of priorities to balance as they position their organizations for resiliency and growth. And one of the hotspots for growth and transformation is the Edge.

We’re all familiar with the idea of “Infrastructure-as-a-Service.” Well, how about “Infrastructure-as-a-Distraction?”

Lumen Technologies CTO Andrew Dugan offers that observation during his conversation with IDG’s Jim Malone in Episode 5 of Lumen’s podcast series.

“Historically CIOs and IT managers have had to build the infrastructure that they need to operate their applications, so build datacenters, build space power, build and manage the network that supports all of that,” Dugan says.  “And with that need to build that comes need to worry about servers, storage, and those networks. I believe those are distractions from the applications that really drive the business.”

The key is that Dugan sees applications becoming that increasingly more important part of how business operates.

“Applications really are what enable their employees to be productive, for them to operate their time-sensitive business, and for their customers to interact with their services,” says Dugan. “For many of our customers the applications they operate determine the success of their business.”

 IT leaders are turning to providers like Lumen for cloud and dynamic networking services, relieving them of the infrastructure “distraction” and allowing them to focus on those critical applications.

Tune in as Dugan explores how that shift is shaping Lumen’s approach to cloud and networking services, and how they’re helping customers from the edge to the data center to the last mile.

Listen to the full episode below.