Enhancing the Network Experience with CenturyLink and IBM

With the backdrop of being a Gold Sponsor at ITW (International Telecoms Week), it’s a great time to highlight how we’re expanding our relationship with IBM to drive cloud connectivity for enterprises as they look to get closer to the edge.

Our Cloud Connect portfolio has been enhanced to include Ethernet access to IBM Cloud, via San Jose, Calif. And we’re also on the brink of going live at a second site, in Dallas, too.

We’re excited to offer this new service for our mutual customers.  These new IBM Direct Link Connect options are built on the CenturyLink SDN-based networking platform and pave the way for future enhancements around customer self-service and on-demand provisioning.

Together, CenturyLink^® Cloud Connect Solutions and IBM Cloud Direct Link provide enterprises with private connectivity to the IBM Cloud via IP VPN, Wavelength and now Ethernet. San Jose is the first of several locations slated to be available where we are jointly adding Ethernet capability.

“CenturyLink is an important partner in the IBM Cloud ecosystem and we’re excited to see our partnership continue to expand,” said Paul Hertzfeldt, Offering Manager of IBM Cloud. “With CenturyLink Cloud Connect now supporting Ethernet connections, our mutual customers will have an easy and rapidly deployable networking option to establish their IBM Cloud Direct Link connections. Our customers will benefit from this increased agility as they continue their digital transformations and take the next steps in implementing their hybrid cloud strategies.”

CenturyLink is one of IBM Cloud’s first Direct Link Connect providers in the Direct Link Service Provider Program, and we’re excited for our continued collaboration and growth.

Our robust network footprint and our agile connectivity options have delivered increased accessibility to the cloud globally for enterprises. Together with IBM, we’ve built a significant IT infrastructure to enable this just in late 2018 in both in the United States and in Latin America.

Already, we’re seeing customers leveraging private connectivity to power many of their mission-critical workloads where milliseconds truly matter and security is paramount. More and more enterprises today are realizing the power of fast and reliable connections to IBM Cloud as they execute more effectively on their cloud objectives. Plus, we also have a strong value proposition in our ability to support disaster recovery and network backup for enterprises throughout the region, thanks to our high-performance Ethernet services.

Our latest move is continued validation of our great relationship with IBM. In April, we announced that we are offering IBM Cloud object storage for customers. IBM Cloud, IBM Business Resiliency Services and IBM Cloud Managed Services are all part of the CenturyLink Cloud Connect ecosystem, which includes many of the largest, most well-known cloud providers in the industry.

CenturyLink Cloud Connect, which has global reach and extensive Layer 1, 2 and 3 connectivity options, offers improved performance, enhanced security (private connections), and increased agility (customers can scale up or down on-demand).

Thanks to Paul Hertzfeldt and the IBM team for the strong support and collaboration. We’re proud to be a Gold Sponsor at ITW this year, and can’t think of a better way to commemorate it than with IBM.

Learn more about CenturyLink Cloud Connect and the Direct Link Service Provider Program.

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