Lumen Technologies has debuted its first and flagship service for its network-as-a-service (NaaS) platform – Internet-on-Demand – a move the company claims will “disrupt the telecom industry.”
Internet-on-Demand will allow enterprise customers to readily connect to Lumen’s network, either through a digital portal or via an application program interface (API). The connection can be made at a port-enabled business location or a public data center.
Once customers are connected, they can use Internet-on-Demand at speeds ranging from 100 Mbps to 1-gig all the way up to 10 Gbps. Each tier has an hourly rate with the 100 Mbps service starting at $0.46 per hour, the 1-gig tier at $1.08 per hour and the 10-gig tier boasting a $4.36 hourly rate.
Customers only need to pay for the time services are active. Lumen added Internet-on-Demand also gives users real-time visibility into service performance and network usage.
The service is starting with limited availability, meaning “specific Lumen customers who can utilize the NaaS capabilities through an existing port are being targeted,” according to a Lumen spokesperson.
“Customers not part of this initial availability can reach out to their Lumen sales teams to learn more about when this functionality will be available to them,” the rep told Fierce.
“We have been preparing for this moment for a long time, building a world-class telecom network with state-of-the-art fiber, broad coverage and unsurpassed route diversity and scalability,” said Lumen CEO Kate Johnson in a statement.
Johnson earlier this year discussed the possibility of fleshing out Lumen’s enterprise services, including its edge and security offerings.
The company said it will eventually expand its NaaS portfolio to include security services such as distributed denial of service (DDoS), secure access service edge (SASE) and edge services.
“Lumen's Network-as-a-Service offering takes the next step to deliver on our customers' networking dreams: the ability to fire up any port, with any service, at any time. It's your network, your way,” Johnson added.
To boost its NaaS reach, Lumen’s partnering with third-party data center providers like Digital Realty and Equinix. Customers with both Lumen and partnered data centers can use the Internet-on-Demand service and increase or decrease bandwidth as needed.
“It's all about enabling Network-as-a-Service for customers in those data center locations, and changing the way they buy, use, manage compared to the past,” said the Lumen spokesperson.
The launch of Lumen’s NaaS offering comes after the company in June partnered with Google and Microsoft to introduce the ExaSwitch optical networking platform. Sites connected to ExaSwitch are capable of up to 25.6 Tbps of optical cross connects.
Lumen this year also beefed up its SASE offering with Rapid Threat Defense, a product designed to block malicious traffic before it reaches a customer’s network.