How The Network Became A Good Friend You Can Trust, Especially In Times Like These

For those of us who have been in the telecom business for a while, the network has always been like an old friend.  While all the attention over the years has been on new digital wonders—from smart devices and wearables to the “Internet of Things” and cloud computing—the network’s central role in making all this “magic” happen was generally hidden from the public eye.

Until now.

The impact of the global pandemic has made it clear to everyone how important the network truly is.  In fact, the network was starting to see a lot of love in the weeks before this coronavirus crisis began. During a recent industry forum sponsored by CenturyLink, an analyst told me point blank that the network was “hot” again, using adjectives normally associated with high school “crushes.”

We live in an age of heightened expectations.  Whether we compete in popular online games or stream the big football game on a smart phone or wonder why it takes so long to see election results, instant gratification is the new normal.  Data has become the fuel that drives innovation, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction.  Enterprises of all sizes need to figure out how to manage this flood of information, extract the most important details, and use these insights to meet the desires of its customers.

Fortunately, CenturyLink’s adaptive networking has all the characteristics you would expect from a good friend in a time of need.

It knows you best:  Enterprise leaders tell me their businesses require a flexible, self-learning foundation that allows them to move, add, change, and delete network services on demand.  We are one of the world’s largest public ISP deploying over 80,000 software-controlled devices to help drive traffic on one of the world’s most interconnected networks. And we recently nearly tripled our SD-WAN reach to approximately 100 countries. By virtualizing key network functions, we can help you get insights into where your data flows to help you make the right decisions about the services you use to meet your own business requirements. And all that intelligence will help make sure your localized traffic moves faster and avoids congestion.

It’s a great listener:  Our adaptive network hangs on your every word. I’ve seen first-hand how companies experience different digital journeys, so we provide the tools and capabilities that allow you to spin-up, tear down and optimize services as your needs evolve.  We provide access to over 2,200 public and private data centers, letting you set up your connection to the cloud in minutes, not days or weeks. And if you need more capacity, we can typically triple it within a short time horizon. We’re inspired by the challenges our customers provide.  Just tell us what you want.

It’s trustworthy:  Our global IP network backbone has a capacity of over 120 Tbps. Equally amazing is the extraordinary steps we take to help make sure all that data, including yours, is clean and protected. We’ve embedded automated security measures directly into our network to proactively detect, analyze, and respond to roughly 1.2 million threats every day. We focus on stopping malicious traffic before it reaches your premises and impacting your business.

It’s there when you need it:  No matter how you consume data or where you get it, our content delivery network strives to give you global scalability, improved performance and extensive connectivity.

The strength of any network lies with the people behind it.  In these challenging times, we’ve mobilized a small army of resources around the world to help ensure a consistent customer experience—from the solutions we offer to the operations and managed services teams dedicated to deliver what we promise.  As Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the author of The Little Prince, wrote, “Once you are my friend, I am responsible for you.”  That’s one pledge our network is committed to make—to be that good friend you can depend upon.

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