Digital Realty, a global provider of cloud- and carrier-neutral data center, colocation and interconnection solutions has partnered with Lumen Technologies to deliver high-capacity, AI-ready connectivity services (AI WAN) across major U.S. metro markets.
Lumen’s newly launched Wavelength RapidRoutes high-capacity data transport services, designed for AI and data applications, is now available with Digital Realty’s global data center platform, PlatformDIGITAL, enabling enterprise connectivity up to 400G. The collaboration is intended to empower organizations to quickly prototype and deploy traditional and AI applications with the bandwidth and proximity needed to reach hyperscaler clouds, neo-clouds and other critical data center locations, company officials said.
“Enterprises and AI service providers increasingly need high capacity, dedicated connectivity to their data, cloud providers and broader ecosystems to unlock business value,” officials said. “Meeting this demand requires networks that can be delivered quickly, move data securely with low latency, and scale both in size and reach, enabling the collection, training and inference of data that drives real business outcomes.”
“This truly unlocks high-scale networks on our flexible platform, letting customers build out their network connections with almost no performance limitations,” said Chris Sharp, CTO for Digital Realty. “Combined with our high-density data centers in critical metro areas, it’s a strong foundation for enterprise AI infrastructure.”
Digital Realty will expand its private AI exchange (AIPx) ecosystem by connecting enterprise customers to more than 700 locations with rapid deployment and high-capacity connectivity. The platform is designed to offer customers more options to meet their current infrastructure needs while scaling for tomorrow in areas such as in and between data centers, to and from cloud destinations, and in AI applications where data exchange happens, company officials said.
RapidRoutes is designed to provide fast quoting and accelerated turn-up across key intercity routes, giving customers a frictionless path to high-capacity connectivity. For more than 300 qualified sites and more than 50,000 possible route combinations, Lumen supports that speed with an installation timeframe of 20 business days and guaranteed SLAs, the company said. RapidRoutes is directly accessible in 25 Digital Realty data centers across 11 U.S. markets, with extended reach to an additional 38 locations.
“The bar has been raised across the board for the amount of traffic Lumen Wavelength RapidRoutes can support as well as the speed at which these services can be turned up in Digital Realty’s core data centers,” said Dave Ward, chief technology and product officer at Lumen Technologies. “We’re delivering a new class of network infrastructure built for the AI era. It’s a major leap in network planning and management for all enterprises.”
