Lumen Technologies has announced an expansion of its enterprise networking portfolio with Lumen Multi-Cloud Gateway (MCGW) and enhanced metro data center connectivity across major U.S. markets. The new enterprise capabilities are designed to accelerate data movement across distributed AI environments while lowering complexity and total cost, the company said.
“Moving data across hybrid environments is a lot like managing air traffic; you need clear routes, predictable timing and the ability to adjust when conditions change. Most legacy networks weren’t built for that level of coordination,” said Jim Fowler, chief technology and product officer at Lumen. “With our expanded network fabric, Lumen gives enterprises a way to move data securely, effortlessly and consistently across clouds, data centers and edge locations, designed to reduce the complexity that hold AI-driven operations back.”
The expansion is intended to simplify how data moves across hybrid environments by bringing centralized multi-cloud routing and high-capacity private metro connectivity. The result is a more consistent, controllable networking foundation for AI and other modern workloads, officials said.
MCGW is a core element of Lumen’s shift to cloud-based telecom. Built as a software-defined, self-service routing layer on Lumen’s global fiber network, MCGW provides private, high-capacity connectivity among enterprises, hyperscalers and emerging cloud platforms. It’s designed to turn traditional telecom interconnection into a programmable cloud fabric, allowing customers to dynamically connect cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-enterprise environments, optimize traffic for performance and cost, and support advanced use cases such as AI workload distribution and real-time data exchange.
By unifying connectivity, routing and policy, MCGW is intended to reduce operational complexity, speed time to service and total cost of ownership, the company said.
Lumen has also expanded high-capacity, dedicated connectivity across 16 U.S. markets, delivering up to 100 Gbps between regional data centers, campuses and edge locations and up to 400 Gbps at key cloud data centers in those markets. This is intended to enable fast, secure movement of massive datasets for AI training, analytics, replication and disaster recovery, officials said.
Recently upgraded markets include northern Virginia; Atlanta; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; Dallas; Denver; Kansas City; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; New York City; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; San Antonio; San Jose, Calif.; and Seattle.
The business impact is expected for industries scaling their AI ambitions across financial services, retail, health care and manufacturing, the company said.
“When networks shift from constraint to enabler, organizations can move faster, scale with confidence, and unlock greater innovation,” officials said.
