Lumen Technologies has teamed up with Itential to boost automation across multi-domain networks for service providers, enterprises and cloud providers.
Lumen, formerly known as CenturyLink, is now serving up Itential's automation platform as part of its consulting services for enterprises' IT teams. With networks evolving across the cloud, edge and 5G, automation is a key element for orchestrating and managing applications and services.
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"Itential is a scrappy little company that is getting big deals by helping large service providers use APIs and cloud-native programming approaches to automate their networks," said Scott Raynovich, the founder and chief analyst of Futuriom. "This is going to be a must for 5G and edge cloud where the number of network connections and devices increase by an order of magnitude."
In addition to reducing human errors across increasingly complex networks, automation can create a more intelligent, self-healing network. Automation also plays a key role in closed-loop automation, which is a precursor to autonomous networks.
"Together, Itential and Lumen can deliver network automation across physical, virtual and cloud networks, helping businesses be more productive and efficient," said Itential's Josh Shipman, SVP of sales, in a statement. "Itential's automation platform supports Lumen Network Consulting Services by providing on-demand services that allow Lumen customers to quickly respond to their changing business needs."
Atlanta-based Itential was co-founded six years ago by Chris Wade. According to its website, Itential has deals in place with six of the world's top-10 service providers. Its automation software is also used by Fortune 500 companies as well as three of the top-five U.S. financial service institutions.