CenturyLink strengthens multi-cloud management strategy, launches Cloud Application Manager

Delivering on its promise to empower digital transformation for enterprise customers, CenturyLink, Inc. has launched CenturyLink Cloud Application Manager, a new orchestration platform designed to simplify deployment of enterprise workloads, managed services and third-party cloud resources.

This cloud-agnostic management platform enables companies to better manage applications and workloads across hybrid hosting environments – in customer private clouds, colocation centers and public cloud environments.

In a business climate where companies need to simplify management and governance of applications across multiple cloud infrastructures without sacrificing control or visibility, Cloud Application Manager delivers flexibility that enterprises need to quickly provision, deploy and migrate workloads to the environment that best matches business requirements. This global platform also enables automated deployment of expert managed services from CenturyLink for application and infrastructure management. Cloud Application Manager includes:
•Application lifecycle management – Customers and partners can manage applications from build phase through deployment and run-state. Once deployed, customer-defined automation policies enable customers to scale, update, and migrate applications across environments.
•Managed services anywhere – Customers and partners can select CenturyLink Managed Services for on-demand monitoring, patching, backup and remote administration across any hybrid hosting environment.
•Cloud optimization – Customers and partners can leverage existing public cloud accounts, or provision new subscriptions directly through the Cloud Application Manager platform – simplifying vendor management and consolidating billing of multi-cloud deployments. Additionally, Cloud Application Manager enables customers to better manage costs and spending on the various cloud platforms while making recommendations on the ideal place to run workloads.

"Many of our customers and partners struggle with the business challenge of determining the best execution venue for their business applications," said David Shacochis, vice president of Hybrid IT product management, CenturyLink. "We designed Cloud Application Manager to give our customers a wide variety of infrastructure options across diverse public and private cloud environments. Cloud Application Manager helps companies avoid vendor lock-in, automate application deployments, scale workloads across disparate hosting environments, and optimize their costs over time. These benefits are available in a self-service model, or one that is actively managed by CenturyLink team members."

"CenturyLink is delivering on the cloud strategy they've been articulating for several years," said Lynda Stadtmueller, vice president of cloud services, Stratecast|Frost & Sullivan. "The Cloud Application Manager platform will enable end-users to easily move into a multi-cloud environment."

Cloud Application Manager combines new investment in the automated delivery of CenturyLink managed services with recently acquired ElasticBox technology to create a powerful service framework. Users can consume Cloud Application Manager via the cloud version (SaaS) or the data center version (a virtual appliance that runs on-premises in their data center). This usage-based platform allows customers to consume the value-added services they need with a consolidated bill and a simplified, yet powerful, interface.

The platform demonstrates CenturyLink's ongoing commitment to build and invest in technologies that help customers and partners achieve their digital transformation goals. CenturyLink delivers additional value with its IT consulting and managed services expertise.