CenturyLink’s Miller: Partners Can Meet All Customer IP Needs
CenturyLink now is the largest public internet service provider in the world, which means more opportunities than ever for partners in cloud communications, cybersecurity and more.
That’s according to Lisa Miller, CenturyLink’s president of wholesale, indirect and SME. CenturyLink was planning to launch a multicity roadshow tour next month to educate partners on CenturyLink Engage, a cloud communications solution aimed at SMBs.
The roadshow, which may now be virtual because of coronavirus-related travel concerns, is part of the plan to “get out there and be able to educate partners really about the value proposition of this product and how the full solution incorporated with the rest of our network capabilities is really a differentiator,” Miller said.
CenturyLink’s Lisa Miller
“So when customers have internet needs, IP needs [for] any type of IP-based solution, we should be the carrier that they look to hands down,” she said. “When you think security and when you think IP, whether you’re thinking over-the-top UCaaS, we’ve got it all. So for a partner, they don’t have to go to five, 10 different suppliers. When you’re a partner and you play with a niche player, you have to go to that niche player plus the next niche player and plus the next niche player. But when you come to CenturyLink, I think that’s really the value that we bring to our partners is that we can do so much for them with one provider with extremely aggressive commission. So I feel we’re really competitive in the market and have a lot to talk about this year.”
Last month, CenturyLink launched Rapid Threat Defense, its new network-based threat detection and response capability. The solution aims to help enterprises automate threat detection and response by deploying defensive actions based on Black Lotus Labs threat intelligence. It’s available via adaptive threat intelligence and adaptive network security – CenturyLink’s cloud-delivered firewall platform – upon its launch.
In a Q&A with Channel Partners, Miller provides an update on how CenturyLink is providing more opportunities and making it easier for partners to work with her company.
Channel Partners: Can you give an update on CenturyLink’s overall partner initiatives?
Lisa Miller: We’re really talking about our security because I feel that we’ve got a great story to tell. What I really like about Rapid Threat Defense is it offers a seamless security experience for customers that are really struggling with disparate security systems. Ours is network-based. A lot of our customers have premises-based security and they might have some network-based, but where we’ve really embedded security into our network to really help our customers address that expansive view of the global threat landscape, we really feel that we’re uniquely positioned from a security standpoint. And it’s hard for customers as they have to have all these different security things to manage. Even the boards nowadays want to hear from the CSO, to say, “how are you protecting us as a company,” and so security is really hard for …
