CenturyLink Makes Massive Cloud Push with Tier 3 Acquisition

CenturyLink, Inc. made a major cloud and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) push today with the acquisition of Tier 3. The company’s IaaS, PaaS and cloud management offerings along with its roadmap and vision have been folded into CenturyLink to form the basis of its new cloud strategy – and pit the company against competitors Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

CenturyLink, the third largest telecom provider in the U.S. and the powerhouse behind the Prism TV and DIRECTV brands, will use the Tier 3 properties as the basis for its new Seattle CenturyLink Cloud Development Center as well. The Tier 3 cloud platform is also immediately available under its new moniker, CenturyLink Cloud.

The move is part of CenturyLink’s push to become a full-service cloud powerhouse. The company already owns colocation giant Savvis, which is slated to be rebranded as CenturyLink Technology Solutions in January. CenturyLiink previously acquired AppFog, a provider of cloud solutions that have been integrated with the company’s colocation, managed services and network offerings.        

The CenturyLink Cloud is based on Tier 3’s public, multi-tenant cloud and is geared toward complex enterprise workloads of all sizes. It features a self-service interface, a web services API and Cloud Foundry-based PaaS to provide a toolkit for enterprise cloud developers.

"Our mission is to provide world-class managed services to global businesses on virtual, dedicated and colocation infrastructures,” said Jeff Von Deylen, president of CenturyLink's Savvis organization. “Tier 3's innovative automation and self-service platform are game-changing for our global enterprise clients. From greenfield development to mission-critical apps, businesses have a trusted technology partner to seize new market opportunities. This acquisition underscores our continued commitment to delivering the most complete portfolio of cloud services."

"Our platform roadmap will combine with CenturyLink's global network and data center footprint and managed services team to help change the face of enterprise computing," said Jared Wray, founder and chief technology officer for Tier 3. Wray will serve as CTO for CenturyLink Cloud and also lead the CenturyLink Cloud Development Center.

The Cloud Development Center is designed to bring together a range of development expertise as well as unite CenturyLink’s cloud technical resources, with the goal of developing innovative services. Its Seattle location puts it in the direct vicinity of Microsoft and AWS, further heating up competition in the cloud arena.