Alkira turned the least cloud-like part of cloud computing - the network - into an on-demand service. Eight years, $176 million in funding and one $475 million acquisition later, its biggest test is whether software and fiber can finally behave like one product.

Before Ryan Asdourian became Lumen's chief storyteller, he learned to read 90,000 people without saying a word. Now he is applying that education to a harder crowd: companies deciding how to rebuild their networks for AI.
A Louisiana telephone descendant is wagering that the most valuable layer of AI may be the glass beneath it. Lumen is turning a sprawling fiber backbone into a programmable network enterprises can switch on in minutes.