Lumen Technologies has selected Amdocs to migrate mission-critical Business Support Systems (BSS) from on-premises infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform. This strategic move represents a significant step in Lumen’s cloud-first strategy to enhance agility, resiliency, and operational efficiency.
What’s Being Migrated
Amdocs (NASDAQ: DOX) will lead the migration of Lumen’s core BSS systems to Google Cloud Platform (GCP). These business support systems are mission-critical applications that handle billing, customer management, order processing, and other essential telecommunications operations.
The engagement aims to minimize operational disruption while maintaining application stability throughout the transition. This is no small feat, BSS systems are the operational backbone of telecom companies, and downtime or errors can directly impact customer service and revenue.
Why Lumen Is Moving to the Cloud
The migration supports Lumen’s cloud-first strategy with several key objectives:
- Reduce data center footprint – Eliminating costly on-premises infrastructure
- Enable consumption-based IT model – Pay for what you use, not fixed capacity
- Improve agility and resiliency – Faster response to market demands and better disaster recovery
- Accelerate innovation – Cloud-native environment enables faster deployment of new services
- Enhance customer experiences – Streamlined operations translate to better service delivery
“Modernizing our business systems with Amdocs and Google Cloud is a critical step in simplifying how we operate and serve customers,” said Chad Naeger, Chief Information Officer at Lumen. “By moving to a cloud-native environment, we plan to streamline processes, reduce costs, improve efficiency, and build the agility we need to bring new services to market.”
The Technical Challenge
Migrating mission-critical BSS systems to the cloud involves significant complexity:
Data Migration
Moving years of customer data, billing records, and operational information without loss or corruption requires meticulous planning and validation.
Application Stability
Maintaining service continuity during cutover is critical. Customers shouldn’t experience service interruptions or billing errors during the transition.
Integration
Legacy systems must integrate seamlessly with new cloud-native components, requiring careful architecture and testing.
Security and Compliance
Telecommunications companies face strict regulatory requirements. The migration must maintain or enhance security controls and compliance postures.
Amdocs’ Role and Expertise
“We are delighted to partner with Lumen Technologies to advance their cloud-first vision,” said Anthony Goonetilleke, Group President of Technology and Head of Strategy at Amdocs. “We’re enabling Lumen to achieve greater agility, scalability, and business resiliency while ensuring application stability throughout the process. Together, we’re laying the foundation for a more efficient, future-ready enterprise powered by Google Cloud.”
Amdocs brings specific expertise in telecommunications BSS systems and cloud migrations. The company reported $4.53 billion in revenue in fiscal 2025 and has extensive experience helping communications and media companies modernize their technology stacks.
What Success Looks Like
The effectiveness of this migration will be measured across several dimensions:
- Migration phases completed on schedule – Meeting planned timelines without delays
- User-impact incidents during cutover – Minimizing service disruptions
- Post-migration operational costs – Achieving projected cost savings within 12-24 months
- Application performance – Maintaining or improving system response times
- Customer satisfaction metrics – No degradation in service quality
Industry Context
This migration reflects broader industry trends as telecommunications companies shift from capital-intensive infrastructure to consumption-based cloud models. Legacy BSS systems, often decades old and running on proprietary hardware, represent significant operational overhead and limit agility in competitive markets.
By moving to GCP, Lumen gains access to Google’s infrastructure, advanced analytics capabilities, and AI/ML tools—capabilities that would be prohibitively expensive to build and maintain in-house.
The Risks
While the strategic benefits are clear, execution risks remain:
- Complexity of legacy systems – Decades-old BSS applications may have undocumented dependencies
- Data integrity – Migration errors could corrupt critical customer or billing data
- Performance issues – Cloud-native environments may behave differently than on-premises systems
- Skills gap – Staff may need retraining on cloud-native operations and tools
- Cost overruns – Cloud consumption can exceed projections if not carefully managed
The announcement did not disclose contract value or specific migration timelines, leaving key details about scope and duration unclear.
What Comes Next
Watch for concrete milestones and delivery metrics over the next 12-24 months:
- Migration phases completed
- Incident reports during cutover periods
- Post-migration operational cost comparisons
- Customer satisfaction scores
- Time-to-market for new service launches
Success in this engagement could position Amdocs as a go-to partner for other telecommunications companies considering similar cloud migrations. For Lumen, it’s a bet that cloud-native operations will provide the agility needed to compete in an increasingly digital telecommunications market.
The partnership between Lumen, Amdocs, and Google Cloud represents the kind of strategic collaboration that defines modern enterprise IT, combining telecom domain expertise, migration execution capabilities, and cloud infrastructure to transform business-critical systems.
