Google Cloud has expanded its Cross-Cloud Interconnect offering with a new last-mile option, now available in preview with Lumen Technologies as the first partner. The service is aimed at private clouds, on-premises data centers, neoclouds, and other cloud environments.
Google says it built the Cross-Cloud Network to make it simpler for organizations to connect and secure applications spanning cloud and on-premises environments. In 2025, it introduced partner Cross-Cloud Interconnect for AWS, built on an open specification, which turned complex cross-cloud network builds into a managed service that can be provisioned in minutes. The last-mile variant is intended to bring the same model to a broader set of locations.
"The network needs to become as dynamic and easy to consume as the cloud itself. By bringing Google Cloud and Lumen connectivity together, we're making it simpler for enterprises to connect their locations to the cloud with the performance and reliability they need. This is an important step toward a more programmable, cloud-like networking experience," said Jim Fowler, EVP and Chief Technology & Product Officer at Lumen Technologies.
According to Google, enterprise workloads and AI pipelines increasingly run across a mix of public clouds, specialized neoclouds, private clouds, and on-premises sites, while AI agents are beginning to assist with data and operational technology at customer branches, retail stores, and factory floors. Moving data reliably across these environments requires high-capacity private connectivity, yet provisioning and managing it still depends on separate tools, providers, and operational models.
The company contrasts the situation with compute: cloud compute and storage capacity can be spun up in seconds, whereas connecting a physical site or private cloud can take weeks or months of manual quoting, cross-connect ordering, and routing configuration. High-availability designs add further overhead, since network engineers must coordinate dual circuits across separate facilities, set up BGP failover, and manage encryption keys by hand. Through Lumen's last-mile network, the new offering is designed to establish dedicated Layer 3 private connectivity to Google Cloud in minutes rather than months.
Partner Cross-Cloud Interconnect relies on open interconnect API specifications and a shared provisioning process, so network teams can apply a single operational runbook to private cloud, neocloud, on-premises, and multicloud connections. Google lists the following characteristics:
- On-demand connectivity to any environment: scaling from 1 to 50 Gbps in minutes across public clouds, private clouds, AI neoclouds, and on-premises locations
- Resilient and secure by default: pre-provisioned capacity across redundant routers in separate facilities/EADs, coordinated maintenance, and wire-speed MACsec encryption
- Lower total cost of ownership (TCO): predictable flat-rate bandwidth tiers that include Google Cloud data egress, removing idle physical port capacity and cross-connect fees
Google positions the two variants of the service for different needs. Partner Cross-Cloud Interconnect for CSPs targets flexible, automated multicloud connectivity, linking Google Cloud to providers such as AWS or OCI without dedicated physical ports or cross-connects. Partner Cross-Cloud Interconnect for last mile is meant to extend reach to private clouds, neoclouds, on-premises sites, and multicloud environments through partner last-mile networks, beginning with Lumen, without long provisioning lead times.
Partner Cross-Cloud Interconnect for last mile is available in preview in us-east4 (Northern Virginia) with Lumen Technologies, and Google says additional regions are coming soon. Interested customers can express interest through a form or contact their Google Cloud or Lumen account team; Lumen has also published its own announcement.