CenturyLink's acquisition of Tier 3 is a clear indication that cloud services remain essential to the future of large US carriers and that they aren't done yet figuring out how to deliver these services. (See CenturyLink Buys Cloud Leader Tier 3.)

Tier 3 may not be a big name in general but it is well-known within the cloud space, ranking third in the Gartner Inc. Magic Quadrant rankings, ahead of Savvis, CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL)'s existing cloud play, and Verizon Terremark .

And as noted here by TechCrunch, Tier 3 brings sophisticated tools for managing complex work flows that CenturyLink can use to differentiate its offering.

It is significant that CenturyLink states up front that "Tier 3's products, roadmap and vision are now the foundation of CenturyLink's cloud strategy," which is now going to be headquartered in Seattle, while Savvis will be renamed CenturyLink Technology Solutions, beginning in January 2014. And Tier 3's Jared Wray, founder and CTO, will become the CTO of the new CenturyLink Cloud.

That makes this purchase quite significant considered alongside the others CenturyLink has made in this space, most recently AppFog. (See CenturyLink Snares Savvis.)

Clearly, the cloud space is still morphing. Just as Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) made a significant upgrade to its cloud approach, CenturyLink is doing the same -- in a very different way. (See The Myth That Telcos Can't Do Cloud.)

— Carol Wilson, Editor-at-Large, Light Reading