At hadronic energy scales, quantum chromodynamics (QCD) requires a nonperturbative treatment to calculate physical observables. Lattice QCD is a nonperturbative framework that facilitates numerical simulation of the theory and is the only known systematically-improvable approach to calculate phenomenological relevant QCD parameters. I will discuss the lattice as a regulator for QCD, describe the current state-of-the-art and offer some perspectives for future directions.