NaaS – network-as-a-service – is expected to become increasingly deployed within companies as the ultimate cloud service model suitable for a digital business technology approach.
With the advance of cloud computing and pay-per-use, the NaaS market has continued its rapid growth, with various projections claiming that it could surpass $50 billion by 2025. This means NaaS is one of the fastest emerging service-based solutions of this generation.
The current socio-economic environment has turned business flexibility from a competitive advantage into a necessity, and this is directly proportional to the flexibility of an organization’s network infrastructure.
In response, instead of investing in physical infrastructure and on-premise equipment, organizations can now simply tap into NaaS for an optimized, managed network experience that is tailored to their own specific business requirements.
NaaS in brief
NaaS refers to a cloud service model where customers can obtain network services from providers, without having to incur the cost of maintaining their own infrastructure. Purchased on a subscription basis, this model helps companies to be scalable, easily deploy applications, reduce network complexity and digitalize faster.
Implementing NaaS within the enterprise technology ecosystem facilitates not only budget flexibility, but resourcing flexibility as well, as it enables you to acquire the network you need when you need it. It transforms the business through automating workflows, solving problems, optimizing processes, increasing security and typifying the next-generation workplace.
This “as-a-service” model has been extended to network infrastructure and capacity, optimizing resource allocation by considering network and computing resources as a unified whole.
Indefinitely, this will improve the way organizations acquire, deliver and manage their networking solutions. In deciding whether to invest in NaaS and selecting an optimal partner, enterprises should identify and evaluate their specific requirements. This covers the “must-have” functionalities as well as extended but important needs like performance and data analytics.
A clear “make or buy” business analysis will be helpful to determine the business’s core priorities and competencies in line with improving the local IT team for innovation and business value.
With NaaS, we’re seeing network architecture move from CAPEX to OPEX, giving businesses far greater control and flexibility as they scale. To utilize the NaaS architecture, the user will first log in to the web interface from which he can obtain an online API, make the necessary modifications and pay for the capacity consumed. This can also be deactivated after the agreed-upon period.
Why it works
Anticipated to be a real game changer, NaaS is an all-encompassing enterprise networking solution that offers equipment, capacity and proactive management. It is an ideal way to offer more services, gain new customers and create stronger partnerships.
Having said that, the proliferation of NaaS could be a win-win arrangement among cloud vendors, network service providers and equipment manufacturers. The latter two can lean on the cloud vendors’ experience of facilitating multi-tenant services and the elastic infrastructure of NaaS to provide end-to-end solutions globally.
On the other hand, cloud vendors will get to leverage the networking domain expertise from service providers and OEMs to extend their reach to users and devices connected through various means like 5G, fiber and satellite.
NaaS is now empowering a transformed business and customer experience to enterprises, giving them the choice, agility and control to match their needs as well as enabling them to engage and interact with employees, partners and end customers.
Seen as a low-risk endeavor, NaaS also results in cheaper TCO because there’s no need to invest in physical on-site infrastructure or hire in-house teams to manage, monitor and maintain it. Ergo, NaaS serves to actively streamline and optimize connectivity as opposed to just providing basic access to network infrastructure.
NaaS in the cloud
NaaS certainly elevates the cloud transformation journey by enabling faster connections without the need for new infrastructure. According to a Console Connect report, there are three ways NaaS can enhance cloud access: cloud interworking, cost efficiency and automation. To explain, moving workloads between clouds over a faster, more secure and resilient private network is much more efficient. Also, a dedicated connection could be less volatile in terms of pricing, while APIs give businesses the agility to orchestrate connections in an instant.
To work, the NaaS model requires network virtualization technologies such as software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV). By using standard-based architectures and open APIs, NaaS provides common abstraction between the network, operations and BSS/OSS layers.
Through open APIs, automation is carried out and becomes key to streamlining processes across the entire network. As per TM Forum, in 2020 alone, 886 companies downloaded 106,300 API assets.
In managing NaaS, the core networking management functionality moves to the cloud. A NaaS offering will include a cloud-based central management hub and dashboard that allows customers and partners to set and enforce policies and manage the services and products they need. This should include the ability to quickly take advantage of new technologies and services as they are continuously released.
NaaS would bring to life a cloud-native network that is no longer seen as an obstacle to continuous innovation, but the very thing that enables it.
NaaS in telecom
By 2030, ABI Research expects that about 90% of enterprises will have migrated at least one-quarter of their global network infrastructure into a NaaS model. Telecom companies are presented with an opportunity to dominate the NaaS market.
Telcos must virtualize network infrastructure to deliver cloud-native services and continue to invest to integrate automation throughout network services. This includes paying attention to 5G slicing and other value-added services that are critical to monetization.
Moreover, by restructuring business and operating models, they would lean towards openness and partnerships across the industry and reduce internal fragmentation to drive cross-business service continuity. Telcos would also be developing vertical and enterprise size-specific sales strategies and establishing consultative processes for enterprises.
The positive outlook in the NaaS market is impacted by the rising demand from startups and SMEs. There is no single telco or cloud provider that can cater to all cloud connectivity needs, which is why as well-established managed connectivity providers, CSPs are already offering certain kinds of NaaS services, such as managed LAN/WAN services, virtual private networks, datacenter interconnect, cloud-based managed Wi-Fi and private LTE services.
In a Nokia survey, 91% agreed that offering NaaS is critical to the successful delivery of enterprise 5G services, and most are already investing in NaaS-essential technologies as part of their digital transformation programs.
Huawei has announced its latest innovative NaaS offering for the Middle East region, powering enterprises across different industries. Enterprise NaaS models allow them to outsource provisioning, deployment, ongoing management, decommissioning and end-of-life for their enterprise networks.
Huawei’s NaaS solution is built with the focus on business agility and continuity, security and compliance resulting in achieving greater efficiencies and optimization for customers, said David Shi, President, Huawei Enterprise Business Group, Middle East.
On the other hand, with NEC/Netcracker NaaS, service providers can fundamentally change how business services are delivered and consumed, leveraging cloud and virtualized technologies to deliver value-added services on top of their provided connectivity. Striving for the best possible experience, NEC/Netcracker NaaS brings together a broad scope of services including network and value-added services bundled with IT and IoT apps into a single digital marketplace.
Additionally, ARC, a joint venture between UAE's du and Bahrain's Batelco, has deployed Nokia IP and optical solutions to provide high-capacity connectivity between SmartHub (UAE), datamena (UAE), GlobalZone (Bahrain) and Muscat MC1 (Oman).
