Is NaaS (network-as-a-service) the future?

Simon Edward • 1 November 2024

Could NaaS change the face of IT as we know it? Discover its transformative potential in our guide.

Enterprises are running more applications in the cloud than ever before. But networking has been lagging behind. Could all this change with the advent of NaaS (network-as-a-service)?

Part of the problem is that many businesses end up paying for a fixed amount of resources rather than scaling up and down to meet demand.

NaaS is a flexible, cost-effective, single-API solution to this problem – and it looks as though adoption will ramp up in the coming years.

In this article, we take a closer look at NaaS's transformative potential.

So… is it the future?

In 2011, the American businessman Marc Andreessen famously remarked that "software is eating the world". It's astonishing to think that 13 years on, software and cloud-based software solutions are more prevalent than ever.

In the intervening years, a huge array of applications began to be run in the cloud, from servers to storage, from desktops to databases. It's no exaggeration to say that if you can think of an IT service, you can probably run it in the cloud.

Nevertheless, networking has been slow to make the move from a plain old service to networking "as a service". Networks are overwhelmingly internal affairs, with IT responsible for management and maintenance.

With NaaS, however, networking is joining vital other services in the cloud. You get to access complex infrastructure from a single API, no matter where in the world you are.

The idea has been floating around for a while. But it's only now that sectors such as finance, healthcare, government and education are exploring its use cases and benefits.

Why is network-as-a-service a new phenomenon?

In the age of "anything-as-a-service", networks have been noticeably slow to join the party.

Why are they only now available as a service? The answer is that a number of factors needed to overlap to make NaaS possible.

Put simply, the infrastructure is now ready for the job. There's more private backbone bandwidth, more commercial hardware, more colocation facilities and more cloud computing capacity. Moreover, end-to-end encryption is now a given, meaning cloud-based networking is highly secure.

All these factors mean that the days of traditional networking are numbered. Exit the monolith. Enter NaaS.

What can NaaS do that traditional networks can't?

In 2024, most enterprises have all but abandoned on-premise applications. Some institutions use them for processing especially sensitive data. But in general, public cloud solutions – or, at the very least, hybrid cloud solutions – are the norm.

You probably wouldn't run payroll on-site. So, why do so many companies approach networking in this way?

It's not just that legacy architecture is expensive, with connectivity, management, support and security all eating into your budget. It's also that they were designed to meet the network demands of a different time – a time when a network consisted of simple, stable connections between a handful of locations.

Today's networks sprawl. They expand. They change shape. With hybrid working having gone from flavour of the month to standard practice, there are more users and devices than ever to be configured and monitored.

Picture of a globe covered in brightly lit nodes.

Unlike traditional network models, NaaS is up for the job. It can handle an ever-changing landscape of cloud environments, SaaS providers, partners and locations.

What are the benefits of NaaS?

Except in rare edge cases, NaaS is likely to be more effective than your current network infrastructure. By and large, it's simpler, cheaper, more scalable, easier to maintain, more agile and more financially predictable.

Let's take those improvements one by one.

It's simpler. NaaS lets you manage a complex virtual network from a single API.
It's cheaper. Your NaaS provider handles maintenance and management so you don't have to. Your role is simply to consume the cloud service and pay for what you use.
It's more scalable. With NaaS, you never have to over-provision when anticipating demand. Instead, you can scale resources up and down with ease and pay just for what you use.
It's easier to maintain. There's no need to waste time on updates and upgrades. Your NaaS provider will automate these for you.
It's more agile. On-premise networking is monolithic – and while monoliths have their good points, they're hard to modify, mend or replace. By comparison, NaaS lets you spin up, tear down and update services at speed.
It's more financially predictable. Traditional networking requires a significant upfront investment. NaaS lets you pay as you go for what you use and not a penny more. This lets you budget more predictably.

What does the future of NaaS hold?

The high performance standards that NaaS provides might lead you to think it's been around for a while. In fact, NaaS is a newcomer to the "as-a-service" space – and we believe it's going places.

Research suggests the NaaS market will be worth $150 billion (€139 billion) by 2030. Meanwhile, AI integration is already on the agenda, stirring network automation and self-healing into the mix.

Perhaps most excitingly, there's the rise of software-defined networking (SDN) within NaaS offerings. This would create an unparalleled level of flexibility and control, meaning industry-specific NaaS platforms.

Greater diversity, better threat detection, higher performance levels – these are just some of the qualities we can expect from NaaS in the coming years.

Is NaaS the right choice for my business?

Here at Ascend Cloud Solutions, we believe that networking-as-a-service is nothing short of revolutionary. For the first time, enterprises can run their networks on a simple, scalable, secure network on a pay-as-you-go basis.

This unlocks cost savings and levels up your performance. Technical excellence and business potential go hand in hand – just what the doctor ordered.

Deploy a solution of this kind and you'll never be paying for services you don't use or simply don't need. Instead, you get to realise your business's potential with agility, flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

At Ascend Cloud Solutions, we're investing in new networking infrastructure to serve tech-forward organisations in Ireland and beyond. Follow our blog to stay up-to-date on our plans and hear the latest news about cloud computing.

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