When the pandemic first hit, organisations rushed to scale up their business systems to more effectively enable their workforce to work remotely. At the same time, the need for scalable, flexible, cost-effective, and secure communications meant an increased focus on digital connectivity and robust network infrastructure to support business priorities.
Post-pandemic, adoption of cloud-based communication platforms has seen exponential growth, propelled by the global shift towards remote work as well as the need for businesses to maintain operations seamlessly across dispersed teams.
Whether Voice over IP (VoIP) systems and collaboration tools, or video conferencing and customer service platforms, cloud communications have become integral to business continuity. This adoption is not a temporary shift but a permanent change in how companies communicate internally and engage with their customers.
However, businesses’ immediate concerns have shifted from ensuring business continuity to wariness of an economic slowdown. The capital expenditure and ongoing costs of these cloud-based communications platforms, as well as the need to ensure that the related network infrastructure stays up to date can be immense.
Even as organisations are still looking to continue investing in tech to grow their capabilities and to drive growth, these up-front capital costs might not be the best option for organisations that would prefer to spread their expenses.
Instead, a more agile and flexible alternative comes in the form of Network as a Service (NaaS), which effectively rolls the requirements of network equipment – whether hardware, software, or services – into a flexible subscription model.
NaaS increases the accessibility to superior connectivity services by spreading the costs over time and allows continued investment towards digital transformation.
Shifting from CapEx to OpEx
Evolving the network architecture that powers an organisation’s business involves significant risk, cost, and effort. NaaS removes some of that uncertainty by providing greater clarity involved on the costs and services provided, in comparison to the need for the large, one-time capital expenditure of new infrastructure (including installation and maintenance) which can be cost-prohibitive for smaller organisations.
The NaaS subscription model can easily be tailored to the unique needs of organisations, providing the flexibility needed to better manage expenditures during times of inflation and crisis.
More importantly, because NaaS is an ongoing operating expenditure, CIOs can more confidently allocate budget for other business requirements minus the guesswork in case network expansion costs suddenly balloon due to unforeseen factors.
At the same time, shifting networking capabilities from the CapEx column to OpEx justifies for investing in infrastructure expansion as a priority, saving organisations money while keeping operational requirements and strategic objectives on track.
Flexibility to scale and stay up-to-date
The NaaS approach also enables IT teams the flexibility to scale up (or down) network requirements depending on demand. At the same time, NaaS also lets organisations take advantage of the latest technologies whenever possible.
For example, businesses looking to upgrade their wireless networks to the latest WiFi 7 standard can easily swap existing access points for the latest gear with minimal fuss or cost. This removes the need to adjust budget allocations to accommodate up-to-date network infrastructure and other business priorities.
More importantly, this means that an organisation’s network environment is consistently up-to-date and secure, with options for both hardware and software support available, enabling IT teams to solve problems faster.
This added flexibility also benefits how businesses connect with their customers. Resources can be freed up to let teams innovate, instead of playing catch-up with a network that is a few steps behind, while also being in more control over costs.
For CIOs, NaaS also takes the pressure off IT teams, letting managing of the network be outsourced to partners through the subscription terms, saving precious man-hours which can be put to better use on the more strategic demands of the business.
For businesses seeking to future-proof themselves against the uncertainties of the digital landscape, the strategic importance of NaaS in enhancing business resilience in the ongoing shift towards digital transformation cannot be understated.
By providing scalable, cost-effective, and secure networking architecture via NaaS, businesses are enabled to respond to changes more effectively in an agile manner, as well as to continue focusing on innovation to maintain a competitive edge.
However, the transition to NaaS requires careful planning and partnership with the right service provider to ensure alignment with strategic business objectives both now, and for the long term.
