Gartner predicts that by 2024, on-premises NaaS will be adopted by 15% of all enterprises, up from less than one per cent in 2021.
Gartner defines network-as-a-service (NaaS) as a delivery model for networking products and offers network functions as a service. Capabilities include self-service, on-demand usage, and dynamic scaling up and scaling down.
Doug Naprta, regional head of business development and technology sales – North Asia at Telstra says NaaS is a flexible, software-defined way to deliver business outcomes.
"It uses a subscription-based consumption model for virtual network functions such as routers, firewalls and load balancers. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) functions allow organisations the flexibility to create secure network flows with bandwidth on demand to public and private cloud service providers at speed," he added.
Epsilon Telecommunications' customer experience director, Jamie Davies points out that NaaS is not a replacement for a network, but rather a different way in which network services can be consumed and accessed.
He adds that a NaaS model allows businesses to take advantage of the networking evolution toward a more agile and dynamic infrastructure. "They can enjoy quicker access to best-in-class network services and capabilities while eliminating some of the upfront barriers to entry such as hardware costs, skills, and ramp-up speed," he elaborated.
Gartner says "NaaS is an increasingly hot topic for consuming network services. It is one thing to define what it is, but is it right for you? What are the drivers and reasons to evaluate NaaS?"
Given that network services have been around for decades, what is new in NaaS that warrants serious consideration?
Naprta says NaaS enables businesses to keep pace with rapidly changing business demands, optimise network performance and user experience, maximise innovation and operational currency, and reduce CAPEX and operating costs.
"NaaS reduces the complexity of network management, maintaining the multitude of applications, integration, support, partners and skill sets required," said Davies. He posits that businesses can help to shift their focus from network architecture to business outcomes and improve network security, network performance, service levels and cost savings.
When is it the best alternative?
Telstra's Naprta says NaaS is best suited for businesses which operate with a native hybrid cloud application architecture that requires the agility to move workloads between the private cloud and various public cloud fabrics at speed.
Picking up on the agility functionality of NaaS, Davies adds that the modular and programmable NaaS solutions enable you to rapidly and on-demand select the relevant services to address gaps or vulnerabilities in your network capabilities, on-demand.
Implementing a NaaS
Before deciding on the path to NaaS, Davies cautions that a business is clear on the problem statement you are seeking to solve with your current network. "NaaS can provide a multitude of benefits, but if these are not clear, you may be adding complexity and success may be difficult to assess," he cautioned.
"With clear objectives of how NaaS will support your business objectives, and what you are seeking to achieve, you could consider a limited pilot allowing you to try before you buy and validate benefits and success criteria/measurement," he suggested.
For his part Naprta says connecting the business to a NaaS SDN platform provider is all that is needed to start consuming network functions and creating secure business flows to hybrid services.
"Federated businesses can utilise a portal to build network functions, flows and set bandwidths. More advanced SDN platforms will support APIs to enable orchestration tools to be used to moderate and automate capacity, performance, and cost," he continued.
Budgeting for NaaS
Andrew Lerner, vice president in Gartner Research covering enterprise networking, cautions that there is no evidence that buyers will pay less for NaaS. He recommends choosing NaaS to achieve operational, lease-based network spending when this is your primary goal together with a predictable consumption pattern.
Asked how to budget for NaaS, Naprta reminds us that because NaaS is a consumption-based model, it negates more traditional 3-year budgeting lifecycles associated with traditional network and infrastructure projects.
"The move to Opex also facilitates a move away from shared services costs, meaning business units not only have direct control of their budgets but they can also work to shorter budget lifecycles enabling them to closely match demand to business success," he continued.
Epsilon's Davies suggests a step-by-step approach is crucial to give you insights and reflection on each of the elements. "This could be done by taking a greenfield approach or moving more and more network functionality over time to adjust your future network operating model while transforming your people, processes, platforms, and likewise budgets, for each, plus controls or measures," he added.
Measuring its effectiveness
Davies, on the other hand, commented that in shifting to NaaS, IT needs to include service assurance to ensure service levels. "Performance management and customer satisfaction are also measured throughout the journey, which is key for measuring effectiveness," he added.
"NaaS is ultimately empowering Business Units and should be based on their customers’ satisfaction with the services," reiterated Naprta.
He suggested that metrics be aligned to business agility and reduced operating costs, such as reduced cycle time and total cost of ownership (TCO). "Businesses will need to look towards FinOps tools like those used in the cloud services market to capture and manage the effectiveness of these services," Naprta concluded.
