Enterprises have been slow to adopt NaaS for a number of reasons, including lack of clarity on exactly what NaaS is, lack of a solid business case that NaaS saves money over the long term, and questions around security, visibility, control, and data privacy.
ABI Research predicts that by 2030 more than 90% of enterprises will consume at least 25% of their network services via NaaS. “Deploying networks ‘as-a-service’ will become a cornerstone of any successful enterprise digital transformation. It provides greater time-to-value for new sites or use cases, optimizes cloud strategies, and increases networking control by abstracting hardware and providing centralized management. This brings massive financial and operational efficiency opportunities and moving forward will have a value proposition that resonates strongly across nearly every major enterprise vertical,” says ABI analyst Reece Hayden.
Hayden adds that adoption has been held back due to “enterprise skepticism, confusion, and risk aversion.” He adds: “Although enterprises can see the operational value NaaS could bring, they worry about the potentially higher total cost of ownership (TCO), day-to-day management challenges, and risk of significant fluctuations in monthly bills.”
NaaS vendors should focus on automation, platform openness, and the development of a broad ecosystem that makes it easier for enterprises to deploy NaaS across LAN, campus, and WAN environments, Hayden recommends. He also says it’s important for NaaS vendors to make it easier for enterprises to integrate NaaS with the rest of their infrastructure.
NaaS vendors, led by several innovative startups, are addressing those issues, which points to adoption picking up steam in 2025. Here are the big trends that we can anticipate for 2025 in the world of NaaS:
1. New drivers emerge
The initial selling point for NaaS was that it enabled organizations to shift from CapEx—buying, maintaining, and upgrading physical equipment—to the more cloud-like OpEx, pay-as-you go, subscription model. Over time, however, early NaaS customers came to the realization that those recurring NaaS bills were adding up, and that extending the life of LAN or Wi-Fi hardware and software assets might actually be cheaper.
Shamus McGillicuddy, vice president of research at EMA, says that network execs today have a fuller understanding of the potential benefits of NaaS, beyond simply a different payment model.
NaaS can deliver access to new technologies faster and keep enterprises up-to-date as technologies evolve over time; it can help mitigate skills gaps for organizations facing a shortage of networking talent. For example, in a retail scenario, an organization can offload deployment and management of its Wi-Fi networks at all of its stores to a NaaS vendor, freeing up IT staffers for higher-level activities. Also, it can help organizations manage rapidly fluctuating demands on the network, he says.
2. Frameworks help drive adoption
Industry standards can help accelerate the adoption of new technologies. MEF, a nonprofit industry forum, has developed a framework that combines standardized service definitions, extensive automation frameworks, security certifications, and multi-cloud integration capabilities—all aimed at enabling service providers to deliver what MEF calls a true cloud experience for network services.
The blueprint serves as a guide for building an automated, federated ecosystem where enterprises can easily consume NaaS services from providers. It details the APIs, service definitions, and certification programs that MEF has developed to enable this vision. The four components of NaaS, according to the blueprint, are on-demand automated transport services, SD-WAN overlays and network slicing for application assurance, SASE-based security, and multi-cloud on-ramps.
3. The rise of campus/LAN NaaS
Until very recently, the most popular use cases for NaaS were on-demand WAN connectivity, multi-cloud connectivity, SD-WAN, and SASE. However, campus/LAN NaaS, which includes both wired and wireless networks, has emerged as the breakout star in the overall NaaS market.
Dell’Oro Group analyst Sian Morgan predicts: “In 2025, Campus NaaS revenues will grow over eight times faster than the overall LAN market. Startups offering purpose-built CNaaS technology will gain scale by working with service providers. This will push the growth of the LAN-as-a-Utility service higher than other types of CNaaS.” According to Dell’Oro, the leading players in CNaaS include Nile, Meter, Join Digital, and Ramen Networks, some of which are expanding their offerings in 2025.
4. NaaS + security
NaaS vendors are moving beyond basic connectivity and adding security features, such as zero trust network access (ZTNA). For example, Nile recently announced the addition of new zero-trust capabilities and tapped Microsoft and Palo Alto Networks to bolster its enterprise security services. Alkira expanded its NaaS platform with new ZTNA functionality, including identity and access management, granular policy control, and posture checks. And Graphiant is expanding its NaaS platform to include data assurance capabilities to help organizations comply with regulations.
5. NaaS + visibility
NaaS presents a conundrum for network managers; it’s a benefit to be able to hand off the management of enterprise networks to a NaaS provider, but then how does the enterprise maintain visibility in a multi-cloud environment.
McGillicuddy predicts that in 2025, “Managed SASE providers will offer more reporting on the health and performance of their cloud proxies, because customers say those proxies are a black hole. They can’t see how the proxies impact user experience and network performance. SASE providers will also partner with network monitoring vendors to provide telemetry so customers can directly monitor these proxies.”
He adds that campus NaaS providers mostly offer only limited observability into their networks. “Customers prefer a hybrid operating model where the provider and customer share ongoing management responsibility. These providers will start to offer more meaningful reporting on the health and performance of their networks.”
Source:: Network World