Today, IT is the consistent thread weaving through an organization — and the stakes have never been higher. No longer a standalone department or business unit, IT doesn’t just wind through every experience but, more than ever, is expected to power positive outcomes tied to core business drivers.

That’s a tall order, especially now. Between digital transformations, a pandemic-powered shift to mass remote work, and increased customer experience expectations, there’s greater reliance on IT to come to the table ready to play. Layer in the added attention on networks, and the pressure is clear. But, at the same time, IT organizations tend to lean on yesterday’s technologies to meet today’s demands. And that disconnect needs to be solved.

IT’s age-old mandate: Get less, do more
While we’re operating in a relatively new landscape, this isn’t a completely new story. IT organizations have been challenged over and over to do more with less. At the same time, though, networks haven’t changed much since ethernet became the defacto standard 30-plus years ago.

Arguably, networks are the last bastion of technology that hasn’t been simplified, redefined, or made more agile in recent years. As a result, today’s networks are clunky and complex, demanding an increasingly small pool of engineers to navigate and advance — and even then, we see human error numbers in the double digits.

Layer in modern security risks, and the hurdles and holes become even more apparent. IT teams are shifting focus from delivering best-in-class customer experiences and meaningful stakeholder returns to trying to get in-step with security organizations — organizations that, if given a choice, would lock it all down. These competing demands continue to drive stalemates in countless companies, absorbing already-limited IT resources and muddying priorities.

Shifting to a consumption model: Network as a Service

That’s what struck me about the Nile experience. For decades industry leaders have talked about consuming technology “as a service,” removing the complexities IT is burdened with to uplift organizations. It’s been a wildly popular concept that, at the same time, has proven wildly difficult to implement. Until now.

Nile completely reengineered networking, applying principles of cloud compute and SaaS to networking. Our framework also incorporates easy-to-implement, easy-to-administer security by default – it’s 100% additive to existing technologies and policies, solidifying your standard security even more. This makes environments more secure without more cost. From where I sit, that’s game-changing.

And that’s just the beginning. Nile has taken the significant — and expected — costs and complexities out of networking, delivering unparalleled security straight out of the box while ensuring an incredibly intuitive network. It’s easy to consume, it’s easy to implement, and it’s easy to administer, all in an elastic consumption model — pay for what you need, and when your needs change, Nile flexes to meet your business exactly where you are.

These consumption-based models have the flexibility and scalability organizations need right now. More than ever, it’s impossible to predict what’s around the corner -- and to effectively plan and budget for the size, scale, and technologies your business will need months and years from now.

By applying a consumption model to networking, we’ve created a system that flexes and scales with you -- and can roll back or pivot should the need present. It’s the pricing model of choice for growing businesses, no matter their growth stage. But, despite software diving in, connectivity hadn’t -- until now.

Curbing a “snowflake” system
“Networking as a Service” is a disruptive shift -- but this seismic shift is not just warranted. It’s mission-critical to advancing global innovation. We can’t apply yesterday’s technologies to promote today’s discoveries -- and tomorrow’s progress. We’re in the era of “as a Service.” And just like SaaS drove efficiency, predictability in cloud costs, and simplified scalability, campus enterprises need the same. That’s what Nile delivers.

As Nile and Networking as a Service (NaaS) rolls out to the masses, IT organizations are gaining a truly modern network that enables users to move faster, be more agile, and deliver greater business outcomes, with increased efficiencies and lower out-of-pocket investments than ever. Now, we can officially do more with less.

This couldn’t come at a better moment. Beyond the “do more” demands, heightened security risks, and accelerated digital transformation, every network today is a snowflake — it’s a different network regardless of what operating system they’re running or what management platform they’re using. And when an organization tries to make its environment simpler, it becomes an impossible task — every single customer network is different because even with the same vendor solutions, configurations and implementations are different. This immediately eliminates the ability to create consistent and artificially driven automation.

The Nile platform has overcome these hurdles once and for all, building a consumption-based model and eliminating configuration — essentially, taking full responsibility to deliver desired outcomes, all in a system that facilitates lifecycle management and eliminates obsolescence, with end-to-end automation that overcomes any potential for human error.

Eliminating networking risk 

Consuming your network as a service reduces risk. The network journey is riddled with the potential for missteps throughout the trek. When you’re thinking about network deployment or procurement, there are many individual parts to consider. That can be scary. Proper planning, identifying the right experts and vendors, and solidifying meaningful procurement processes are extremely complex and unnecessarily stressful. So, now, it’s gone, and you can shift your focus to bigger, better business-building opportunities.

We’re thrilled to introduce Nile — and Network as a Service — to your IT organization. It’s a modern network without the complex demands — demands that can only be interpreted and advanced by a select few. It’s a secure, reliable network that’s completely invisible to operate. It’s the first enterprise network-as-a-service that eliminates LAN operations, guarantees network performance, and delivers a fully enclosed zero-trust network — all within a singular, holistic pay-per-user model. And now, it’s available to you and your IT organization. Learn more or get in touch to make the leap to a better network experience.