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According to a new report just published by leading analyst firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), “Network as a Service: Understanding the Cloud Consumption Model in Networking” (July 9, 2024), 92% of respondents signaled an interest in campus and branch NaaS. Click here for detailed findings of this report.
Network as a Service: Understanding the Cloud Consumption Model in Networking (July 9, 2024), EMA
At Nile, we have been singing the praises of modernizing the consumption of enterprise campus networks for quite some time now. Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) is a completely new way to acquire a high-performance wired and wireless network that is ultra-secure and comes with a performance guarantee. Now, it seems that many IT decision-makers and technical staff tend to agree. It’s a transformational new model and revolutionary approach that helps you deliver the best user experience possible while saving time and money.
The report clearly showcases that NaaS is not just a new consumption model but a fundamental shift in offering a network architecture that delivers significant benefits for IT departments overwhelmed with operational and security resource challenges.
Per the survey results, organization’s interest in NaaS is largely driven by four key challenges faced on a daily basis:
- Addressing network-related skills gaps
- Ensuring robust network security
- Reducing the operational burden of managing the campus network
- Allocating more time to emerging technology projects
The survey results also reveal that not just any campus NaaS solution will suffice. A significant majority (64%) believe that a hybrid NaaS management model must provide the operational control and flexibility they need while allowing the service provider to handle network optimization, troubleshooting, and security responsibilities.
To address these challenges and needs, organizations aren’t simply seeking to delegate the management of their campus and branch LANs to a third party. Instead, their ideal NaaS must offer a unique blend of advanced capabilities to optimize and secure their networks, bridge the skills gap, reduce operational burdens, and maintain operational oversight. A major issue is that most NaaS options available today fail to meet these needs—until they discover Nile. Let’s explore Nile’s benefits..
The Nile Access Service was developed with four key goals in mind, all of which address the challenges outlined above. The first is to deliver a network using a scalable-as-a-service model that offers predictable pricing and a superior network total cost of ownership compared to traditional, Capex-heavy alternatives.
However, the “as-a-service” architecture is just one element in solving IT’s challenges. Nile has fundamentally re-imagined the campus network architecture to incorporate new and fully integrated capabilities, including closed-loop AI networking and automation, cloud-native microservices and flexibility, and zero trust security for the campus.
That brings us to our second goal, which is security. Nile is the only solution that delivers complete isolation of devices within the campus network or LAN right “out of the box” with no configuration or overarching management needed. Nile’s unique Layer 3 architecture eliminates all Layer 2 security concerns by preventing unauthorized lateral movement. These capabilities reduce the need for additional security solutions, address network security skills gaps, and further reduce IT’s operational burden. Additionally, every user and device is authenticated and continuously authorized via dynamic profiles to ensure the ongoing security posture of the device.
Third, Nile’s wholly unique, closed-loop automation architecture eliminates many of the time-consuming tasks currently handled by your network engineering and operations teams. Our advanced AI networking capabilities are used for everything from automated software updates to continuous wired and wireless optimization, as well as preemptive troubleshooting and remediation. This reduces the time your IT team spends maintaining the network, freeing them to focus on projects that add value to the organization.
Finally, we’re the only network solution from any vendor to offer a performance guarantee that ensures you have the needed availability, capacity, and coverage to meet your uptime and user experience objectives. This guarantee is backed by financial compensation if we don’t meet our goals.
Nile is able to offer such iron-clad guarantees because our architecture is fully redundant by design and comes with 24/7 monitoring with both physical and virtual sensors as part of our service. Once operational, AI is used to continuously monitor and adjust network performance to meet or exceed our service level guarantee. This ensures that our customers can trust their critical infrastructure element—the network—will operate as intended, providing peace of mind.
Network as a Service: Understanding the Cloud Consumption Model in Networking (July 9, 2024), EMA
It’s also important to note that we address the need for shared responsibility and oversight. Our cloud-delivered orchestration platform, Nile Copilot, lets administrators create network segments, define wireless SSIDs, and set up device onboarding processes as they see fit. Copilot also facilitates the seamless integration of network services and third-party tools. On top of that, Copilot provides simplified yet granular visibility into the network, users, devices, and applications. It strikes the perfect balance between management control and reducing operational workload.
For the 92% who acknowledge the value that NaaS offers, there’s no need to delay. Nile offers the ideal combination of technology, security, performance, and operational control, all at a lower TCO than traditional legacy network solutions. We invite you to explore Nile today by booking a custom demo or checking out our live and interactive Copilot demo. We’re confident that you’ll find that addresses all your challenges, freeing your team to focus on value-added tasks.
This independent research, sponsored by Nile, offers a detailed analysis of the findings of EMA’s report. Highlights from the report will be unveiled during a free webinar on July 16. Interested parties can register at https://info.enterprisemanagement.com/network-as-a-service-research-webinar-pr.
