Traditional network approaches are on their way out. Why? Because they can create challenges that get in the way of digital transformation, like technical debt, inability to scale and slower time to value. I’m happy to say that we’re helping our clients overcome these challenges with Network as a Service (NaaS). NaaS models offer a new approach to networking consumption that can help your organization achieve business agility.
How NaaS lowers spend
As is true with all as-a-service models, NaaS models can benefit organizations by providing agile, scalable infrastructure that meets business needs while increasing financial flexibility. NaaS offers this financial flexibility by requiring no upfront capital expenses, which can be hard for organizations to fit into their budgets. Instead, NaaS solutions are paid for via a predictable pay-as-you-go monthly subscription. This allows organizations to simplify budgets and capacity planning. It also frees up some financial resources for other business needs, such as paying down tech debt.
Speaking of that subscription, you can get even more bang for your buck when you work with a Managed Services Provider (MSP) like Insight to oversee your NaaS solution. For our Insight-managed NaaS clients, we bring in our managed services team to overlay the entire solution for a monthly recurring cost that includes your software, hardware and services to administer the entire infrastructure.
Avoiding upfront capital expenses also helps with sustainability. When organizations move to a NaaS model, there’s no risk of overbuying on CapEx. With a CapEx model, many organizations tend to overbuy in order to have enough infrastructure to power seasonal spikes. When you’re supporting the infrastructure you need for these seasonal spikes year-round, this is expensive — not only from an infrastructure perspective but also from a power perspective. With changing regulations and expectations surrounding sustainability, this aspect of NaaS models is an added bonus.
How NaaS boosts scale
A great benefit of NaaS being an OpEx model is that it scales easily. As you bring on a new location, you can simply add the additional switches, wireless access points and routers to that location — it just increases your monthly subscription cost. Another benefit of a NaaS offering that uses a cloud-based management platform is it gives you quick access to new features and functions without the need for on-premises management.
The scalability of NaaS also helps the refresh cycle, especially when you work with an MSP like Insight. It goes without saying that technology is always changing. When you work with an MSP for NaaS, that partner is able to look at the latest and greatest technologies that align to your business needs in order to make sure they’re putting those into your network environment — so you can always be sure that you're getting the most out of your network with the technology that’s available.
How NaaS reduces operational burden
For organizations looking to leave day-to-day infrastructure management behind, NaaS solutions can be an impactful way to do so. From an operational perspective, NaaS models help address skill gaps and reduce burden on IT staff. With NaaS models, you decide how much of the network will be managed by your NaaS provider. With partial or complete network management shifted to the NaaS provider, your IT staff has more capacity to focus on strategic projects — plus, any problems arising from skills gaps are taken care of.
- Use predictable pay-as-you-go budgeting.
- Reduce CapEx spending through an OpEx model.
- Simplify capacity planning by removing added cost pressures.
- Scale rapidly up or down to accommodate fluctuations.
- Enhance on-premises performance.
- Accelerate IT and business transformation for competitive advantage.
- Refresh technology faster and more sustainably.
- Redirect IT resources to strategic efforts for business value.
- Manage potential risks to network security and performance.
- Overcome internal skill gaps.
- Ensure infrastructure is always ready to support the business.
NaaS from Insight and HPE Aruba Networking
We’re seeing NaaS come to the market later than other as-a-service solutions because of its hardware component. Now, NaaS is on the market — and it’s here to stay.
We’re excited to bring Insight-managed HPE GreenLake for Networking as a turnkey solution to our clients. This solution leverages a combination of best-in-breed Aruba Networking hardware and software products with Insight Managed Services to help organizations realize high-performance networking capabilities at a flat monthly rate. Insight has deep expertise across the entire Aruba Networking portfolio that positions our managed services team to help clients accelerate time to value for the hardware and software they’re bringing into their network environments.
