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What Is NaaS (Network as a Service)? Cloud vs. Telco NaaS offerings

Part of the growing “X as a Service” trend, NaaS could be an interesting new telco offering to comprehend… or it could be all hype. So which is it?

naas network as a service
Matt Pinto

Oct 31, 2024

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Telecom providers are once again doing something they do quite well, introducing the world to fresh acronyms. This time it’s NaaS, or Network as a Service. Part of the growing “X as a Service” trend, NaaS could be an interesting new service offering to comprehend… or it could be all hype. So which is it? 

Today, the Lightyear team breaks down everything you need to know about Network as a Service. Hopefully, this can help you make smarter decisions about this exciting new offering.

A New Offering With Not-So-New Concepts

Network as a Service aims to provide enterprises with scalable, on-demand network infrastructure.

Cloud computing liberated businesses from the burden of managing physical servers, offering them on-demand server infrastructure that could be turned on and off with the click of a button. 

Now, NaaS is freeing enterprises from the complexities of traditional networking hardware. It is aiming to shift network operations into a flexible, consumption-based model. 

This approach means networking no longer needs to be a capital-intensive hardware investment. Instead, it can be an agile, opex-based, cloud-like service that can adapt to business needs in real-time. It essentially turns the network into a utility that can be switched on, scaled up, or scaled down as easily as adjusting your home’s thermostat. The theory and practice of implementing NaaS are nothing new in the cloud services and data center space. The basic build of any cloud service revolves almost entirely around NaaS. Several household names have been offering virtualized networking services for quite some time. Let’s look at an example in the cloud space. When you log onto Google’s Cloud Platform, you could virtually spin up a server and all the associated network elements, right? Well, this flexibility and scalability reflect the core concepts behind NaaS. While Google Cloud Platform itself is a comprehensive cloud service, it includes elements of NaaS, such as Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and Cloud Interconnect. 

But if NaaS technology and the concept are already in the market, why is there a sudden focus on it as a service offering from telco providers? Despite its foundational concepts being in place for years, NaaS has gained renewed attention due to the growing demand for network solutions to align with the flexibility of the public cloud.

A big drawcard for NaaS is that each network element in a virtual environment can dial up (or down) the resources associated with your build. That’s a fancy way of saying NaaS gives you immense and incredibly agile scalability that can be deployed rapidly.

NaaS at Work and Cloud-Based NaaS Providers

Scalability and agility? Those are two buzzwords in and of themselves. Let’s look at a high-level, simplified potential NaaS build offered by a major cloud provider. We will also look at what that agility and scalability look like at work with that same hypothetical Google Cloud Platform.

  • You could scope and select the appropriate VM (Virtual Machine) using GCP Compute Engine, based on your specific needs.

  • You can connect your server to switch fabric using Andromeda.

  • Google’s Cloud Firewall and Cloud Router are extra virtual appliances that can be added to your build.

  • You can set up network connectivity on the Google Platform using methods like Google Cloud Interconnect.

Do you see how you can move services, scope, and size up and down as your networking needs demand? That’s the core of NaaS — simplifying network inventory and scalable services.

Of course, Google Cloud Platform is not the only cloud-based NaaS service out there. This same architecture is available via Amazon Web Services (AWS) using Elastic Compute Cloud. This can connect to WAN networking using AWS Virtual Private Cloud. Like Google, these services are available on demand via the AWS portal. Microsoft Azure is another big name in this space. You can spin up Azure Virtual Machines, connect them to Azure’s Virtual Network (VNet), and take advantage of Azure Firewall and Network Connectivity (Express Route). In short, many data center and cloud service providers have been offering services that would qualify as NaaS for several years. Below are just a few examples of other similar services and when they entered this space — and the list is far from complete!

  • Azure Virtual Network in 2010

  • AWS Direct Connect 2011

  • IBM Cloud in 2014

  • Google Cloud Interconnect in 2015

  • Megaport Cloud Router in 2018

  • Equinix Fabric in 2019

  • Cloudflare in 2020

  • Graphiant in 2021

Telco-Based NaaS Solutions

The major benefits of these cloud-based offerings are their (near) real-time deployment and easy scalability of resources. So, how does this translate to the traditional telco market? How is it that Verizon and Lumen are now offering NaaS solutions like Google?

Let’s start with the most obvious limitation you’ll face with telco-based NaaS: Your enterprise business site will need a physical connection to your selected service provider. You will need a physical (typically fiber) transport connection between your physical site and that of the network service provider. 

The installation of the physical port will face all the same challenges, complexities, and issues  you’re already familiar with. There’s no real workaround to this need. Enterprise businesses will have to work through the same common culprits that create delays, including (but not limited to) quotes, build-outs, site surveys, site improvements, permitting, and capacity. So far, so familiar. The magic happens, however, after the NaaS port is provisioned.

  • Enterprise customers will log onto their provider’s customer portal.

  • Within the customer portal (just like in established Cloud Service Provider portals), there will be options for services that can be selected and provisioned in nearly real-time.

  • Each carrier will have unique established products that can be provisioned onto the physical NaaS port through automation. For example, private lines on dedicated internet or ethernet are available. 

  • The carriers will also have established connectivity options available within the portal, such as a direct connection to AWS, GCP, or Azure.

  • You will be able to increase and decrease the overall throughput for each of these automated connections through the carrier portal.

  • The carrier may help you with lifecycle management of your infrastructure and hardware refreshes as they’re needed

Considering Telco-Based NaaS for Your Enterprise

In these NaaS situations, there are physical limitations that are not part of a typical cloud environment. For example, if you have a 10Gbps NaaS port, you will face a physical port increase when you hit that 10Gbps ceiling. 

However, NaaS still offers immense appeal for certain scenarios. Imagine the internet connection at your enterprise's corporate headquarters experiencing high traffic, leading to issues for internal users. With NaaS, additional bandwidth can be accessed in near real-time through the service provider’s portal. Simply log onto your provider’s portal, select your 10Gbps NaaS port, choose the 1Gbps DIA service, and increase it from 1Gbps to 2Gbps. Then, watch as the provider’s automated NaaS platform provides the increase. 

If you find that the spike was temporary, you can log on and reduce it back to 1Gbps once the utilization decreases.

This is how the near real-time automation of services on the NaaS port replaces the tedious process of contacting your service provider for pricing and service increases. It eliminates the lengthy wait for provisioning that can take weeks or even months.

Additionally, the pricing (like with current cloud offerings) is part of the initial NaaS agreement, so each increment is already known. Once you get through the hard part of installing the physical circuit, provisioning the services on top of the NaaS port is much faster.

The Future of NaaS Services

Currently, ISP-provided NaaS services are only available in select markets and on select products. However, we expect considerably more development in this space in the coming years. After all, it’s a natural progression to push the same sort of automation of service provisioning that cloud service providers have been using over the years to telecom service providers.

If you’re looking to see if any NaaS service providers are available in your area already, so you can stay ahead of the curve, then the Lightyear Telecom Operating System is a great place to start your search. You can consult with us on whether a NaaS solution is a good product for you.

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