In today's evolving landscape, organizations are increasingly embracing the power of network as a service (NaaS) and cloud networking to meet their IT requirements. By adopting a service-oriented approach to technology, businesses can alleviate the burden of last-minute concerns, stay ahead of rapid technological advancements, and significantly reduce costs compared to in-house endeavors. This article highlights the benefits of NaaS, showing how it empowers organizations to streamline their network management, scale efficiently, and unlock greater agility in an ever-changing digital landscape.
What is Networking as a Service?
Networking as a service means taking all the components of your network—your firewall, network switch, wireless access points, etc.—and putting them into the hands of a managed services provider.
By utilizing a networking-as-a-service model, you can keep your network up to date, secure, and running smoothly without the expense of hiring an in-house team of dedicated experts. We spoke with Paul Arthur and Rick Condie, experts with Aruba Networks, to understand more.
How is Networking as a Service Different?
The traditional way of meeting IT needs, including networking, has been for a company to pay a large upfront cost to purchase numerous pieces of expensive equipment and manage them through an internal IT department. But not only can paying that large cost have a major impact on a company’s finances, but the company is also more or less stuck with that equipment for some time, even if it becomes outdated.
By hiring a managed services provider to take care of your networking for you, you can pay a regular, manageable fee to make use of a team of experts and specialized equipment that would normally cost a great deal. What’s more, you have the option of upgrading that equipment quickly, since you’re no longer committed to the massive upfront cost of buying it all yourself.
1. The flexibility of Networking as a Service
When big changes come to your business—whether expected or not—they can often come with a big price tag. Like how expanding your business can mean a large cost in bringing on new employees.
One of the primary strengths of using a networking as a service model is flexibility. When major changes come around, you’re ready to easily pivot to a new situation. If you need more equipment, it will be made available to you without the massive upfront cost. If your company needs to downsize, you’re no longer committed to the costs of the equipment you no longer need. This flexibility allows you to be much more agile and quickly respond to changes.
2. Keeping your equipment up to date
Deciding when to upgrade your networking equipment can be tricky. Using the same equipment for too long can be a security risk as it becomes obsolete. At the same time, upgrading to the newest equipment every year would be very costly. There’s also always a chance that equipment will fail on you, and you’ll suddenly be required to replace it at a great expense.
By using networking as a service instead, you have a team of experts who can decide when it's best to update your equipment, and those costs are folded into the regular cost of the service. That also means that if something fails, it will be replaced quickly, at no additional cost and with a minor interruption to your business.
3. Cloud Networking experts always on hand
The advantages of using a networking as a service model aren’t only about hardware. Another major advantage is having access to an independent IT department that can quickly resolve any networking problems you might have.
“When you have a network problem, you have one person to call,” says Paul Arthur, Systems Engineer with Aruba Networks.
"When you have someone different providing physical hardware and service, you might run into problems where your IT guys say, ‘Oh, it’s a hardware problem. You need to call a vendor’.”
A managed services provider becomes an all-in-one solution when issues arise. What’s more, because they’re a group of experts who handle networking problems for a number of different organizations, they often have more experience than an in-house IT department and can get you back to work even faster.
The Future of Networking is as a Service
With the importance of keeping security technology up to date and the need to quickly account for any changes in the size of your organization, networking is a perfect fit for the as-a-service model. Companies that utilize networking as a service are companies that are more flexible, have more stable expenses and resolve their networking problems faster.
Your company can’t function without keeping your employees connected. If you’d like to have top-of-the-line experts working on your network, you can do so by using a managed services provider like Prime Secured. Contact Prime to learn more about how we can put networking worries to rest—along with other hardware and software concerns.