Network as a Service (NaaS) with Microland - Your Path to an Agile, Intelligent, Customer-Centric Network Experience

“Microland takes a unique Platform-First approach to managing the network. The company also provides a comprehensive range of network services, including network consulting and assessment, design, implementation, monitoring, and management through its Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) offering. The solution enables organizations to align their network infrastructure with their business objectives and quickly adapt to changing requirements, delivering scalability and flexibility.”

ISG Briefing Notes September 2023, Microland’s Strategy Focuses on Evolution More Than Revolution

The popularity of NaaS reflects trends reshaping the landscape.

While it’s probably a safe bet “NaaS” (Network as a Service) won’t be short-listed for Oxford Dictionary’s “2024 Word of the Year” — amongst the enterprise C-Suite and tech crowd “NaaS” is in very heavy rotation. And for good reason: As digital transformation reshapes the enterprise landscape, NaaS is a calculated choice for organizations needing to optimize their network infrastructure to align with demands for more agile, scalable, and efficient IT.

And NaaS is gaining momentum not a moment too soon. Given the rapid rate of advances in technology, CTOs are challenged to stay current with best-in-class methodologies for deploying, scaling, and managing global networks. Concurrently, this same rapid evolution of technology is forcing CFOs to rethink budgeting for increasingly unpredictable technology lifecycles. Embracing a NaaS solution backed by excellent XLA along with SLA commitments eliminates these two headaches while delivering cost and management efficiencies.

Which type of NaaS solution provider is right for you?

Clearly, NaaS checks a lot of really terrific boxes (see sidebar) yet it’s important to understand the extent to which those “checked boxes” look different depending upon whether your NaaS provider is a Telco, a Network Product Vendor, or a Global System Integrator. The right answer for your enterprise depends on things like: How important is hardware quality? Do you need customized solutions? How complex will integration with existing systems be? How much management support is needed and for what time frame?

• Telcos (ISPs) provide extensive network infrastructure and connectivity services bundled together in standardized packages with scalable connectivity based on a limited choice of products and technologies. Integration of customers’ existing investment in tools and network infrastructure and its management with Telco-offered NaaS is challenging. Telcos offer standardized NaaS with limited flexibility and minimal focus on customization in terms of automation, industry-specific use cases, and continuous service improvement initiatives.  Their contracts are generally SLAs and metrics-based versus being oriented toward excellence in user experience.

• Network Product Vendors (OEMs) fall into two categories. The first type of OEM provides network infra technologies and products (such as LAN/WAN/cloud hardware and software) plus a straightforward management platform and hardware-oriented support service — all for a monthly fee. Integrating the OEM’s technologies into existing systems can be complex and expensive. The second type of OEM partners with a managed service provider as a NaaS enabler to provide increased flexibility, a more comprehensive range of integration solutions, and a heightened level of sustained (somewhat) pro-active network management support. Both types of OEMs provide scalability that is easy and robust but not designed to be customized for specific business realities.  Because this version of NaaS depends upon the OEM’s specific technologies and tools, the most significant “watch out” is vendor lock-in.

  If a portion of the customer’s network estate has technology and/or tools from different OEMs, the NaaS provider OEM or its NaaS enabler partner may refuse to support those technologies. In such scenarios, the customer is compelled to either contract two different service providers or migrate the entire estate to the OEM’s technology stack.

  In the future, if there is any technology advancement that suits the needs of the customer, but the NaaS provider OEM either does not offer it or its solution is not mature enough, the customer must look for a new NaaS provider OEM that offers the latest technology advancement or exit the NaaS model to adopt it, this is where vendor lock-in occurs. This may not be optimal for the customer from a business or technology perspective.

• Global System Integrators (GSIs) cover all aspects of network deployment from consulting to implementation to management and are adept at integrating various technologies and platforms to create a seamless, scalable network. Watchouts include complex, expensive solutions that may be more comprehensive than needed as well as a tendency for customers to become overly reliant on the integrator for maintenance and updates.

  There is also a lack of focus for GSIs in terms of innovation, a reactive approach to continuous service improvements, and a lack of transparency and visibility into performance for the customers. The focus is to drive delivery around SLAs and contractual metrics. In the case of GSIs with strategic partnerships with OEMs, as a NaaS enabler partner, there is also a push towards specific OEM solutions over the technology solution that addresses the specific needs of the customer.

Given that each provider type has strengths and weaknesses, an enterprise with robust network management talent might decide to take on some additional management oversight and opt to combine provider types to achieve an overall offering that is most capable of addressing their unique needs.

There’s a fourth and (we believe) far more “intelligent” option.

Microland’s NaaS offering stands apart because we keep user experience, innovation, and business transformation at the center of network services. This is made possible in large part because we take a “Platform First” approach to NaaS and do our utmost to ensure flawless end-user experience throughout the NaaS journey — delivering XLAs while driving a transformation agenda.

This focus on customer delight is the “red thread” running through our entire NaaS solution.

The intelligent (customer-centric) network experience

When our technologists were defining what NaaS with Microland would look like, it was important to them that we support our customers’ journey to NaaS with a plug-and-play, vendor-agnostic stance that would welcome any combination of OEM stack, specification, and Tier level. Our proprietary Intelligeni NetOps platform delivers on this vision 100%. Intelligeni NetOps is a cloud-based offering that operates independently and uses an API base as the main form of communication. This means the platform can support any OEM product thereby allowing the seamless integration of existing investments in tools and technologies.

Another game changer is the capabilities of our Intelligeni NetOps Platform with best-of-breed automation solutions such as Observability and AIOps that ensure a sustained superior User Experience (UX). Our NaaS solution was again enhanced when we added NetDevOps — an accelerated change management module and robust set of analytics that deliver enhanced network performance, greater predictability, security, visibility, scalability, and superior end-user experience.

At a glance: how our approach to NaaS stacks up against the other approaches.

Big picture: Microland NaaS represents a shift from siloed tools and management to an integrated, centrally managed solution that is sufficiently agile and methodical to be fully capable of supporting the most audacious of strategic visions.

Get a customized NaaS journey roadmap (with zero cost or obligation).

If you’re compelled by the idea of aligning your network infra to support your enterprise’s most audacious strategic visions, chat with one of our team members to learn more about how Microland can develop a customized NaaS journey roadmap for your enterprise — with no cost or obligation on your part.

You might also be interested in this PDF “Top Barriers to NaaS Adoption” or this ISG Brief Notes PDF “Microland’s Strategy Focuses on Evolution over Revolution”.

Working definition of NaaS: 

The top five benefits of NaaS (when done right):

About the Author

Robert Wysocki, SVP - Global CSO Leader, Network & Cybersecurity, Microland 

Robert (Bob) Wysocki is the Client Solutions Leader for IT Networks and Cybersecurity. His responsibilities include driving innovation, incubating emerging technologies, and enabling customers to deploy key digital technologies for rapid business and operational transformation.

Bob is a seasoned IT evangelist with over 30 years of industry experience, gained at Fortune 20 as well as start-up organizations. During his 16 years at General Electric (GE), as an executive in Corporate Shared Services IT, he drove strong business results in numerous disciplines of procurement, product management, engineering, operations, and financial management. Bob graduated from Georgia Tech and holds a Masters in Computer Engineering from the University of Central Florida.