NaaS allows businesses to take advantage of cutting-edge technologies while reducing initial capital investment. The real value of NaaS can also be found in the networking and security technologies that come with it.
According to Shamersh McGillicuddy, vice president of network, infrastructure and operations research at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), NaaS helps address the networking and security talent shortage by offloading some management tasks to service providers. According to a recent report from EMA,Network as a Service: Understanding the Cloud Consumption Model in NetworkingMcGillicuddy, who wrote the book, explains that NaaS can help bridge the skills gap for some companies.
EMA surveyed 250 corporate IT, cybersecurity and other staff and found that many businesses today are struggling to find expertise in areas such as network security, cloud networks, network automation, monitoring and troubleshooting. EMA defines NaaS as “a network infrastructure solution that provides a pay-as-you-go cloud consumption model where the provider manages all aspects of network engineering and operations, from design and build to monitoring and troubleshooting.”
According to EMA, by outsourcing some of their network operations to NaaS providers, IT organizations can create a work environment where existing network staff can focus on more strategic initiatives. “Only 32% of organizations have enough network staff to support all tasks or projects,” McGillicuddy said. “Most respondents only identify high-priority projects, leaving many projects unfinished.”
So, rather than reducing network staff by partnering with a NaaS provider, enterprises can shift the focus of their networking staff to projects such as optimizing end-user experiences, enabling AI initiatives, supporting cloud transformation efforts, and implementing network automation projects.
According to our research, the areas where network infrastructure and operations teams feel the greatest skills gaps today are:
- Network security (policy management, etc.) 44.0%
- Network monitoring, troubleshooting and ongoing optimization 37.6%
- Cloud networking (AWS, Azure, etc.) 35.6%
- Network Automation (Python Scripting, Commercial Automation Tools 34.8%)
- WAN Engineering (SD-WAN, Routing, etc.) 30.8%
- Data Center Network Engineering (EVPN-VXLAN, SDN Overlay) 29.2%
- DNS, DHCP, IP address management 20.4%
- WiFi Engineering 11.2%
- Not applicable 2.0%
“Network security is the biggest problem today,” the report’s authors noted. “Many companies lack the staff to design network security policies and manage firewalls and other network security devices.”
In addition to bridging the skills gap, respondents reported that NaaS can provide several benefits, including faster access to new technologies, improved performance and SLAs, flexibility and scalability, and enhanced security. However, there are still obstacles to NaaS adoption. Specifically, respondents cited the following concerns:
- Total cost increase over time (capital cost compared to operating cost) 37.6%
- Lack of visibility into service quality 35.2%
- Security issues 32.6%
- Compliance issues 26.0%
- Fear of losing control over change management 25.6%
- Lack of solutions that meet business needs 21.2%
- Existing relationships with existing networking providers 20.8%
- Business differentiation of the network engineering team 20.0%
- 19.2% confusion about how NaaS works
- IT culture preference 17.2%
- Not applicable 2.0%
According to McGillicuddy, while certain industries have more concerns about security and data sharing with third-party providers than others, there is an expectation that security will be bundled into NaaS offerings. About 40% of respondents said they expect integrated managed security services, including network access control, firewalls, threat prevention, and security event management, to be included in NaaS offerings.
“Respondents expect NaaS to provide them with quick access to cutting-edge technologies, which will help bridge the skills gap and improve overall network performance by ensuring NaaS providers meet SLAs,” McGillicuddy added.
editor@itworld.co.kr
Source: www.itworld.co.kr
