According to a IDC, 71% of organisations report their long-term planning cycles have shortened due to COVID-19, with 82%  of the same participants stating that long-term planning cycles have been reduced to two years or less. 

In addition, the post-COVID world has seen the hybrid workplace become the new norm. With a majority of employees splitting their time between the home office and workplace, managing and securing the enterprise inside and outside its boundaries in a flexible and scalable manner is a priority. 

To address this requirement and ensure seamless connectivity, organisations are rapidly adopting consumption-driven NaaS models to balance the cost of their network growth with the digital experience of their stakeholders.

Organisations are also looking to accelerate connectivity to edge locations while easing the burden of managing those new locales.

They require simple platforms that enable rapid access to new technology to ensure the network meets the needs of their business. 

Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) technology, and flexible consumption models like network-as-a-service (NaaS) make it possible for organisations to respond effectively to these challenges. IDC’s research also revealed that approximately one third of organisations have deployed NaaS and another 35% plan to deploy NaaS within the next one to two years.

Moving Towards an “Experience” Economy

Organisations are no longer looking to purchase just network hardware and software; rather, they are seeking to provide customers and users with an experience that offers:

A best-in-class agile network solution with richer levels of visibility and cross-platform control including centralized management and AI/ML capabilities for seamless and efficient network operation. 

Technology that minimises operational risk and provides advanced data management and protection that spans the entire edge-to-core continuum.

An optimized network planning experience along with scalability and sustainability built-in, and a simple monthly payment with no upfront capital expenditure. Additionally, the NaaS provider removes the traditional challenges of managing/operating networks. 

The traditional method of purchasing based on price and product features is outdated. Organisations should embrace value-based decision making that focuses on the business objectives and that benefits for the various stakeholders (technology, operations, procurement, finance, security, data analytics, environment, etc.) who all have a vested interest in the network. These stakeholders, primarily the C-suite, should measure investments in terms of money, risk, and time, as well as make decisions based on a solid understanding of the return on investment (ROI).

Transitioning to Business Value 

The transition from purchasing based on price and features requires a new approach, one that is focused on business challenges, outcomes, and value. This approach provides a variety of benefits, such as:

• Receiving an integrated solution to address current and future business requirements, by having stakeholders work with teams they wouldn’t traditionally interact with.
• Obtaining more insight into hidden costs (e.g., planning and downtime, overtime, expedited freight) associated with your current network, along with specific business processes to be avoided.
• Developing a laser focus on business objectives, risks, and digital strategy with detailed contributions from the economic buyer and executives
• Securing investment validation and substantiation of solution by having the economic buyer and executives contribute to the process earlier

The networks of yesterday are often rigid and difficult to reconfigure or manage. Faced with organisations’ growing expectations of their efficiency and ability to seamlessly support ever-more distributed workforces, the rapid growth of IoT devices, and the ever-present need to maintain security: networks are now in serious need of network modernisation.

Network modernisation can equip enterprises to address all manner of challenges – from operational to security – especially as they accelerate their digital transformation. In fact, in order to support today’s evolving business models, network modernisation isn’t just necessary it is vital.

When networks can’t keep up

Not only can poor networks lead to their own roadblocks but trying to adapt them to the new demands of today can also create serious operational challenges.

For instance, scaling networks up to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of users and devices across locations and connection types is a hugely manual process when attempted on a network that hasn’t been modernised – often leading to performance issues and unhappy users.

Combine this with scarce IT staffing resources and it means that all too frequently too much time and energy is wasted on basic moves, adds, and deletes – leaving few resources to focus on strategic business initiatives. Finally, without a strong network security foundation, protection gaps are also more likely.

Luckily there are multiple ways an organisation can modernise its networks now and create something that not only meets today’s expectations but can also be a bridge to the future.

5 principles to abide by

Network modernisation isn’t a destination but a journey – a continuous process that businesses must undertake.

With the onset of hybrid working, modern networks must now work equally well and integrate across the full spectrum of possible workplaces, from employee homes to offices and campuses, as well as data centres and the cloud. At the same time, they need to provide a new architectural approach that is edge-centric, cloud-enabled, and data-driven.

It is undoubtedly a big project for a business of any size, but it can be effectively managed by focusing on five key areas aimed at providing gains in performance, automation, security, and agility.

1. Connectivity and scale

Remote work, IoT and the new emerging business models of the post-pandemic world are creating hyper-distributed work environments. For older networks based on traditional VLAN architecture, this creates the scaling problem discussed previously – with networks struggling to accommodate the potentially huge number of users and devices spread across such a wide variety of locations.

This is why new protocols and architectures will be essential for scale and connectivity.

There are a few things that can be done to facilitate this. Firstly, choosing to use a cloud-native solution, whether your organisation consumes it in the cloud or on-premises, can add some much-needed agility and timeliness.

Alongside this, modernising WAN solutions with SD-WAN can be another powerful step, offering greater flexibility, efficiency, and cost savings.

The key is to select an approach that doesn’t require the wholesale replacement of current infrastructure, but to find solutions that can coexist with your current architecture.

2. AI-powered automation

Let’s face it, the scale of modern networks and the data they create goes far beyond anything we humans can monitor by ourselves let alone troubleshoot or optimise. This coupled with the scarcity of IT workers, means that teams are stretched thin.

The answer? Automation – or more specifically Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered automation of operations, also known as AIOps.

AIOps will allow IT teams to automate repetitive time-consuming tasks, such as configuration management, while they focus on more strategic tasks. From Day Zero deployment to Day-N of ongoing management, AIOps offers a real and tangible way for organisations to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their network operations.

So, what do businesses need to be aware of when implementing AIOps? Firstly, reassure staff. AIOps can be a major culture shift and may leave some staff worried about their jobs, so decision makers must assure their teams that automation is being brought in to help reduce the time and effort they must spend on mundane tasks, not replace them.

Following this, start small to test how AI solutions will work in your work environment. Remember, AI is useful in many situations, but it is by no means perfect – and you shouldn’t trust anyone who tells you otherwise.

3. Security

With today’s network having to accommodate ever-changing and diverse users and devices, effective and up-to-date security is absolutely vital – but legacy networks with manual processes can be prone to human error and vulnerabilities.

IT teams can counter this through the integration of network and security functions with Zero Trust Security and SASE frameworks.

The foundational principle of these frameworks is that access permissions are wholly independent of the method of connection.

Zero Trust ensures that all devices and users accessing a network are identified and authenticated before providing any amount of access through predefined security policies.

Organisations should insist that Zero Trust and SASE are built into their network solutions rather than simply added retroactively – providing consistent policies and control to enable the network to more easily discover, identify, and authenticate devices and users.

4. Flexibility and agility

Rapidly changing business objectives require a network that can quickly – and automatically—adjust to new or evolving conditions. Unfortunately, many organisations today are constrained by a patchwork of disparate network management solutions – creating operational friction and dangerous siloes.

Cloud-native solutions can not only provide a single-point of visibility and control across wired, wireless, and WAN, but also enable organisations to keep their competitive edge by delivering continuous updates and new functionality.

If your organization hasn’t begun implementing cloud for network management, start small and be selective – pick a project or part of your network that would benefit from centralised cloud control and visibility.

A good place to start is remote work environments, where creating the same experience for hybrid workers as those in the office is paramount.

5. Employ as a service

With budgets tight, many organisations face the challenge of how to finance the rapid acquisition, implementation, and management of new network solutions.

Fortunately, the emergence of alternative consumption and deployment models, such as self-delivered or managed services, means this challenge might soon become a thing of the past. The network-as-a-service (NaaS) approach delivers new network solutions quickly while also letting organisations consider their budgets or adjust scalability according to need.

Through NaaS models, organisations can alleviate the burden on IT teams and the time taken to taken for network planning and budgeting by delivering hardware, software, and services in a monthly subscription.

As a first step, evaluate the potential that a flexible financing and subscription approach can offer your organisation and whether your vendor has the resources to support a significant as-a-service model – including whether these are standard service offerings, or they support customisation.

Why is modernising your network is worth it?

Network modernisation might, on the face of it, appear to be simply an exercise in updating your current infrastructure – but it is so much more. It is an essential ongoing process that not only keeps your business up to date with the latest technology but provides an agile foundation to advance your ability to implement digital transformation by taking advantage of new approaches to your security, management, architecture, and delivery.

However, there are some key differences. Each implementation and experience working with various vendors will differ, but some highlights include the following:

1. Contracts

The lease of hardware and software involves the same ordering process as making a purchase. Multiple purchase orders and separate support agreements are involved.

With NaaS agreements, typically a single statement of work (SOW) provides a customised solution built for optimised performance and business outcomes that are inclusive of hardware, software, support, and services.

2. Overprovisioning 

Leasing hardware and software requires the same rigorous planning when an organisation makes a large capital investment, often procured as a one-time event.

This leads to the added cost and inherent risks of overprovisioning or under provisioning. NaaS delivers the flexibility to overcome those challenges.

3. Liability and risk 

The pace of change in technology and added devices can often expose networks to security vulnerabilities. NaaS often reduces these risks by ensuring the latest features and functions are implemented at all times.

Ideal NaaS services include additional insights and analytics, provided through a dashboard, on the operational conditions of the network environment.

Leasing is focused only on the financing of the network hardware and software, typically in a static environment without active services and analytic tools to drive optimal performance.

4. Balance sheet flexibility 

All accounting practices differ within each organisation. NaaS is often supported as an operating expenses (OPEX) model, with some organisations preferring to categorise NaaS as capital expenditures (CAPEX).

From the CIO perspective, NaaS is aligned to an operational IT budget point of view. From the CFO perspective, it is typically a question related to financial statements. The benefit of NaaS is that it is a usage-based agreement delivering services for the OPEX point of view.

For example, a simple NaaS stock keeping unit (SKU) associated as a service-based delivered service could be more easily consumed from an OPEX perspective.

5. Asset management 

NaaS often includes intelligent deployments for achieving the best business outcomes. This includes asset management of all hardware, software, support, and service components. Leasing typically adds more decision layers, such as purchasing, renewing, or renegotiating multiple lease schedules.

The holistic approach to a NaaSSOW alleviates organisations from the burden and resources of asset management.

Consequently, while there can be vast differences between a lease and a NaaS implementation, careful consideration needs to occur with each individual organisation to assess the best method to meet its business needs.

NaaS offers more flexibility in the financial treatment of network deployments for organisations. Careful consideration should be done with advice and consultation from accounting and finance professionals.

Responding to disruptions (45%) and accommodating new business needs (40%) were cited in the report as the top network challenges during 2021.

In the report, 46 percent of respondents believe that the top benefit of Network as a Service will be freeing up IT resources to spend more time on strategically important work that drives business-critical transformations, including focus work in collaboration in South Africa’s growing number of hybrid work environments.

Respondents expect that adopting a Network as a Service model will change how they acquire, deliver and manage their networking capabilities.

The report also found:

1. Access to the latest technology:

A major motivation for many IT leaders is that they’ll always have access to the latest networking capabilities and technologies (35%). IT teams that adopt NaaS will no longer have to wait for a full technology refresh cycle.

2. Upskilling employees:

The majority (75%) of IT leaders globally agree or strongly agree that a NaaS approach will give IT teams the opportunities to advance their skillsets and allow them to become innovators.

3. The right time for Network as a Service:

Forty-nine (49%) of IT leaders and 57% of network practitioners believe the best timing and circumstance for NaaS adoption is during a network infrastructure upgrade or refresh, when they are seeking to access innovative technology.

4. A nascent technology that has the ability to drive recovery and growth: 

More-than a third of IT leaders (36%) claim to already have NaaS solutions in place, however when quizzed further on it, their definitions were incredibly broad; suggesting that this emerging technology is not yet fully understood.

“In simple terms, NaaS is a cloud-enabled, usage-based consumption model that allows users to acquire and orchestrate network capabilities without owning, building or maintaining their own infrastructure,” says Brendan Cuthbertson, head of Private Sector Sales: Cisco sub-Saharan Africa. “This will prove useful to South African businesses in that it allows IT teams to more easily scale up or down, rapidly deploy new services, and optimise the balance between CapEx and OpEx.”

Looking to new horizons

Given how technology continues to change and enable hybrid work and support digital transformation efforts, this is a benefit for those working within IT. As emerging technologies such as AI, ML, and other applications which rely on cloud-based technology continue to grow, alongside the security requirements to protect them, it is important that IT workers remain skilled in the latest networking technology.

However, today, only 1 in 4 organisations are likely to trust their own IT staff rather than a system integrator, managed service provider, or NaaS vendor to translate their business needs to technical policies.

This links to another set of challenges IT leaders identified. These concerns include whether NaaS can support unseen emerging demands (30%) to loss of security control (26%). The cost and disruption of transitioning also ranks high (28%) on their list of concerns.

“As with any new technology, the best way around these concerns is to introduce them to one domain at a time; measure the success, and then replicate it across the business if it’s found to work.” says Cuthberson.

Cuthbertson concluded by saying: “The as a service (aaS) model has already proved its value in areas such as software, cloud and UC, I am in no doubt that this will revolutionise how networks are deployed and managed. This is set to be an exciting space in 2022 and beyond.”