The COVID-19 pandemic impacted every business in every industry and augmented the adoption of as-a-service offerings, including Network-as-a-Service, as businesses shifted from conventional business practices to online platforms.
Traditional network models require capital expenses for a physical network, as well as complex management tools that require IT expertise. NaaS is an emerging model for organizations to consume network infrastructure through flexible operating expense subscriptions, which include hardware, software, management tools, licenses and lifecycle services.
NaaS is a more affordable cost structure and offers a greater degree of operational automation. This provides opportunities to create new services and better capabilities to architect the network. Benefits of NaaS include flexibility in making changes to the network, maintenance and management of software and hardware upgrades, easy integration of networking services and security services, global interconnection and scalability.
The NaaS market was valued at $6.67 billion in 2021 and, because of a surge since the start of the pandemic, is expected to expand at a 32.9% CAGR from 2022 to 2030, hitting $81.82 billion, according to Grand View Research.
The cloud and SaaS connectivity segment held a revenue share of more than 24% in 2021 and is expected to grow at a 33.6% CAGR. The use of technology and consumer propensity toward the cloud propelled the adoption of cloud-based solutions, which enable the verticals to access data from remote areas. Cloud-based services allow scalability, migration, mobility and data recovery and increases effectiveness. With these services, organizations will achieve enhanced scaling, network assurance and time-to-value at affordable costs.
Verticals such as financial services, manufacturing, retail, and IT and telecom will contribute to the NaaS market growth as these verticals deploy more public NaaS. With network services, vertical organizations minimize capital investment, improve service quality and increase uptime.
Within the verticals, IT and telecommunication held a revenue share of 24% in 2021 and is expected to expand at a 33.1% CAGR in the forecast period. The growth is attributed to increasing use-cases and the adoption of cloud services and IT infrastructure. Network infrastructure minimizes the digital divide by delivering quick network services and addressing the concerns of bandwidth scarcity at affordable costs.
The shared active and passive infrastructure allows high-speed internet access and empowers networks to expand profitably. NaaS solutions are 5G network building blocks, and the telecommunication sector anticipates adoption of the NaaS platform.
NaaS is among the newer as-a-service models, but the market will continue to boom. As long as technological innovations continue and organizations adopt cloud-managed network services for the low cost and scalability, the NaaS market will thrive as a result.
Edited by
Erik Linask