ARTICLE
Servers, switches, firewalls, licences, maintenance, updates. And then someone to make sure everything keeps running smoothly. For years, the rule for having a reliable business network seemed simple: buy, install and manage everything in-house. But is that still really necessary?
With Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), the logic changes: the network becomes a service, with more predictable costs, centralised management and infrastructure that can grow alongside the business. In practical terms, less time spent worrying about the network. More time using it.
A network for 10 people is not a network for 150
It may sound obvious, but many companies still manage their IT infrastructure as though every business had the same needs. They do not.
A small company with only a few employees may primarily need a reliable connection, stable Wi-Fi and essential security. A business with dozens or hundreds of users, on the other hand, has to manage more devices, access points, locations, cloud applications and security requirements. And as the company grows, so does the complexity.
This is precisely where the Network-as-a-Service model becomes interesting: instead of designing a network today while trying to predict what will be needed three years from now, the infrastructure can be sized and adapted progressively according to the organisation’s needs.
Small business, small problem? Not quite.
Being an SME does not mean having proportionally smaller IT risks. In fact, it often means having fewer internal resources available to manage them.
Configuration, updates, security, monitoring and support can quickly turn into activities that take valuable time away from the IT team... when an IT team even exists.
The NaaS model shifts part of this complexity into a managed service: hardware, configuration, licences, monitoring and support can all be integrated into a single operating model.
The result? The network stops being a collection of devices to manage and becomes a service to use.
And what happens when the company grows?
Ten users become fifty. Then one hundred. A second office opens. Then remote working arrives. Then new devices, cloud applications, IoT systems and access points that need to be protected. This is often where a network designed “once and for all” starts to show its limitations.
A NaaS model, on the other hand, makes it possible to scale infrastructure and services progressively, adapting them to the organisation’s growth.
Different NaaS plans are available depending on the size and needs of the company, with configurations designed for organisations ranging from fewer than 10 to around 150 workstations. The goal is to avoid both oversized infrastructure and solutions that become inadequate after only a few months.
Buying hardware or buying an outcome?
This is probably the most interesting shift. In the traditional model, a company purchases hardware, licences, maintenance and the expertise required to manage everything.
With Network-as-a-Service, however, the goal is to purchase the outcome: a network that is available, secure, up to date and sized according to actual needs.
The model also makes it possible to shift part of the expenditure from CAPEX to OPEX, reducing the initial investment and making costs more predictable over time.
It does not simply mean “renting switches”. It means changing the way infrastructure is consumed.
Your network should not only call for attention when something breaks
Traditionally, many IT activities have been reactive. Something happens. A ticket is opened. Someone investigates. Someone intervenes.
Modern networking, however, is moving in the opposite direction: continuously monitoring the infrastructure to detect unusual signals before they become visible problems for users.
The NaaS model integrates monitoring and centralised infrastructure management, with the aim of moving from a predominantly reactive approach to a more proactive and predictive one.
For a business, this means something very practical: less time spent chasing problems.
More offices, more cloud, more devices. One dashboard.
The complexity of modern networks does not come only from the number of users. It also comes from the number of environments that need to be controlled.
Physical offices, remote workers, cloud applications, mobile devices and edge systems all need to coexist within the same infrastructure.
That is why technologies such as SD-WAN, cloud management and centralised platforms are becoming increasingly important.
The goal is to have a single view of the network: performance, configurations, security and anomalies can be monitored from one place instead of managing each component separately.
What about security?
The answer here should be simple: it cannot be added afterwards.
Every new device, office or remote access point increases the potential attack surface. This is why networking and cybersecurity are increasingly converging.
The NaaS model makes it possible to integrate security, updates and monitoring directly into the network architecture instead of treating them as separate elements.
This is particularly relevant in a context where business continuity, data protection and resilience have become priorities for SMEs as well.
So, what kind of network does your business really need?
Probably not the biggest one. And not the most expensive one either. What you need is a network that can grow when your business grows.
A company with fewer than 10 people may mainly need simplicity and reliability.
A company with 50 employees will begin to require greater control and security.
An organisation with 100 or 150 users will have different requirements again in terms of performance, management and business continuity.
That is exactly the advantage of Network-as-a-Service: starting from the company’s needs rather than from a list of hardware to purchase.
Maybe the question is no longer “which network should I buy?”
Maybe the right question is: why should I still have to manage all of this myself?
With Network-as-a-Service, infrastructure, management, security and support can all become part of a single service that adapts to the company’s growth.
- Less hardware to manage.
- Less complexity to deal with.
- More time to focus on what the network should really do: keep the business running.