Some of you might find the network as a service “strategy” for connectivity providers to be a bit baffling. Connectivity has always been a service, with a few salient exceptions, all centered around private and local networks.
Local area networks have mostly been a “do it yourself product” where organizations or individuals own their own infrastructure. Wi-Fi has operated mostly the same way. Enterprise voice services often have used phone systems (private branch exchanges) that use owned hardware and software to “create voice services” similar to--but extending beyond--those provided by the public voice networks.
The shift to “software as a service” and “computing as a service” are the better examples of former products that now are sold as services. Consider almost anything Cisco might sell, offered as a subscription, without ownership, as a better example.
“NaaS is a cloud model that enables users to easily operate the network and achieve the outcomes they expect from it without owning, building, or maintaining their own infrastructure,” says Cisco.
In the connectivity services business, that “as a service” framework already exists. Network as a service makes complete sense in the information technology infrastructure business. One does not buy computers, one leases compute cycles.
As Verizon uses the term, network as a service primarily refers to any services Verizon can deliver on demand, customized or personalized.
So how are “connectivity services” understood by the shift of terminology to “network as a service?”
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