The ONUG Collaborative NaaS Project is exploring the business requirements, leading use cases and underlying technologies critical for the adoption of Network-as-a-Service by large enterprises. This is the first in a series of blog posts on this topic that the project team is publishing. Where NaaS differs from previous network and cloud-centric architectures and offerings such as SASE and SSE is that the focus is switched to the business, performance and application dynamics of today’s organizations. This is, after all, what technology must serve. It…
The IT industry is entering a transformative phase focused on simplification. This shift is a response to the complexity that arose from the overbuild during the 2020-2021 phase. The rapid expansion in IT infrastructure during this period has resulted in systems that are now overly complex and challenging to manage, necessitating a streamlined approach. The Challenge of Complexity Post 2020-2021 In the wake of the 2020-2021 cycle, marked by an unprecedented surge in cloud services and remote infrastructure development, many organizations are grappling with highly…
ONUG Fall 2023, hosted by GSK in the vibrant heart of New York City on October 24th and 25th, concluded with unprecedented success, etching a new milestone in the Conference’s esteemed legacy. The event achieved the largest attendance in ONUG’s history. With attendee registration reaching nearly 1,400, ONUG Fall marked a significant 35% growth from the previous year. This was the 24th iteration of the ONUG Conference, which has now become an essential congregation for networking, security and cloud professionals, thought leaders and innovators across…
The modern digital age has evolved in leaps and bounds, leading to numerous advances in technology. With this evolution, the demands on our networking infrastructure have significantly expanded. From multi-cloud networking to edge computing, from remote office connectivity to IoT integrations, the landscape is rapidly changing. In this dynamic environment, while cloud service providers have emerged as the leading force for offering powerful compute constructs for developers, there’s an area they haven’t mastered – networking. Enter telecom service providers, the experienced giants of the networking…
The term “Network as a Service” (NaaS) has been gaining traction in the IT services industry as a way to deliver enterprise WAN services virtually on a subscription basis. However, it’s important to understand its specific context to fully grasp its functionality. One prevalent interpretation sees NaaS in the context of the “network cloud,” where communication service providers deliver connectivity services and additional value-added services using an API-based, flexible, elastic, and on-demand paradigm. The Concept of “Network Cloud” Under the network cloud paradigm, NaaS is…
We are all in the process of building the most powerful communication infrastructure the world has seen. It is built upon a programmable network infrastructure that delivers on demand capacity and is cloud delivered. It’s the combination of cloud native and networking technologies. Why cloud native? Just look at 5G and the wide range of Network as a Service or NaaS offerings; they are built with cloud native technologies and APIs. This new infrastructure promises to provide choices and options for corporations to accelerate their…
It’s hard to escape the news of reduction in force (RIF) and cautionary forward-looking corporate performance of large tech companies in the news this quarter. But note that there is a huge distinction between enterprise tech and consumer tech. Many of the large tech companies participate in both massive markets. Amazon is an online consumer retailer and offers enterprise compute services via its AWS business unit. Microsoft sells gaming and other consumer productivity software as well as enterprise compute services via Azure. Google is mostly…
After the year we’ve experienced, no one feels comfortable making predictions. Look what happened to all those “2020 Trends”. This session isn’t about predicting the future but about identifying how 2020 changed the tech industry. Greg Ferro, Johna Till Johnson, and Nick Lippis look at ways the pandemic has redirected how businesses view technology. Sales Model All participants agreed with Greg’s assessment that enterprise sales models were changing. Specifically, tech companies found that they could sell solutions by offering a free trial and providing a…