LAS VEGAS, NV – Gartner Analyst Andrew Lerner highlighted multicloud networking software (MCNS) and network-as-a-service (NaaS) as key areas of network innovation that, along with universal zero-trust network access (ZTNA) and NetDevOps, will significantly impact the tech industry going forward.

True innovation requires taking risks, trailblazing, and trying new concepts and ideas, Lerner said during Gartner’s infrastructure and operations (I&O) cloud strategies conference.

Enterprises typically buy MCNS and install it in a cloud provider's environment like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud. According to Lerner, those purchasing decisions are driven by the need for a certain networking feature that doesn't natively exist in an organization's cloud environments, like route encryption or improved troubleshooting capabilities. “Or, they buy it because they want the same consistent stack in multiple environments so they don't have to have three different sets of networking stacks to deal with,” he added.

Emerging MCNS vendors include Alkira, Arrcus, Aviatrix, Cohesive Networks, Cisco, F5, Nefeli Networks, Prosimo, and VMware. However, Lerner noted none of these vendors offer a complete suite of MCNS capabilities. “Nobody has put it completely together, but there's a lot of interesting things happening,” he said.

The analyst firm predicts that by the end of 2023, the amount of customers using MCNS for multiple functions will increase by 30%.

“If networking is a really big challenge in the public cloud, like if provisioning networking is hard, and there are bottlenecks, or if troubleshooting across multiple environments . . . is getting in the way of delivering public cloud services and capabilities within your organization, then that's when you look to invest in this market,” Lerner suggested.

NaaS isn't a technology, but a style or delivery mechanism. “Think software is to SaaS as networking is to NaaS,” Lerner said. “You could have NaaS for firewall. You could have NaaS for router. You could have NaaS for any networking function.”

The challenge is that vendors have a tendency to call everything NaaS, “and it really isn't NaaS half the time,” according to Lerner. Offerings that require a custom statement of work, a complicated bill of materials, or hardware purchases are probably not true NaaS.

Gartner recommends enterprises use NaaS if they have highly variable network usage, no desire to own the network, minimal IT resources, and can find a turnkey and single-vendor offering focused on software and delivered by the cloud.

On-premises NaaS will be adopted by 15% of all enterprises by the end of 2024, up from under 2% in 2022, according to the analyst firm's predictions.